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Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 2 (2010) 4222–4228

WCES-2010

A comparative study of job satisfaction in public and private school

teachers at secondary level
Shafqat Naeem Akhtara, Muhammad Amir Hashmib, Syed Imtiaz Hussain Naqvic *
a
PhD Scholar, University of Education, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan
b
Lecturer, University of the Punjab, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan
c
PhD Scholar, University of Education, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan

Received November 3, 2009; revised December 11, 2009; accepted January 19, 2010

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate a comparative study of job satisfaction in public and private school teachers. ‘Job
satisfaction’ refers to the attitudes and feelings people have about their work. Positive and favorable attitudes towards the job
indicate job satisfaction. Negative and unfavorable attitudes towards the job indicate job dissatisfaction. Researches support that
teacher’s job satisfaction has been found one of the very important variable related to positive teaching behavior toward their job.
There has also been considerable interest in the complex relationship between an individual’s job satisfaction and satisfaction
with other aspects of his or her life. It was hypothesized that a comparative study of job satisfaction in public and private school
teachers. To test this hypothesis the researcher conducted this study to investigate the sense of teacher’s job satisfaction. For this
purpose the researcher developed a questionnaire of 25 items and 5 options. A sample of 150 public and private school teachers
was conveniently selected for the study. Data analysis was conducted through ‘t-test’ and ‘ANOVA’ Which shoed that there is no
significance difference between teacher’s job satisfaction in public and private schools.
© 2010 Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

Keywords: Job satisfaction; public and privqate school teacherss.

1. Introduction

Job satisfaction is the favorable or unfavorable subjective feeling with which employees view their work. It
results when there is congruence between job requirement, demands and expectations of employees. It expresses the
extent of match between employees, expectation of the job and the reward that the job provides.
The factors of physical conditions and social nature affect job satisfaction and productivity. Job satisfaction is
defined as an effective or emotional response toward various facts of one’s job. Job satisfaction is in regard to one’s
feelings or state-of-mind regarding the nature of their work. It can be influenced by a variety of factors, the quality
of one’s relationship with their supervisor, the quality of the physical environment in which they work, degree of
fulfillment in their work, etc.

* Syed Imtiaz Hussain Naqvi. Tel.: +92 0321-4172293.

E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.668
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Like many other countries of the world in Pakistan also, there is a general feeling that the teachers do not have
satisfaction in their jobs. There seems to be a growing discontentment towards their job as a result of which
standards of education are falling. Teachers are dissatisfied in spite of different plans and programs which have been
implemented to improve their job. Job satisfaction consists of the total body of feelings-about the nature of the job
promotion, nature of supervision etc. that an individual has about his job. If the sum total of influence of these
factors gives rise to feelings of satisfaction, the individual has job satisfaction, the teacher’s job satisfaction,
Teacher’s job satisfaction which is ‘linked to teachers’ work performance, includes teachers’ involvement,
commitment, and motivation in the job. It is not only important for teachers, but empirically influential on students
and schools in general.
Teachers’ satisfaction with their career may have strong implications for student learning. Specifically, a
teacher’s satisfaction with his or her career may influence the quality and stability of instruction given to students.
Satisfaction is almost important in teaching profession where he is to deal with another human being, the student
and the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of the teachers is likely to be transferred. Teacher’s key role is to teach or
help students and it depends on the ability and motivation of the teachers to teach as it does on the ability and
motivation of the students to learn.
The level of job satisfaction is affected by intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors, the quality of supervision,
social relationships with the work group and the degree to which individuals succeed or fail in their work. As is the
case with all white collar positions, both intrinsic and extrinsic factors affect teacher’s satisfaction., intrinsic
satisfaction can come from classroom activities. Extrinsic factors have been associated with teacher’s satisfaction,
including salary, perceived support from administrators, school safety, and availability of school resources, among
others.
When teachers perceive a lack of support for their work, they are not motivated to do their best in the classroom,
and that when teachers are not satisfied with their working conditions; they are more likely to change schools or to
leave the profession together. Some other variables have significant interactions with teacher’s job satisfaction,
namely; gender, age, experience and position.
The researcher selected this topic to investigate the satisfaction of’ public and private school teachers and also
find out the attitude of teachers towards their job. The study also provided guideline to teachers to increase and
maintain their sense of satisfaction in job to achieve desired results.
The study was descriptive in nature and survey in type. The researchers, used convenient sampling technique to
collect the data. The sample of the study consisted of 150 male and female teachers of public and private schools of
district Lahore. Data was collected through questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed in five point rating
scale. One hundred and fifty (150) questionnaires were distributed and explained to the teachers. The data was
analyzed with the help of computer program SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences).

1.1. Review of the Related Literature

The term ‘job satisfaction’ refers to the attitudes and feelings people have about their work. Positive and
favorable attitudes towards the job indicate job satisfaction. Negative and unfavorable attitudes towards the job
indicate job dissatisfaction.

1.2. Job Satisfaction

If people claim to be satisfied with their jobs, what do they mean? They are usually expressing something more
like a feeling about their job rather than their thoughts about it. Seeing job satisfaction as essentially an affective
rather than cognitive response means the concept can be placed more squarely in a broader mental health context.
Another benefit of placing job satisfaction in this broader context is the availability of measures used to explore
an individual’s well-being. These can be usefully applied to assess an individual’s effective response to his or her
job.
“The extent to which an individual needs are satisfied and the extent to which the individuals perceive that
satisfaction as stemming from his total work situation.” (Guion, 1958)
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1.3. Teachers’ Job Satisfaction

Psychologists have explained the phenomenon of job satisfaction by examining the feelings or feedback of
individuals.
Teachers’ job satisfaction has perhaps been investigated more and more, often in relationship to teacher stress,
job commitment, professional autonomy, school climate and so on. (Schuler, 1986)
Job satisfaction as “any combination of psychological, physiological and environmental circumstances that cause
a person truthfully to say, lam happy with my job”. (Hoppock, 1935)
In 1978 Holdaway, Teachers’ job satisfaction has been studied as an overall construct and as a facet construct. In
his research, Holdaway found that overall satisfaction was closely related to “working with students, societal
attitudes, and status of teachers, recognition, and achievement”.

1.4. The Significance of Teachers’ Job Satisfaction

Several studies focused on the relationship between job satisfaction and extra role behavior towards individuals
inside and outside the organizations. It is also important to study job satisfaction because of its effects on teacher
retention and continuous development. Teachers who were planning to leave the profession reported less satisfaction
and a more negative attitude toward teaching as a career.

1.5. The Significance of Teachers’ Job Satisfaction

Several studies focused on the relationship between job satisfaction and extra- role behavior towards individuals
inside and outside the organization It is also important to study job satisfaction because of its effects on teacher
retention and continuous development. Teachers who were planning to leave the profession reported less satisfaction
and a more negative attitude toward teaching as a career. (Smith, 2007)
Job satisfaction was also found to be associated with teacher’s quality, organizational commitment and
organizational performance in reference to the following school areas: academic achievement, student behavior,
student satisfaction, teacher turnover, and administrative performance. (Mathieu, 1991).
A 1957 review of the literature on job satisfaction by Herzberg and Peterson (1957) conduced that factor analytic
studies have indicated the presence of six relatively independent factors as general satisfaction and moral, attitudes
toward the company and its policies, satisfaction with intrinsic aspects of the job, attitudes toward the immediate
supervisor, attitudes toward satisfaction of aspirations, and satisfaction with conditions of present job.

1.6. The Influencing Factors on Tcachcrs’ Job Satisfaction

Chase, (1985) reported in a study in the early that freedom in planning work, adequacy of salary, feelings about
quality leadership, and participation in educational and personnel policy planning affected satisfaction. Two major
theoretical approaches are often cited in literature across disciplines: Kerzherg’s dual-factor theory (1959) and
Quarstein et al’s situational occurrences theory (1992). Herzberg distinguishes between motivator and hygiene
factors as mutually exclusive. Environmental factors (or job context-related) such as policy, salary and physical
working conditions are identified as “dissatisfies”, which are separated from satisfiers (or job content-related
factors) such as achievement, responsibility, and intrinsic challenges.
In 1997, the National Center for Education Statistics (1997) (NCES) in the US published a report on job
satisfaction among American teachers. The report was based on a large and comprehensive database of over 40,000
teacher’ in a complex and random sample of schools. The sample was stratified by state, sector, and school level. It
compassed elementary and secondary, private and public schools throughout the United States. It analyzed the
1993—1994 Schools and Starring Survey (SASS) data collected by the NCES that examined a wide range of
schools, teachers and work characteristics. The second section of this three-pan study compared characteristics of
the most satisfied and the least satisfied teachers. The most salient finding of the study was that workplace
conditions constitute a factor between the most satisfied and the least satisfied teachers.
Some research also has found that job satisfaction grows as teachers become more experienced in their work
(Hutchinson, 1963), which seems logical, since unsatisfied teachers are more likely to leave the profession and,
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therefore, not have the chance to fully adapt to and build up a long career in teaching. interestingly, Smith (1992) in
their study discovered that teacher satisfaction is positively correlated with age, except for teachers between the ages
of 40 to 50. These teachers also have low satisfaction about promotion prospects. In addition, gender has also been
the center of some research on job satisfaction. On average, female employees responded to surveys with higher
satisfaction rating than their male colleagues; and the similarity has been observed in the teaching profession. In
term of gender, female teachers expressed greater job satisfaction than their male counterparts. The more satisfied
group consisted mostly of female teachers, teaching grades 1—4 rather than grades 5—8, in private rather than
public schools, and with less teaching experience than their less satisfied counterparts. Plihal, (1982) found that a
teacher’s years of experience were positively correlated with intrinsic rewards conceptualized by the importance
attached to “reaching students”. With regard to school location, rural teachers were found to be less satisfied than
urban teachers.
Researchers in the U.S., since the middle of last century, have placed attention to topics concerning job
satisfaction, but only a small proportion of them have focused on teacher job satisfaction (Garrett, 1999; Evans,
1997). To the National Center for Education Statistics NCES (1997), both intrinsic and extrinsic factors have effects
on teacher job satisfaction. Intrinsic factors, such as classroom activities, student characteristics, and perceptions of
teacher control over the class, play a vital role in teachers’ motivation. (Smith, 1991)
Extrinsic factors including salary, school safety, perceived support from administrators, availability of school
resources, and relationship to others, influence teachers’ satisfaction and performance as well .Besides, school sector
and size are linked to school quality, also affect teachers’ quality and satisfaction. Results from some researches
demonstrate that salary and benefits arc slightly or even unrelated to teachers’ retention. (NCES, 1997)

1.7. List of Top Five and Bottom Five Countries in Job Satisfaction

A recent study of 9,300 adults in 39 countries identified the percentage of workers who said they were “very
satisfied with their jobs.”
The top five countries were
‘Denmark (61 %), India (55%), Norway (54%), United States (50%), Ireland (49%).
Experts suggest that job satisfaction is highest in Denmark because labor and management have a great working
relationship. The bottom five countries were Estonia (11 %), China (II %), Czech Republic (10%), Ukraine (10%),
Hungary (9%).
Private school teachers are more satisfied with their jobs than public school — not a trivial finding, especially
during a teacher shortage They are also more satisfied about class size and more likely to say they receive lots of
support from parents. By substantial margins, they are more likely to agree that most colleagues share the school’s
mission and that staff cooperative effort is high.

1.8. Job Satisfaction and Performance

It is a commonly held and a seemingly not unreasonable believe that an increase in job satisfaction will result in
improved performance. But research has not established any strongly positive connection between satisfaction and
performance. A review of the extensive literature on this subject by Brayfield and Crockett. (1955) concluded that
there was’ little evidence of any simple or appreciable relationship between employee attitudes and their
performance. An updated review of their analysis by Vroom, (1964) covered 20 studies, in each of which one or
more measures of job satisfaction or employee attitudes was correlated with one or more criteria of performance.
The median correlation of all these studies was 0.14, which is not high enough to suggest a marked relationship
between satisfaction and Performance. Brayfield and Crockett, (1955) concluded that.
Productivity is seldom a goal in itself but a means to goal attainment. Therefore we might expect high satisfaction
and high productivity to occur together when productivity is perceived as a path to certain important goals and when
these goals are achieved. Under such conditions, satisfaction and productivity might be unrelated or even negatively
related.
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1.9. Factor Effecting on Job Satisfaction

The level of job satisfaction is affected by intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors, the quality of supervision,
social relationships with the work group and the degree to which individuals succeed or fail in their work. Purcell et
at (2003) believe that discretionary behavior which helps the firm to be successful is most likely to happen when
employees are well motivated and feel committed to the organization and when the job gives them high levels of
satisfaction. Their research found that the key factors affecting job satisfaction were career opportunities, job
influence, teamwork and job challenge. (Mangal, 2005)
Job satisfaction can be measured by the use of interviews, by a combination of questionnaire and by the use of
focus groups.
Different research studies show that causes for job satisfactions are need fulfillment, value attainment,
discrepancies, equity and dispositional / genetic components.
It was observed that the consequences of job satisfaction are job involvement, organizational commitment,
absenteeism, turnover, motivation, organizational citizenship behavior and job performance.

2. Procedure

The survey research was used to collect relevant data.

3. Population

The population of the study was mainly based on all the male and female teachers of the public and private
secondary schools of Lahore district.

4. Sample

Convenient sampling technique was used researchers ten secondary schools, 5 public and 5 private in the
vicinity, half of the schools were girl’s schools where as other boy’s school were chosen. The sample of the study
consisted of 150 male and female teachers of those conveniently selected schools.

5. Instrument for Data Collection

A questionnaire was used as a tool of research and got validated from supervisor. The questionnaire consisted of
25 items and questionnaire five options. The questionnaire had five factors identify the teacher’s job satisfaction
related to pay, peer relation, supervisor, attitude, work load and job security.

6. Administration of Questionnaire

A number of 150 questionnaires was disturbed and explained to the teachers. This was done in order to eliminate
ambiguity at any level about the questionnaire. The questionnaire were disturbed to the different schools of Lahore
district and collected at the spot.

7. Data Analysis

The data was analyzed with the help of computer software SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The
data analysis presented in different tables. t-test and ANOVA test were used to investigate the job satisfaction in
public and private school teachers.
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8. Findings

x Result of male and female school teachers showed that they were satisfied with their job and its atmosphere.
Majority of the female teachers was satisfied as compared to male teachers.
x Results also showed that public and private schools teachers were satisfied with their jobs.
x Results of work experience of those having work experiences was from (0-5) showed that majority of female
teachers accepted that they were satisfied with their job but most of the male teachers showed dissatisfaction.
x The (6-10) working experience group of male and female teachers also gave positive remarks of their job
satisfaction.
x Result of those whose working experience (11-15) showed that both male and female teachers agreed that they
were satisfied with their jobs.
x The number of temporary teachers was a bit little as compared to permanent teachers but both were satisfied
with their job. The majority of female teachers was also satisfied as compared to male teachers in the teaching
status result.
x Results also showed that female having qualification was B.Sc were more satisfied with their jobs than male
and master degree holders.
x Results showed that the different age groups of male and female teachers in public and private schools were
satisfied with their jobs

9. Conclusion

The conclusion of the study was drawn on the basis of the findings of the research study. Majority of the teachers
of public and private school agreed that they were satisfied with their jobs. But female teachers tend to be more
satisfied than male school teachers and less qualified teachers tend to be more satisfied than high qualified teachers.
The research findings made it clear that the teachers of public schools were satisfied as compare to private school
teachers. And the permanent teachers were more satisfied than the temporary teachers. The different working
experience groups of teachers of male and female were satisfied with their jobs. These findings would provide
information to policy makers, principles and school heads interested in increasing the satisfaction levels of teachers.
Regardless of the school status, teacher’s qualification or teaching experience, a safe working environment,
supportive administration, and involved parents are connected with high levels of teacher satisfaction. Equally
important are the teachers’ feelings of sovereignty. The results of this study imply that involving teachers in school
policy, decisions and giving them some degree of control in their classrooms are associated with high levels of
career satisfaction. It is not possible to say, however, whether these factors result in high levels of teacher
satisfaction, or whether highly satisfied teachers seek out or create environments that provide them with greater
satisfaction.
In the end of the conclusion of this research the researcher, want to open this fact that most teachers of
government and private schools do not share their responses in a sincerely manners. So these insincerely responses
of the teachers may effect the results of this research.

10. Recommendations

The following recommendations were made on the basis of the results of the study.
x The researchers recommend to the future researchers that they should conduct a research on job satisfaction and
find out the reasons of dissatisfaction of the high qualified teachers.
x The research motivates the future researchers to discover the reasons of male teachers being not satisfied with
their jobs as compared to female teachers.
x The research also suggests to the researcher to conduct a research on teacher’s job satisfaction to find out the
reasons of low satisfaction among the private schools.
x Teachers should be provided with proper guidance and counseling in the organization so that they will be aware
of their duties, working conditions in the schools. By knowing this can adjust with the school conditions
effectively.
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x To reduce role conflict, the authorities should provide clear cut guidelines, so that they will be aware of their
roles and their will be no ambiguity in understanding of what he or she is to do.
x Administration creates a supportive organizational climate will help to reduce job stress and thereby improve
job satisfaction among teachers. By providing better working conditions, teachers will be more satisfied to work
in the institution they are working.

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Chase (1958), stress relief Delhi: Pearson Education.

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Guion & Evans, L, (1958) Managing to Motivate, continuum international publishing group, London.
Herberg & Peterson, (1957). Job attitude: Research and oppion, retrieve on 12-12-2007 from www.lib.vith.edu)spc/mss)accnI592.html
Plihal. (1987). Stress Management for Wellness, Chicago Hall, New York.
Schuler, S R (1986). Managing Organization and People, Modular Version. (7th ed). South Western College, New York.
Smith C.A (1992). Job satisfaction, work place environment, and personality traits as a source of influence on helping behavior. A social change
perspective.