THE MULTIVARIATE NATURE OF PROFESSIONAL JOB SATISFACTION 1

The unidimensional versus the multidimensional nature of professional job satisfaction with specific reference to Herzberg's two-factor theory of satisfiers and dissatisfiers are discussed. An overall job satisfaction index and 34 questionnaire items were evaluated by a national sample of over 3,000 engineering graduates; each engineer evaluated the personal importance of each item and the degree to which each characterized his current professional position. Factor analysis suggests that job satisfaction is multidimensional. A general job characteristic factor and a specific factor, Professional Challenge, tend to be most related to overall job satisfaction. Five other factors were also identified: Status, Autonomy, Professional Recognition, Interpersonal Relations and Supervisory Relations. Using item data on overall satisfaction, the two challenges, "no ready-made solutions" and "keeping abreast of latest developments" in addition to "time for family" were examined using function, field, degree level, year of B.S. graduation, and industrial classification of employer to illustrate the complex nature of job values and perceptions. The curvilinear nature of job values are examined and alternative techniques of multivariate analysis are suggested. *Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Indiana Manpower Research Association, 1-burs-day, November 30, 1967. THE MULTIVARIATE NATURE OF PROFESSIONAL JOB SATISFACTION By Donald A. Wood and William K. LeBold Purdue University Two major developments tend to emphasize the importance for examining professional work attitudes. (1) the increasing demand for professional services in the U.S. labor force (Occupational Outlook Handbook, 1966-67) and (2) the impact of technological change on skills and knowledge required of professionals. With these developments have come changes in the professional salary structure and increased professional involvement in large organizational complexes (Hansen, 1963). The impact of these and other modifications on the professional can often best be evaluated by determining how he feels toward his job and the context in which it is found. Fully understanding the complexities of these reactions and attitudes assumes great consequence if efforts to avoid professional alienation and dissatisfaction in times of technological and economic change are to be successful. Traditionally, job satisfaction has been interpreted as a unidimensional concept. This viewpoint assumes that any positive job-related or environmentally-related element offering satisfaction to a worker would create dissatisfaction in its absence. As a result, the unidimensional theory requires only an overall job satisfaction measure. Herzberg's (1959) two-factor job satisfaction theory was the first significant step toward a multidimensional description of job attitudes at the professional level. Herzberg concluded from his study of engineers and accountants that only intrinsic work elements called satisfiers (recognition, achievement, accomplishment, responsibility, and advancement) could generate