| The purposes of this study were: (1) to determine whether support exists for Herzberg's two-factor theory in an educational setting in Malaysia; (2) to determine and describe the job satisfaction of polytechnic instructors in Malaysia; and (3) to examine the relationships between job satisfaction and selected personal characteristics, contextual characteristics, and students' perceptions of instructors' teaching effectiveness.;The sample of 377 instructors were randomly and proportionally selected from the population of full-time instructors employed at Malaysian polytechnics. The study employed Wood's Faculty Job Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction scale to measure motivator and hygiene factors, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire to measure overall job satisfaction, and the Australian Version of the Students' Evaluation of Educational Quality to measure teaching effectiveness.;Compared to the norm group established in the United States, respondents reported a low level of overall job satisfaction. Interpersonal relations, the work itself, achievement, responsibility, working conditions, recognition, supervision, policy and administration, growth, and salary ranked first (highest mean) to tenth (lowest mean); respectively.;Correlations between job satisfaction and motivator factors and between job satisfaction and hygiene factors were significant at the.05 level. Respondents without baccalaureate degrees had higher overall job satisfaction than those with baccalaureate degrees. The relationship between overall job satisfaction and percentage of time respondents taught applied skills was also significant. No relationships were found between job satisfaction and the remaining independent variables investigated: age, teaching qualification, teaching experience, sex, tenure, salary, polytechnic served, and instructor teaching effectiveness. The predictor variables accounted for 8.4% of the variance in job satisfaction score.;Contrary to Herzberg's theory, both types of factors (motivator and hygiene) were sources of job satisfaction/dissatisfaction for Malaysian polytechnic instructors. And contrary to Herzberg's prediction, motivator factors did not contribute more to Malaysian polytechnics instructors' overall job satisfaction than did hygiene factors. |
