Differences regarding job satisfaction and job involvement of psychologists with different dominant career anchors

Curationis 29(3): 50-55 In order to contribute to higher levels of job satisfaction, job involvement , and productivity, a match or fit should be established between the dominant career anchor associated with a specific occupation and that of the employee. A career anchor is an individual’s set of self-perceived talents, abilities, motives, needs and values that form the nucleus of one’s occupational self-concept. Psychologists have always been part of the service orientated careers and therefore one would expect that it is likely that their dominant career anchor would be service orientation. If this is the case, psychologists with service as their dominant career anchor are supposed to have greater job satisfaction and job involvement compared to those with different career anchors. However, according to literature, this assumption is not necessarily correct. The primary goals of the current study were to determine whether in fact service is the dominant career anchor of psychologists in the Free State and whether there are significant differences regarding job satisfaction and job involvement between psychologists with and without service as their dominant career anchor. A third goal was to determine whether psychologists with different dominant career anchors differ significantly from one another regarding job satisfaction and job involvement. Questionnaires measuring career orientations, job satisfaction and job involvement were sent to 165 of the 171 registered psychologists in the Free State region. Only 75 psychologists (45,5%) responded which exceeded the traditional return rate of 20 to 30%. Due to the small sample of respondents, a nonparametric statistical test, namely the Mann Whitney U test was conducted to determine possible differences. An analysis of the data showed that 21 respondents had entrepreneurship as their dominant career orientation while 12 fell in the technical/functional, 12 in the challenging, 9 in the service and 8 in the autonomy categories of dominant career anchors. No significant differences regarding job satisfaction between psychologists with and without service as dominant career orientation could be determined. Both groups experienced a fairly high degree of job satisfaction and a higher level of intrinsic job satisfaction occurred compared to extrinsic job satisfaction. A significant difference between the two groups in terms of job involvement occurred. Psychologists with service as dominant career orientation showed a higher level of job involvement, although the degree of job involvement for both groups was fairly low. No significant differences regarding job satisfaction and job involvement among psychologists with different career orientations could be found. Tel: (051)401-3001/2152 Fax:(051)401-9397 E-mail: bestercl@shisas.com Correspondence address: Prof CL Bester Department of Industrial Psychology University of the Free State PO Box 339 Bloemfontein 9300

The primary goals of the current study were to determine whether in fact service is the dominant career anchor of psychologists in the Free State and whether there are significant differences regarding job satisfaction and job involvement between psychologists with and without service as their dominant career anchor.A third goal was to determine whether psychologists with different dominant career anchors differ significantly from one another regarding job satisfaction and job involvement.
Questionnaires measuring career orientations, job satisfaction and job involvement were sent to 165 of the 171 registered psychologists in the Free State region.Only 75 psychologists (45,5%) responded which exceeded the traditional return rate of 20 to 30%.Due to the small sample of respondents, a nonparametric statistical test, namely the Mann Whitney U test was conducted to determine possible differences.
An analysis of the data showed that 21 respondents had entrepreneurship as their dominant career orientation while 12 fell in the technical/functional, 12 in the challenging, 9 in the service and 8 in the autonomy categories of dominant career anchors.No significant differences regarding job satisfaction between psychologists with and without service as dominant career orientation could be determined.Both groups experienced a fairly high degree of job satisfaction and a higher level of intrinsic job satisfaction occurred compared to extrinsic job satisfaction.A significant difference between the two groups in terms of job involvement occurred.Psychologists with service as dominant career orientation showed a higher level of job involvement, although the degree of job involvement for both groups was fairly low.No significant differences regarding job satisfaction and job involvement among psychologists with different career orientations could be found.

Introduction
In o rd e r to en su re high lev els of p roductivity in o rg a n isa tio n s, it is esse n tial to c reate a fav o u rab le atmosphere that is conducive to enabling employees to willingly channel their energy and efforts in the direction of the achievem ent o f organisational goals.E m ployees m ust get su ffic ie n t opportunities to realise their full potential and to experience job satisfaction and job involvem ent.To achieve this goal, according to Schein (1978;1985) and Holland (1973) a match or fit must be created b etw een the needs o f the in d iv id u a l and the needs o f the organisation.The responsibility of employees in this regard is to acquire a clear picture about their occupational self-concepts, which include their skills, abilities, interests, values and personality traits, as well as the requirem ents of specific jobs and occupations in terms of these attributes.As employees gain more job experience, they will gain more self-insight and become more able to make better career choices.These choices are guided by career anchors which represent the self observed talents, abilities and values of the individual that guide, stabilise, integrate and constrain careers (Schein, 1987).Schein identified nine distinctive ca ree r anchors, nam ely te c h n ic a l/ functional com petence, m anagerial competence, autonomy/independence, geographical security, jo b security, service/dedication, pure challenge, en tre p ren e u rsh ip and life-sty le integration.
In order to contribute to higher levels of job satisfaction, job involvement, and productivity, a match or fit must be found between the career anchor of a specific occupation and that of the employee (Schein, 1978).Schein (1978Schein ( ,1990) also suggests that individuals are supposed to have only one dominant career anchor.Psychologists have always been part of the service orientated careers (Schein, 1978) and therefore one would expect that it is likely that their dominant career anchor would be service.If this is the case, psychologists with service as their dominant career anchor are supposed to have greater job satisfaction and job involvement com pared to those with different career anchors.However, according to literature this assumption is not necessarily correct.Boshoff, Kaplan and Kellerman (1988), Kaplan (1990) and Jam es (1993) in studies conducted in South Africa have identified functional/technical competence as the dom inant ca re e r o rie n ta tio n o f psychologists, followed by autonomy and service.
The research goals of the present study therefore were to determine whether in fact service is the dominant career anchor of psychologists in the Free State and whether there are significant differences between the job satisfaction and job involvement of psychologists with and without service as their dominant career anchor.A d d itio n al go als in clu d e determining the general levels of job satisfaction and jo b involvem ent of psychologists in the Free State, and to determine potential differences regarding job satisfaction and jo b involvement among psychologists with different dominant career orientations In the co n tex t o f th is study jo b satisfaction is defined as a positive attitude towards one's work, which is global in nature, and which is the result of many specific work related experiences (S harm a & B haskar, 1991).Job involvement is regarded as the degree to which one psychologically identifies with one's job, a cognitive or belief state of psychological identification with a particular job (Kanungo, 1982).

Method Subjects
According to the Professional Board for Psychology in South Africa the total number of professional psychologists in the Free State (one of 11 provinces in South Africa) is 171.Questionnaires were sent to 165 of these individuals as the addresses of 6 were not known.Only 75 psychologists (45,5%) responded which exceeds the traditional return rate of 20 -30%.An analysis of the data showed th at 21 re sp o n d en ts had en trepreneurship as their dom inant career anchor, w hile 12 fell in the technical/functional, 12 in the challenge, 9 in the service and 8 in the autonomy categories of dominant career anchors.This finding is in contradiction with what Schein (1985) suggested as well as with the findings of Boshoff, Kaplan and Kellerman (1988), Kaplan (1990) and Jam es (1993) who have id en tified functional/technical competence as the dominant career orientation, followed by autonomy and service.D em ograhic v aria b les on w hich information was gathered, included sex, age, workplace, and marital status.The sample consisted of 38 male and 24 female p sy ch o lo g ists.
T h irtee n o f the respondents were in the age category of 20 -2 9 years, 20 between 30 -39 years, 10 between 40 -49 years, 15 between 50 -59,1 between 60 -69 and 4 between 70 -79 years.The average age o f the respondents was 42 years with a standard deviation of 12.9.six respondents were married, 10 unmarried, 4 divorced, and 2 living together with someone else.Thirteen respondents held managerial positions, 13 were university teachers, and 36 were private practitioners.

Procedure
Sampling was done from a professional register obtained from the Professional Board for Psychology in South Africa.From this register 171 professional psychologists could be identified.The survey was carried out by mailing to each member of the sample a range of three questionnaires, in English or Afrikaans, acco m p an ied by a co v e rin g le tte r encouraging participation and ensuring confidentiality.The decision as to which language to regard as the home language of the person, was derived from the home language indicated in the professional register or from the language in which the person's address was recorded in the register.Questionnaires were excluded from the survey when any item was left unanswered.
Respondents were divided into two different groups.One group consisted o f p sy ch o lo g ists w ith serv ic e as dominant career orientation, while the other group displayed different dominant career orientations.A career orientation was regarded as a dom inant career orientation when a respondent's score on that career orientation exceeded the career o rien ta tio n w ith the second highest score with two or more points.

Measuring instruments
The measuring instruments consisted of S c h e in 's C are er O rie n ta tio n Q uestionnaire, the short form of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire and Kanungo's Job Involvement Scale.
The Career Orientations Inventory used in this study is a revision of previous questionnaires in which attempts were made to measure the career anchors of individuals engaged in a variety of occupations (De Long, 1982, 1984).Schein (1985) distinguished between a career anchor and a career orientation.A ca ree r an ch o r is th at set o f s e lf perceptions pertaining to one's motives and needs, talents and skills and personal values that one would not give up if one was forced to make a choice, while abilities and talents are not included in the co n cep t o f c a re e r o rie n ta tio n .S c h e in 's C areer O rie n ta tio n Questionnaire makes provision for nine respective career orientations, namely te c h n ic a l/fu n c tio n a l co m p eten ce, m anagerial com petence, autonom y/ independence, job security, geographical secu rity , se rv ic e /d e d ic a tio n , pure challenge, entrepreneurship and life-style integration.The questionnaire consists of 41 items and respondents have to respond by using a 10-point scale.The reliability coefficient as determined by virtue of the test-retest procedure varies between 0.83 and 0.91 for the respective scales.In a South African study Kaplan (1990) found that the scale was portable to South African samples, having high construct validity and high internal reliability.
Job satisfaction w as determ ined by means of the short form of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, developed by Weiss, Dawis, Lofquist and England (1967).The short form o f the MSQ provides for three respective dimensions, namely general satisfaction, intrinsic satisfaction and extrinsic satisfaction.The reliability coefficient for the general satisfaction scale varies between 0.87 to 0.92, for the intrinsic satisfaction scale between 0.84 to 0.91 and for the extrinsic satisfaction scale between 0.77 to 0.82.Kamfer, Venter and B oshoff (1998) identified a Cronbach Alpha-coefficient of 0.90 for general satisfaction, 0.75 for intrinsic satisfaction and 0.87 for extrinsic satisfaction.
Job involvement was measured by means of Kanungo's Job Involvement Scale (Kanungo, 1982).This questionnaire was developed as an improvement on the previously widely used job involvement measure of Lodahl and Kejner( 1965).The scale as developed by Kanungo attempts to measure the job involvement construct, defined pu rely as p sy c h o lo g ic a l identification with one's work and is seen by Kanungo as a unidimensional 10-item scale with Cronbach Alpha reliabilities in different studies being between 0.83 and 0.87 (Kanungo, 1982 andBlau, 1985).Kanungo's measure is reported to be valid (Blau, 1985).In studies done by Boshoff and Hoole (1998) it was found that the Job Involvem ent Inventory designed by Kanungo was portable to the SA situation with high construct validity and high internal reliability.Similar results were found by Hoole and Boshoff (1998) in a later study.The 10 items are presented by using a 10-point scale w ith resp o n ses ranging from l=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree.

Results
One of the aims of the study was to determine possible differences regarding job satisfaction and job involvem ent between psychologists with service as d om inant c a re e r o rie n ta tio n and psychologists who display d ifferen t dominant career orientations.Due to the sm all sam ple o f re sp o n d en ts, a nonparametric statistical test, namely the Mann Whitney U test was conducted to determ ine possible differences.The To address this problem, a re p re se n ta tiv e sam ple of 10 respondents was pro rata selected from the respective career orientation groups.
The re s u lts re g a rd in g p o ssib le differences in terrns o f job satisfaction and job involvement are reflected in table 1.
From table 1 it is clear that there are no significant differences between the two groups re g a rd in g the re sp ectiv e dimensions of job satisfaction.It seems that both groups are experiencing a fairly high degree of job satisfaction and that a higher level of intrinsic job satisfaction occur c o m p a re d to ex trin sic jo b satisfactio n .B oshoff, K aplan and Kellerman (1988) attempted to predict job involvem ent an d job satisfaction by means o f c a re e r anchor scores and concluded that low correlations between career anchors and jo b satisfaction scores occur.K aplan (1990) in his research regarding the relationship between career anchors, job involvement and jo b satisfaction of professional peo p le, co u ld fin d no sig n ifican t correlation between career orientations and job sati sfaction.
From table 1 it can also be seen that a significant difference (p<0.05) between the tw o g ro u p s in term s of job involvement occurs.Psychologists with service as dominant career orientation shows a higher level of job involvement, although the degree of job involvement for both groups is fairly low.Van Wyk, Boshoff and Cilliers (2001) found career orientation to be a good predictor of job involvement One would expect that high levels of job satisfaction would be accom panied by high levels o f jo b involvem ent.According to research done by Boshoff, Kaplan and Kellerman ( 1988) regarding the prediction of job involvem ent and jo b satisfaction by means of career anchor scores, relatively low correlations occur betw een jo b involvement and job satisfaction.This finding is also echoed by research done by Kaplan (1990) in this regard.
Another objective of the study was to determine potential differences regarding jo b satisfaction and jo b involvem ent am ong psychologists w ith different dominant career orientations separate from the main objective.Five different groups of dominant career orientations were identified.

Discussion
According to the findings of this study, the dom inant ca ree r an ch o r o f p sy ch o lo g ists in the F ree S tate is entrepreneurship (34%), followed by technical/functional competence (19%), pure challenge (19%), service/dedication (15%) and autonomy (13%).In other studies conducted in S outh A frica (Boshoff, Kaplan and Kellerman, 1988;Kaplan, 1990;and James, 1993)  The general, intrinsic and extrinsic level of job satisfaction of psychologists in the Free State is fairly high, while their job involvement is fairly low.Research done in South A frican show ed no significant correlation betw een jo b satisfaction and job involvement.
No significant differences regarding general, intrinsic and extrin sic jo b satisfaction between psychologists with and without service as dominant career orientation could be found.Future and more com prehensive research could Table 2 Differences regarding job satisfaction and job involvement among psychologists with different dominant career anchors focus on the relevance of the assumption that a fit between a required dominant career orientation associated w ith a specific career field and the dominant career orientation associated w ith a specific occupation is essential for job satisfaction and job involvement.The fact that a significant difference regarding job involvement between psychologists with and psychologists without service as a dominant career orientation was identified in this study, indicates some merit in the above-mentioned suggestion.What is alarming, however, is the fairly low level of job involvement displayed by both groups.
Due to the relatively small sample of respondents, especially in the category of service as dominant career orientation; the fairly low response rate and the fact that only psychologists in one province of South Africa were involved in the study, the results are not reflecting the national South African trend.A similar study has to be replicated involving a m ore re p resen ta tiv e sam ple o f the population at large.

References
n bepaalde b ero ep g e a s s o sie e r w ord en die d o m in an te lo o p b a a n a n k e r van die individu.'n Loopbaananker is 'n individu se stel selfw aarg e n o m e ta le n te , v erm o ën s, m o tiew e, b e h o e fte s en w aard es w at die kern van sy beroepselfkonsep vorm.Sielkundiges was alty d nog deel van d ien sgeoriënteerde beroepe en daarom kan verw ag w ord dat hulle d o m in an te loopbaananker waarskynlik diensoriëntasie sal wees.Indien dit die geval is, is sielk u n d ig es m et d ien slew erin g as dominante loopbaananker veronderstel om meer werkstevredenheid te ervaar en werksbetrokkenheid te toon as diegene met an d e rso o rtig e loopbaanankers.Volgens die literatuur is hierdie aanname egter nie noodwendig korrek nie.Die primêre doelwitte van die huidige studie was om te bepaal of dienslewering wel sielkundiges in die V rystaat se dominante loopbaananker is en of daar beduidende verskille ten opsigte van werkstevredenheid en werksbetrokken heid tussen sielkundiges met en sonder dienslewering as dominante loopbaan anker voorkom.'n Derde doelwit was om te b ep a al o f sie lk u n d ig e s met verskillende dominante loopbaanakers beduidend van mekaar verskil ten opsigte van werkstevredenheid en werksbetrok kenheid.V raelyste w at lo o p b aan o riën tasies, werkstevredenheid en werksbetrokken heid m eet is aan 165 van die 171 g e re g istre e rd e sie lk u n d ig e s in die Vrystaatstreek gestuur.
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