Job satisfaction among college and university teachers : A national level study

Job satisfaction among college and university teachers : A national level study

[study conducted by Muhamedbasheer K.K( KKTM Govt.college,Kerala) Rekha Ojha (Visva Bharati University,West BengaL)Lotika Singh (Dayalbagh Educational Institute,Uttar Pradesh)]

Job Satisfaction is the extent to which one feels good about the job. It is in regard to one's feeling or state of mind regarding the nature of their work. In other words, job satisfaction implies doing a job one enjoys, doing it well, enthusiastic and attains happiness with ones work. Everyone defines job satisfaction as fulfillment of one's expectation. It differs from person to person and institution to institution and even in the context of male and female. In simple terms when someone is satisfied with his job, that is job satisfaction. It is a pleasurable positive emotion state, resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences. According to the great philosopher John Locke, "Job satisfaction results from the perception that one's job fulfills or allows the fulfillment of one's important job values, providing and to the degree that these values are congruent one's needs." Therefore, job satisfaction is such phenomenon which comes not only from the job, but also from one's personal, social, academic, administrative and economic condition.

Students are one of the important assets of any society. Well being of society depends upon its students because these are the people who will take the responsibility of the success of the society in future and in achieving this goal, teachers role is extremely important. Teachers are the source of guidance in all the crucial steps in academic life of the student. People are interested to work in the institutions as well as in the services where they feel satisfied. Job dissatisfaction leads to reduce level of performance, it increases turnover and turnover intentions and also leads to absenteeism. But in reality how far such job satisfaction is ensured in college or university teachers job is an important issue in recent time. When teachers are satisfied with their job, they can perform the responsibilities with more concentration and devotion.  A major change has been brought about in field of higher education in the past couple of years.

 Scope and Relevance

There has been an  introduction in the semester system in the present education scenario. Earlier, we had an annual system. The syllabi and the curriculum was designed to meet the needs of the yearly system. In the annual education system, the courses were taught and the syllabus was completed throughout the year and then there was an exam towards the end of the year for evaluation. After bringing about a change in the education system from annual to semester system, it has become extremely essential to bring in a structural change in the syllabus, in the teaching system, and also in the evaluation system.

On dividing the annual system into semester system (say for example 2 semesters in a year), we need to logically divide the syllabus. The syllabus should be divided such that it is equally divided into two parts which can be evaluated in each semester. Also, there has to be a provision such that the student is evaluated on the entire syllabus towards the end of the year (terminal evaluation). Along with the semester exam the students are continuously evaluated (it includes projects, assignments, seminars, quizzes etc). This kind of a system will help the students to prepare better and by a continuous evaluation system, the students will have a better understanding of the subject and also helps in self learning..

Due to this paradigm shift, the work load on teachers and students have increased tremendously. In some sense it is good for the students as they get prepared with the first half of the syllabus in the first semester itself, which results in more achievement.  The teachers on the other hand are pressurized to complete the designated portion of the syllabus within the time frame of the first semester.  In addition to this they are over burdened with the midterm evaluation of the students apart from the usual work load. Increasing number of exams and continuous evaluation system adversely affect the vacations of teachers.

With the changing trend in the society, computer and internet has become an inevitable part of the daily life and the education system at large. The traditional teaching methods are gradually changing. The chalk and board teaching is now being replaced or supplemented with the PowerPoint and IT based teaching methods. The trend of smart classrooms has emerged in the preset scenario. Due to these changing circumstances, we have taken up this study to know the impact of these changes towards the job satisfaction among college and university teachers.    Objectives

1.     To know about the level of job satisfaction among the university and college teachers.

2.     To identify the factor related to dissatisfaction with the job.

3.     To find out the merits of the job which leads to satisfaction.

4.     To suggest some measures to reduce dissatisfaction, if any.  

                                     The method used for this study was a survey by using Questionnaire  contains 30 statements related to seven domains such as Work Environment, Social Life , Self Empowerment, Financial Status , Teaching Learning Process, UGC regulations and evaluation. Data collected directly from  the university/college teachers of 21 different  states from Jammu kashmir to kerala. The fifty participants belongs to  this survey were of different age groups and having different years of experience.

Findings

1.     Among college and university teachers, 58% are highly job satisfied, 34% moderately and 8%  are having a low level of job satisfaction.

2.     Urban teachers are less job satisfied than rural teachers. There is a distinct variation in the level of job satisfaction, it being, 78.94 and 45.16 among rural and urban teachers respectively.

3.     The prominent reasons for growing dissatisfaction among females is due to social life. Only 38.09% of females are highly while, 61.90% are moderately satisfied.

4.     According to financial status, male and female satisfaction are almost equal (males 41.38%, females 42.85%).

5.      It was found that 23.81% females are dissatisfied with the present career advancement scheme of UGC.

6.     More than 50% of males and females are least satisfied in social life, financial status and present evaluation system.

7.     Women are more satisfied in their present work environment than men, the level of satisfaction being 80.95 in females and 72.41% in males.

8.     In the domain of social life men are more satisfied (48.28%) than women (38.09%).

9.     It was also found that women get less time for other leisure activities leading to their decreased self empowerment than men. The percentages being, 66.67 and 72.41 for females and males respectively.

10.  UGC- CAS scheme is the domain in which the females have expressed a relatively high level of dissatisfaction, the actual figure being  23.81.

11.  Most of the male population express their dissatisfaction in the domain of evaluation and financial status (17.24 and 13.79% respectively).

12.  Work environment, teaching learning process and self empowerment are the high satisfaction domains according to males (75.86%, 72.41% and 72.41% respectively).

13.  Work environment, self empowerment are the high job satisfaction domains of females (80.95%, 66.67% respectively).

14.  According to experience, the level of job satisfaction decreases. The actual percentage being 64.36% up to 10 years of service, while above 10 years it is 41.66%.

15.  The age group between 36 and 45 have low level of job satisfaction.

16.  The age group 25 to 35 have a high level of job satisfaction, 76%.

17.  Married teachers are has a relatively high level of job satisfaction as compared to the unmarried teachers.

18.  The teachers from the rural areas has a high level of job satisfaction as compared to the urban areas.  There is a significant difference between the level of job satisfaction, the percentages of satisfaction being, 78.94% and 45.16% in rural and urban areas respectively.

19.  Approximately 76% of the teachers in India enjoy a good working environment.

Suggestions

1.     Present under graduate curriculum should be revised according to the semester system.

2.     To get more time in academic activities, teachers should be relieved  from clerical tasks, such as admission of the students and other examination duties including invigilation etc.

3.     Number of office staff should be increased to meet the needs of semester system effectively.

4.     Examination, evaluation and declaration of results should be time-bounded.

5.     Overcrowding in the classrooms should be avoided to make teaching more effective.

6.     The maximum ratio of teacher and student at undergraduate and post graduate level 1:30 and 1:15 respectively.

7.     Resources like books, references, smart class rooms and other teaching learning equipments should be provided or arranged such that it is convenient for access to both teachers and students.

8.     Current Career Advancement Scheme should be revised and more logical and scientific. Also the duration of promotion should be reduced for about 5 to 8 years.

9.     More emphasis for career advancement should be made based on the teaching feedback received from the students in the class and the other academic activities, as at present a major focus regarding this is only on research and projects etc.

10.  To make the work environment more effective, compulsory training in the area of administration and management should be given to principals and Head of Departments.

11.  The starting scale of teachers should be more  attractive. It therefore needs a revision.

12.  To make teaching learning process more effective, all teachers need training in modern educational practices, learning theories and approaches.

13.  A service entry training should be given to all the teachers after being appointed and before joining the institution. In this regard, all ASC's should have a common curriculum and training module which focuses on teaching and adult psychology. It should also include practical experience based training by attaching the freshly appointed teachers to some college/university in the premises of the concerned ASC for a certain period of time during the training program.

14.   To make evaluation more effective, internal and external evaluation system should be modified. It should be made more comprehensive, scientific and practical.

15.   Teachers organization should also consider faculty improvement programs such as academic activities, research publications etc. along with the financial and other welfare activities.

16.  Since the females, have to devote much time looking after the family and children which leaves them with very little time for reading and doing other research activities. It is therefore required to bring about a change in the traditional patriarchic system, which will help divide equal responsibilities to everyone in the family thereby giving more time to everyone for performing better in self empowerment activities. More awareness programs should be conducted regarding this.

 Conclusions

Teachers are the pillars of a society, who help students to grow to shoulder the responsibility of taking their nation ahead of others. They desire security, recognition, new experience and independence. When these needs are not fulfilled, they become stressed. Dissatisfaction among people is undesirable and dangerous in any profession. It is suicidal if it occurs in teaching profession. If factors responsible for dissatisfaction can be differentiated, attempts can be made either to change these conditions to reduce their intensity, so as to increase the holding power of the profession. This study attempts to find out which facet or dimension affects the job satisfaction of college and university teachers the most. The present study takes into account the intrinsic and extrinsic factors to find out the level of job satisfaction and to see the effect of age, gender, experience, social life, self empowerment, working environment, teaching learning process, and financial status on the academicians.  This study thus aims at identifying the facts adversely affecting job satisfaction among teachers. The findings of this study points out some startling reasons for the increasing dissatisfaction level among teachers. The study also provides some suggestions which may help in maintaining a high level of job satisfaction and thereby create a conducive environment for both teachers, students and society.