an Analysis of the Relationship Between Job Satisfaction, Organizational Culture, and Perceived Leadership Characteristics

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to determine if (a) there is a relationship between job satisfaction, organizational culture, and perceived leadership characteristics at a dual- residential private university based on location, gender, level of education, and length of employment and, (b) to measure those relationships if they were present. Understanding how these areas relate may enhance strategic planning and personnel decisions for leaders within organizations. The population of this study was the 1,478 full-time faculty and staff located on the residential campuses of the participating university. Participants in the study were asked to complete three test instruments: an Employee Demographic Survey, Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), and the Organizational Description Questionnaire (ODQ). The Employee Demographic Survey was designed by the researcher to collect demographic data from the population. The JSS was designed by Spector (1994) as an instrument to assess an employee’s attitude toward variables such as pay, promotion, supervision, operating procedures, and communication. Designed by Bass and Avolio (1992), the ODQ measures how a member of the organization perceives the organizational culture in terms of transactional or transformational leadership characteristics. Findings indicated that the only statistically significant mean score differences between total scores on the JSS and ODQ occurred when length of employment was the independent variable. Statistically significant correlations were also observed between the mean total JSS score, the ODQ transactional leadership score, and the ODQ transformational leadership score. Further, the scores obtained from the ODQ were usedto define the organizational culture typology. A Moderately Four I’s, as described by Bass and Avolio (1992), was the dominant culture identification across all levels of independent variables.