Background
A study was undertaken to investigate job satisfaction among physicians working in the nursing field. The researchers were interested in establishing a correlation between job satisfaction and intentions to leave the organization.
The research question of the study was: What is the perceived level of job satisfaction and intent to leave among Malaysian nurses? (Alam and Mohammad 124). The study was designed to test the hypothesis: Job satisfaction lowers the intention to abandon jobs.
Subjects and procedure
The sample space was selected randomly to eliminate researcher bias. Malaysia has a ratio of 1.69 nurses to every 1000 populations; hence, a high turnover rate may lead to adverse results in terms of the quality of health care. The researchers had initially distributed 200 questionnaires to be completed by nurses at the selected hospital.
153 of the questionnaire were completed by the participants, and they were used for data analysis (Alam and Mohammad 128).
Variables
The variables under test in the study were job satisfaction and the intention to abandon their employer. The six facets used included satisfaction with supervisors, variety, closure, compensation, coworkers. The study also looked into employee satisfaction with the human resource management.
The six items were rated by the participants on a five-point Likert scale with a 1-5 range of disagreement. 1 represented “strongly disagree”, and 5 represented “Strongly agree”. Intention to leave was also measured through a similar five-point Likert scale. Cronbach’s alpha was employed to measure the instrument’s reliability (Alam and Mohammad 129).
Results
The respondents revealed that their intention to leave work was a function of the level of job satisfaction. Nurses from the selected hospital were moderately satisfied with the internal environment of their workplace. The results validated the hypothesis by indicating that satisfaction at work lowers the rate of the desire to leave (Alam and Mohammad 132).
It was apparent that employee satisfaction is directly related to the nature of the internal environment in the organization. Interpersonal relationships between the employees and their supervisors is particularly important in developing commitment. The nurses also revealed that they required autonomy at work.
Critique
The research used a large sample space, which enhances the validity of the findings, but it should have been better if the researchers used participants from different hospitals. This approach would have eliminated the chances of propagating errors from the participants (Gerrish and Lacey 148).
The findings of the research are very helpful in the development of an understanding about employees in the service field. According to the findings, employee turnover is a function of job satisfaction, and it is determined by the nature of the internal environment in the workplace.
Employees have to be satisfied with their supervisors, and the internal environment of their workplace to develop commitment to their work. The study is quite helpful to me as I pursue my career in management because it highlights the desirable practices on the part of the management function.
The study is valuable and helpful because it highlighted the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover rates in organizations. The researchers focused on job satisfaction among nurses, and it revealed the pressures experienced by workers in the service industry.
The study was conducted on an ethical ground because the participants filled in the questionnaire anonymously; thus, privacy was upheld. More research should be done in this area to ascertain that the findings were valid.
The findings are relevant to employees in the service industry, and future studies should cover issues on developing motivation in this bracket of human assets. Future studies should also look into validating the findings in the research.
Works Cited
Alam, Muhammad Masroor, and Jamilha Fakir Mohammad. “Level of job satisfaction and intent to leave among Malaysian nurses.” Business Intelligence Journal 3.1 (2010): 123-137. Print.
Gerrish, Kate, and A. Lacey. The Research Process in Nursing. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Print.