An examination of job satisfaction and its relation to motivation needs and some demographic variables in two different cultures (Saudi Arabia and the UK)

Abstract

This research considers job satisfaction in two different cultures using a quantitative perspective. Questionnaires were used to collect the data for this study. The questionnaire has four parts: a job satisfaction scale developed by the researcher specifically for this study, the consequences of the level of job satisfaction part developed by the researcher, Manifest Need Questionnaire (MNQ), and the demographic part developed by the researcher. The subjects of this study were 406 middle managers from private organisations in Saudi Arabia, and 154 middle managers from private organisations in the North East region, England, UK. This thesis explores job satisfaction and its relation to the satisfaction with six job facets, satisfaction with co-worker, work itself, promotion, pay, supervision, and recognition. The six job facets were also examined in relation to the satisfaction with some variables associated with them. This thesis also examines the relationship between job satisfaction and motivation needs and some demographic variables. Significant positive relationships between the overall job satisfaction and the satisfaction with these job facets were hypothesized; and also significant positive relationships between job satisfaction and the four motivation needs (need for achievement, need for affiliation, need for dominance, and need for autonomy) were hypothesized in this study. Factor analysis gave us similar structure in the two samples. The two sets of factors contain exactly the samei tems, suggestingt hat using the items in this survey,m anagersin the two countriesc onceptualisejo b satisfactionc omponentsi n the samew ay. T-tests results suggestt hat there are statistically significant differences in the average satisfaction with co-worker, work itself, promotion, and supervision between the two samples, and no significant differences in the average satisfaction with pay, recognition, and overall job satisfaction were found between the two samples. The findings of this study support the notion that the level of job satisfaction has an effect on the employee's attitude towards the job and the organisation. It was found that satisfaction with the job accompaniedf avourablec onsequenceasn d vice versai n the two samples.J ob satisfaction was found to have very weak correlations with the four motivation needs in the two samples. Positive significant moderately weak relationships between job satisfaction and age, annual salary,w orking in the sameo rganisation,e ducation,a nd number of dependantsa; nd a very weak relation with the length of service in the Saudi sample. In the UK sample, very weak correlations were found between job satisfaction and the demographic variables; correlation with education was a significant but negativeo ne and correlation with number of dependantsw as negativea lso. Pearson Product-Moment Correlation test was employed to test the research hypothesis. Significant positive relationships between the overall job satisfaction and the satisfaction with the six job facetsw ere found, and hypothesesr egardingt he relationship betweent he four motivation needs and job satisfaction were rejected.