Gender Differences in Job Satisfaction, Satisfaction with

Society and Satisfaction from their Salary in Greek Civil

Servants who are working under conditions of Labour -
Intensive
Nikolaos Antonakas and Amalia Mironaki

Department of Economic Sciences, University ofPeloponnese

End Karaiskaki Str Tripoli, 22100 Greece

Abstract. The objective of this study is to detemiine empirically the existence of differences in three dimensions of
satisfaction in Greek civil servants' gender, when they work under conditions of stress and tension. The three dimensions
of satisfaction selected to be considered were job satisfaction, satisfaction with society and satisfaction from their salary.
For this a two parts questionnaire was used. The first part included, besides sex and socially demographic characteristics
of employees and the second part consisted of the above aspects of satisfaction. Used a sample of 290 employees and a
factor analysis was conducted on the results of the questionnaire. The central question of this paper was whether the
strength of the force of better wage, compared with the average civil servant, affects a different way to meet women and
men's satisfaction who work under working conditions - intensity. The main finding of this study was the existence
differences between women and men in the dimension of satisfaction from the salary.
Keywords: Business and Management, Job Satisfaction, Satisfaction with Society, Satisfaction with Salary, Gender.
PACS: 89.65.Gh

INTRODUCTION
Job Satisfaction is generally perceived to be directly hnked to productivity as well as to personal wellbeing. For
the organization, job satisfaction of its workers means a work force that is motivated and committed to high quality
performance.
In the case of job satisfaction, however, there is no generally accepted definition. Numerous efforts have been
made by various researchers to determine the concept, and most of them result in the identification of factors
affecting positively or negatively.
Churchill and al (1974), define as job satisfaction all the features of the job itself and of the working
environment in which employees might find rewarding, fulfilment and satisfaction or instead develop feelings of
frustration and dissatisfaction, while Abu-Buder (2000) attributes job satisfaction or dissatisfaction to the
relationship of the expectations people have for their work and what actually can take from it.
Expressed more simply. Judge and Hulin (1993) and Judge and Watanabe (1993) define job satisfaction as the
degree of satisfaction that the employee receives from his work and the various dimensions of this, which affect the
welfare of even the pleasure of his life, while the H. M. Weiss (2002) considers that job satisfaction is the
assessment of a worker for his work and the overall working environment.
Given that there have not been experimental measurements of work satisfaction, the investigations made in this
respect, mainly trying to highlight the factors that determine the connection which are related with and influence job
satisfaction.
Porter and Lawer (1967) developed the theoretical model, based on research it had carried out previous years (in
1965), whereby job satisfaction is determined by the internal and external rewards, and how fair the employee
understands the comparison with those offered by the Organization for similar efforts and performance. The
Hackman and Oldham (1976) conducted an investigation which reveal five characteristics that can lead to job

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satisfaction: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and working feedback. In addition the Agho
(1993) considered as important factors of the job satisfaction, friendships developed within the labour conflicts, and
the workload.
From a survey conducted by Reiner and Zhao (1999), in the U.S. Air Force, job satisfaction variables can be
grouped in two competing types: The demographic characteristics of employees and the characteristics of the job
position. According to the results of this survey variables of the job position produce more important results in job
satisfaction than those of the demographic characteristics of employees.
Also in the survey carried out by Graham Young, David M. Tokar and Linda Mezydlo Subich in 1988 and was
based on the theory of John Holland (1973), that job satisfaction is associated with six types of personality who can
be classified most people (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional) and also that the
working environment can be classified into six respective types. It was determined that when the type of personality
and the work environment is ahgned, satisfaction will increase, while job satisfaction has not been shown to
significantly altered by the variables, sex, age, income and years of education.
In another survey made by Andrew Clark (1998) using 6.902 data of workers in OECD countries, studied the effect
that had six personal characteristics of workers (Pay, Hours of work, future prospects, how hard or difficult the job
is. Job content - interest - prestige - independent, and interpersonal relationship) have to job satisfaction
according to the personal characteristics themselves. The relevance of these personal characteristics leads to the
selection of one of them (the gender of the workers). Also, in a research carried out by J Garcia - Bemal and al
(2005) in Spain according to workers' gender find out that although men and women take into account the same
dimensions of job satisfaction, the degree to which each dimension has an impact is varies.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this paper is to determine empirically the potential differences in three dimensions of
satisfaction in Greek civil servants' gender, when they work under conditions of stress and tension. The three
dimensions of satisfaction selected to be considered were except job satisfaction, satisfaction with society and
satisfaction from their salary.
For this a two parts questionnaire was used. The first part included, besides sex and socially demographic
characteristics of employees and the second part consisted of the above aspects of satisfaction. Used a sample of 290
employees and a factor analysis was conducted on the results of the questionnaire.

METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS

The method of selection of the sample was designed to meet the requirements of the investigation. So the sample
was chosen to be from civil servants who are working in the Ministry of Finance. These employees are working
under conditions of intensive work and are therefore being paid better than other colleagues. It was a two parts
questionnaire. The first part included, besides sex, socially and demographic characteristics of employees. The
second part was consisted of three aspects of satisfaction: Job satisfaction. Satisfaction with society and Satisfaction
from salary. The aspect of Job satisfaction was included five (5) five questions, the aspect of satisfaction with
society two (2) questions and satisfaction from salary was alone. Therefore the total satisfaction was included eight
(8) questions. Every dependent variable has a 5-point (1-5) measure, with 1 representing the highest level of
employee satisfaction, and 5 the lowest level. The whole survey was conducted in 2007. Of these cases 40.2 per sent
corresponded to males, and 59.8 per cent corresponded to females.
The rehability scale for the composite satisfaction was high, as indicated by a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.72,
which is considered to be a high value.
We investigate the hypothesis HI: There will be statistically significant difference between men and women in
Job Satisfaction, Satisfaction with society and Satisfaction from salary.
In order to meet the objective of the study, a t - test analysis has been performed on the variables. For the
statistical analysis and evaluation of results (p-value < 0.05) it was used the statistical program SPSS 15.0
The descriptive Statistics of variable Sex (Mean, Median, Mode, std. deviation, etc.) are listed in Table 1. The
number of respondents was 286, of which 171 were women (59.8% share of the total) and 115 were male (40.2%
share of the total).

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 Table 1. Descriptive Statistics of Variable Sex

N Valid 286
Missing 4
Mean ,60
Std. Error of Mean ,029
Median 1,00
Mode 1
Std. Deviation ,491
Variance ,241
Skewness -,401
Std. Error of Skewness ,144
Kurtosis -1,852
Std. Error of Kurtosis ,287
Minimum 0
Maximum 1
Percentiles 25 ,00
50 1,00
75 1,00

Group statistics for the dependent variable of satisfaction and the independent variable of sex, are presented in
Table 2. The differences observed in the value of Mean due to the different number of questions that was included
each aspect of satisfaction.

Table 2. Group Statistics

Std. Error
Sex N Mean Std. Deviation Mean
Total Satisfaction Male 114 19,43 4,249 ,398
Woman 170 19,70 4,115 ,316
Satisfaction with Male
114 5,46 1,318 ,123
Society
Woman
171 5,44 1,228 ,094

Job Male
115 11,94 3,064 ,286
Satisfaction
Woman 170 12,48 3,527 ,271
Satisfaction Male
115 1,98 ,946 ,088
from Salary
Woman 171 1,78 ,742 ,057

In Table 3 are presented the results of T- Test analysis. The statistical analysis of job satisfaction and satisfaction
with society, even total satisfaction show p-value >0.05, which is leading to the acceptance of not being statistically
significant difference between women and men. On the contrary, in the case of satisfaction from salary, it was shown
that p-value=0,042<0,05, which is leading to the acceptance of being statistically significant difference between
women and men.

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 Tables. T-Test

Levene's Test
for Equality
of Variances t-test for Equality of Means
95% Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Mean Std.
Slg- Differenc Error
Sig. t df (2tailed) e Difference Upper Lower
Total Equal
Satisfaction vanances ,206 ,650 -,535 282 ,593 •,270 ,505 -1,264 ,723
assumed
Equal
vanances 237,1
-,532 ,595 •,270 ,508 -1,271 ,730
not 3
assumed
Satisfaction Equal
with Society variances ,826 ,364 ,134 283 ,894 ,020 ,153 •,281 ,321
assumed
Equal
vanances 230,2
,132 ,895 ,020 ,155 •,285 ,326
not 8
assumed
Job Equal
Satisfaction vanances 2,700 ,101 -1,329 283 ,185 •,537 ,404 -1,333 ,258
assumed
Equal
vanances -1,366 265,8
,173 •,537 ,393 -1,312 ,237
not 5
assumed
Satisfaction Equal
from Salary variances ,124 ,725 2,047 284 ,042 ,205 ,100 ,008 ,402
assumed
Equal
vanances 1,953 204,3
,052 ,205 ,105 •,002 ,412
not 9
assumed

CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained show that there is not statistically significant difference between women and men, in job
satisfaction and satisfaction with society. On the contrary, it was shown that there is statistically significant
difference in the case of satisfaction from salary. The reasons for differences in levels of satisfaction from salary
between women and men can be attributed, partly, to priority which they have between career and family, and,
partly, to initial expectations. It would be interesting to initiate a path of research in this aspect, to find out the real
reasons for this difference.

REFERENCES
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4 Clark E. Andrew (1998), "Measures of job satisfaction: What makes a good job? Evidence from OECD countries", OEDE
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