| This mixed method, non-experimental, correlative research study examined the factors that correlated to workplace satisfaction, the correlation of workplace satisfaction to organizational commitment, and identified potential new factors that may be important to the engineering and science workforce. Building on Maslow's (1954) motivational theories, McGregor's (1960) management theories were applied to provide the theoretical framework of the study. Six factors relating to workplace satisfaction or organizational commitment of engineers and scientists were gathered from the research: pay and benefits, relevance or meaning of job, growth and development opportunities, feelings towards co-workers, supervision, and job security. Organizational commitment consisted of three distinct aspects: affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment. Significant findings from the study were the respondent's desire rather than need to work for the organization and the importance of growth and meaning to workplace satisfaction. The placement, with respect to strength of correlation, of pay satisfaction and job security indicated the organization is meeting those needs even though the government cannot typically compete with the private sector for pay. Potential new factors were also identified that related to an organization's mission and how its workforce performs its tasking. Recommendations from the findings included the management focusing on growth and development opportunities for its workforce, the organization's leaders improving meaning for an employee, and suggested additional research on the importance of potential new factors and the multiple aspects of organizational commitment. |
