1. ABSTRACT
Significantly, job satisfaction and motivation are very essential to the continuing
growth of educational systems around the world and they rank alongside professional
knowledge and skills, centre competencies, educational resources as well as strategies, in
genuinely determining educational success and performance. This study‟s aim is to define the
differences and relationship between the level of teachers‟ job satisfaction, motivation and
their teaching performance and how to enhance professional development of teachers.
Researches which were executed about these subjects before are searched and taken into
consideration. Also articles which Professors have written are given importance. At the end of
the literature review, the results are evaluated and it is deduced that teacher related sources of
job satisfaction seem to have a greater impact on teaching performance, and teachers are also
dissatisfied with the educational policies and administration, pay and fringe benefits, material
rewards and advancement. To sum up, it is found that job satisfaction and motivation and
performance correlated significantly with responsibility levels, gender, subject, age, years of
teaching experience, activity, pay and fringe benefits
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2. LITERATURE REVIEW
JOB SATISFACTION
Job satisfaction is simply defined as the affective orientation that an employee has
towards his or her work (Price, 2001 as cited by Andre Bishay, 1996 ). In other words, it is an
affective reaction to a job that results from the comparison of perceived outcomes with those
that are desired (Kam, 1998). Shortly, job satisfaction describes the feelings, attitudes or
preferences of individuals regarding work (Chen, 2008). Furthermore, it is the degree to
which employees enjoy their jobs (McCloskey and McCain, 1987 as cited by Andre
Bıshay,1996). And also, it is possible to see a number of theories developed to understand its
nature in literature. Vroom (1964), need/value fulfilment theory, states that job satisfaction is
negatively related to the discrepancy between individual needs and the extent to which the job
supplies these needs. On the other hand, Porter and Lawler (1968) collect the influences on
job satisfaction in two groups of internal and external satisfactory factors. According to them,
internal satisfactory factors are related the work itself (such as feeling of independence,
feeling of achievement, feeling of victory, self-esteem, feeling of control and other similar
feeling obtained from work), whereas external satisfactory factors are not directly related to
work itself (such as good relationships with colleagues, high salary, good welfare and
utilities). So, the influences on job satisfaction can be also divided into work-related and
employee-related factors (Glisson and Durick, 1988 as cited by Andre Bıshay,1996).
On the other hand, Arvey and Dewhirst (1976), took 271 scientists as a study sample,
and found that the degree of job-satisfaction of the workers with high achievement motivation
exceeded that of workers with low achievement motivation. Also autonomy is an important
concern for employees‟ job satisfaction. Additionally, administrative styles, professional
status and pay are known as important factors influencing job satisfaction. For example, Carr
and Kazanowsky (1994) successfully showed that inadequate salary was very lelated to
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3. employees‟ dissatisfaction. And recent studies showed that a participative (democratic)
management style was mostly preferred by today‟s managers to increase their employees‟ job
satisfaction (Dogan and İbicioglu, 2004; Knoop, 1991). Consequently, numerous researches
have been going on job satisfaction for many years. And it is common thought that job
satisfaction influences organizational behaviour, namely it positively affects employee
working performance and organizational commitment, and negatively influences employee
turnover (Agarwal and Ferrat, 2001; Poulin, 1994; Chen, 2008).
JOB SATISFACTION IN TEACHING PROFESSION
Significantly, job satisfaction and motivation are very essential to the continuing
growth of educational systems around the world and they rank alongside professional
knowledge and skills, center competencies, educational resources as well as strategies, in
genuinely determining educational success and performance. Teachers are arguably the most
important group of professionals for our nation‟s future. Therefore, it is disturbing to find that
many of today‟s teachers are dissatisfied with their jobs. It is crucial that we determine what
increases teacher MOTİVATİON. An organization‟s liveliness, whether public or private,
comes from the motivation of its employees, although their abilities play just as crucial a role
in determining their work performance their motivation (Lewis, Goodman & Fandt 1995).
Golembiewski (1973,p. 597) refers to motivation as the degree of readiness of an organization
to pursue some designated goal and implies the determination of the nature and locus of the
forces inducing the degree of readiness. To Kelly (1974, p. 279), motivation has to do with
the forces that maintain and alter the direction, quality and intensity of behavior. According to
Hoy and Miskel (1987, p.176), employee motivation is the complex forces, drives, needs,
tension states, or other mechanisms that start and maintain voluntary activity directed towards
the achievement of personal goals. In short, Dessler (2001) defined motivation as the intensity
of a person‟s desire to engage in some activity. From the above definitions some issues are
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4. brought to mind that deal with what starts and energizes human behaviour, how those forces
are directed and sustained as well as the outcomes they bring about (performance).It follows
therefore that there is a relationship between motivation and job satisfaction, which is
paramount in any organization‟s existence. Many factors have been examined in an attempt to
find which ones promote teacher motivation. Sylvia & Hutchinson (1985)
concluded:“Teacher motivation is based in the freedom to try new ideas, achievement of
appropriate responsibility levels, and intrinsic work elements…. Based upon our findings,
schemes such as merit pay were predicted to be counterproductive.” They explain that true job
satisfaction is derived from the gratification of higher-order needs, “social relations, esteem,
and actualization” rather than lower-order needs.
Moreover teacher motivation is determined by both pecuniary and non-pecuniary
factors. Pay levels and other material benefits must be sufficient to meet basic human needs
(food, housing, clothing, transport, healthcare, education and training). However, overall job
satisfaction among teachers is also strongly determined by higher order emotional and social
needs, most notably professional self-esteem, job security, interpersonal relations at work
(between teachers, education managers, pupils and parents/communities), opportunities for
career progression, the working environment, the workload and productivity/learning
outcomes. Another key related issue is the level of accountability of teachers to their school
managers, pupils, parents and wider community.
ENHANCING EDUCATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS THROUGH TEACHERS’
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Professional development is defined as activities that develop an individual‟s skills,
knowledge, expertise and other characteristics as a teacher So it is important to see teachers‟
professional development as a means of attaining the basic goals of the educational
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5. endeavour. It also acknowledges the relevance of intermediary goals, such as enhancing
teachers‟ job satisfaction.
Job satisfaction is a multi-faceted construct. Three central components thought to
affect teacher satisfaction including the nature of the work (e.g. teaching responsibilities,
students/parents, working conditions), the context of the job (e.g. physical environment), and
the consequences associated with teaching (e.g. remuneration, union, career development)
(Black-Branch, 1996).
Job satisfaction - performance linkage: Researchers have had difficulty determining the
relationship between job satisfaction and performance. From the 1930s to the mid-1950s, the
views on the job satisfaction – performance relationship can be summarized in the statement
“a happy worker is a productive worker”. As a result of the Hawthorne studies, managers
generalized that if their employees were satisfied with their jobs, that satisfaction would be
translated into high productivity (Robbins & Coulter, 1999). However, by the mid-1950s, a
number of studies had failed to establish a clear link between job satisfaction and
performance. Researchers have started to assume an alternative view – performance leads to
job satisfaction. If employees do a good job, they intrinsically feel good about it (Lussier,
1996). Some other researchers have suggested that the reason for the apparently uncertain
relationship between job satisfaction and performance is that other variables intervene, of
which rewards are the most prominent. Whether job satisfaction is going to be improved
depends on whether the rewards match the expectations, needs and desires of the employees
(Werther, & Davis, 1996).
Commitment: It has been a subject of interest for some time. The past decades have seen a
broadening of the domain within which commitment is studied. Becker (1992) suggested that
there are different foci of commitment. Individuals can feel committed to the organization, top
management, supervisors, or the work group. Some of the earliest work within the
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6. organizational behaviour literature (Porter et al.,1974; Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979)
examined employees‟ commitment to their employers, commonly referred to as
organizational commitment. Then, there has been an increase in research examining
commitment to unions (Fullagar & Barling, 1989), employment (Morrow & Wirth, 1989),
careers (Blau, 1989).
Organizational commitment has also been viewed as an attitude with three components: (a)
Belief in and acceptance of organization‟s goals and values, (b) Willingness to exert effort on
behalf of the organization and (c) Strong desire to maintain organizational membership
(Porter et al., 1974; Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979, 1982; Johnston & Snizek, 1991;
Gregson, 1992). More recently, Meyer & Allen (1991) described three forms of
organizational commitment: commitment as an affective attachment to the organization;
commitment as a perceived cost associated with leaving the organization; and commitment as
an obligation to remain in the organization. These three forms are termed as affective (i.e.
individuals stay in the organization because they want to), continuance (i.e. individuals stay in
the organization because they need to), and normative commitment (i.e. individuals stay in the
organization because they feel they should), respectively.
Job Performance is defined as a worker‟s effective execution of tasks or job and useful
contribution to the social work environment (Abramis, 1994). There are three primary
theories of the mechanisms by which job stress may affect job performance, motivator theory,
interference theory, and combination theory, each predicting a different type of relationship
(Abramis, 1994).
HYPOTHESES ACCORDING TO A RESEARCH ON TEACHERS’ PERFORMANCE
Relationship between Psychological Contract and Organizational Justice
Teachers enter a school with certain expectations about the way things work. For example,
they have certain perceptions of how their bosses treat them, how much is their salary, how
decisions are being made and how conflicts are being resolved. The school administrators may
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7. explicitly or implicitly promise certain outcomes. These promises or the perceived promise would
form the basis of a psychological contact. When these teachers start working in that school, they
get to see and feel the way things are done. They are exposed to the way their supervisors deal
with them; the ways decision-making and conflict-resolution take place. They also receive a
certain amount of salary. If, for example, their supervisors practise favouritism to some
colleagues, or decisions are made in favour of certain people, or conflicts are being settled to the
advantage of certain people, or teachers receive a lower amount of salary compared to colleagues
who do the same work, or two teachers receive the same amount of salary but one does more
work than the other, the individuals concerned may perceive that they are being treated unfairly.
They experience dissonance because what they initially expect and what they encounter in reality
is different. From the above reasoning, for our sample of teachers, we would like to test for a
relationship between psychological contract and organisational justice.
Hypothesis 1: Perceived fulfilment of psychological contract would lead to
perceived distributive justice.
Relationship between Organizational Justice and Organizational Commitment. When
teachers perceive that they are being treated unfairly, for example, their supervisors practise
favouritism to some colleagues, or two teachers doing the same amount of work but receiving
different salaries, the teachers at a disadvantage are likely to be frustrated. They begin to
wonder why the school is treating them in this way. Did they do anything wrong to warrant
such a treatment? These teachers tend to reduce their level of commitment to the school. They
see no point in putting in so much effort for the school and strongly believing in the school
and accepting its goals, when the school does not appreciate their effort, commitment and
loyalty. With reference to the above discussion, for our sample of teachers, we would like to
test for a relationship between organisational justice and organisational commitment.
Hypothesis2 : Perceived distributive justice would lead to higher levels of
organisational commitment.
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8. Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment.
Teachers who experience satisfaction in the different facets of their work environment, for
example, their work itself, their colleagues and supervisors, their compensation and
promotion. As their work environment is contained in the larger context of the school, it is
likely that the satisfaction employees get from their jobs and the work environment is
extended to the school. Therefore, satisfied employees may feel committed to the school.
Hypothesis 3: Higher levels of job satisfaction would lead to higher levels of
organisational commitment.
Teachers who are committed demonstrate a strong acceptance of the school‟s values,
tasks, and working manner. Teachers who firmly believe in these values are likely to manifest
them in the performance. They keep these values in mind when preparing their lesson plans,
when giving students projects, when thinking of examination questions. These teachers are
also more conscious of their conduct and work attitudes, as they want to set good examples
for their students. The above reasoning would support the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 4: Higher level of organizational commitment would lead to better
performance.
So To Enhance Teacher Performance
Administrators in education sector should pay more attention to strengthen teachers‟
commitment to their schools. Findings from this research suggested a few factors to start with.
These include the following.First, to improve perceived distributive justice. This will help to
improve both job satisfaction and organizational commitment. This suggests schools to look
into their reward-related evaluation and administrative systems and practices. Secondly, since
justice is a subjectively perceived factor, good impression management helps.Thirdly, good
communication with teachers, particularly on what is to be expected by both schools and
teachers. Good communication and mutual understanding will help to form an accurate and
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9. realistic psychological contact. Forth, if, for unforeseeable reasons, the pre-established
psychological contract cannot be fulfilled, a candid explanation will help teachers to
understand the situation, and to appreciate the admonitions effort to minimize or to have
minimized the gap and delivered the best it can. Built on a sound understanding of the causal
relationship among various factors leading to good teaching performance, the school
administration will be able to forester a trust culture and build a committed teaching staff.
(Aidong Zhang, and Yongqing FANG, no date)
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