Job Satisfaction and Affective Commitment of Osteopathic Medical School Clinical Faculty

摘要

Prior studies on faculty satisfaction and affective commitment have been conducted at primarily allopathic medical schools, with exclusion of colleges of osteopathic medicine. The structure of the osteopathic curriculum as well as faculty focusing on primary care is unique as compared to allopathic medical schools. Osteopathic colleges have a primary mission of preparing students to enter into primary care, while allopathic colleges focus more on the training of specialists or clinical researchers. The specific problem examined by this study was to identify job satisfaction variables/factors that significantly predict affective commitment among osteopathic medical school clinical faculty. The study population was 225 full-time clinical faculty from a state supported college of osteopathic medicine within the State of Texas. Responses were received from 140 subjects. The results of the analysis using multiple linear regression found that there are five job characteristics that contribute significantly to the variation in affective commitment. The significant characteristics are: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Autonomy (p <.001) task identity (p < .001), and task significance (p < .001) were the most significant predictors of affective commitment. A one-way MANOVA tested the relationship between each job characteristic and the dependent variables associated with job satisfaction. Statistically significant (p < .001) multivariate main effects were found for the variables: skill variety, task significance, and task identity and the dependent variables associated with overall job satisfaction. Furthermore there was not a significant multivariate main effect associated with autonomy and feedback and the dependent variables associated with overall job satisfaction. The application of a Pearson product-moment correlation was used to determine if there was a positive correlation between affective commitment and job satisfaction factors measured by scores on the Job Satisfaction Survey. This study showed that there was a positive statistical correlation between the dependent variable affective commitment and all of the independent variables. The results of this study may contribute new knowledge about individual and institutional determinants that may affect the job satisfaction and affective commitment, specifically relating to osteopathic medical school faculty.