Abstract

Many studies have been carried out on the job satisfaction of employees at various organizational levels all over the world. However, little is known about the government versus private schools in district Malakand Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This study compares the perceptions of private versus government school teachers’ job satisfaction related to its six component i.e, pay and promotion, job security, workload, supervision, work condition and nature of work. A questionnaire was used for data collection. The data were collected from 100 teachers both public and private schools on a convenient sample basis. This study showed that there was a significant difference among the job satisfaction level of teachers in private versus public schools on the job satisfaction scale. the results of the study showed that government school teachers were more satisfied with their jobs than the privately-run school teachers on most of the dimensions of the scale. 

Key Words

Job Satisfaction, Private and Public Schools comparison 

Introduction

Teachers need to perform successfully in an educational organizational context. However, it has been seen that teachers are frequently leaving schools despite good pay and packages both in the private and public sector (Qazi, Wei, Shabir, & Saeed, 2015). Job satisfaction is the level to which an employee shows happiness with his her job. It is the level of employees' emotional responses to the organization and job along with the expectations attached to the related job (Sönmezer & Eryaman, 2008). Nekouei, Othman, Masud, & Ahmad, (2014) asserts the issue of job satisfaction affects the whole organizational operations as frequent turn out of teachers places schools in precarious conditions both in terms of academic performance and social roles. Satisfaction from the job of teachers has a strong correlation with the academic performance of students. It deeply affects the quality of teaching and learning processes of schools. Research has indicated that satisfied teachers work more wholeheartedly and with dedication as compared to less satisfied teachers (Kumar, 2015). Hence, imbalance in work attitude leads to job turnover of employees. On the other hand, satisfied teachers show more dedication and are focused on their jobs which gives positive impetus to the process of instruction as well (Kazi & Zadeh, 2011). Until the issue of job satisfaction is not resolved fully, the whole system of education would be a futile exercise and the coveted goals of the education world remain unfulfilled. Different theories and models deal with the issue of job satisfaction and job attitude among employees such as social learning theory, human capital theory, and human relations theory. The focus of all three theories is on human relations and development and how people behave in different situations as they interact with the outside environment (Novack, 2013).

The issue of satisfaction in a job has received greater attention nowadays in the educational context. The issue has been studied from different aspects as the dependent and independent variables (Fisher & Noble, 2000). Recent studies have shown a direct relationship with all aspects of employee job performance (Dugguh & Dennis, 2014). It has been observed that teachers from private school context leave very soon. This has led to the deterioration of the teaching and learning process in private schools which has ultimately affected the education of children enrolled in these schools. The loss of interest on the part of the teachers has forced them to leave jobs or remain in the job as just mechanical wage earners. This happens because of the lack of resources in the privately run education context (Chohan, Shafiq, & Naseem, 2011).

Akhtar et al (2010) have indicated that satisfaction from the job is the favorable and unfavorable feelings of an employee towards its job, with the job requirements, demand, and expectation. It means how an employee likes or dislikes his work and the degree to which his or her expectations are met (van der Doef, Mbazzi, & Verhoeven, 2012). The issue of job turnover is worse in developing countries including Pakistan. The problem has also gained irreversible proportions in the current days (Iqbal & Akhtar, 2012). The private sector is playing a key role in the financial contributions to the economy in many countries however, the quality of educational services has been questioned marked due to the job turnout issue. Researchers have studied the issue from different dimensions, but fewer studies have been done concerning the issue of job satisfaction in the Pakistani context (Akhtar, 2010). 







Job Satisfaction




Aziri, (2011) asserts that the attitude and feeling that employees show at the workplace is called job satisfaction. It is the demonstration of favorable and unfavorable conditions and attitudes that employees during their job period. Negative attitude towards job leads to job burnout and whereas, a positive job attitude leads to job satisfaction.  It is the group of feelings and perceptions that employee shows towards their job that they retain. The degree of satisfaction may differ from place to place and situation to situation. Job satisfaction is the innermost feeling of happiness of an employee who is engaged in a job. The degree of satisfaction shows the wants and needs of an employee (Ghosh, 2015). 

The issue of satisfaction from the job has been defined as a general individual attitude towards his or her job. It is the degree of the positive emotional state where a person shows satisfaction and fulfills the assigned duties within an organizational context. It is closely related to the state of mind and a positive feeling of pleasures of an employee in an organizational context (Fillion et al., 2009). It is a collection of both psycho and emotional experiences that an individual undergoes during work (Ghosh, 2015). It shows how a worker is happy with his or her job, the emotional responses towards an organizational environment and the allied expectations and realizations related to the job (Sonmezer, 2008). Akhtar, Hashmi, & Naqvi, (2010) assert the process of happiness and unhappiness related to the performance of the job in organizational results in an attitude towards the work. This is in line with the feelings that employees have towards their jobs.

The issue of satisfaction from the job has been studied extensively in different organizational contexts worldwide. Different theories have also discussed the concept in more detail as such as Herzberg two factor theories and Maslow's hierarchical need theory.    The motivation model explains the job relating factors into two major parts, Hygiene factor, and motivation factor. Hygiene factor could not lead to satisfaction but these may lead to changes related to dissatisfactions into satisfactions or temporary motivations, on the other hand, the motivating factor has longer effects while raising the positive feeling toward jobs and converting dissatisfactions into satisfactions (Sell & Cleal, 2011) Abraham Maslow proposes in his theory five hierarchical needs that are easy to be applied in an organizational context and employee-related performances. In Maslow’s theory, an employee feels the second needs unless the demand of the first has got satisfaction and the third one unless the second gets satisfaction (Fiori, Bollmann, & Rossier, 2015). 

The various level of Maslow's theory place in the first level the needs involve the fundamental physical needs. In this regard, the income gets direct relevancy to the satisfaction of the physical needs. This facet is covered with an adequate salary, comforts, and flexibility in work conditions. The last one is related to facility layouts' safety security needs. It also encompasses job security and protecting an employee from harm and avoiding unexpected issues. The social needs areas covered are related to co-workers that provide a harmoniously build relationship with other activities that provides clear work participation. In another sense, the self-esteem related need can be described for individuals’ desires and feelings for accomplishing a task or some achievements. Job satisfaction could be obtained in different ways these are based on ego needs: feedback on performances, socialization recognitions, a title and or a leading position. At the top of the hierarchical needs theory of Maslow stands self-actualization that means developing and actualizing fully the potentials & capacity of a person of what he or she could be, he or she should be. This can be demonstrated by self-expressing, through the creation  and being free from experiments with new ideas, the opportunity for using the skill and talent that one possesses (?iarnien, Kumpikait, & Vienažindien, 2010).

The position of the teacher is that he or she is a nation builder. Teaching is a profession that provides a foundation for national development. The job satisfaction of teachers is important for the whole national development processes in all sectors whether it is private or public. Teachers contribute to the national cause in different ways through their performance. Therefore, teachers’ job satisfaction is more important as it is directly related to student learning. The degree of teacher satisfaction with the job may directly or indirectly affect the performance of students. As said above, dis-satisfied teachers cannot contribute positively to the development of educational processes in society; hence, they become a useless entity (Gosh, 2015).

In the present scenario, teaching is one of the biggest industries that provide jobs to people in large numbers. For the teaching profession, it is necessary to have peace of mind and mental commitment as well as loyalty than the physiological presence. It has been observed that there is increasing discontentment among many teachers towards the teaching profession due to different factors like co-workers' attitudes, relationships, and other factors. This situation has aggravated in the last many years in the developing world where teachers face organizational politics. This has also affected the standards of education in these countries (Christen, Iyer, & Soberman, 2006). Because of losing interest in teaching jobs, teachers are forced to leave their jobs and join other professions more happily. This situation prevails more at the primary level where the amenities and facilities are less as compared to the higher level.

Job Satisfaction in Government Private Teachers

Shabbir (2015) finds that private school teachers seem more dissatisfied with the extrinsically available benefits like pay, incentive, promotions and other related opportunity and service conditions like longer work hours and fewer holidays. The issue of workloads and job satisfaction in private and public school teachers has also been studied by other writers. For example, in another study (Raziq & Moulabaksh, 2014), discovered that the government teachers looked satisfied with their jobs in comparison to the privately-owned school teachers. Additionally, the government teachers looked to have more satisfaction with their workloads, work hour and work conditions in comparison to the privately-owned school teachers. Khan, Nawaz, Aleem and Hamid (2012) have found a high relationship between supervising & job satisfaction, reward, and recognition & job satisfaction and the intrinsically available motivational factors and job satisfaction. In another research on job satisfaction between teachers in a government and private sector schools by Naila and Shazia (2013), the public school teachers showed more satisfaction than others. Bhat and Zargar (2015) found different results of satisfactions in jobs of public versus private primary school teachers. This study found that the governmentally run primary school teachers had higher job satisfaction than privately run school teachers. 

A study on job satisfaction between government versus private sector teachers showed that the results were mixed related to the level of satisfaction in jobs Ghosh (2015) found that job satisfaction of public versus privately run school teachers had similarities in terms of job satisfaction. Other researchers (Latif, Shahid, Sohail and Shahbaz, 2011; Chaudhry, Sabir, Rafi and Kalyar, 2011) have found wider differences between the public and private teachers. The existing research on job satisfaction is mostly reported from other fields. However, there were fewer studies which have focused on the job satisfaction of female teachers in the Malakand region.

Objectives of the Study

This study aimed to explore the perspectives of private and public school teachers about their job satisfaction in the Malakand region.



Hypotheses




The following hypotheses were formulated. 

H1. Pay and promotion affect the job satisfaction of teachers.

H2.Relationship with coworkers affects the job satisfaction of teachers.

H3. Workload, working conditions and work nature job satisfaction of teachers.

H4. Supervision and relation with coworkers job satisfaction of teachers.

H5. Job security job satisfaction of teachers

Methods and Materials

Design 




It was survey research. Data was collected quantitatively from the respondents using a cross-sectional survey approach. All teachers of the public and private schools in Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan were included as population. There were 53 affiliated private schools and 162 Government primary schools in tehsil Dargai. A multistage sampling method was used to select the sample out of the population (Creswell, 2013). 




Instrument




Spector's (1985) job satisfaction survey was adapted and used as a research tool to collect data. The questionnaire was already validated by previous research. There are also other research instruments for the collection of data like interviews, but due to limited time and resources, it was hard to interview teachers. Thus, a scale was used on “very satisfied’’ to “very dissatisfied’’. The scale consists of a total 36 statements. There were six variables described in the questionnaire consisting of variables i.e. pay, promotion, nature of work, working conditions, workload, supervision, relation with coworkers and job security. 




Pilot Testing

 

The researcher used an already validated instrument for data collection. However, to use the questionnaire in the new context, the questionnaire was first piloted among 30 respondents. The questionnaire was further shown to three experts in the field of education who checked and gave their feedback. In light of the feedback, the questionnaire was finalized. The reliability was tested through Cronbach alpha which achieved more than .70 for all the sub-constructs of the questionnaire. This was an acceptable range for conducting the study and collecting data from the major group. Data was collected quantitatively. As a part of ethical consideration to conduct a research study, before going to administer the questionnaires to the respondents, permission was sought from the education department and all the participants who were administered the questionnaires for data collection. 

Results

This section gives the results of the study. The data were analyzed using descriptive and t-test analyses.

 

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics of Pay and Promotion

 

Statement	Mean	SD
Pay
I am satisfied with the level of the pay I receive in my job	2.63	1.31
My salary is matched with my job performance	2.09	1.12
The pay and benefits I receive meet my needs	2.39	1.27
I receive extra benefits and rewards on high performance	2.39	1.26
Promotion
I have an opportunity for Promotion	2.51	1.21
The Promotional opportunity is clear and fair	2.39	1.29
The Promotion opportunity in my job is better than other jobs	2.09	1.09
I try to improve my academic qualification for promotion	2.71	1.33

 

Table 1 shows that the average or means for teachers’ perception about the pay and promotion ranging from 2.09 to 2.63, with the majority of the respondents showing disagreement with most of the statements. The standard deviations ranged from 1.12 to 1.33. These results show that teachers were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.

 

Table 2. Effect of Pay and Promotion

 

Statement	Public Teacher		Private Teacher		T	P
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
I am satisfied with the level of the pay I receive in my job	2.45	.94	2.31	.97	3.00	.05
My salary is matched with my job performance	2.55	1.05	2.71	1.00	3.01	.05
The pay and benefits I receive meet my needs	2.44	1.01	2.30	1.03	.93	.39
I receive extra benefits and rewards on high performance	2.36	1.15	2.42	1.06	.11	.89
I have an opportunity for Promotion	2.40	1.15	2.43	.99	4.54	.01
The Promotional opportunity is clear and fair	3.17	1.34	3.09	1.12	.60	.54
The Promotion opportunity in my job is better than other jobs	2.23	1.15	2.24	1.29	.03	.96
I try to improve my academic qualification for promotion	2.09	1.12	2.30	1.11	5.72	.00

 

Table 2 indicates a great difference a p-value <.00 was noted among the teachers in the statements no 1. The public teachers were dissatisfied with this statement than the private school teachers. A significant difference with a p-value <.01 was found in the statements: I try to improve my academic qualification for the promotion; I am satisfied with the level of my pay I receive in my job; my pay matches my job performance. The private school teachers were dissatisfied with these statements comparing to the public teachers.

 

Table 3. Descriptive Statistics

 

Workload	Mean	SD
I feel relaxed in my work.	2.40	1.17
I have satisfaction with the workload given to me	2.21	1.10
There is a balance between my work and other life responsibilities.	2.32	1.15
There is a balance between the time frame and workload.	2.39	1.36
Working Conditions
The working conditions in my school are good.	2.11	1.41
I have all the equipment and materials that I need to do good teaching	2.24	1.24
My physical working conditions are too much better than what I expect.	2.44	1.13
I have full support and feedback from students during teaching.	2.10	1.29
Nature of Job
The teaching job that I do is my choice.	2.20	1.13
The Purpose of my job makes me feel that my job is important.	2.21	1.29
This job provides me the chance to use my skills.	2.38	1.36
I have proposed this job by chance.	2.21	1.15

 

The 3 table shows that the perceptions of teachers about workload, working conditions, and nature of job ranging from 2.10 to 2.44, with the majority of the respondents showing disagreement with most of the statements. The standard deviations range from 1.10 to 1.36. The result showed that teachers were dissatisfied very dissatisfied with some statements.

 

Table 4. Effect of workload, work condition, and nature of work on job satisfaction

 

Statement	Public School Teachers		Private School Teachers		T	P
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
I feel relaxed in my work.	2.39	1.35	2.54	1.32	.99	.37
I am satisfied with the workload in my job.	2.26	1.11	2.42	1.30	.83	.43
There is a balance in my workload and the work and other responsibilities.	2.09	1.08	1.98	1.02	.72	.48
There is a balance between the time frame and workload.	2.22	1.07	2.20	1.14	4.11	.01
The working conditions in my school are good.	2.08	1.00	1.82	.98	2.55	.07
I have all the pieces of equipment and material I needed for good teaching	2.19	1.21	1.89	1.07	4.17	.01
My physical working conditions are too much better than what I expect.	1.90	.85	2.20	1.20	4.70	.02
I have full support and feedback from students during teaching.	1.84	.95	2.12	1.11	9.39	.00
The teaching job that I do is my choice.	4.13	1.12	4.13		.01	.98
The Purpose of my job makes me feel that my job is important.	1.91	1.03	2.09	1.10	1.07	.34
This job provides me the chance to use my skills.	2.42	1.39	2.43	1.32	1.08	.34
I have proposed this job by chance.	2.58	1.41	2.10	1.13	5.68	.00

 

Table 4 indicates that a statistically significant difference with a p-value <.05 was found related to the perceptions of private versus public school teachers in the statements: There is a balance between the time frame and workload. I have all the equipment and materials that I need to do good teaching; I have full support and feedback of students during teaching and my physical working conditions are too much better than what I expect.

 

Table 5. Descriptive Statistics of Supervision and Relationship with Coworkers

 

Supervision	Mean	SD
Organizational goals and objectives are clearly instructed in my job.	2.31	1.10
I am in a good work relationship with my supervisor.	2.12	1.18
My supervisor listens to my work problems.	1.90	1.09
My supervisor respects my opinion.	2.11	1.16
Relationship with Co-Workers
My Co-workers cooperate with me.	2.66	1.22
I have a cooperative relationship with my co-workers	2.23	1.21
My position is valuable to my co-workers.	2.10	1.33
My Co-worker show commitment to quality work.	2.23	1.31

 

Table 5 shows that the teachers’ perceptions regarding supervision and

relationship with coworkers ranging from 1.90 to 2.66, with the majority of the respondents showing disagreement with most of the statements. The standard deviations range from 1.09 to 2.33. The result shows that respondents showed disagreement or strong disagreement towards most of the statements. 

 

Table 6. Effect of supervision and relationship with coworkers on job satisfaction

 

Statement	Public School Teachers		Private School Teachers		T	P
	M	SD	M	SD
Organizational goals and objectives are clearly instructed in my job.	2.41	1.22	2.11	1.21	3.10	.02
I am in good work relations with my supervisor.	2.55	1.15	2.28	1.10	3.11	.01
My supervisor listens to my work problems.	2.44	1.21	2.31	1.13	1.13	.34
My supervisor respects my opinion.	2.36	1.25	2.11	1.10	2.11	.81
My Co-workers cooperate with me.	2.10	1.25	2.24	1.19	4.51	.54
I have a cooperative relationship with my co-workers	3.27	1.44	3.12	1.11	2.60	.55
My position is valuable to my co-workers.	2.13	1.25	2.21	1.21	2.13	.91
My Co-worker show commitment to do quality work.	2.19	1.32	2.31	1.05	4.12	.05

 

Table 6 shows that a statistically significant difference with a p-value <.05 was found related to the perceptions of private versus public school teachers in the statements: Organizational goals and objectives are clearly instructed in my job; I am in a good work relationship with my supervisor. My Co-workers show commitment to doing quality work. These statements show that to the first and second statements, the government teachers looked more satisfied as compared to privately owned school teachers. However, to the third statement, the privately-owned school teachers looked satisfied as compared with the government teachers. 

 

Table 7. Descriptive Statistics of job Security

 

Job Security	Mean	SD
I feel secure with my job.	2.42	1.21
Teaching job provides security for me and my family.	2.22	1.23
My job gives me a secure future.	2.10	1.12
I feel financially secured with my job.	2.12	1.22

 

The 7 table shows that the teachers’ attitude towards job-security ranging from 2.10 to 2.42, with the majority of the respondents showing disagreement with most of the statements. The standard deviation ranges between1.12 to 1.23. The results showed that the respondents disagreed with most of the statements.

 

Table 8. Effect of job Security

 

Statement	Public Teacher		Private Teacher		T	P
	M	SD	M	SD
I feel secure with my job.	2.12	.94	2.21	1.77	3.10	.14
Teaching job provides security for me and my family.	2.51	1.15	2.18	1.08	3.21	.00
My job gives me a secure future.	2.14	1.21	2.10	1.11	1.23	.32
I feel financially secured with my job.	2.26	1.55	2.12	1.16	1.11	.01

 

Table 8 indicates that a statistically significant difference with a p-value <.05 was found in the statements: Teaching job provides security for me and family; I feel financially secured with my job. The two statements showed that there was a great difference between the private and public teachers in most of the statements. 

Future Direction

This study used only a quantitative methodology. Future research can be conducted on the same using a mixed method or qualitative approach. This will help in a better and deeper understanding of the research issue. 

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