A study to examine perceived role ambiguity, role conflict, participation in decision making, ability and job satisfaction among intellectual property licensing professionals

The purpose of this study was to examine role ambiguity, role conflict, participation in decision making (PDM), ability and job satisfaction as perceived by intellectual property licensing (IPL) professionals working in either industrial or academic organizations. More specifically, the relationship between each of the role stress variables and job satisfaction, for IPL professionals from each organizational type, was examined in this study. In addition, this study sought to determine whether PDM had an impact on the relationship between each of the role stress variables and job satisfaction. Furthermore, this study examined the impact of the IPL professional's ability (operationalized as level of education and IPL work experience) on the relationship between each of the role stress variables and job satisfaction.A survey questionnaire was sent to 916 IPL professionals working in the United States. 114 questionnaires were undeliverable for various reasons, and usable data were received from 438 respondents resulting in a response rate of 54.6% (438/802). The questionnaire included the following principal instruments: the Job Descriptive Index Work Satisfaction Scale developed by Smith, Kendall and Hulin the Role Conflict and Ambiguity Scale developed by Rizzo, House and Lirtzman and the Participation in Decision Making Scale developed by Vroom. A demographic instrument was used to collect data which included the respondent's level of education, experience, and present organizational type.Data collected from these instruments were coded and tabulated by computer. Statistical analysis was conducted by the researcher utilizing the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, SPSSRTM Base 8.0 for Windows. First, descriptive statistics were compiled to determine the frequency counts, the mean, and standard deviation for each item in the instruments. In addition, Pearson-Product Moment correlations, t-tests, and stepwise linear regression techniques were used to analyze the data.The results indicate that a relatively high degree of job satisfaction exists for both industrial and academic IPL professionals. However, academic IPL professionals exhibited significantly higher perceived role conflict levels than their industrial counterparts. PDM, which was significantly and positively related to job satisfaction, had a positive effect in reducing the negative impact of the role stress variables on job satisfaction. Finally, ability, specifically experience, had a positive effect in reducing the negative impact of role conflict on job satisfaction. Overall, these results indicate the importance of participation and individual ability in ameliorating the job satisfaction of IPL professionals.