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Volume: 7
Issue: 3
ISSN: 1533-7812
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Last Updated: Aug 11, 2009 - 4:32:37 PM |
Introduction
Technical colleges are experiencing high levels of annual turnover and retirement among faculty, staff, and administrators. Job satisfaction among employees in these institutions is therefore of vital importance to leadership that must increasingly work to understand and address factors of job satisfaction and turnover.
Two-year technical colleges in the United States have been established for many years, and are noted for their open admissions policy (Van Ast, 1999). These institutions have a much different philosophy from many four-year institutions, and some of the differences can lead to dissatisfaction among the ranks, and ultimately lead to costly voluntary turnover within the institutions (Rosser & Townsend, 2006).
Two-year institutions are very important to the communities and regions in which they operate, and it is essential to ensure the continued quality of those institutions. Specific to this study, according to the State of Wisconsin Executive Summary (Christopherson & Robinson, 2001), the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) accounts for approximately $3.851 billion of all Wisconsin Annual earnings, which accounts for approximately 124,810 jobs. Additionally, on average for every credit a student earns in the WTCS, he or she earns an extra $131 per year for every year he or she is part of the work force. Finally, the WTCS existence means there are approximately 1,853 fewer people on welfare each year and 772 fewer people drawing unemployment, saving the State of Wisconsin over $8 million per year. To continue to help states achieve such results among their populations, faculty and leadership of 2-year institutions must both be willing to work to achieve high quality instruction. Low job satisfaction levels can impede this mission and can represent significant costs. Therefore, understanding what causes job satisfaction or dissatisfaction among faculty can be an important step to ensuring continued success of two-year colleges in Wisconsin and in other states.
As faculty play a significant role in helping colleges to achieve the goals and sustainability of their institutions, it is important to understand how to retain quality faculty through enhanced job satisfaction (Hammons, 1984). Additionally, researchers conclude that a direct connection exists between faculty job dissatisfaction and voluntary turnover within two-year institutions (Cano & Miller, 1992; Glick, 1992; Milosheff, 1990; Simpson, 1984). Baker, Roueche, and Gillet-Koram (1990) further discuss how faculty and students are essential ingredients for achieving the mission of the college, and without quality faculty, a college cannot survive. According to Rosser and Townsend (2006), understanding what leads to faculty job satisfaction is critical to understanding retention of quality faculty.
Although most higher education research is conducted on four-year institutions, several studies have targeted two-year community and technical colleges within the United States. Rosser and Townsend’s (2006) study of job satisfaction in public two-year colleges found that faculty who are dissatisfied with their job are likely to leave. Some causes for this dissatisfaction included unclear job expectations, heavy work assignments, and low salaries. Additionally, according to Van Ast (1999), a study of Iowa community colleges showed one of the key problems for faculty leading to dissatisfaction was inconsistent leadership and declining standards.
In regards to other findings from research on two-year colleges, research findings have been mixed in regards to significance of gender, department, and education in relationship to faculty job satisfaction (Finkelstein, Seal, & Schuster, 1997; Hutton & Jobe, 1985). Furthermore, many two-year colleges have union environments where faculties are members of the union and administrators are not. Baker (1990) also found differing personal agendas and values, as well as the “we versus they” mentality between faculty and administration has created distrust between the sides and dissatisfaction amongst faculty members.
Statement of the Problem
All sixteen colleges comprising the WTCS are beginning to experience higher turnover rates in both faculty and leadership due largely to retirements but their situation is not unique. According to Berry, Hammons, and Denny (2001) a survey of full-time faculty in two-year colleges nationwide showed that between 25,000 and 30,000 faculty planned to retire within ten years. In addition, Chief Academic Officers at the institutions surveyed state concerns over whether qualified people will be found to fill the vacancies. In 2007, one of the sixteen colleges had job postings for 50% of its administrative positions due to retirements. Recruiting qualified individuals to fill the faculty and leadership positions is an important step in maintaining and continually improving the quality of education each institution provides learners. Leadership candidates must be able to relate to faculty needs, and faculty members must be satisfied with their job or retaining them may be difficult. Additionally, if faculty members show low job satisfaction levels, the quality of instruction in the classroom may reflect these low levels, threatening the quality of education in the institution.
Purpose of the Study
As a factor of job satisfaction, the primary purpose of this study was to determine whether a significant relationship existed between full-time business faculty members in the WTCS and the leadership practices of their direct supervisor. The secondary purpose of this research study was to determine whether demographics, such as gender, years of service at the current institution, age, or highest educational level of the faculty member any direct impact on the relationship between faculty job satisfaction and leadership practices of the direct supervisor. Finally, the tertiary purpose was to obtain the status of job satisfaction levels in full-time WTCS faculty members, as well as the faculty perception of the current status of leadership within the WTCS.
Literature Review
The body of knowledge on leadership is large and diverse and its impact on followers is significant. An exploration of the specific attributes of effective leadership blended with knowledge of two-year institutions, and job satisfaction can provide a framework for understanding how the areas of study may be related and how they may affect job satisfaction.
Historical Perspectives of Leadership
Every organization is run by a single leader or a team of leaders who want to be successful. Different theorists have different ideas about what makes an effective leader. Barnard (1938) was one of the first theorists to discuss factors contributing to the success of the leader. However, the world is much different today than in 1938, and many researchers have developed new theories about what makes an effective leader including theorists such as Drucker (1967), Heifetz (2002; 2003), Kotter (1999), Mintzberg (1973; 2001), and Kouzes and Posner (1992; 1997; 2002).
Current leadership theories of Kotter, Heifetz, and Kouzes and Posner have built on past research theories to address modern-day organizational complexities. Kotter (2001) discussed the differences between leadership and management. Although Kotter understood companies need effective managers and leaders, he felt very few individuals were effective at both functions. Additionally, he asserted successful companies actively seek people with leadership potential as opposed to management potential. According to Kotter (2001) leadership is not about charisma and personality but rather, coping with change, developing a vision for the future, aligning people, and motivating and inspiring.
Heifetz and Linsky (2002) took a different approach to effective leaders in the way he stressed the importance of personal relationships in leadership. Heifetz placed emphasis on six critical steps in forming and maintaining these relationships, including finding partners, keeping the opposition close, acknowledging people’s losses, accepting responsibility, modeling behavior, and accepting casualties.
Alternatively, Kouzes and Posner’ research facilitated the framework they designed for effective leadership revolves around a transformational style. In their model, leaders are able to achieve extraordinary things in organizations because of five practices, including modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart (1997).
History of Two-Year Colleges
In the early 1900’s the four-year colleges in the United states started to experience overcrowding due to some changes in admission requirements and the political nature of the times (Lucas, 1994), which is part of the reason that two-year institutions started becoming increasingly popular. Community colleges are defined as “any institution accredited to award the Associate in Arts or the Associate in Science as its highest degree” (Cohen & Brawer, 1996, p. 5). According to Lucas, in 1918 there were approximately 85 two-year institutions in this country with a total of 4,500 students, which accounted for approximately two percent of all undergraduate students at that time. By 1938, however, the percentage of students who were enrolled in the increasing number of two-year colleges was eighteen percent. Most of the students who attended these colleges at that time were lower-class students who needed an inexpensive alternative in higher education.
During the beginning years of two-year institutions they served as “feeders” for four-year colleges, where students could start at the two-year institution and then transfer to a four-year college or university as a junior after two years of junior college (Lucas, 1994). However, the culture of these two-year institutions began to shift in the early 1930s, when the mindset changed from feeder institutions to terminal institutions where students of limited means could prepare for skilled trades and semi-professions – a trend that still exists today (Lucas, 1994). This was a very important shift in paradigm for these institutions, because now they could provide education to basically anyone who wanted some type of higher education, but this also required a shift in the mission of the institutions, fostered and carried out by leaders within these institutions.
Part of the reason why community colleges became so important to society, according to Cohen and Brawer (1996) was because of a demand from society. Schools were supposed to solve many of society’s problems, such as racism, unemployment, economic conditions, and such. However, community and two-year colleges embraced this challenge more so than the universities because the community colleges did not have traditions to defend, alumni to answer to, or philosophies to uphold (Cohen & Brawer, 1996).
Leadership in Two-Year Colleges
Leadership has a significant role in the success (or failure) of the community college. Wharton (1998) discusses the importance of leadership in the overall success of the community college organization, citing that all employees within the college must maintain a high level of energy, creativity, and dedicated performance. Wharton states that each person in the organization can only accomplish these attributes if the leadership of the organization models the behavior and sets the example for everyone else to follow. Wharton iterates that the leadership of the college is the determining factor in the overall effectiveness of the college. Mobilizing followers toward a goal that is shared by both leaders and followers is the goal of successful leadership and can significantly improve the success of the organization (Cohen & Brawer, 1996). The best administrators, according to Cohen and Brawer (1996), seem to be those who do not let their status and position impact their egos, and who consider administration a process of continuous improvement.
Since many of the leaders within the community colleges have moved up through the ranks from either support staff or faculty into administrative roles they can appreciate some of the functions of the administrators in regard to the leadership role and the administrative functions as well as the relationship that must exist between faculty and administration. However, some colleges may assume that since these administrators were once faculty they would automatically know much of the bureaucratic models that exist, when in fact this may or may not be the case. The new leaders of the community colleges, according to Romero (2004) will need to be grounded in the knowledge and research in relationship to leadership development, and training programs will need to be established to address policies, research and practical skills, and values and behaviors that reinforce the climates in which community college leaders function. One of the major problems with the traditional process of faculty moving into administration and leadership positions within these colleges is that not only are the current leaders reaching retirement age, but the potential pool of qualified faculty to move into those positions are also reaching retirement age (Romero, 2004).
Desjardins and Huff (2001) discusses five characteristics that are important in the success particularly of community college presidents. However, they are important in all levels of community college leadership. They include a demonstration of high-involvement leadership, a shared vision, a champion of change, maintenance of perspective, and maintenance of equilibrium.
Many of the attributes of effective community college leaders are congruent with those characteristics of transformational leadership (Bass & Steidlemeier, 1999), and relate specifically to Ivey’s (2002) critical components of effective leadership. Karre (2004) interviewed the executive director of the Chair Academy, Gary Filan. The Chair Academy provides worldwide training for post-secondary leaders (Chair Academy Website, 2006). In that interview, Filan stated that there are six components associated with effective post-secondary leadership, including understanding self, establishing and maintaining relationships, using transformational leadership, building and leading teams, using strategic planning, and connecting to others in community (Karre, 2004). According to Filan, community college leaders have to be skilled at communication in order to be effective and successful. They must give effective feedback, coach, motivate, pay attention, listen, and encourage effectively. Additionally they must motivate and inspire.
Job Satisfaction
Researchers have been interested in improving productivity among employees for many years. Theorists such as Maslow (1954) and Herzberg (1966) spent time researching needs of employees and employee motivation. Both researchers found that the more the organization focuses on developing human relationships and motivation within an organization, the more productive the employees. Edwin Locke (1969) stated job satisfaction was the relationship between what a person wants from a job and what the job actually offers.
Brayfield and Crockett (1955) determined there is no evidence of a relationship between job satisfaction and employee performance. However, much of the research conducted by Locke (1969; 1976; 1979), Maslow (1954), Herzberg (1966), and more recently Bryman (1992) has shown a relationship between job satisfaction and performance. Although organizations today are much different from organizations sixty years ago, the impact of employee job satisfaction on an organization can still impact the organization’s success.
The reasons for studying job satisfaction in organizations today are similar to the reasons why Locke, Herzberg, Maslow, Drucker, and other researchers studied it sixty years ago. Employee job satisfaction tends to have a large effect on organizations. When an employee has a higher job satisfaction level he may contribute more positively to the overall success of the organization.
Studies have shown the relationship between employee job satisfaction and performance, productivity, retention, and employee absenteeism (Carsten & Spector, 1987; Locke, 1976). This research is important for understanding why studying job satisfaction is important to organizations. When low job satisfaction is proven to result in absenteeism, turnover, stress, and less commitment to an organization, the overall productivity of the organization is in jeopardy. Companies stand to lose a great deal of money and productivity if employees are not satisfied. The costs of turnover and absenteeism alone can be very large for a company with job satisfaction issues amongst the employees. However, finding out the consequences of low job satisfaction are only half of the problem. Organizations must find out what contributes to the level of employee job satisfaction to improve it.
Researchers have studied job satisfaction in almost every industry to determine what employees need in order to be satisfied in their jobs. Additionally, many variables have been included in these surveys, including age (Anderson, DiBrito, & Morrell, 2000; Williams and Hazer, 1986), leadership style (Medley & LaRochelle , 1995), education level (Battersby et al., 1990), and overall life satisfaction (Hugick & Leonard, 1991). Overwhelming results showed many of these variables have at least some impact on an employee’s job satisfaction level. Individual organizations need to understand what variables have an effect on the job satisfaction levels of their employees to work on improvement.
Methodology
The purpose of this research study was to determine whether a significant relationship existed between the job satisfaction levels of full-time business faculty in the WTCS and the leadership practices of their direct supervisors. The research questions the researchers answered with this study were: 1) does a relationship exist between job satisfaction of full-time business faculty in the WTCS as identified by the Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1999) and leadership practices of their direct supervisor as identified by the Observer Portion of the Leadership Practices Inventory (Kouzes & Posner, 2002), and 2) does a relationship exist between demographics and overall job satisfaction of full-time business faculty in the WTCS as identified by the Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1999) and leadership practices of their direct supervisor as identified by the Observer Portion of the Leadership Practices Inventory (Kouzes & Posner, 2002).
Research Design
This was a quantitative study involving full-time faculty certified and currently teaching within a business-related program at one or more of the sixteen colleges in the Wisconsin Technical College System. The study involved two survey instruments, the Leadership Practices Inventory and the Job Satisfaction Survey, and also included demographic information about each respondent to provide the researcher with data to analyze in regard to the impact demographics may or may not have on job satisfaction of the research participants.
The Leadership Practices Inventory (Kouzes & Posner, 2002) is a survey designed to measure a person’s leadership practices based on five practices Kouzes and Posner (1997) stated are important in exemplary leaders. These elements include: challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, modeling the way, and encouraging the heart.
The reliability of each of the five categories that the survey was designed to measure was computed using the Cronbach alpha coefficient. The category coefficients are broken down by Kouzes and Posner (2002) into different categories, two of which are the self-reporting and the observer-reporting surveys. The self-reporting coefficients for each category of the survey range from .75 to .87, and the observer-reporting coefficients for each category of the survey range from .88 to .92 with each specific leadership category rating at a higher coefficient, according to Kouzes and Posner. This means that although both sets of survey respondent categories are internally reliable the observer-reporting coefficients show more internal reliability than the self-reporting coefficients.
The Leadership Practice Inventory has been used in academic research covering many areas of industry, including business (Day, 2003; Ridgway, 1998; Lock, 2001; Sumner, Brock, & Giamartino, 2006), secondary and post-secondary education (Balcerek, 2000; Krause & Powell, 2002; Brown & Posner, 2001), government agencies and non-profit agencies (Sessoms, 2003), health care organizations (McNeese-Smith, 1999; Tourangeau et al, 2003), and religious organizations (Patterson, 1997; Hillman, 2004).
The survey itself consists of thirty statements, including six statements to measure each of the five practices listed above (Kouzes & Posner, 2002). The survey also contains a robust Likert scale with ten different choices from (1) Almost Never to (10) Almost Always, which was changed from only five options in the 1999 version of the instrument, according to Kouzes and Posner. The instrument consists of two components, which can be either used together or as stand-alone instruments. The self-evaluation is designed for a leader to evaluate his or her own leadership characteristics, and the observer-evaluation is designed for employees or other people familiar with a leader to evaluate that leader’s characteristics. When both surveys are used, the data from the self-evaluation and the observer evaluation provide more insight and ability for statistical analysis than either instrument taken alone.
The Job Satisfaction Survey was designed to measure job satisfaction based on nine facets of employee attitudes, including pay, promotion, supervision, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, operating procedures, coworkers, nature of work, and communication (Spector, 1985). Each facet consists of four items, and the scale used includes six choices per item ranging from (1) Strongly disagree to (6) Strongly agree.
The reliability of the Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1997) was tested using several measures. First, Spector used the coefficient alpha to measure the internal consistency of the survey. The coefficients for each of the nine categories ranged from .60 for coworkers to .91 for overall satisfaction. Although Norusis (2005) stated these should be around .80, Nunnally (1967) suggested a researcher look for numbers above .50. Given these suggestions the measures of internal reliability in the Job Satisfaction Survey were above the requirements to be considered reliable.
To measure the validity of the instrument, Spector (1985) verified both discriminate and convergent validity using a comparative analysis of the JSS to the Job Descriptive Index, which also measures job satisfaction and had been previously tested for validity and reliability. The correlation of sub-scales between the two instruments was high enough to determine the validity of the Job Satisfaction Survey. According to Spector, nine values were shown to be distinct when the factor analysis was conducted, representing the nine sub-categories of the survey instrument. Since the tool was initially validated and tested for reliability it has been used in multiple academic research studies, which have since helped to further validate the survey as an excellent method for collecting and analyzing data in relation to job satisfaction (Puderbaugh, 2006; Martin, 2006; Kouzes & Posner, 1992; Bass & Avolio, 1992).
Sample Population and Data Collection
This study targeted the entire population of full-time faculty members certified and currently teaching in a business-related program at one or more of the sixteen colleges in the WTCS. According to the WTCS State Office, approximately 935 individuals currently fit the requirements for this research study. Since the population is relatively small, the researcher was able to include the entire population in the study, which eliminated the need to determine a sample from the population.
The questions from both the Job Satisfaction Survey and the Leadership Practices Inventory were put into one survey on Survey Monkey. The Job Satisfaction Survey questions appeared first, followed by the Leadership Practices Inventory questions. Finally, the respondents completed a section on demographic information, including gender, years of service at the current institution, and the highest level of education completed.
The population for the study received an e-mail discussing the purpose of the research as well as information regarding the anonymity of the responses. The e-mail included a hyperlink to the survey on Survey Monkey. The respondents clicked on that link and fill out their answers to the survey. The survey was available for two weeks on Survey Monkey, and after the first week the researcher sent out a second e-mail reminding the population to fill the survey out if they had not already done so. The intention of the follow-up e-mail was to solicit a larger percentage of the population to fill out the survey. The intention of the research was to have enough individuals in the population complete the survey to produce a 95% significance level in the data analysis. All data was then exported all data to SPSS for analysis.
The study assumed the faculty members who completed the survey would do so honestly with the understanding that their answers would remain completely anonymous to the researcher. Furthermore, the study assumed that participates would have clear self-perception and be able to accurately report attributes of his or her self-perception.
Data Analysis
The data gathered from the survey responses was downloaded into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for quantitative analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to discuss the population as it related to demographic information provided, including gender, age, level of education, and number of years at the current institution.
Correlation tests were then used to determine whether a relationship existed between job satisfaction and leadership practices in this study. Correlation tests were performed on each category of job satisfaction from the Job Satisfaction Survey as compared to the overall leadership practices to determine if a correlation exists between any one of the categories of job satisfaction and job satisfaction and the leadership practices determined by the Leadership Practices Inventory.
Additionally, Chi Square tests were performed to determine whether demographic information plays a significant role in the respondent answers to the job satisfaction survey, and whether certain demographic groups tend to have higher or lower job satisfaction ratings as compared to the leadership characteristics of the direct supervisor.
Of the 710 full-time business faculty in the Wisconsin Technical College System, 231 responded to the survey, but only 215 of those had enough questions answered to consider the responses useable. Approximately 32.5% of the population responded to the survey, with just over 30% of the population providing enough information in the response to make the survey useable, which is better than needed to conduct valid research.
If there was missing data in one or more of the demographic questions, the questions were left unfilled. However, if there were one or more questions in the Job Satisfaction Survey left blank, the responses for that sub-category of job satisfaction were averaged and placed in the blanks. For example, if the respondent left one question blank in the Pay sub-category of the Job Satisfaction Survey, the other questions in the Pay sub-category were averaged and that number was placed into the blank.
Demographics of Respondents
Each of the 215 respondents filled in the question regarding gender of which approximately 55% were female and 45% were male. Seven respondents left the Highest Education Level Achieved question blank, leaving 208 responses to this question. Nearly 26% of full-time faculty members were teaching with either an Associates Degree or a Bachelor’s Degree.
Additionally, only approximately 6% of respondents had a Doctorate Degree or higher. Faculty members with Masters Degrees make up the majority of the respondents, accounting for nearly 58% of respondents; it should be noted that in the WTCS, faculty members are incented to earn a Masters Degrees as they tend to earn higher wages and retirement amounts.
Of those who responded to the survey, four respondents left the Years of Service question blank, leaving 211 responses to this question. The average number of years of service for the respondents was just over 14 years. Additionally, each respondent answered the question pertaining to age. Of the 215 respondents, the average age was 48.51 years.
Job Satisfaction and Leadership Practices Summary
The results of the study reflected a strong relationship (.876) between faculty satisfaction with supervision and the overall leadership practices of the direct supervisor. This is not surprising, as satisfaction with supervision often relates directly to the direct supervisor under which the faculty member is working. This strong, positive correlation means that full-time faculty with higher levels of job satisfaction relating to supervision tend to rate supervisors higher in leadership practices.
Faculty overall job satisfaction and the leadership practices of the direct supervisor had a positive correlation of .609. This moderate, positive correlation means those full-time faculty with higher levels of overall job satisfaction tend to rate supervisors higher in leadership practices.
Faculty satisfaction with contingent rewards and overall leadership practices of the direct supervisor had a correlation of .561. This moderate, positive correlation means that full-time faculty with higher levels of satisfaction with contingent rewards tend to rate supervisors higher in leadership practices.
Faculty satisfaction with communication and overall leadership practices of the direct supervisor had a positive correlation of .450. This strong, positive correlation means those full-time faculty with higher levels of satisfaction with communication tend to rate supervisors higher in leadership practices.
Analysis showed faculty satisfaction with promotion and overall leadership practices of the direct supervisor had a correlation of .401. This moderate, positive correlation means those full-time faculty with higher levels of satisfaction with promotion tend to rate supervisors higher in leadership practices.
The analysis concluded a small, positive relationship exists between three categories of job satisfaction among the respondents and the overall leadership practices of the direct supervisor. Analysis showed faculty satisfaction with operating conditions and overall leadership practices of the direct supervisor had a correlation of .246. Faculty satisfaction with coworkers and overall leadership practices of the direct supervisor had a correlation of .370. Faculty satisfaction with the nature of work and overall leadership practices of the direct supervisor had a correlation of .373. These positive correlations mean those full-time faculty with higher levels of job satisfaction in the areas of operating conditions, coworkers, and nature of work tend to rate supervisors higher in leadership practices.
Finally, correlation analysis was used to determine whether a relationship existed between any of the ten different levels of job satisfaction and the leadership practices of the direct supervisor. The analysis found insufficient evidence to prove relationships existed between faculty job satisfaction with pay and overall leadership practices of the direct supervisor, and between faculty job satisfaction with fringe benefits and overall leadership practices of the direct supervisor. However, since all sixteen colleges in the Wisconsin Technical College System are unionized for faculty, the direct supervisors of the faculty members rarely have any effect on pay or fringe benefits for the faculty members. Therefore, it was not unexpected that the results would show insufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis.
Demographic Relationship to Job Satisfaction
The demographic information involved in this research included the gender, age, level of education, and years of service at the current institution. Chi Square tests were conducted to determine whether a relationship existed between overall job satisfaction of the faculty and any of the four demographics. There was insufficient evidence to conclude that overall job satisfaction of the full-time business faculty members in the WTCS is dependent upon gender, age, level of education, or the years of service at the current institution.
Conclusions
The research reflected that a relationship exists between job satisfaction of full-time business faculty in the WTCS as identified by the Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1999) and leadership practices of their direct supervisor as identified by the Observer Portion of the Leadership Practices Inventory (Kouzes & Posner, 2002). In eight out of ten categories, including overall job satisfaction, at least a small, positive relationship exists, which shows how highly-related these two variables are for the population included in the research. These findings are consistent with those of Martin (2006), Medley and Rochelle (1995), and Cohen and Cohen (1983), whose research also showed a relationship between job satisfaction of employees and leadership practices of supervisors. This is important to the sixteen colleges of the Wisconsin Technical College System and two-year colleges in general for several reasons.
When hiring leaders to fill vacancies it is important to understand what leadership practices are related to high levels of job satisfaction among employees and hire candidates that display those leadership characteristics. This research could even provide interview questions to ask potential leaders to determine whether their leadership practices are consistent with those that relate to higher levels of job satisfaction.
When looking at faculty satisfaction issues within each college in the WTCS, it is also important to note this relationship between job satisfaction and leadership practices of the supervisor. If a department is experiencing job satisfaction problems, the leadership practices of the direct supervisor should be looked into, as the relationship is strong enough that this factor cannot be overlooked.
Finally, as the sixteen colleges in the WTCS and other two-year colleges start looking to promote from within to leadership positions, training the potential candidates in the leadership practices that relate best with job satisfaction of faculty is an excellent method for ensuring effective leaders and satisfied faculty. This research may even provide the colleges with ideas for a training program for these potential internal candidates moving up to leadership positions.
The research conducted also provided insufficient evidence to conclude a relationship exists between age, gender, level of education, or years of service at the current institution and overall job satisfaction. This is significant in that when discussing job satisfaction of the entire group of faculty, one does not need to consider these demographics as playing a pertinent role in that job satisfaction level. This makes it easier to implement plans for improving job satisfaction, since these demographics do not necessarily have to be separated out and treated differently in the plan.
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