Education and Job Satisfaction

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Job satisfaction comes when one accepts a job what job is for and exploits the sources of satisfaction that come with it. Many different sources of satisfaction are tied to same job. Good feeling can come from high performance, quality work, learning new skills apart from education, working as part of a team, assisting coworkers, demonstrating personal growth and receiving compliments.
26/06/2012
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The link between education and job satisfaction is very strong and numerous studies have come up with the findings that the relationship between education and job satisfaction is direct; however this is very hard to develop objective approach particularly with regard to such variables which differ from person to person; nevertheless one thing is transparent; there are some variables besides in the case of educated people which can make them satisfied with their work e.g. attitude of people towards educated people, their salary packages, recognition, achievement, advancement, progression opportunities etc. let’s define this term so a proper relationship between both of these variables can be focused on; thus Job satisfaction is the contentment and delight that comes from work.

It is not the money, the benefits or vacation. It is the good feeling you receive from doing the work itself. Virtually every job can provide a level of satisfaction. Job satisfaction comes when one accepts a job what job is for and exploits the sources of satisfaction that come with it. Many different sources of satisfaction are tied to same job. Good feeling can come from high performance, quality work, learning new skills apart from education, working as part of a team, assisting coworkers, demonstrating personal growth and receiving compliments. All workers can exploit many sources of satisfaction. Job satisfaction is achieved daily by digging out satisfiers, wherever they can be found. This is true if an individual is marking time, until he or she gets into a better career area, the trick is to enjoy your present job, when you prepare for a better one. Many people gain satisfaction from doing ordinary jobs, they make quality time out of their working hours, no matter what their assignments may be, so what can be the true link of job satisfaction and education?

Let us analyze both type of research i.e. one which supports this relationship with positive proportionality and the second which say this is on the contrary, let us analyze the latter situation first and former later. Glenn et al. (1977) suggest that group differences may play a part in the age-job relationship, in particular the tendency of older workers to have less formal education than young adults. Their theory suggests that education has a negative impact on job satisfaction because increased education is associated with higher expectations, such that a person may become dissatisfied with performing the routine tasks required of most jobs. In addition there are certain researches which came up with the findings that education has no big impact on job satisfaction, according to these studies gender and educational attainment of the worker don’t seem to make much difference in the rates of satisfaction but age makes a big difference. In 1970 the rates of dissatisfaction among young adult workers were about twice as high as among older workers


However the case of former is exactly on the contrary and this is the case of most of the research conducted up till now i.e. most of the research supports this situation more than the negative impact of education on job satisfaction i.e. the relationship between education and job satisfaction is positive.


Overall, highly educated people are happy not only in developed countries rather in developing countries as well; in addition different researches have come up with findings that educated people are happy with their job in different other countries as well where numerous researches in this regard have come up, e.g. a study on over qualification and several other researches on perceived over qualification, over education, and match quality suggest that exploitation or utilization of qualities play a role in an individual's job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment levels can be used as predictors of returns. In fact this is the case of educated people to exploit and utilize, can also be found in other individuals as well, however very common among educated people.


Some researches came up in America which investigated the determinants of job satisfaction among US PhD graduates; finding revealed significant results. Accordingly, it straightaway conveys the relationship between education and job satisfaction is direct and as education increases job satisfaction is also probable to increase as well. Similarly, several other studies in USA, on job satisfaction investigated effects of leadership behavior on job satisfaction, productivity and organizational commitment which also link job satisfaction with education in positive and linear relationship.


Job satisfaction varies a lot in diverse cases (Researches show the direct proportion between the prestige of the job and job satisfaction). But, many workers are satisfied in even the least prestigious job, particularly the case of highly educated people is different all the educated people not necessarily strive for prestige only rather in certain cases they work for numerous other factors e.g. achievement etc.
Right away coming to the causes of this relationship, there can be numerous causes for these highly educated or educated people to be satisfied with their jobs; however the most important of these are; all the big jobs not in developed countries rather in developing countries also are covered by the educated people, one important point of significance is; these qualified employees are doctors, engineers, teachers, surgeons, psychologists, scientists etc. these are the people who always strive in their lives regarding learning; perhaps learning is one of the factors to make them satisfied with their work. Psychological sphere demands these people should be happy with their work although education is not the only thing to make the people happy in their life; life is a combination of several complications; wherever an organized field of diverse factors develops for any person life becomes smooth making life full of happiness. Even case to case feelings of people in poles-apart spheres of life vary.

Educational standards in developed countries differ from those of developing or underdeveloped countries, in developed countries e.g. USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, EU countries etc. there are aptitude psychologists and there is no pressure on the people to gain education they don’t like; under these circumstances job satisfaction has strong link with education because the education in this country is achievement oriented and most of the people of these countries achieve their goals owing to they are supported by the government and don’t face financial and funding issues students of developing and underdeveloped countries do e.g. Bangladesh, India, Pakistan Sri Lanka, Ukraine etc. (almost all south east Asian countries in addition to some countries of Europe) so in this case education becomes a strong element for job satisfaction as goal achievement is associated with job satisfaction as well; so the impact of education on job satisfaction becomes transparent.


Education does mean something, when people are in true sense educated they are hardworking and committed peoples, so these people when enter the arena of practical life (their jobs), they do achieve their motives and of a surety motive achievement is not far away from job satisfaction.


Above all, highly educated peoples are easy to move from country to country in search of a job which can satisfy their needs irrespective intrinsic or extrinsic, thus if one place doesn’t satisfy them; they move to another one they consider will be satisfied with; so this can be considered an indirect factor to support the positivity of the link between education and job satisfaction.


The richest countries in the world for example USA, Canada, UK, Australia etc. have majority of highly qualified people as their immigration is a royal read based on their high qualification; it doesn’t mean these countries treat uneducated people with biased attitude; rather it means educated people are required in the developed countries to run the machinery of the government particularly in health, science, technical and education sector; where they make a lot money and their life style compared to the countries they used to live, is lot better, so automatically the job satisfaction of these employees is higher. As all the developed countries major population comprises of educated immigrants from whole over the world, so this association can’t be ignored with regard to the impact of education on job satisfaction as this is class of executive, doctors, engineers, research fellows, teachers, scientists etc.
Short is, in most of the cases of highly educated peoples; they are happy with their job; as if they are not satisfied they move from job to job in search of one they can be happy with owing to finding a new job is not big deal for them. In this sense this is perceptible; the personalities of educated peoples are exploratory so when they think of their job and its satisfaction, they go for the factors causing dissatisfaction or satisfaction and try to detect the elements behind if not satisfied with their job. Such people at the end of the day find a solution for their job satisfaction. In this way the probability for making this statement increases that education and job satisfaction are positively related with each other.
Conclusion and Future Articles


There is possibility for the educated people to be dissatisfied with their job, under circumstances of stress or some other factors on the contrary; there is high probability the link between education and job satisfaction is positive (linear with direct proportion) however case to case things vary and several variables are linked this is beyond sense to say just two variables are there, accordingly it would count as well what other variables are connected in the situation studied; supporting factors and variables would lead to satisfaction whereas diverse elements would lead to dissatisfaction.

In future articles, emphasis can be put on labor market, small scale industry and their job satisfaction.

Research paper in Psychology OP/IOP/WP
By:
Zahid Nawab

References
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Latham, G.P., & Steele, T.P. 1983. The motivation effects of participation versus goal setting on performance. Academy of Management Journal, 26: 406-417.
Moguerou, Philippe (2005). Job Satisfaction among US Graduates, retrieved on April 13, 2006. http://etd.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search-etd.
Mount, M., Ilies, R., & Johnson, E. (2006). Relationship of personality traits and counterproductive work behaviors: The mediating effects of job satisfaction. Personnel Psychology, 59, 591-622.
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Locke, E.A. (1976), The Nature and Causes of Job Satisfaction, In M. D. Dunnette (Ed.), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Chicago: Rand-McNally.

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