Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Davis, James E.

Committee Member

Campbell, Charles

Committee Member

Wiseman, Marty

Committee Member

Stonecypher, Wayne

Date of Degree

12-11-2009

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Leadership and Foundations

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Leadership and Foundations

Abstract

Information technology is an ever evolving field that has become a mainstay in today’s society, especially in higher education. The employees who maintain the information technology (IT) infrastructure and systems at educational institutions are tasked with similar jobs as their equivalents in the private sector; however, these employees are faced with unique difficulties. A lower salary range, less benefits, and less technological variety are typical characteristics in a higher education setting for IT employees as compared to private industry. Faced with these circumstances, IT employees continue to perform their duties and ensure the institution is functioning on a daily basis. With these employees working in this environment, where education is the focus, what factors influence IT employees’ job satisfaction? Specifically, this research focused on IT professionals employed at community and junior colleges in Mississippi and the facets that influence these employees’ job satisfaction. The abridged Job Descriptive Index and the abridged Job in General survey tools were utilized in this study to determine the level of satisfaction for pay, promotion, supervision, co-workers, the work itself, and the job in general. The results showed several interesting findings. IT employees were most satisfied with the work itself. Also, this same group was highly satisfied with their job in general. Lastly, the number of years of work experience did not make a significant difference in regards to overall job satisfaction. Recommendations were also provided in this research. One was to determine ways to improve satisfaction with the job facets with lower levels of satisfaction, which included pay and promotion. Second, community colleges should evaluate their current practices to ensure continued satisfaction in the highly satisfied areas of co-workers, supervision, and the work itself. Further study should be done to compare IT employees at Mississippi community and junior colleges with other higher educational institutions and private industry. Additional job satisfaction research should also include other departments at each institution or the entire community college. Since this research was based on a small sample, revisiting this same study to increase the population was also recommended.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/17068

Comments

information technology||community college||job satisfaction

Download

Share

COinS