Nonetheless, commitment to teaching and the workplace have been found to
be enhanced by psychic rewards (acknowledgement of teaching
competence), meaningful and varied work, task autonomy and participatory
decision-making, positive feedback, collaboration, administrative
support, reasonable work load, adequate resources and pay, and learning
opportunities providing challenge and accomplishment (Rosenholtz, 1989;
Johnson 1990; Firestone &Pennel, 1993;). In contrast, extrinsic
incentives, such as merit pay or effective teaching rewards (Ubom,
2001). The extrinsic factors evolve from the working environment while
the actual satisfiers are intrinsic and encourage a greater
effectiveness by designing and developing teachers higher level needs.
That is giving opportunity, responsibility, authority and autonomy
(Whawo, 1993). Conversely, Ukeje et al. (1992) are of the opinion that
however highly motivated to perform a teacher may be, he or she needs to
possess the necessary ability to attain the expected level of
performance. Nevertheless, it is hoped that if educational administrator
and education policy makers can understand teachers’ job satisfaction
needs, they can design a reward system both to satisfy teachers and meet
the educational goals.
According to Mbua (2003), “the process theories of motivation are primarily concerned with explaining, how “individuals behaviour is energized, directed, sustained and stop.â€The main process theories of motivation and job satisfaction reviewed in this section include the following. The first one is called Expectancy Theory. This theory was first proposed by Victor Vroom (Robbins & Judge, 2008 and Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2004). In this theory, it is argued that motivation emanates.
From three kinds of peoples beliefs or assumptions and these are: expectancy, instrumentality and valence (Chelladurai, 1999). The term expectancy refers to the person’s assumption that efforts will lead to achievement or accomplishment (ibid). instrumentality refers to a person’s assumptions that good work will bring about rewards. The term valence refers to “the perceived value of the rewards to the recipient†(Chelladurai, 1999).
Although the theory has been validated by various researchers, it is critized for being very complicated and that no measure can be used to test it (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2004). In addition, there are no studies that support the claim that people do some arithmetic before they decide to perform the task (ibid). Lastly, some scholars argue that the model is incomplete (Lunenberg& Ornstein, 2004).
The second process theory of motivation and job satisfaction is called Locke’s Value-Based Theory of Satisfaction. The theory asserts that employee satisfaction subsists to the degree that employment results or that the compensations a person gets correspond to those compensations which are expected or aspired. The more employees achieve the outcomes that are valued most, the more contented they become, and the opposite will lower their satisfaction levels or vice-versa.
Another theory of motivation reviewed in this study is Equity Theory and it was proposed by Porter and Lawler. This theory suggests that employees in any organization have a tendency of making comparisons of what they get from their respective jobs. The comparisons they make are based on the input-output ratio that is whether there is any relationship between the input and the outcome (Robbins & Judge, 2008). In other words, employees compare their income with that of other workers within their organizations or with that of their colleagues in other fields.
According to Porter & Lawler (cited in Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2004), the “perceived equitable rewards are a major input into employee satisfaction.†The outputs of one’s job are “all the things the employee receives as a result of performing the job, such as salary, promotions, fringe benefits, job security, working conditions, job pre-requites, recognition, responsibility, and so on†(Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2004). The inputs include such aspects as employees educational qualification, work experience, professional training, personal ability, personality qualities or characteristics, commitments and efforts and attitude towards the job among others which they bring with them to the institution (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2004). In addition, workers are expecting to see justice and fairness in terms of the work they do and the fruits of their work. In short, the theory claims that workers assess whether there is fairness in what they get doing the job. They do so by using what the authors refer to as “the process of social comparison†(Lunenbur& Ornstein, 2004). This implies that if the employees are fairly rewarded, they become happy or contented with their job and the opposite is true.
Previous studies that were conducted in various countries on the phenomenon of job satisfaction reveal different factors. The aspects or dimension of job satisfaction are divided into two principal groups and these are as follows:
First, the job environment and factors that are associated with job are important influences of job satisfaction. This includes how people are treated, the nature of jobs tasks, relations with other people in the work place, rewards.
Second, there are individual factors that the person brings to the job. In this study, I examine both the individual or demographic and organizational factors ( Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2004). In this section, I first review literature about the demographic or personal (biographical) factors which influence job satisfaction and thereafter. I review the precious research on the job satisfaction facets.
Demographic Factor.
