The Effect of Empowerment on Job Satisfaction for Physical Therapists in General Hospitals

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the effect of empowerment on job satisfaction for physical therapists in general hospitals. METHODS: A total of 297 physical therapists working in general hospitals throughout the country participated in the study survey using self-administered questionnaires. The questionnaires comprised three major parts, i.e., questions about general characteristics, empowerment, and job satisfaction, which were rated using a 5-point Likert scale. Statistical analysis was performed to analyze the frequency and percentage of participants, and the independent t-test and analysis of variance were performed to determine the difference in job satisfaction according to the general characteristics. Stepwise multiple regression was used to †Corresponding Author : Sun-Wook Park assasun@hanmail.net, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3995-8905 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. evaluate the factors that affect job satisfaction. RESULTS: The average of total empowerment, including two subordinate concepts, was 3.29 points, that of psychological empowerment was 3.53 points, and that of structural empowerment was 3.05 points. The average job satisfaction of the participants was 3.43 points, and it showed a significant difference in age, overall work experience, current work experience, position, annual salary, and daily work hours. Moreover, job satisfaction increased as the subordinate factors for empowerment, i.e., support, resources, chance, and competence, increased. Other factors that affect job satisfaction were daily work hours, number of colleagues, type of work, annual salary, and therapeutic assistance. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that job satisfaction of physical therapists working in general hospitals was related to empowerment, thereby indicating that job satisfaction and work performance can be increased by improving their empowerment. Key Words: Empowerment, General hospital, Job satisfaction, Physical therapist