ABSTRACT
Introduction: Occupational satisfaction expresses the pleasant or positive satisfaction that comes from the person’s perception for its occupation or work experience. It is customary for professional satisfaction to be assessed mainly using questionnaires. Unfortunately, so far, none has been used in welfare professionals.
Aim: The aim of this paper is to study three different questionnaires which assess professional satisfaction, and to draw conclusions regarding their use in assessing the professional satisfaction of employees working in welfare structures.
Methodology: In the present comparative study three questionnaires were used: 1.Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), 2.Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and 3. Greek Nurses’ Job Satisfaction Scale (GNJSS) in assessing the professional satisfaction of 84 employees in welfare institutions in Thessaly region, Greece. The study also evaluated the various satisfaction factors of each questionnaire. For the data processing, the SPSS Statistical Package was used with a statistical significance level of p=0.05. Internal Integrity (Cronbach’s), t-tests, and one-ANOVAs were tested to identify any differences in individual factors.
Results: The credibility of internal cohesion (Cronbach’s) was 0.90, 0.34 and 0.86 for the GNJSS, JSS, and MSQ questionnaires, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in professional satisfaction as to gender, hierarchy, experience and income in the GNJSS and MSQ questionnaires. In contrast, a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) was found in professional satisfaction with educational level in the MSQ. A different degree of significance was also observed for the factors of each questionnaire.
Conclusions: In the present study low degree of professional satisfaction of welfare employees was found. The primary factor in detecting the reasons for the low degree of professional satisfaction of welfare employees is, also, the use for the appropriate – anchored and reliable – measuring tool. Bibliographic research reports contradictory conclusions on the reliability and validity of professional satisfaction assessment tools.
Key-words: Professional satisfaction, questionnaires, reliability, validity, welfare.
