Community child care centers are currently responsible for providing care, learning guidance and sound cultural activities to children from the low-income class. Since the child welfare act was amended in April 2004, those centers have made a rapid qu...
Community child care centers are currently responsible for providing care, learning guidance and sound cultural activities to children from the low-income class. Since the child welfare act was amended in April 2004, those centers have made a rapid quantitative growth. Such an increase in the number of the centers is viewed positively on the ground that more extensive service could be provided to children from the low- income class. On the other hand, it's pointed out that a shortage of professionals who could address increasing client needs might result in detracting from the quality of service.
In community child care centers, working-level people assume the responsibility to render service to beleaguered needy children and their families in daily routine life. The quality of service offered by them determines the satisfaction level of clients, and that is eventually the key element to the management of community child care centers. To ensure the efficient performance of the centers, what matters above all is boosting the quality of service provided, which largely hinges on the job satisfaction of working-level employees.
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the four selected characteristics of working-level people, involving personal, job, organizational and role characteristics, on their job satisfaction.
The subjects in this study were 336 working-level employees at 224 community child care centers in the regions of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province. After a survey was implemented by mail, the answer sheets from 275 respondents(82%) were gathered, and 242 answer sheets(72%) were analyzed. An SPSS 12.0 program was utilized, and descriptive statistics were employed to get statistical data on frequency and percentage. Besides, t-test, ANOVA, correlation analysis and multiple regression procedures were carried out.
The findings of the study were as follows:
The overall job satisfaction of the working-level employees at community child care centers in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province was above the average. As for variables linked to job satisfaction, that was under the statistically significant influence of academic credential, whether to be certified or not and the current form of employment. Concerning connections of job, organizational and role characteristics to job satisfaction, job characteristics and organizational characteristics had a statistically significantly positive correlation to that, and role characteristics was negatively correlated. In regard to the influences of the subfactors, job satisfaction was affected by job challenge, job fitness, compensation equity, job security, organizational reputation, participation value, relationship with supervisors, role conflicts and role ambiguity. Specifically, the compensation equity variable had the greatest impact on that.
The findings of the study had the following implications:
First, the meaning of this study lies in the fact that it tried to grasp the relationship among job characteristics, organizational characteristics and role characteristics affecting the job satisfaction of working-level employees at community child care centers in order to acquire fundamental information on that. econd, this study found that job challenge and job fitness could serve to bolster job satisfaction, and it is thereby possible to lend credibility to Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory. Third, the findings of the study lend credibility to (discrepancy theory) that backed up a hypothesis that better compensation equity, one of organizational characteristics, leads to higher job satisfaction.
Given the findings, there are some suggestions on this matter. Although many of the respondents were well educated, receiving four- year-course university or higher education, they were actually underpaid. It should be kept in mind that insufficient pay is likely to be the most integral cause of job dissatisfaction, and the government should take required institutional measures to fund every corporation. Besides, in-depth and diverse research efforts should be made in association with the job satisfaction of employees at community child care centers.