Dissertation Abstract

A Study of Work Motivation Among Educators in Selected Educational Institutions Using Job Characteristics Model

This study examined the motivation of educators in ten selected public colleges and universities--five community colleges and five four-year colleges and universities using Job Characteristics Model of Hackman and Oldham of 1976. It was a unique study because of the application of the model to the educational setting. Particularly, the study looked at the work motivation among health educators (Nursing and Radiography educators), in the selected institutions.

A mailed survey research design was employed to gather the necessary data from the randomly selected institutions that offered Nursing and Radiography and/or Radiation Therapy programs. The Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) instrument was sent to a total of 82 educators sampled from the compiled faculty lists of the selected institutions. Sixty-two (62) completed surveys were returned at a response rate of 73%. SPSS was the statistical package used for the analysis of the descriptive, ANOVA, correlational, Chi-Square, and regressional studies.

Analysis of the data indicated that the sample in the study consisted mostly of female respondents (74.4%), white (80.6%), educated at Masters degree level (45.2%), and aged between 40-49 years (50%). There was no significant difference among the educators across the job dimensions and selected outcomes, except that the administrators were different in Autonomy according to their institutions.

Analysis of the Chi-Square tests revealed that females were more likely to be dissatisfied with their pay and fringe benefits than their male collegues. There was no evidence to support the superiority of double multiplicative formulation of the Motivating Potential Score (MPS) but the result of the overall relationship between the job dimensions and psychological states was as expected and thus supported the Hackman and Oldham's theory of 1976.

The recommendation was to broaden the scope of study to include more educators of health professions in order to better understand the motivating characteristics of jobs of all health professional educators. The double multiplicative formulation of MPS also needs reevaluation to provide a thoroughly acceptable formulation.

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