Job Satisfaction and its Determining Factors Among Journalists Working in Addis Ababa and Federal Mass Media Agencies
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Date
2015-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to examine the level of job-satisfaction and its determining factors
among journalists working in Addis Ababa and Federal mass media agencies. Accordingly, the
study questions were targeted to answer the overall level of job-satisfaction in general and across
media agencies as perceived by the journalists themselves (perceived); as measured indirectly by
satisfaction levels on particular work-related factors (interpolated); and the combined of the above
two (aggregate). Furthermore, the study attempted to find out if there exists a statistically significant
variation across demographic variables and association between job-satisfaction and work-related
factors. The study population included journalists and editors drawn from four media agencies, vis.,
E.B.C, A.A.M.M.A, E.N.A, & E.P.A. Stratified cluster systematic random sampling method was
employed to sample the respondents from these agencies after the sample size was determined
statistically to ensure equal and proportional probability across media agencies and sexes. The
research design used was mixed research method and to be specific, sequential exploratory
research design since no research was available to guide the possible sub-constructs that
adequately define and capture the construct – job-satisfaction in the Ethiopian context. The data
obtained through questionnaire was analyzed using descriptive (frequency, percentages, mean and
standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, and,
Pearson product moment multiple regression). Findings on all the three measures of job-
satisfaction, i.e., ‘perceived job-satisfaction’, ‘interpolated job-satisfaction’ and ‘aggregate job-
satisfaction’, respectively, have indicated that the majority (72%), (66.0%), and (66.0%) of the
journalists lack job-satisfaction. Data further have shown that there is statistically significant
variation across agencies on all the three measures of job-satisfaction have further indicated that.
Analysis of data across demographic variables yielded that job-satisfaction show statistically
significant variation across most variables, i.e., sex, age groups, educational level, work experience
as journalists, marital status, pay or monthly salary. Hence, measured on a 0 to 10 scale higher
level of aggregate job-satisfaction was witnessed among older journalists compared to younger
cohorts, i.e., 41-50 years (M = 5.7590); 31-40 years (M = 5.2156) ; and 20-30 years (M = 4.5939);
female (M = 5.23) male (M = 4.84); those with, relatively, more working experience, i.e., 11-15
years (M = 5.4623); 6-10 years (M = 5.4593) ; and 1-5 years (M = 4.6407); married (M = 5.14)
compared to single (M = 4.57); those with, relatively, higher salary, i.e., Birr 5500-7000 (M =
5.6553); Birr 4000-5500 (M = 5.0888); Birr 2500-4000 (M = 4.6002); and Birr 1000-2500 (M =
4.0592). Data responding to the final study question have shown that there is statistically significant
association between levels of job-satisfaction and work-related factors, accordingly, positive
relationships were found out between levels of satisfaction between pay or monthly salary (r = .752
), fringe benefit (r = .713), logistic services (r = .710), operational condition (r = .479),
Communication (r = .580), Co- worker (r = .582), Supervisor (r = .685), Promotion (r = .744),
Contingent reward (r = .820), and finally, Nature of work (r = .752). Finally, the study, in an attempt
to find out the predicting power of the work-related factors has found out that contingent reward
(beta = .820, P<.01) is the most significant predictor of the criterion measure, that is, the journalists’
level of job-satisfaction, followed by Nature of Work (beta = .416, P<.01), Promotion (beta = .245,
P<.01), Logistic Service (beta = .185, P<.01), Operational Conditioning (beta = .114, P<.01),
Supervision (beta = .175, P<.01), Fringe Benefit (beta = .165, P<.01), and Communication (beta =
.078, P<.01). The study concluded that overall level of job-satisfaction among Ethiopian journalists
is low, however, the statistically significant variation across agencies suggests that there are some
lessons that can be learnt to enhance job-satisfaction. Furthermore, it was concluded that eight
work-related factors together explain the 86.4% of the variation in job-satisfaction, i.e., contingent
reward (67.2%); nature of work (11.3%); promotion (2.5%); logistic service (1.8); supervision
(1.1%); operational conditions (1.0%); fringe benefit (0.8); communication (0.4) which shows that
improvement in these factors can effectively improve the level of job-satisfaction
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Keywords
Federal mass, Media agencies