Addis Ababa University

College of Education and Behavioral Studies

Department of Educational Planning and
Management

Leadership and Job Satisfaction of Experts

in the Ministry of Education

By

Abera Lakew

June 2019
Addis Ababa
 Leadership and Job Satisfaction of Experts
in the Ministry of Education

By
Abera Lakew

A Thesis Submitted to Department of Educational Planning

and Management in partial Fulfillment of the Requirement
for the Degree of Masters of Art in Educational
Leadership and Management

June 2019
Addis Ababa
 Addis Ababa University
College of Education and Behavioral Studies
Department of Educational Planning and
Management

Leadership and Job Satisfaction of Experts

in the Ministry of Education

By
Abera Lakew

Approved by the Examination Board

_________________ ________________ __________________

Department Chairperson Date Signature

____________________ ________________ _________________

Advisor Date Signature

_____________________ ________________ _________________

Internal Examiner Date Signature

____________________ __________________ _________________

External Examiner Date Signature

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor Dr. Demoze Degefa for
his encouragement, valuable guidance, punctuality and effort in reshaping, organizing
and editing this thesis. He has continuously been helpful throughout the research process.
His guidance and patience in reviewing the drafts of this paper at various levels,
correcting them step by step and his constructive comments are greatly appreciated and
have transformed this thesis into its present form.

I am also thankful to the Federal Ministry of Education experts and leaders for their
cooperation and willingness to provide the necessary information when I visited their
respective directorate (departments) during the research process. Without their
cooperation, this study would have been impossible to accomplish. Throughout the
designing, preparation and writing of this thesis, I have been encouraged, guided, advised
and helped by several friends and colleagues. Special thanks should be given to my wife
Wubayehu Zewudie, my daughter Hawi Abera and my son Olyad Abera for giving me
support in my course of study.

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 Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………….i
List of Tables………………………………………………………………v
List of Figures………………………………………………………………vi
List of Acronyms…………………………………………………………vii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION……………………………………..1
1.1 Background of the Study ........................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Background of the Organization ............................................................................................ 3
1.3 Statement of the Problem ..................................................................................................... 4
1.4 Objectives of the Study .......................................................................................................... 6
1.4.1 General Objective of the Study ...................................................................................... 7
1.4.2 Specific Objectives of the Study ...................................................................................... 7
1.5 Scope of the Study ................................................................................................................ 7
1.6 Significances of the Study .................................................................................................... 7
1.7 Limitations of the Study ........................................................................................................ 8
1.8 Operational Definitions of Key Terms ................................................................................... 8
1.9 Organization of the Study ..................................................................................................... 9

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE……………11

2.1 Motivation .......................................................................................................................... 11
2.2 Job Satisfaction .................................................................................................................. 12
2.3 Theories of Job Satisfaction ................................................................................................ 15
2.3.1 Content Theories of Motivation .................................................................................... 17
2.4 Variables on which Employee Satisfaction Depends ......................................................... 21
2.4 .1 Organizational Variables .............................................................................................. 22
2.4.2. Personal Variables........................................................................................................ 22
2.5 Leadership Styles................................................................................................................. 23
2.5.1 Autocratic Leadership Style......................................................................................... 26
2.5.2 Bureaucratic Leadership Style....................................................................................... 26
2.5.3 Democratic Leadership Style........................................................................................ 27
2.5.4 Laissez-Faire Leadership Style ...................................................................................... 27

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 Summary .................................................................................................................................... 28

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY…..30

3.1 Research Design ................................................................................................................. 30
3.2Population and Sample ......................................................................................................... 31
3.3 Sampling Techniques ........................................................................................................... 32
3.4 Instruments of Data Collection .......................................................................................... 32
3.4.1 Questionnaire ............................................................................................................... 32
3.4.2 Reliability Test ............................................................................................................... 34
4. 3 Interview ............................................................................................................................. 35
3.5 Procedure of Data Collection ............................................................................................... 35
3.6 Method of Data Analysis ...................................................................................................... 36
3.7 Ethical Considerations.......................................................................................................... 36

CHAPTER FOUR:PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND

INTERPRETATION OF DATA…………………………………………..38
4.1. Overview of the Collected Data .......................................................................................... 38
4.2 Demographic Characteristics of Respondents ..................................................................... 39
4.3. Major Findings of the Study ............................................................................................... 41
4.3. 1 Level of Experts’ Job Satisfaction with Leadership.................................................... 41
4.3.2 Level of Experts Job Satisfaction with Rewards ......................................................... 43
4.3.3 Level of Experts Job Satisfaction with the Organization ............................................. 45
4.3.4 Level of Experts Job Satisfaction with Motivation ...................................................... 47
4.3.5 Level of Experts Job Satisfaction with Their Expectation............................................ 49
4.3.6 Level of Experts Job Satisfaction with Working Environment.................................... 51
4.3.7 Comparisons by Groups with Respect to Sex ............................................................... 53
4.3.8 Comparisons by Groups with Respect to Service Year ................................................. 55
4.3.9 Comparison between Departments with Respect to Leadership Satisfaction ........... 57

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND

RECOMMENDATIONS…………………………………………………..61
5.1. Summary of Major Findings ............................................................................................... 61
5.2 Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 64
5.3. Recommendations ............................................................................................................... 65

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References………………………………………………………………….67
Appendices………………………………………………………………..73
Appendix A: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR EXPERTS ............................................................................ 73
APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW ........................................................................................................... 78

DECLARATION…………………………………………………………..80

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 List of Tables
Table 1: Combination of Hygiene and Motivator Factors ............................................................................... 21
Table 2 : Cronbach’s Alpha for Each Independent Variable of the Study ...................................................... 35
Table 3: Demographic Characteristics by Sex, Age, and Service year ............................................................ 40
Table 4 : Satisfaction Level of Experts with Leadership ................................................................................ 40
Table 5: Satisfaction Level of Experts with Rewards ...................................................................................... 45
Table 6 : Satisfaction Level of Experts with Their Organization .................................................................... 46
Table 7 : Satisfaction Level of Experts with Motivation ................................................................................. 49
Table 8 : Satisfaction Level of Experts with Their Expectation ...................................................................... 51
Table 9: Satisfaction Level of Experts with Working Environment ............................................................... 53
Table 10 : Comparisons by Groups with Respect to Sex ................................................................................. 55
Table 11 : Comparisons by Groups with Respect to Service Year ................................................................. 56
Table 12 : Comparison between Departments with Respect to Leadership Satisfaction ................................. 58
Table 13: Association between Scales ............................................................................................................. 59
Table 14: t-test ......................................................................................................................... 57

v
List of Figures
Figure 1: Maslow’s Five –level hierarchy .................................................................................................. 18

vi
 List of Acronyms
AEAG : Americans Education Advisory Group

EDPM : Educational planning, and management

ESR : Education Sector Review

FDRE : Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

GER: Gross Enrolment Ratio

JSS: Job Satisfaction Survey

JSSE : Job Satisfaction Scales on Expectations

JSSJO : Job Satisfaction Scales on Job Organization

JSSL : Job Satisfaction Scales on Leadership

JSSM : Job Satisfaction Scales on Motivation

JSSR : Job Satisfaction Scales on Rewards

MoE : Ministry of Education

MoEFA: Ministry of Education and Fine Arts

RSEB : Regional States of Education Bureau

SPSS : Statistical Packages for Social Science

SSWE : Job Satisfaction Scales on Work Environment

WEO: Woreda Education Offices

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 Abstract
The objective of this research was to assess leadership and job satisfaction of experts in
the Ministry of Education. The research was designed to conduct a descriptive survey in
which both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. The target populations for
this study were experts and middle level leaders. To gather necessary data from experts and
middle level leaders standardized questionnaires and interview were employed. Data was
collected from 112 respondents constituting 92 male and 20 female experts drawn from 16
directorates in the Ministry of Education. Stratified sampling technique was employed to
select sample experts and sample leaders. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)
version 20 was used to analyze the data. The findings of the study revealed that experts’
were dissatisfied with rewards, expectation and working environment in the organization.
In addition, there was the interference of top-level leaders in decision making of middle
level leaders. Based on the findings it was concluded that experts were dissatisfied with
rewards, expectation and working environment in the organization. Finally, based on the
findings, the organization is recommended to set up rewarding system, guarantee the
mandate and decision power of leaders, identify experts’ expectation gaps and set
strategies to fill with the solutions and assign leaders based on merit. Middle level leaders
also recommended to make work environment conducive.

Key words: Job Satisfaction, motivation, rewards, job organization and expectation

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 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the introductory section of the research. It contains background of
the study, background of the organization, statement of the problem and research
questions, objectives of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, limitation
of the study, definition of technical terms and organization of the study.

1.1 Background of the Study

The Ethiopian Ministry of Education as service providing organization is one of social

structures where human resources are the most important elements for effectiveness and
proficiency. As an institute, it needs uncompensated human resource to accomplish its
goal. As pointed out by Peter (2015), any organization requires motivated human
resources for effectiveness and efficiency of its recognized accomplishment. Among
factors required for organizational performance, human resource is taken as the most
valuable and mandatory one. Since this kind of organizations symbolize the most
complex social constitutions because of their self-motivated character, they require
continues studies and findings for their improvement and sustainability. As an issue of
regular arguments, the achievement of an organization is subject to the way leaders
handle their subordinates (Fasika, 2016). All these depicted that human resources need a
great attention if they are to be utilized effectively.

From lifelong observance practice of the researcher, it is possible to say that working
forces accompanied by their leaders’ appropriate handling system, which let them satisfy
in their job are prominent actors in bringing changes as success. Success and
competitiveness of the organization is result of working forces’ involvement and
commitment. The bond between the organization and working forces is interdependent in
nature and both parties may affect one another’s capability to achieve constructive results
(Mehr, Emadi, Cheraghian, Roshani & Behzadi ,2012).

Working forces are the most important resource of any organization. However, not all
organizations and leaders understand how easier said than done to allocate and manage

1
people in the best possible ways. As indicated by Fasika (2016), in the modern period of
mechanical and hierarchical advancements, feasible implementation requests employees
to be competent and satisfied. For the implementation, organizations need to discover
how they can maintain their employees be successful in their job. From this analysis, we
can easily understand that the main task of leaders is to maximize the ability of
employees and utilize their talents in the best way possible. However, this can be realized
only if employees are interested in the current job he/she is doing.

Employees need to be recognized for their competitiveness in their organization and their
job satisfaction needs to be increased. It is clear that there are many factors that cause
employee to be motivated and satisfied in their job. Nowadays, we have many ways to
influence a particular person's job satisfaction (Agbozo, Owusu, Hoedoafia& Atakorah
2017). Studies show that it is unquestionable that the environmental differences bring
variation from country to country; especially they vary considerably from developed to
developing countries. Not only environmental differences but the uniqueness of members
of organizations belong to developed and developing countries could be different
significantly from each other due to difference in cultures, norms, values, and other
motives (Rabbanee, Yasmin & Mamun, 2012). This tells us variables those cause job
dissatisfaction or satisfaction in a country may not work out in similar way in different
countries. Unlike variables may need to be treated differently in deferent countries and
organizations. Taking leadership in raising job satisfaction in to account, the issue needs
to be studied in depth and come up with recommendation in context of Ethiopia
specifically in the Ministry of Education. As a result, the interest of the researcher came
from this perspective to conduct the study in the Ministry of Education.

Therefore, given the range of techniques that can be used to raise experts’ job
satisfaction, this study took up the task of filling the existing gap in the ministry through
an observed investigation of the challenges of leaders in raising experts’ job satisfaction
in the Ministry of Education and to recommend how to raise employee job satisfaction of
experts’ in the organization. To do so, leadership and level of experts’ job satisfaction is
identified and the way it could be tackled is recommended.

2
 1.2 Background of the Organization

The current organizational structure of Ministry of Education has been set up regularly
according to federal government’s state structure. The Ministry of Education developed
Education and Training Policy (1994). In this policy document, article 3.8.2 states “
educational management will be decentralized to create the necessary condition to
expand, enrich and improve the relevance, quality, accessibility and equity of education
and training” (education policy,1994 p. 29). The statement emphasis that educational
managements at each structure have their own mandate, responsibilities and
accountability in their respective organizations.

When we think of an organization, it is all the time desirable to have an ideal

organizational structure in mind in which leaders and all the staffs involved in the
organization. It is equally eye-catching to amend it to meet particular circumstances as
long as there is awareness of possible problems that may happen. Stephen (as cited in
Mesganaw, 2014) organizational structure is the system in which job responsibilities are
formally separated, grouped, and synchronized within an organization. This shows that
job responsibilities and accountabilities of leaders and subordinates need to be identified
and coordinated with setting and structure of the organization.

Currently, organizations drive in many-sided and varying environment that greatly have
an effect on their augmentation and expansion. To cope up with this changing
environment and technological progression, organizations need to be reformed and
strengthen. The Ministry of Education as one of the most important institutes to bring
holistic developmental changes across the country, it is the main responsible
governmental organization in developing and enhancing leadership and other working
forces as well as raising employees’ job satisfaction. Hence, recently the Ministry of
Education has been structured newly based on Proclamation No.1097/2018. The structure
split the former Ministry of Education in to two, the Ministry of Education and the
Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The first one, Ministry of Education is the
focus of this study. According to this proclamation of article 25,

3
 Ministry of Education has the powers and duties to: set education and
training standards; ensure implementation of same; formulate a national
qualification framework, formulate a general framework of education
curricula; set minimum educational qualification requirements for school
teachers; set minimum standards for education and training institutions;
ensure that quality and relevant education and training are offered at all
levels of the education and training centers excluding higher education
and technical and vocational institutes; prepare and administer national
examinations based on the country’s education and training policy and
curricula; lead the functions of maintaining records and issuing
certificates and publicize national performance in education and training
(Proclamation No.1097/2018 p.28).
Hence, the government is currently engaged on reforming the country’s education
system. This required measures need to be taken including restructuring the sector. As a
result, the former ‘general education sub sector’ under the Ministry of Education is
restructured as ‘Ministry of Education’. Structural change of the sector is not enough to
bring the change. The crucial change or what could prove decisive in bringing the change
is the change takes place in working force of the sector. This change need to be focused
on employees’ job satisfaction, which enriches performance of the organization and
provides a powerful spring board for putting ideas into action.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

Ethiopia is transforming its general education system by exerting its effort on the sector
to enable it undergo enormous growth in recent years. Evidence from the Ministry of
Education suggests that primary and secondary schools Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)
was rapidly increasing. For example, over 18 years (2001-2018), GER of primary schools
raised from 83% to 137.2% and GER of secondary schools raised from 14.4% to 50.1%
(MoE,2018). This increment of GER demands high commitment and dedication of all
professionals at all structures of the sector.

4
The researcher observed complaints of experts about their job satisfaction formally and
informally at different events such as workshop, and training. The observation was that
many experts feel dissatisfied with their jobs at one point or another. In other hand, some
experts leave their jobs for better opportunities, while others choose to stay and remain
unhappy. Dissatisfied employees can negatively affect the organization because they
typically lack motivation, perform poorly and possess negative attitudes. These
symptoms have a way of spreading to other employees in the ministry, infecting entire
departments and the ministry’s bottom line. With all these, the researcher thinks that
there have to be causes that drive job dissatisfaction.

Abraham (2017) showed that promotion practice is central factors that any
organization needs to focus on to keep member of staff more satisfied. Overlooking
this factor could causes to build dissatisfied employees which are subject to lower
performance, lower commitment, and lower satisfaction or even worse to leave the
organization. Promotion of more qualified employee or its possibilities involve the
accessibility of advancement opportunities. If employees think that they will not have
much promotion possibilities, they may be affected adversely. This confirms that
promotion practice has an effect on job satisfaction in any organization. Promoted
workers have willingness of action especially in behavior. They get reason for doing
something better.

Fasika (2016) furthermore emphasized the significance of suitable leadership style in

organizational settings. She depicted that suitable leadership style has positive
relationship with job satisfaction. It is possible to observe lack of research conducted in
the sector specifically pertained to challenge of leaders in raising job satisfaction for
skilled professionals working in the Ministry of Education. As service provider
governmental organization, the Ministry of Education follows some standard managerial
grids to direct strategical issues and to achieve its goals. Professionals involving in
education sector especially at the ministry level play key role in bringing all rounded
development of the country. It is understandable that the success mainly determine by
role of leaders in raising their subordinates’ job satisfaction, as satisfied workers are more
motivated to bring developmental changes. However, researchers especially local

5
 researchers did not address challenges leaders facing in raising employees’ job
satisfaction in the Ministry of Education. However, one of the fundamental factors,
influencing the effectiveness of an organization is employee job satisfaction.
The researcher observed that most of the related global and local studies concentrate on
employees’ job satisfaction in the context of other sectors rather than education sector.
Different from this combination on other sectors context, this study looked at the
leadership and job satisfaction of experts in Ethiopia with specific concern to the
Ministry of Education. Therefore, this study is different from the other/ past studies
conducted in the context of the sector. The correlations between leadership styles and job
satisfaction has been studied in a wide variety of grounds and in similarly extensive range
of situations, few of these studies focus on this relationship in the context of international
non-governmental organizations in different context. Therefore, this study have looked at
the leadership and job satisfaction of experts in the context of Ministry of Education in
Ethiopia. Consistent with the objectives of the study, the following research questions are
developed:

1. To what extent are experts satisfied with their job?

2. Is there statistically significant difference in the perceptions of experts on each job
satisfaction sub-scale (leadership, rewards, job organization, and motivation, expectations
and work environment) based on groups (sex, service year, department) in Ministry of
Education of Ethiopia?
3. Is there statistically significant relationship between the perceptions of job satisfaction
of experts and leaders evaluation in the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia?

1.4 Objectives of the Study

As research is guided by an objective, this section presents the intended outcomes of this
study. In this study, main problem is to identify and analyze leadership and level of
experts’ job satisfaction in the Ministry of Education. Hence, the main objective and
specific objectives derived from basic questions/hypotheses and elaborate this research is
presented in this section.

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1.4.1 General Objective of the Study

The purpose of this research is to examine the leadership and job satisfaction of experts
in the Ministry of Education and recommend the solution taken from the finding.

1.4.2 Specific Objectives of the Study

1. To identify level of experts’ job satisfaction in the Ministry of Education;

2. To find out the role of leaders in raising experts’ job satisfaction in the Ministry of
Education;

3. To recommend solutions to the identified gaps and challenges.

1.5 Scope of the Study

The coverage of this study was limited to the Ministry of Education experts’ job
satisfaction and leaders (directors general and directors). Regarding areas of the study,
the extent of the experts’ job satisfaction and leaders in raising their job satisfaction was
assessed. The emphasis was on the level of experts’ job satisfaction. Moreover, the
factors affect job satisfaction was assessed. The scope of this study is identifying experts’
job satisfaction and leaders role in raising experts’ job satisfaction.

1.6 Significances of the Study

The Ministry of Education under Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is broad and
has responsibility to bring and sustain quality of education all over the country among its
large counterparts. It is mainly responsible to pave the way of bringing and sustaining
quality of education among pre primary, primary, secondary schools and colleges of
teacher education across the country. Ministry of Education is responsible for the most
part of setting policies policy implementation, standards and guides. Since education is a
key and takes a lion share for country development, professionals in the sector need to be
satisfied in their job for success of the organization. No doubt about that satisfied

7
professionals are ready to satisfy their customers and be successful in meeting their
organization goal as well.

Therefore, this study benefits the Ministry of Education with this insight of identifying
current challenges of leaders in raising experts’ job satisfying and developing better
leadership style that maximizes employees’ job satisfaction in addition to adding a body
of knowledge for more research. Further, the organization would benefit from this
research outcome in planning future employees’ job satisfaction method and assuring the
satisfaction of its employees by promoting the best leadership style fit with job
satisfaction.

In general, this study will be helpful to the organization for conducting further research. It
is ready to lend a hand to identify level of job satisfaction challenges and solutions in
raising job satisfaction of the employees towards welfare measure. It is also
accommodate the organization for identifying the area of dissatisfaction of employees on
their job. Furthermore, it is used as reference for other researchers who are interested to
conduct study related to this problem.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

Due to the busy work schedule of the experts and leaders, it extended the time of
collecting the data. In addition, finding a recorder was a challenge. The other limitation
of this study was that the ratio of female experts in the Ministry of Education as well as in
this study was very low. Therefore, to be much clear about the job satisfaction level of
female experts was not easy.

1.8 Operational Definitions of Key Terms

Director General: in the context of Ministry of Education, director general is a senior

executive officer, often the chief executive or administrator placed in overall charge of
clustered departments/directorates under auspices of the state minister’s office. He/she is
accountable to the state minister.

8
Director: refers to middle level leader who leads single directorate/department in the
Ministry of Education and who is directly responsible for directing his/her subordinates.

Experts: in this study context, it refers to the staff members of the ministry who are
directly responsible for carrying out any of the ministry issues such as curriculum
development, teachers training, school supervision, teachers and education leaders
licensing and relicensing issues, education inspection and others.

Job Satisfaction: is the extent to which experts are satisfied or dissatisfied on their jobs
in the Ministry of Education and it is measured by computing mean and standard
deviation. In this study context, it is the extent to which experts of the Ministry of
Education feel or perceives the way their leaders treat them.

Leader: the general name refers to those middle level leaders (directors general and
directors) in the Ministry of Education who are directly responsible for directing the
ministry’s academic staff and directly coordinating the academic affairs.

Ministry of Education: is an organization which controls general education, set

education and training standards and ensures their implementation.

Motivation: The definition of motivation starts with the root word, motive. Webster’s
Dictionary defines motive as, something that causes a person to act. Therefore,
motivation can be defined as, the act of providing motive that causes someone to act. In
this study context, it is the way middle level leaders of the Ministry of Education treat
their experts to be motivated and act accordingly.

Reward: is a form of financial return, tangible services and benefits an employee

receives as part of an employment relationship. In this context it is something given or
received by experts as return for service, merit, hardship, etc.

1.9 Organization of the Study

This paper has five chapters. The first chapter deals with introduction, where the
background of the study, background of the organization, statement of the problem,
objectives of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, limitation of the

9
study and operational definition of terms were included. Chapter two presents the review
of related literature. Chapter three of this research deals with the research design,
population and sampling, data collection instruments, procedures of data collection,
methods of data analysis and ethical consideration. Chapter four deals with presentation,
analysis, and interpretation of the data gathered from the respondents through
questionnaire and interview. Finally, chapter five deals with summary of the findings,
conclusion and recommendation.

10
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

The problem of job satisfaction has been a topic of discussion for many years. A number
of researchers have also attempted to treat the problem from different perspectives.
Therefore, this part of the paper deals with the views of various scholars. It serves as the
foundation for the progress of the study. It discusses relevant literatures relating to
challenges of leaders in raising employees’ job satisfaction. The chapter also provides the
conceptual framework that shows the relationship between the variables of the study.

Challenges of leaders in raising job satisfaction of employees have long been areas of
interest among social science and educational researchers. Leaders in all aspects of social
science and education understand the importance of analyzing and evaluating challenges
in raising employees’ job satisfaction. The largest quantity of past research conducted
within these areas has been conducted in higher education institutions and other service
industries. Although the Ministry of Education is one of the services providing
organization, the amount of research conducted within this area does not match that
available within other areas of the service providing organizations. In order to identify
challenges of leaders those involving in raising employees’ job satisfaction, it is very
important to understand individually each components such as: the concept of motivation,
the concept of job satisfaction, job satisfaction theories, variables on which employee
satisfaction depends, the relationship between employee motivation and job satisfaction
and concepts of leaders and leadership styles.

2.1 Motivation

Motivation is a concept, which describes forces acting within individual to initiate, and
direct behavior (Tyilana, 2005). Motivation is a driving force behind a person’s action. It
is an aspiration that initiates people to what they want to act or behave in a convinced
way. Therefore, it is an aspiration or willingness to work, to contribute, to perform
something. It is an amalgamation of person’s internal needs and external influences that
determine behavior and provide the opportunity to satisfy needs. Motivation is both
intrinsic and extrinsic force. Intrinsic motivation is an internal subjective judgment that

11
occurs within individuals. It involves four factors, i.e. impact, competence,
meaningfulness, and choice. Impact refers to the level of perception we have on the
intended results of the work done. Competence is the degree to which people believe they
can do something well if they have given opportunities. Meaningfulness implies the
judgment of the individuals based on their own standards (Dehaloo , 2011).

Supporting this concept, Whise and Rush, 1988 ( as cited in Tan, 2014), stated that
motivation is the readiness of an individual to do something and conditioned by actions
to satisfy needs. Further, the author described motivation as process of initiating action
technically and energizing individuals to take action and which is concerned with the
choices the individual makes as part of his or her goal-oriented behavior. This tells us that
it inferred and used to explain behavior. Employers may like to have their employee’s
motivated and ready to work effectively, but do not understand what truly motivates an
employee. Organizations could be more efficient if the employees had an invested
interest in the future of their organization. There should be essential needs to be met for
employees to succeed in the workplace (Burton, 2012).

In concurrence with the authors above Dervic, (2017) depicted that motivation plays an
important role within support people to work more and better in their organization. It is
an important mechanism of achieving organizational goals though devoted employees.
Therefore, leaders need to take care about their workers motivation using appropriate
motivation tools. According to Tan (2014), three key elements in the definition of
motivation are further provided as effort, organization goal, and need. Definitions of
motivation contributed by various researchers are apparently in similar meaning as drive,
energize and action. Researchers are agreeing on individuals’ motivations initiate with
cognitive recognition which is followed by mental desire to achieve something, thus
following by physical actions to attain the desire.

2.2 Job Satisfaction

Different scholars and practitioners gave explanation on the definition of job satisfaction.
They show that there is no universally acceptable definition for the term ‘job satisfaction’
despite being widely researched by many scholars. This indicates that job satisfaction has

12
been defined in terms of different factors. Because of this, different scholars and
researchers give different meanings to the term 'job satisfaction'. Some of these
researchers and scholars give either general definitions or specific definitions.

Job satisfaction is an attitude of workers towards their job. It is enjoyable emotional state
resulting from the judgment of one’s job effectiveness and an attitude towards the job.
This definition describes that attitudes can be formed by taking into account our feelings,
beliefs, and behaviors (Mahajan, Nark & Marathwada, 2014). Supporting this idea,
Tyilana (2005) depicted that Job satisfaction is the feeling of people about different
aspects of their jobs. If workers like their jobs there will be job satisfaction. However, if
they do not like their jobs, job dissatisfaction will take place. Different studies asserted
that job satisfaction is taken as attitudinal variable. In this context, job satisfaction is
considered as feeling about the job and preparation or readiness for response to the
feeling.

Job satisfaction simply tells feelings of employees toward their job. It describes to what
extent the employees are happy with the fulfillment of their desires and needs at the
work. Hence, it is the enjoyable feelings as consequence of an employee perception of
achieving the desire level of needs. Job satisfaction as an intangible variable could be
expressed or observed via emotions. An employee satisfaction is high if the job provides
expected psychological or physiological needs. However, satisfaction is said to be low if
the job does not fulfill the psychological or physiological needs (Cook, 2008).

Supporting this thought, Spector, ( as cited in Ambachew, 2014) states that job
satisfaction is an attitudinal variable that reflects how people feel about their jobs overall
as well as various aspects of them. In simple expression, job satisfaction is the extent to
which people like or dislike their jobs. It seems that job satisfaction is determined by
personal feeling people have on their job. Since satisfaction is a fulfillment of a need or
desire, we might need to identify need of experts involving in the study and seek the
way we can fulfill it.

13
Sambadam (2013) added that people have different insights about job satisfaction. The
word job satisfaction can be assessed based on different angles like need fulfillment,
psychological needs, new opportunities, career development etc. The author depicted that
the employee satisfaction depends on two factors:
1. Personal factors like demographic factors, salary and other fringe benefits and
2. Organizational factors like nature of work assigned, superior-subordinate
relationship, and inter-personal relationship opportunities for advancement.
There are important reasons why companies should be concerned with employee job
satisfaction, which can be classified according to the focus on the employee or the
organization. This perspective states that satisfaction is determined by certain characteristics
of the job and characteristics of the job environment itself.

First, the humanitarian point of view is that people deserve to be treated moderately with
respect. Job satisfaction is the reflection of a good treatment. This means, good treatment
brings satisfaction whereas bad treatment brings dissatisfaction. It also can be considered as
an indicator of emotional well-being. Second, job satisfaction can lead to behavior by an
employee that affects organizational functioning (Salanova, 2010). Furthermore, the author
put in plain words that job satisfaction can be a indication of organizational functioning.
Differences among organizational units in job satisfaction can be diagnostic of potential
trouble spots. Each reason is sufficient to justify concern with job satisfaction. From the
author’s point of view, we can understand that job satisfaction is the degree to which people
sense positively or negatively about their jobs. It is mind-set and emotional response to
someone feeling towards physical and social conditions of the workplace and condition.

Bavendum (2000) identifies factors that promote job satisfaction: opportunity, good
leadership, increase in relative strength, work standards, fair reward and adequate authority.
Other factors are professional recognition, good salary, interpersonal relations, job security,
professional advancement, encouraging working conditions, supervision, achievement in
work and promotion.

14
According to Bezawit (2017), Job satisfaction is defined as balancing the individuals’
understanding of needs and what they receive from their jobs. This can be documented as one
of the most significant research variables fit in organizational behaviors.

In general, job satisfaction is influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, the quality of
supervision, social relationships with the work group and degree to which individuals succeed
or fail in their work. Therefore, from the fore-going citations, job satisfaction could be taken
to be an attitude of a person reflecting the degree to which his important needs are satisfied by
his/her job. From these different definitions, we can conclude that the main components of
job satisfaction are emotion, attitude and reaction.

2.3 Theories of Job Satisfaction

There are various theories of job satisfaction and motivation that try to enlighten the nature
and condition of the motivation of employees in an organization. These theories are to some
extent factual and give explanation on the behavior of certain people as well as inside and
outside the organization. Moreover, motivation and satisfaction is a complex behavior that
varies over time and under diverse conditions. As a result, the study of job satisfaction and
motivation would explore the facts that may motivate the employees. All these theories are
vital for leaders at different hierarchical levels and organizations to understand the
phenomenon of job satisfaction and motivation. Having this understanding, leaders can easily
tackle challenges they may face and guide their subordinates and co-workers appropriately.
The different theories of job satisfaction and motivation can pave the way to provide suitable
and authentic framework to give insight into how to motivate staff in the best manner. This
can lead to willingness and effectiveness of productivity enhancement (Sahito &Vaisanen,
2017).

The theories of job satisfaction have two different perspectives: Content theories and process
theories. Content theories are more concerned with individual needs and individual goals.
They deal with issues related to motivation of employees or what can motivates employees in
an organization. The popular content perspective theories are Maslow’s need hierarchy
theory, Herzberg motivator-Hygiene theory, Cloyton’s SRG theory, McGregors theory X and

15
theory Y and McClelland’s Need theory (Thiagaraj & Thangaswamy, 2017). Among theories
mentioned above, this study will focus only on first two theories, Maslow’s need hierarchy
theory and Herzberg motivator-Hygiene theory. Process theories are more concerned about
the way motivation can take place. They deal with the ‘‘process’’ of motivation and ‘‘how’’
does motivation occur. All these tell us that the former category highlights the specific
factors, which motivate the individual towards job, while the latter category deals with
dynamics of this motivational process

Various studies treated job satisfaction as a complex set of variables. There have been
different efforts to explain job satisfaction in different ways. Researchers have discussed job
satisfaction relating with motivation. It is not easy to consider motivation poles apart from
job satisfaction, even though they have both theoretical and practical differences between the
two concepts. On the other hand, the two are closely related and used as the practices in the
analysis of work motivation and studies of job satisfaction (Thiagaraj & Thangaswamy,
2017). There are positive and complement relationships between motivation and job
satisfaction towards other organizational variables. However, we cannot conclude that job
satisfaction equal to motivation or vice versa.

Sum up from above statements, it is possible that same input factors will turn up both
motivation and Job Satisfaction. On the other hand, conclusion cannot be drawn that job
satisfaction means motivation. To support such statement, comparisons between the
definitions of the two studies is needed to distinguish differences of the two field of study.
Supporting this thought, Tan (2014) stated that motivation and job satisfaction are sharing
similar dependant variables but they will not guarantee same impact towards organizational
behaviors. Clarifications on distinctions between the concepts further ease up overall
understanding on job satisfaction and motivation. In conclusion, although Job Satisfaction is
found closely stand with theories of Motivation, however, both these two field of studies
should be treated separately, so that factors of influences and area of practice can be more
identifiable.

16
2.3.1 Content Theories of Motivation

The content theories are concerned with identifying the needs that people have and how these
needs are practiced. They explain why the human needs change from time to time and what
leads to this change. They explain the factors motivating change. Content theories include the
work done by Maslow, Herzberg, Alderfer, McGregor, etc. However, this paper will focus
only on the first two theories directly related to this study.

2.3.1.1 Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy Theory

Job satisfaction theories have common characteristics with theories discussing human
motivation. Among these, Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory is one of the most common and
well-known theory. Various studies show that hierarchy of needs theory, which is popularly
known, as Maslow’s need hierarchy theory was one of the first theories to emphasize and
examine the important contributors of job satisfaction. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is an
accepted theory of job satisfaction and motivation, rotating around lower and higher levels of
needs. This theory has designed a pyramid to understand the different levels of human
motivation. Hierarchical levels from bottom to top are physiological needs, safety and
security needs, belongingness, love needs, self-esteem, and self-actualization (Ghanbahadur,
Thangaswamy, 2014).

17
Figure 1: Maslow’s Five –level hierarchy
This hierarchical arrangement is not mainly focused more on the higher needs for reason
that priority need to be given to the lower needs. This tells us that there is no appearance of
the higher level needs without satisfaction of lower needs. In other hand, an idea of the
hierarchical arrangement is progressive move up of the value chain as simpler and more
basic needs. Among the five progressive sets of needs, the first set being purely physical
needs. These include all the needs a person needs first to stay alive like food, water, air,
the maintenance of body temperature and the necessity of voiding of natural human waste.
It is only when this basic need set is satisfied that the next set of needs will be thought of
for satisfaction. Strengthening this idea:

Growth of the individual or group causes the needs to shift upwards

whereas the opposite causes downward movement in need fulfillment desire.
The safety needs can be broken up into physical safety, family security,
monetary security and employment security and love; belonging needs can
be broken up into parental love, love between partners, sibling and
children. It is easy to understand why these needs were classified as

18
 hierarchical, with physiological needs at the base and actualization needs
at the top of a hierarchical pyramid. Using this classification Maslow
reasons that as a person moves up in life his need changes and if a person is
unable to access needs appropriate to him he will be dissatisfied, even
though he may not know it (Thiagaraj & Thangaswamy,2017, p.466).

This depicted that need fulfillment has an influential role in raising any satisfaction and
job satisfaction too. Therefore, organizations seeking to improve employee job
satisfaction should attempt to meet the basic needs of employees before progressing to
address higher-order needs.

2.3.1.2 Herzberg Motivation-Hygiene theory

Herzberg Motivation-Hygiene theory gives attention to the effect of internal and external
factors on job satisfaction as basic human needs. This theory determined comprehensive
views toward the key role of job satisfaction along with staff at organization. The theory
considers job satisfaction as one of the primarily needs. It is matching with other primary
needs such as water, food, and shelter (Mehrad, 2015). This theory is adapted from
Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs and came up with his famous motivation-hygiene
theory of job enrichment. It is focused on the effect of internal and external factors on job
satisfaction as fundamental human needs. This theory is divided in to two factors:
Hygiene factors (basic pay, job security, friends in the workplace) and Motivational
factors (recognition, achievement, advancement, and challenging work). This factors
need to consider and recognize employees’ efforts to bring about their motivation and job
satisfaction. Some factors could be causes for dissatisfaction in a job. Thus, factors that
describe job satisfaction are completely different from those factors that lead to job
dissatisfaction.

To better understanding of employee attitudes and motivation, Frederick Herzberg

performed studies to determine which factors in an employee's work environment caused
satisfaction or dissatisfaction. This theory helps any researcher to find factors causing job
satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Furthermore, it also helps to explain the results based on
the studies. Herzberg called the satisfiers motivators and the dissatisfies hygiene factors,

19
using the term "hygiene" in the sense that they are considered maintenance factors that
are necessary to avoid dissatisfaction but that by themselves do not provide satisfaction
(Baah,2011). This theory seems deserve to give us an idea about factors raise job
satisfaction and factors raise both satisfaction and dissatisfaction depending on the way it
has been treated. These factors are motivators and hygiene factors respectively.

Hygiene Factors are known as the preservation factors and contain of the physiological,
safety and love needs from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It has no direct relation with
job but the conditions that surround doing the job. There could be dissatisfaction in the
absence of this factor. However, the incidence of such conditions does not necessarily
construct strong motivation. These factors include; organization policy and
administration, technical supervision, interpersonal relations with supervisor,
interpersonal relations with peers and subordinates, salary, job security, personal life,
work conditions and status. They are essential to maintain a realistic level of satisfaction
not only satisfaction they can also cause dissatisfaction. The hygiene factors are not direct
motivators but are necessary to prevent dissatisfaction and at the same time serve as a
starting point for motivation. However, improvements in these conditions do not create
motivation, Huling (as cited in Baah,2011).

Motivators factors are relevant to the job content. They contain the physiological need
for growth and recognition. The nonappearance of these factors does not establish highly
dissatisfying but when present, they construct physically powerful levels of inspiration
that result in good job performance and job satisfaction. They are therefore called
satisfiers or motivators. These factors are consisting: achievement, recognition,
advancement, the work itself, the possibility of personal growth and responsibility.
According to Baah (2011), bringing together the hygiene and motivator factors can have
its own consequence and could be resulted in some scenarios.

20
Table 1: Combination of Hygiene and Motivator Factors

Combination of Hygiene and consequence of the consequence

Motivator Factors
High hygiene + high The ideal situation where employees are highly motivated
motivation and have few complaints.
High hygiene + low Employees have few complaints but are not highly
motivation motivated. The job is then perceived as a paycheck.
Low hygiene + high Employees are motivated but have a lot of complaints. A
motivation situation where the job is exciting and challenging but
salaries and work conditions are not.
Low hygiene+low motivation The worse situation unmotivated employees with lots of
Complaints.
Source: Adapted from Baah (2011)
This theory required consideration of leaders to pay attention to both factors and alarm
leaders not to be one-sided in implementing factors to motivate employees. Job
satisfaction is related with the work content, the physical and social working conditions
(quality of interpersonal relationships, leadership style, the relationship between
management and employees) and certainly with the personality of employees, their
abilities, emotions, etc. All these facts represent the basis for building a quality and long-
term reward system in which both employees and the leader will achieve their goals.
These are basically intertwined and their accomplishment is not individually possible, but
together they make up a whole (Dervic, 2017).

2.4 Variables on which Employee Satisfaction Depends

Organizations need to try their best to evaluate why employees satisfy or dissatisfy.
Examine the root causes where does the problem lie is very critical to identify variables
could influence job satisfaction. The burden is on the management to keep employees
engaged and happy, to persuade them to stay. In fact, this is critical to organizational
success (Sageer, Rafat,& Agarwal 2012). According to the author, we can classify the

21
variables which Employee Satisfaction Depends on in mainly two broad categories
namely: Organizational Variables and Personal Variables.

2.4 .1 Organizational Variables

There are number of organizational variables that determine satisfaction of the

employees. The employee satisfaction in the organization can be increased by organizing
and managing the organizational variables or organizational factors. These variables are:
organization development, policies of compensation and benefit, promotion and career
development, job satisfaction, job security, working environment & condition,
relationship with supervisor, work group and leadership style.

Promotions provide opportunities for personal growth more responsibilities and increased
social status .Individual who perceive that promotions therefore are a likely to experience
satisfaction from their jobs. Promotions are one of the incentive mechanisms that can
increase employee satisfaction. Promotion can also affect employee performance
according to the reviewed literature. However, for promotion to be effective in improving
job satisfaction it must be seen as fair based on meritocracy (Chepkwony, 2014).

Compensation has a great impact on productivity. To achieve effective work

performance calls for job satisfaction among the workers. “Compensation refers to all the
provided tangible and intangible rewards an employee receives from the employer as part
of the employment relationship” (Muguongo, Muguna, Dennis &Muriithi , 2015, p.3).
From this idea, it can be said that compensation attaches and bond employees and the
employers together in their mutuality.

2.4.2. Personal Variables

There are personal elements those can determine and enhance in maintaining the
motivation and personal factors of the employees for their effectiveness. If these elements
treated fairly, they can raise employees’ job satisfaction. Employee satisfaction can be
related to psychological factors and so numbers of personal variables determine
satisfaction of the employees. These variables are: personality, expectation, age, and
education and gender differences.

22
Expectation is different from Maslow, vroom does not give attention to on needs, but
rather focuses on outcomes. Expectancy theory assumes that behavior results from
conscious choices among alternatives to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.
Employees have different expectations and levels of confidence about what they are
capable of doing. Management must discover what resources, training, or supervision
employees need (Ciarniene, Kumpikaite & Vienazindiene, 2010).

2.5 Leadership Styles

A central element in many definitions of leadership is that there is a process of influence.

Leader is a person who leads others along a way. In the presence of leaders, there should
be followers. Both leaders and followers have their own responsibilities and
accountability but they have common goal that they attempt to achieve. Members of any
organization carry their tasks as community of organization. However, some people have
more access and power to influence the shaping of this organization. The more powerful
and influential people are usually assigned as senior leaders of the organization, who try
to enact a variety of policies in particular socio economic and macro-policy contexts to
construct preferred organizational cultures and leading practices. It involves the creating,
organizing, managing, monitoring and resolving conflicts in the organization. Leaders
usually carry out at many levels in their organization from high-level leaders to line
managers. These leaders have authority to act in certain socially defined ways in certain
circumstances. For instance, in the ministry of education context, they are responsible for
the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of educational legislations,
policies and program. The person with primary responsibility to perform the specialized
leadership role is designated as the ‘leader ‘and other members are called ‘followers’.
Even though some of them may assist the primary leader in carrying out leadership
functions. The distinction between leader and follower roles does not mean that a person
cannot perform both roles at the same time (Yuki, 2010).

Here it is possible to take good example in the context of ministry of education again.
Each directorate’s director who is the leader of his/her perspective section employees is
also a follower of higher-level managers such as director general and state ministers in
the ministry. Discussion about leadership regularly refers to the leader and by default
23
studying leaders is studying leadership. However, it has been suggested that leadership is
not an individual observable fact but a complex relationship concerning a number of
variables including the characteristics of the leader and subordinates, the nature of the
organization and the external environment (Ball, 2007).

Review of the definition and functions of leadership are pertinent at this point. In defining
leadership from a very classical autocratic approach to a very creative and participative
approach we cannot conclude that everything old is bad and everything new is good.
Different styles are needed for different situations and each leader needs to know when to
exhibit a particular approach. Leadership style is the general manner, outlook, attitude and
behavior of a leader, particularly in relation to his or her colleagues and team members.
Leadership styles should be selected and adapted to fit organizations, situations, groups,
and individuals. It is not a one size fits all experience. It needs to be selected approach that
fit to motivate followers.

Effective leadership is increasingly regarded as a vital component of successful

organizations. Different studies show that novice leaders may experience great complexity
in adapting to the demands of the role. The process of professional and organizational
socialization is often painful as leaders adapt to the requirements of their new position.
Developing the knowledge, attributes and skills to lead the organization effectively
requires systematic preparation (Bush, 2008). This idea depicted that leadership requires
knowledge, skill and experience to lead the organization towards success. It also requires
commitment and devotion of the leaders in preparing themselves well and tackles the
challenges they may face.

Strengthening the above ideas, Davis (as cited in Belaynesh, 2016) gives explanations as
leadership is the skill of leaders used to influence others to straight forward their
resolution, abilities and efforts towards the achievement of common goals. The author
further stated that leadership is the process of encouraging and helping others work
enthusiastically towards the achievements of organizational goals. It could be considered
as key and the heart of organizations. Effective leadership can be recognized as a key
quality of most successful organizations.

24
Now day’s there is significant global development of profession of educational leadership.
This give us an idea about the reality that educators are in a position of better
understanding of how and in what ways effective leadership contributes to achieve goal
of the organization. A going up foundation of knowledge from study and practice explains
that leaders implement influence on their followers’ achievement by creating challenges
but also facilitating supportive and conducive working environment to each follower’s day
today activities. Given this understanding and the changing demands of the profession
leaders, need innovative standards to guide their practice. To set the standard, the
implementers need to know what makes them professional standards.

Professional standards define the nature and the quality of work of persons who
practice that profession, in this case educational leaders. They are created for
and by the profession to guide professional practice and how practitioners are
prepared, hired, developed, supervised and evaluated. They inform government
policies and regulations that oversee the profession. By articulating, the scope of
work and the values that the profession stands for, standards suggest how
practitioners can achieve the outcomes that the profession demands and the
public expects. Professional standards are not static. They are regularly
reviewed and adjusted to accurately reflect evolving understandings of,
expectations for, and contexts that shape the professional work. (National Policy
Board for Educational Administration, 2015, p.8).

Strong leadership is increasingly fundamental to the successful realization of an

organization’s vision. Therefore, in addition to setting standards, leaders need to know
basic leadership styles and the way they could be implemented. Since leadership is the
ability to move a group towards a common goal, organizations cannot meet their goals
without leaders. The term ‘style’ is roughly equivalent to the leader’s behavior. The leader
influences the followers in the way and styles he/she leads. There are many ways to lead
and every leader has own style. Researchers categorized leadership styles into four basic
styles that leaders use for different situations in achieving their organizational goals and
objectives. These basic leadership styles are, autocratic, bureaucratic, democratic and
laissez-faire.

25
 2.5.1 Autocratic Leadership Style

Autocratic leadership, also known as authoritarian leadership, is a leadership style

characterized by individual control over all decisions and little input from group
members. Autocratic leaders typically make choices based on their own ideas and
judgments and rarely accept advice from followers. Autocratic leadership involves
absolute, authoritarian control over a group. This kind of leaders informs their
subordinates on what must be done, how it should be done and when it must be
completed. This kind of leader is likely to ignore suggestions made by staff members
(Cherry, 2018). Supporting this definition, another author states that it is an extreme form
of transactional leadership. In this style of leadership leaders have absolute power over
their subordinates. Subordinates and team members have little opportunity to make
suggestions, even if these are in the best interest of the team. The benefit of autocratic
leadership is that it is very efficient. Decisions are made rapidly, and the work to
implement those decisions can begin straight away. It is best used in crises situation,
when decisions must be made quickly and without disagreement (Amanchukwu, Stanley,
& Ololube, 2015).

2.5.2 Bureaucratic Leadership Style

The term bureaucracy reveals some of the essential characteristics of the leadership
model. The Cambridge dictionary defines the word as, a system for controlling or
managing a country, company, or organization that is operated by a large number of
officials employed to follow rules carefully. The organizations start through simple
familiar procedures followed by a few number of employees. The more operations
existing in organizations, the more need to expansion of activities and impose more work
rules and regulations. The larger the size of any organization likely to practice more
bureaucratic leadership style. On the other hand, bureaucracy is not restricted to just the
regulations and organization of work. Actually, the bureaucracy has diverse
characteristics that paying attention of public administration. It fixes official duties under
a hierarchy of authority, applying a system of rules for management and decision-making
(Child as cited in Qaisi, 2015) .

26
2.5.3 Democratic Leadership Style

It is known as participative leadership and a type of leadership style in which members of

the group take a more participative role in the decision making process. However, in the
end the final say still rests with the leaders - staff members just have an opportunity to
provide their opinions and recommendations going forward. Researchers have found that
this leadership style is usually one of the most effective styles, which increase the
productivity of the organization, contributions and morale of group members.

Democratic leadership is an authority that influences people in a manner consistent with

favorable to basic democratic principles and processes, such as self-determination.
Inclusiveness, equal participation, and deliberation are existing in this leadership style.
Theory of democratic leadership style puts flesh on the bones of this definition of
democratic leadership. This type of leadership is mainly aimed at pursuing group goals
(Gasti , 1994 ).

2.5.4 Laissez-Faire Leadership Style

Laissez-faire leadership is known as declarative leadership, it is a type of leadership style

in which leaders are hands-off and allow group members to make the decisions.
Researchers have found that this is generally the leadership style that leads to the lowest
productivity among group members. It is up to the group members to manage their
workload, while the leaders neither get in the way nor closely oversee what they are
doing. According to Loganathan, (2013), “Laissez-faire leadership is a passive style that
is reflected by high levels of avoidance, indecisiveness and indifference. It is also
commonly viewed as the absence of leadership where the leader takes approach,
abdicating responsibility, delaying decisions and gives no feedback to employees”.

This leading style depicts that Laissez-faire leaders are not care about their duties and
their organization success. They prefer keep themselves idle. It is observed that from the
available literature, all the studies conducted are related to the large sector, which interns
reveal that leadership style, organizational commitment and work satisfaction are
interrelated. From the examination of the above literature, it can be concluded that

27
varying leadership styles influence job satisfaction in some way or the other. The
question of which style is largely based on the organization’s situational setting.
Therefore, organizations need to take awareness of the varying leadership styles when
attempting to influence employee job satisfaction levels.

To conclude here, what have been discussed above are not very detail of the topics in this
study. However, this much seems enough for this study. In order to better, contextualize
leadership, organizational complexity need to be taken into account. Concluding
leadership styles, the following chapter addresses the research methodology employed in
this study.

Summary

Different literatures have indicated several elements and aspects of leadership and
employees job satisfaction. The literature highlights the importance of leadership in any
organization and the key role of the leaders in raising employees’ job satisfaction.
Leadership and job satisfaction of employees have long been areas of interest among social
science and educational researchers. The largest quantity of past research conducted
within these areas has been conducted in service providing organizations. Since the
Ministry of Education is one of the services providing organization, related literature
taken in other sectors was relevant to this study. A number of related literatures were
used in this study. In order to identify level of experts’ job satisfaction, some components
of job satisfaction such as the concept of motivation, job satisfaction, job satisfaction
theories, variables on which employee satisfaction depends, the relationship between
employee motivation and job satisfaction and leadership styles were reviewed.

Accordingly, the literature depicted that motivation is the readiness of an individual to do

something and conditioned by actions to satisfy needs whereas job satisfaction is an attitude of
workers towards their job. It is enjoyable emotional state resulting from the judgment of
one’s job effectiveness and an attitude towards the job. The theories of job satisfaction
have two different perspectives; content theories and process theories. Content theories
are more concerned with individual needs and individual goals while process theories are
more concerned about the way motivation can take place. Variables which employee

28
satisfaction depends on mainly two broad categories namely organizational variables and
personal variables. Leader is a person who leads others along a way. In the presence of
leaders, there should be followers. Both leaders and followers have their own
responsibilities and accountability but they have common goal that they attempt to
achieve. Researchers categorized leadership styles into four basic styles that leaders use
for different situations in achieving their organizational goals and objectives. These basic
leadership styles are, autocratic, bureaucratic, democratic and laissez-faire.

29
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the research design and methodology used to identify leadership
and experts’ job satisfaction in the Ministry of Education. The structure of the chapter
begins with the research design and then discuses the study population and sample,
sampling techniques, data collection instruments, procedure of data collection, method of
data analysis and ethical consideration. Descriptive and inferential research was used to
conduct the study. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to gain insight into the
perceptions of job satisfaction with varying leadership challenges.

3.1 Research Design

A research design is a systematic plan to study a scientific problem. The design of a study
defines the study type, research question, hypotheses, independent and dependent
variables. Research design is the framework that has been created to seek answers to
research questions. It is a procedural plan that could be adopted by a researcher to answer
questions in an applicable way. Normally, a research design will determine the type of
analysis you should carry out to get the desired results. To what extent our design is good
or bad will depend on whether we able to get the answers to our research questions. If our
design is poor, the results of the research also will not be promising. Research design can
be considered as the organization of research that holds all of the elements in a research
project together (Akhtar, 2016). In other words, it is a plan of any research work. As
outlined by research design, it is an organized plan to study a technical problem.

In this study, the researcher used mixed methods research, which is a quantitative and
qualitative method. It represents research that involves collecting, analyzing, and
interpreting quantitative and qualitative data in a single study that investigate the same
underlying phenomenon. Quantitative research method is research method dealing with
numbers and anything that is measurable in a systematic way of investigation of
phenomena and their relationships. It is used to answer questions on relationships within
measurable variables with an intention to explain, predict and control phenomena.

30
Different studies suggest that both quantitative and qualita1ive methods attribute in
solving environmental management problems (Ashley & Boyd, 2006).

Qualitative research examines the way people make sense out of their own concrete real-
life experiences in their own minds and in their own words. It is concerned with the
patterns and forms of variables. The strength of qualitative research is its ability to
provide complex textual descriptions of how people experience a given research issue. It
provides information about the human side of an issue. This explanation tells us that
quantitative methodology is associated with the rational and objective measurement of
observable phenomena, while qualitative methodology focuses on assessment of
subjective phenomena as ideas, opinion and pattern.

These tools provide results that may assist an organization in understanding experts job
satisfaction and leaders in raising experts’ job satisfaction. When there is need to examine
the existing relationship between leadership styles and facets of job satisfaction, the
researcher can use correlation research. Correlation research is used when a study seeks
to identify the extent to which two or more variables (Cresswell ,2012). Change in one
variable leads to change in the other variable. Leaders’ challenges and employees’ job
satisfaction are the independent and dependent variable of this study respectively.

3.2Population and Sample

According to the Ministry of Education 2018/19 data, there were 2 male directors
general, 16 directors among these directors 13 (81.25%) and 3 (18.75%) were male and
female respectively. Total number of experts in 16 directorates was 229 among these
number 188 (82.10%) and 41(17.90%) were male and female respectively. Out of total
229 experts, 112 (48.9 %) were sample of the study. Of this number 92 (82.14%) and 20
(15.86%) were male and female respectively. Among 6 randomly selected directors
5(83.33%) and 1(16.67%) were male and female respectively whereas both directors
general were male. Selection of experts and directorates was stratified sampling
technique. Stratified sampling technique was generally applied in order to obtain a
representative sample. The main reason to select this amount of experts and directors in

31
stratified sampling technique is to give each expert equal and independent chance of
being selected.

3.3 Sampling Techniques

In order to answer the research questions, it could be uncertain that researcher is

incapable of collecting data from all cases. Thus, there is a need to select a sample. The
entire population size from which the research sample is drawn was 229 (188 male and
41 female). Since the researcher has limitation of time and resources to use the whole
population stratified technique was chosen to reduce the number of cases to its
appropriate size (Taherdoost, 2016).

3.4 Instruments of Data Collection

To carry out the study, the researcher employed two data collation instruments: questionnaire
and interview.

3.4.1 Questionnaire

To gather data from experts’ standardized questionnaire slightly adapted from (Stride,
Wall & Catley, 2007). There are no specific restrictions on the use of this measure. It is
freely available for use. Because questionnaire is used when information is desired and
helps researcher to collect large amount of information within a short period of time (Best
and Kahn, 2006). For this reason, five-point rating scale questionnaire was used to gather
primary data of this study from experts. The job satisfaction scale consists of 28 items,
and respondents are asked to indicate on a five-point response scale the extent to which
they are satisfied or dissatisfied with each. The leadership job satisfaction subscale
comprises six items (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,); the reward job satisfaction subscale comprises four
items (6,7,8,9,10), job organization job satisfaction subscale comprises four items
(11,12,13,14,);motivation job satisfaction subscale comprises five items (15,16,17,18,19);
expectation job satisfaction subscale comprises five items (20,21,22,23,24) and work
environment job satisfaction subscale comprises four items (25,26,27,28). In addition to
close and open-ended questionnaires, semi structured interview were employed.

32
Validity and Reliability:

Validity is the extent to which the measuring instrument we are using essentially
measures the characteristic or dimension we intend to measure. To ensure validity of the
questionnaire and the interview a pilot study was carried out to pre-test the instruments.
The participants to pilot the questionnaire were 17 in number from 16 directorates taken
as sample. These 17 experts involved in pilot study were not participated in the main
study. The purpose of the pilot test was to test the clarity of each question and assess how
long it would take the respondents to fill in the questionnaires. Thus, three directors and
seventeen experts were randomly selected for piloting the interview and the questionnaire
respectively. Based on the feedback obtained from the pilot testing modifications were
made on the questionnaire and the interview.

Accordingly, general background information question about age was stated as “Age:
18- 25 years __26-30 years __ 31-35 years __36-40 years ___ 41years and above _____”.
This is interval scale measurement; numbers was needed to be scaled at equal distances.
However, the first interval is 7 whereas the rest intervals are 4. It was modified to make
suit for SPSS analysis keeping equal distance of intervals as; “Age: 21- 25 years __26-30
years __ 31-35 years __36-40 years ___ 41years and above ______”.
Again, under part two of the questionnaire, question number 8 was stated as “How
satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the fairness of the wages system at your work place
compared to the tasks you do, your co-workers wages and other people working in the
same field?” This single question was contained three sub questions in it. While piloting
the tool, the respondents were forced to give single response because the space was for
single response. The given responses could not be identified by sub variables under the
question. So this question was modified in order to treat the three variables separately and
number of question under part two of the questionnaire is changed from 26 to 28.

Reliability is the consistency, dependability and repeatability of the measuring

instrument over time, and with the same respondents.

33
 Reliability and validity are the two most important and fundamental
features in the evaluation of any measurement instrument or tool for a
good research. Validity concerns what an instrument measures, and how
well it does so. Reliability concerns the faith that one can have in the data
obtained from the use of an instrument, that is, the degree to which any
measuring tool controls for random error (Mohajan, 2017).
From this explanation, we may conclude that well-chosen and well-implemented methods
for data collection and analysis are essential for all types of evaluations. Therefore, we
need to choose carefully appropriate methods to make our instruments of data collection
valuable and reliable. Hence, in the study the reliability was found to be 0.914 Cranach’s
alpha.

3.4.2 Reliability Test

Before proceeded to the analysis of the data collected, the overall reliability of the
measurement scale was tested, Chronbach’s Alpha was conducted to test the reliability of
the instrument. As stated by Nunnaly (1979) ,the closer the reliability coefficient to 1.00
is the better. In general, reliabilities less than 0.60 are considered poor; those in the range
of 0.60 to 0.80 are considered good and acceptable. In this study, all the independent
variables and dependent variable, met the above requirement with Chronbach’s Alpha
value of 0.93, which shows high reliability. As the Cronbach’s alpha values of
independent variables are more than 0.60 then it can be easily mentioned that there is
internal consistency between items of questioners. So all the independent variables have
an internal consistency of 93%; 72%; 71%; 80%; 68 and 86.2%; correspondingly among
each other. Therefore, item scales of the independent variables are mostly seemed to be
perfect for further regression analysis. The alpha value for each question is identified and
summarized in Table 3 as shown below.

34
 Table 2: Cronbach’s Alpha for Each Independent Variable of the Study

No. Variables of the study No. of Items Alpha Value

1. Satisfaction on Leadership
2. Satisfaction on Rewards
3. Satisfaction on Job Organization
4. Satisfaction on Motivation
5. Satisfaction on Expectation
6. Satisfaction on Work Environment
Reliability of total items
6 0.93
4 0.72
4 0.71
5 0.77
5 0.80
4 0.68
28 0.77

4. 3 Interview

The researcher used interview as a means of collecting qualitative data from the
respondents. In order to be somehow flexible to the respondents, the researcher used
semi-structured interview. To secure the validity of the interview, comments from
advisor was taken and necessary modifications were made. Personnel who were involved
in the interview were two genera directors and six directors of different directorates. At
the beginning of the interview, information such as time, date and place of the interview
as well as name of interviewer and interviewees were filled in. After the overall aim of
the study was introduced to the interviewees individually, 12 interview questions were
asked in confidential location per the choice of the interviewees. The interview took place
in their respective office individually. An individual interview took 30 minutes in
average. The language used for the interview purpose was Amharic. Each interviewee’s
interview was recorded using the recorder and transcribed in to English.

3.5 Procedure of Data Collection

The data collection procedure was done with the permission of leaders and willingness of
respondents’ from the sampled directorates. Before copies of questionnaire are
distributed, orientation was given on the purpose of the study and how the items will be
answered. Then, the questionnaire was distributed a week time was given to complete the

35
questionnaire and then collected back. The distribution and collection of the questioners
were done through offices of administration and individual contacts.

3.6 Method of Data Analysis

The collected data was organized in tabular form to analyze the quantitative data. After
making the necessary coding, the researcher analyzed the data using Statistical Packages
for Social Science (SPSS). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze
the data. To analyze the demographic characteristics of the respondents, the researcher
computed using frequency distribution. Then, the data put in tables and changed to
percentage. To explore the leadership and the satisfaction status of experts mean,
standard deviation and percentage were computed. Co relational analysis was used in
order to investigate the relationship between challenges of leaders and facets of job
satisfaction. To analyze the qualitative data, which was gathered from interview, the
researcher used qualitative data analysis based on the themes of the objectives.

3.7 Ethical Considerations

First, the researcher went to the study area with a letter of cooperation, which was
prepared by Addis Ababa University, Department of Educational Planning and
Management (EDPM) to sampled directorates .The researcher briefed the objectives of
the study to the participants. During briefing, the researcher informed the participants that
the data obtained from them would serve only for research purposes. Moreover, they
were told that their names would not be mentioned in the study. Then, the study was
carried out after obtaining permission from the selected sample directorates
(departments). The researcher would be responsible for possible ethical issues that might
arise during the study, such as obtaining the informed consent of the participants for any
forms that would be completed in the study, the researcher have close alignment,
personal and professional ethical perspectives, for addressing difficult issues that might
arise during the course of the study.

36
In the course of the analysis, to maintain the ethical procedures of the study, the
researcher did not use the real names of the interviewees. Instead, names given in the
interview report were fictitious. The researcher was carefully checked whether list of
given fictitious (false) names were available in interviewees’ respective departments or
not. As a result, these names were not seen in the list. Hence, confidentiality was there.

37
CHAPTER FOUR:PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
OF DATA

This chapter discusses the presentation, analysis and interpretation of data. The chapter
consists of two major parts. The first part deals with the characteristics of respondents
included in this study; and the second part presents analysis and interpretation of the main
data. Based on the type of data collected descriptive and inferential statistical tools were
employed to analyze the data. Frequency and percentage was used to analyze the
demographic characteristics of the respondents such as sex, age, academic qualification
and work experience. In addition, mean, standard deviation, t-test, Pearson correlation
coefficient and regression were computed by SPSS version 20. Hence, the presentation
and interpretation of the data are presented in tables.

4.1. Overview of the Collected Data

This study was developed to examine the level of experts’ job satisfaction in the Ministry
of Education. The participants of the study include all experts, directors and directors
general in the Ministry of Education. The questionnaires for the study were distributed to
sixteen directorates in the Ministry of Education. There were 16 directorates led by 16
directors, 2 directors general and 2 state ministers under the minister of the Ministry of
Education. Among these 16 directorates Center for Educational Information
Communication Technology, National Educational Assessment and Examinations
Agency directorates holds 4 directorates in it and Mathematics and Science Education
Improvement Center are allocated outside the main compound of the Ministry of
Education at Mexico, Amist kilo and Shiromeda respectively. Among these16 directors,
13(81.25 %) and 3 (18.75 %) were male and female respectively.

Item scores for each category were arranged under five rating scales. The range of rating
scales were 1= Highly dissatisfied; 2= Moderately dissatisfied; 3= Not sure,4=
Moderately satisfied and 5= Highly satisfied. The above 5 scale responses of closed-
ended questionnaires were grouped and labeled into three categories i.e. dissatisfied, not

38
sure and satisfied. In categorizing the rating scales, the frequency and percentage results
of highly dissatisfied and moderately dissatisfied were combined into ‘dissatisfied’ and
the results of ‘ moderately satisfied ‘and ‘highly satisfied ‘merged to ‘satisfied’.

The calculated mean values of responses to the likert scale were interpreted as follows:
mean value from 1 to 2.49 is dissatisfied, 2.5 to 2.99 is not sure, 3 and above is satisfied.

4.2 Demographic Characteristics of Respondents

Demographic characteristics of the respondents, analyses and interpretation based on

data collected from the respondents of the study area about assessing the leadership and
experts’ job satisfaction: the case of the Ministry of Education are presented in this
chapter. Moreover, summarized results of the demographic profile of respondents and the
response towards the items included in the questionnaire as well as descriptive statistics
were described, analyzed and synthesized in tables and percentage with the help of
Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. The respondents were asked to
indicate their background information. The details of the characteristics of the
respondents are given in table 5 below. In this sub-section, demographic characteristics
including gender, work experience, and educational background responses were
summarized using frequencies and percentages. Demographic data were taken from 112
participants who filled up and returned the questionnaires.

39
 Table 3 : Participants’ Demographic Characteristics by Sex, Age, Academic
Qualification and Service Year

Sex Frequency Age Frequency Academic Frequency Servic Frequency

qualificati e year
on
Male 92 26-30 9 (8%) First 41(36.6%) 1-5 3(2.7%)
(82.1%) degree
Femal 20(17.9%) 31-35 27(24.1%) Masters 71(63.4%) 6-10 7 (8.9%)
e
36-40 26(23.2%) PhD - 11-15 33 (38.4%)
41and 50 16-20 16(14.3%)
above (44.6%0
21-25 20 (17.9%)
26-30 17 (15.2%)
31and 16 (14.3%)
above
Total 112 112 112 112 (100%)
(100%) (100%) (100%)

According to the information in tables 5 above, the total population of this study included
the 112 experts who were (82.10%) male & 41 (17.9%) female experts of the Ministry of
Education. This shows us that number of female respondents is very few. However, it
does not mean not enough for the purpose of this study. As it is mentioned under chapter
three, total number of experts in selected 16 directorates was 229. Of this number,
82.10% were male and 17.90% were female experts. Since the sample size taken for the
study was almost 50% from both male and female respondent, number of respondents
was proportional to both male and female samples.
With regard to respondents’ age distribution, indicates that majority of the respondents 50
(44.6%) were under 41 and above age interval and in the other round very few 9 (8%) of
the respondents were found to be in the range of 26-30 years old. Hence, it can be

40
generalized as the Ministry of Education had majority adult and matured employees in its
mix of staff. Majority of the respondents 63.4% were MA degree holder in their
professions. According to observed documents and trend from human resource
directorate of the Ministry of Education, the minimum requirement of educational
qualification for different disciplines of expert is first degree. From this information, one
can understand that experts in the Ministry of Education are well qualified. Majority of
the respondents 33 (29.5%) working experience were 11-15 years. These depicted that
most of experts in the Ministry of Education have good working experience. To go over
the main points, the study population shared the desired variety of profiles that were
appropriate for this study. No demographic sub categories and characteristics were under
represented. As a result, respondents have equal opportunities in their gender (gender
balance is considered), most of the respondents are adult and have good live and working
experiences and they are well qualified for their current position. Therefore, respondents
can be considered to be at their best position to provide the required information about
what exists on the ground for the topic under discussion, so their opinions can be
accepted as valid and reliable.

4.3. Major Findings of the Study

4.3. 1 Level of Experts’ Job Satisfaction with Leadership

Table 6 below presents the mean and maximum scores of the six sub variables of experts’
job satisfaction with leadership. The minimum of means for each of scales for leadership
subscale is 2.95 and the maximum 3.3, which shows that the satisfaction level with
respect to the leadership is close to the average 3.0. This portrays that most of the
respondents are satisfied with respect to leadership.

41
Table 4: Satisfaction Level of Experts with Leadership

N Mean Std. D
Level of satisfaction with the freedom leaders give their employees
112 3.30 1.146
to choose their own method of working
Level of satisfaction with the way leaders facilitate cooperation with
112 3.17 1.222
colleagues
Level of satisfaction with the recognition that leaders give for their
112 2.97 1.318
employees’ good work
Level of satisfaction with the way leaders lead the directorate (the
112 2.95 1.286
department)
Level of satisfaction with the attention leaders pay to suggestions
112 2.98 1.208
their employees make
Level of satisfaction with constructive feedback employees get from
112 3.02 1.193
their leaders
Valid N (listwise) 112

Participants in this study provided responses to interview questions that reinforced the
perspective as noted by questionnaire responses and the literature. Accordingly the
researcher asked directors and directors general “What strategies do you use to meet the
professional and personal needs of your subordinate?” to assess strategies they use to
meet the experts’ needs. Chala (personal communication, April 29, 2019) pointed out
that,

There are some planed activities to meet personal and professional needs
of experts. Among these, we are doing on: giving recognition and
acknowledgment for high performing experts on different events. Priority
to get some benefit such as further education, long term and short term
training is given for high performing experts.

Supporting this idea, Mootii (personal communication, April 29, 2019) said: “I recognize
high performing experts in staff meeting and other different events. Feedback is given on

42
the spot face to face and in written form”. Yaddessa, (personal communication, April 29,
2019) asserted, “There is recognition, encouragement and feedback system in the
ministry. However, the implementation varies depending on the directorates. … there is
room to recognize high performing experts. Using this opportunity, some experts from
different directorates are recognized”.

Other interviewees, Hagos, Hamsalnesh, and Mootii (personal communication, April 25

and29, 2019) also stated that their directorates have some planed activities to meet
personal and professional needs of experts. These are giving recognition and
acknowledgment for high performing experts on different events. In addition, priority to
get some benefit such as further education, long term and short-term training is being
given for high performing experts.

Sageer, Rafat & Agarwal (2012) describe that job satisfaction of employees can be
determined by the way leaders treat them and the leadership style. If employees are
working under democratic leaders, they will have friendship, respect and warmth with
their leaders. Because, democratic leaders promote friendship, respect and warmth
relationship among the employees. Contrary to democratic leadership style, authoritarian
and dictatorial leaders communicate low level of employee satisfaction. From these
descriptions, it is possible to say that leaders in the Ministry of Education may promote
friendship, respect and warmth relationship among the experts.

4.3.2 Level of Experts Job Satisfaction with Rewards

Table 7 below illustrates the level of experts’ job satisfaction with rewards. The
minimum mean value for each of scales for reward subscale is 1.83 and the maximum
2.54 which shows that the satisfaction level with respect to the reward is less than the
average 3.0. This represents that most of the respondents were not satisfied with respect
to reward. Leaders (directors and director generals) were asked to discuss how far are
they open, fair and genuine in promoting their subordinate and in the interview. However,
almost all of them externalized the responsibility and blaming others. For example Hagos
(personal communication, April 25, 2019) said,

43
 The responsible body for promotion is human resource directorate in the
Ministry. However, recruiting candidates among our directorate experts is our
role and responsibility. Therefore, we recruit candidates and send to human
resource directorate. We do have recruiting committee. These committee
members are representatives of the all workers in the directorate. However,
openness, fairness and genuineness depend on individual behavior of leaders and
their followers. So all these diversified needs and behavior are challenge of
leaders in raising job satisfaction of employees.

From the way leaders externalize source of the problem one can sense that they
externalized the blames for the sake of responsibility avoidance habit or for some other
reasons. Otherwise, openness, fairness and genuineness are in their hands to help others.
According to Jackson, Rossi, Hoover & Johnson (2019), any hope that helps to
implement rewards in organizations has impact on being fair and inspiring high morale.
Leaders need to have skill of employee perceptions and attitudes. This is one of the
critical skills need to be addressed in their leadership development and owned by leaders.
Leaders may focus first on creating impartiality atmosphere with their contingent reward
behaviors; as a result, they can encourage employee morale, which will subsequently
result in employees’ job satisfaction and success of the organization. Belias & Koustelios
(2014) discussed the two main types of leadership as transactional and transformational,
which likely influence the employees’ job satisfaction.

From both finding of the research and the literature, one can understand that most of
experts in the Ministry of Education are not satisfied with the leadership in the
organization. This could be due to gaps of leadership skills, practicing of partiality in
promoting rewards, and less implementation of transactional and transformational types
of leadership.

44
Table 5: Satisfaction Level of Experts with Rewards

N Mean Std. D
Level of satisfaction with leaders’ genuineness to let their
112 2.54 1.222
employees have chance of promotion
Level of satisfaction with the fairness of the wages system
112 1.83 1.130
compared to the tasks
Level of satisfaction with the fairness of the wages system
112 2.14 1.192
compared to colleagues wages
The fairness of the wages system compared to other people working
112 1.95 1.169
in the same field
Valid N (listwise) 112

4.3.3 Level of Experts Job Satisfaction with the Organization

Table 8 below illustrates level of experts’ job satisfaction with their organization. The
theme of items gets hold of leaders’ ability in allocating different tasks for different
people, the organization as a place to work, the communication channels used at work
place, and the reasonableness of the amount of work that is expected from experts.

The minimum value mean for each of scales for job organization subscale is 2.57 and the
maximum 3.15, which shows that the satisfaction level with respect to the job
organization is close to the average 3.0 though seems to skew to a lesser satisfaction. It
appears that respondents in the given sample are relatively satisfied with respect to job
organization; however, the mean values for leader’s ability in allocating different tasks
for different people and organization as a place to work are the lowest.

45
Table 6 : Satisfaction Level of Experts with Their Organization

items N Mean Std. D

Level of satisfaction with leader’s ability in allocating
112 2.57 1.228
different tasks for different people
Level of satisfaction with the organization as a place to work 112 2.84 1.174
Level of satisfaction with the communication channels used at
112 3.11 1.233
work place
Level of satisfaction with the reasonableness of the amount of
112 3.15 1.084
work that is expected from experts
Valid N (listwise) 112

To assess the conduciveness of work place in the organization, the researcher asked
directors and directors general, “How conducive is the work place in your organization
in terms of allocation of responsibilities to the right person and from the point of view of
fulfilling logistics such as telephone, internet, postal, etc?” during the interview. Hence,
Chala (personal communication, April 29, 2019) said,

Actually in fulfilling available logistics, we don’t have as such big

problem. Almost all experts have internet access and others but some
more are needed. Based on what activities of my directorate require,
some high take materials are need to be supplied to the directorate but
there is bureaucratic and battle necked problems of procurement in the
whole organization . This is the main problem of other leaders and me.

According to Rane (2011), conducive working environment is the first step to initiate job
satisfaction within the employees. Here, most crucial aspect in the process of motivation
is to find out what motivates the employees. Leaders need to arrange norms of duty to
attend the needs of the employees which motivating working environment. Furthermore,
leaders need to facilitate employee assistance centers such as employee discount
programs, child care information and others as an effort to provide an excellent work
environment for their employees.

46
4.3.4 Level of Experts Job Satisfaction with Motivation

Table 9 below shows the satisfaction level of experts with motivation. Items treated under
this theme are experts’ satisfaction with: their everyday work performance, their future
success with the organization, their knowledge and understanding on the direction and
goals of the organization, commitments of their leadership for making changes and the
appreciation from leaders for their contributions.

As per the data collected, it is possible to make the following analysis and interpretation,
the minimum of means for each of scales for motivation subscales is 2.60 and the
maximum is 3.39 which shows that the satisfaction level with respect to the motivation is
close to the average 3.0.This tells us that respondents in the given sample are satisfied
with respect to motivation. However, the mean values for commitments of the leadership
for making changes and appreciation from leaders are the lowest.

Leaders were asked how they motivate their subordinates. As a result Hundaol (personal
communication, April 25, 2019) said “ I recognize well performing experts in meeting
and any event. At the ministry level well-performed experts have got chance to visit
different places outside the country”. Hagos (personal communication, April 25, 2019)
informed, “ I motivate my subordinates having close relationship and making them feel
free”. Furthermore, from the literature, Varma states,

If the employees of a business are motivated towards organizational

objective, the business can achieve its goals very easily. The job of any
manager in an organization is to get things done through its employee and
for this; the manager should be able to motivate employees. Motivation is
a very important aspect of any work place, if the employees are not
motivated then there is no job satisfaction and this leads to reduced
productivity (Varma, 2017, P.17-18).

Following interpretation could be drawn from the data mentioned above: satisfaction with
their knowledge and understanding on the direction and goals of the organization,
satisfaction with work performance and satisfaction with experts’ future success with the
organization have been fairly performed as per the responses of experts but still need

47
some improvements. Satisfaction with the commitments of the leadership for making
changes is one of the important factors, which effects the employees’ motivation that can
record low score of satisfaction. From this analysis, it is possible to say that the leaders in
the Ministry of Education are not properly either understand the importance of motivation
or poorly practiced it in the organization.

48
Table 7 : Satisfaction Level of Experts with Motivation

N Mean Std.
Deviation
Level of satisfaction with everyday experts’ self work
112 3.05 1.146
performance
Level of satisfaction with experts’ future success with the
112 3.01 1.212
organization
Level of satisfaction with experts’ knowledge and
112 3.39 1.211
understanding on the direction and goals of the organization
Level of satisfaction with the commitments of the leadership
112 2.60 1.270
for making changes
Level of satisfaction with the appreciation from leaders for
112 2.81 1.190
experts’ contributions
Valid N (listwise) 112

4.3.5 Level of Experts Job Satisfaction with Their Expectation

Table 10 below illustrates level of experts’ job satisfaction with respect to their
expectation. Accordingly, the minimum of means for each of scales for expectations
subscale is 2.3 and the maximum is 2.68, which shows that the satisfaction level with
respect to the expectations is below average 3.0. Leaders were interviewed to comment
on expectation they observed from experts side. Then, almost all of them list experts’
expectation as salary increment, reform of the organization and job security and
remuneration. Among the leaders one, Chala (personal communication, April 29, 2019)
gave emphasis to some common issues saying:

49
 This institution is accountable for the Ministry of Education. Therefore,
experts in the institution expect promotion, compensations and job security
fulfillment from both the institution and the ministry sides. Since the
institution is not fully mandated to fulfill the issues, again it expected from
the ministry. The ministry is not fair in fulfilling the expectations. For
example, experts’ training invitation come from abroad and most of the time
the ministry ignore to give us this opportunity. Even we lost many training
those directly invite our directorate. These problems are bringing experts’
job dissatisfaction. One of the evidence for this is the high turnover of
experts taking place in the directorate.

According to Ciarniene, Kumpikaite & Vienazindiene (2010), employees have their own
diverse expectation and level of self-confidence about what they are capable of doing and
gain from it. Leaders need to discover what resources, facilities and benefit employees
need. Therefore, it is possible to say that respondents in the given sample are not satisfied
with respect to their expectation. This tells that experts could not get what they expect
from their organization. Otherwise, the organization is not deliver what it should deliver
based on experts’ expectation or leaders are not committed to fulfill experts’ expectation.
As it is mentioned from the leaders’ side, it could be due to higher officials’ bureaucratic
problems that are the challenge of middle level leaders. If so, it needs higher officials
concern. The concern should not be only from the higher officials’ side. It should be from
both middle level and high-level leaders’ sides. If middle level leaders are committed and
try their best there is possibility to tackle the problems.

50
Table 8 : Satisfaction Level of Experts with Their Expectation

N Mean S.D
Level of satisfaction with opportunities leaders provide to
111 2.68 1.095
fully utilize experts’ abilities
Level of satisfaction with leaders concern about experts’ job
112 2.55 1.130
security
Level of satisfaction with possibilities to take initiative at
112 2.60 1.135
work
Level of satisfaction with the possibilities to be promoted 112 2.38 1.202
Level of satisfaction with the compensation compared to
112 2.30 1.244
work responsibilities
Valid N (listwise) 111
Weighted mean 2.50

4.3.6 Level of Experts Job Satisfaction with Working Environment

Table 11 below indicates job satisfaction of experts with Working Environment. Four
items have been treated under this theme are level of satisfaction with: safety of experts’
work place, the supporting equipment experts are using to help their job, the training and
re-training provided at work place and the discussions experts make with their leaders on
ways to improve their working environment. The table shows that the minimum of means
for each of scales for work environment subscale is 2.5 and the maximum is 2.74, this
depicted that the satisfaction level with respect to the work environment is below the
average 3.0.

Leaders (directors and directors general) were asked to tell what the working
environment looks like in their respective directorates from the point of view of training
opportunities, the platform for holding discussions among experts. As a result, most of
them indicated that the training opportunity is not sound good and fair. For example,
Hundaol (personal communication, April 25,2019) said, “the training opportunity in our
directorate is more of in staff training and short term as well as long term training need
to be given from the ministry side is very limited.” And Hagos ( personal communication,
51
April 25,2019) also said, “ Training opportunities in my directorate is rare. We have
almost no this opportunity. But there is well-organized platform of discussion among
colleagues.”

According to Lane, Esser, Holte, & Anne ( as cited in Abdulraziq & Maulabakhsh , 2014)
there are factors within the working environment such as, working hours, wages,
autonomy given to employees, organizational structure and communication between
employees & management those have an effect on employees’ job satisfaction.

Sharma (2019) stated that environment has a positive impact on job satisfaction of
employees. Underprivileged and unsafe workplace environment, result in considerable
losses of employee job satisfaction. Moreover, he explained that the employees of any
organization will have the simplicity of working in a relaxed and free environment
without burden or pressure can cause improvement in their performance. The
conduciveness of work environment of any organization will increase job satisfaction of
the employees.

For that reason, it is possible to say that respondents in the given sample are not satisfied
with respect to work environment. This tells that working environment is may not be
conducive, attractive and healthy. Moreover, it is possible to say that factors related to
working environment such as, wages, independence of employees, organizational
structure and communication between employees & leaders in the organization, the
Ministry of Education are not to the level of satisfaction partially or overall. Working
environment in the Ministry of Education seems underprivileged and resulted in
dissatisfaction of its experts.

52
Table 9: Satisfaction Level of Experts with Working Environment

N Mean S.D
Level of satisfaction with safety of experts’ work place 112 2.72 1.254
Level of satisfaction with the supporting equipment experts
112 2.74 1.243
are using to help their job
Level of satisfaction with the training and re-training provided
112 2.50 1.238
at your work place
Level of satisfaction with the discussions experts make with
112 2.66 1.111
their leaders on ways to improve their working environment
Valid N (listwise) 112

In addition, experts were asked to list what challenges their leaders face in enhancing job
satisfaction of experts in open-ended questionnaire. Hence, they listed some challenges
they individually observed as follows:

Decision making problem of leaders and top leaders interference: This is to mean
that the middle level leaders (directors) have no positional power to allocate budget for
experts’ job satisfaction factors need budget. They depend on the higher-level leaders or
higher officials’ willingness.

Knowledge and skill gaps of leaders: Because of their poor experience and gaps of
leading ability, they may face challenges in raising experts’ job satisfaction.

Poor system of the organization: Experts emphasized in the open ended responses that
the system including the structure of the organization are the bottle neck in middle level
leaders effort to raise job satisfaction of experts.

4.3.7 Comparisons by Groups with Respect to Sex

As you can see in table 12 below, the comparison of the scales with respect to sex reveals
that only the subscales of Job Satisfaction Scale of Rewards (JSSR) (t = 2.364, df =
23.989, and p =.027) and of Job Satisfaction Scale of Expectations (JSSE) (t = 2.311, df =
23.711, and p =.030) were found to be statistically significant difference while all the

53
other subscales are not. The difference between males and females in the subscale of
reward can be justified due to the affirmative action that is taking place in the
organization. There is likely that higher reward schemes favor females than males. The
same is true for the expectation subscale. The reason for this is as well that females
expect less than the males, and hence are satisfied with the opportunities they receive to
meet their expectations. The fact the difference in all the other variables are not
statistically significant that there is no variation in terms of organization, work
environment, motivation, and leadership as all are provided with same resources.

Spector (as cited in Concialdi, 2014), found that no significant differences of job
satisfaction in gender but they warranted this conclusions explaining that almost all male
have power over an higher position than female, who have more clerical jobs. For this
reason, they believe that women could be happier when they have less demanding jobs
because of their lower expectation. This result is in consonance with the findings of who
discovered that the female employees are more satisfied in their jobs than their male
counterparts are. He reason out that it was due to the fact male gender are the
breadwinners and shoulder the responsibilities they may not satisfied. Male employees’
financial responsibilities are huge, their expectations from the job are usually higher than
that of the females, for these reasons their job satisfaction is less.

Therefore, from both the finding of the study and the literature it is possible to say that
the Ministry of Education is gender sensitive. Because of affirmative action and priority
being given to female employees especially female experts, job satisfaction of female
experts is more than the male experts. Besides, due to cultural influence and trends it is
difficult to join better and well-paid occupation for females. As a result, when they get
job opportunity they can easily satisfied because of their less expectation.

54
 Table 10 : Comparisons by Groups with Respect to Sex

Sex N Mean Std. Std. t df sig

Error
Mean
Total Score of JSSL Items Female 20 19.45 6.770 1.514 .785 26.000 .440
Equality of variance not
Male 92 18.16 6.048 .631
assumed
Total Score of JSSR Items Female 20 10.25 4.303 .962 2.364 23.989 .027
Equality of variance not
Male 92 7.84 3.269 .341
assumed
Total Score of JSSJO Items Female 20 13.40 5.762 1.288 1.964 110 .052
Equality of variance assumed Male 92 11.53 3.320 .346
Total Score of JSSM items Female 20 16.35 5.509 1.232 1.691 110 .094
Equality of variance assumed Male 92 14.54 4.042 .421
Total Score of JSSE items Female 20 14.85 5.274 1.179 2.311 23.711 .030
Equality of variance not
Male 92 11.97 3.898 .406
assumed
Total Score of SSWE items Female 20 11.70 4.342 .971 1.532 110 .128
Equality of variance assumed Male 92 10.39 3.248 .339

4.3.8 Comparisons by Groups with Respect to Service Year

Table 13 below presents p-values that are greater than 0.05 for each of the subscales.
Hence, there is no statistically significant difference between groups of service years for
each sub-scale. From these comparisons, it is possible to understand that the satisfaction
is not limited by the experts’ service year. All have almost equal level of job satisfaction.

55
 Table 11 : Comparisons by Groups with Respect to Service Year
Total Score of JSSL Items Total Score of JSSR Items Total Score of JSSJO Items
service N mean SD service N mean SD service N mean SD
11.6
1-5 3 12.00 3.606 1-5 3 6.33 1.528 1-5 3 5.508
7
13.7
6-10 7 19.71 6.291 6-10 7 10.43 5.318 6-10 7 4.030
1
11.2
11-15 33 17.97 6.008 11-15 33 7.91 3.548 11-15 33 2.979
4
10.7
16-20 16 15.94 5.825 16-20 16 7.56 3.966 16-20 16 3.357
5
12.9
21-25 20 19.35 6.426 21-25 20 8.95 3.748 21-25 20 5.615
5
12.8
26-30 17 20.41 5.948 26-30 17 8.76 3.231 26-30 17 3.712
2
31 & 31 & 31 & 11.1
16 19.00 6.419 16 7.75 2.569 16 3.222
Above Above Above 3
11 11.8
Total 18.39 6.171 Total 112 8.27 3.577 Total 112 3.903
2 7
Total Score of JSSM items Total Score of JSSE items Total Score of SSWE items
11.3
1-5 3 7.095 1-5 3 9.33 3.786 1-5 3 8.33 1.528
3
17.1 10.8
6-10 7 4.776 6-10 7 16.00 6.055 6-10 7 5.146
4 6
15.0 10.2
11-15 33 3.908 11-15 33 11.64 3.880 11-15 33 3.214
9 7
12.8
16-20 16 4.020 16-20 16 11.44 3.687 16-20 16 9.00 3.141
1
14.8 11.2
21-25 20 4.428 21-25 20 12.80 4.697 21-25 20 3.110
5 5
16.7 12.4
26-30 17 4.395 26-30 17 13.82 4.586 26-30 17 3.572
6 1
31 & 14.1 31 & 31 & 10.6
16 4.113 16 12.50 3.347 16 3.575
Above 3 Above Above 3
11 14.8 10.6
Total 4.367 Total 112 12.48 4.295 Total 112 3.483
2 7 3

56
 4.3.9 Comparison between Departments with Respect to Leadership Satisfaction

Participants’ response indicate that there is statistically significant difference among

departments on the leadership subscale (F(12, 99) = 2.48, p = 0.007. However, in relation
to other subscales, there is no statistically significant difference. Kendall, Murphy,
O’Neill & Bursnall ( 2000), state that leadership can be affected in many ways. Among
these ways, they focus on vocational placement. Besides, leaders can be vulnerable to
role conflict. Role conflict can be exhibited in role ambiguity among professionals. As a
result, role ambiguity emerges as significant predictors of emotional exhaustion and low
level of job satisfaction.
Conflict in the workplace has been identified as a significant source of
stress for some workers, as reflected by the fact that many stress claims
can be linked with the mismanagement of conflict at work, negative
interpersonal interactions with co-workers, and negative reactions to
management decisions. Cotton, Fisher & Shergold (as cited in Kendall,
Murphy, O’Neill & Bursnall, 2000, P.36).

From both finding of the study and literatures, one can understand that there is individual
difference among leaders of directorates (departments) in leading their respective
departments. This individual difference may result from managing conflict at work place,
negative interpersonal interactions with experts and other leadership skill gaps. Besides,
as it was mentioned in experts open ended questions some directors and both directors
general are politically appointed. If so, they may lack leading skills and cannot manage
work place conflict and other problems. This difference may bring satisfaction
dissimilarity among departments (directorates). Had all leaders appointment been merit
based the difference in level of job satisfaction among experts would be less. Therefore,
the solution seems to make the assignment on merit based.

57
 Table 12 : Comparison between Departments with Respect to Leadership Satisfaction

ANOVA
Sum of df Mean F Sig.
Squares Square
Between Groups 976.796 12 81.400 2.480 .007
Total Score of JSSL
Within Groups 3249.918 99 32.827
Items
Total 4226.714 111
Between Groups 195.807 12 16.317 1.320 .220
Total Score of JSSR
Within Groups 1224.158 99 12.365
Items
Total 1419.964 111
Between Groups 142.444 12 11.870 .759 .691
Total Score of JSSJO
Within Groups 1548.547 99 15.642
Items
Total 1690.991 111
Between Groups 295.509 12 24.626 1.338 .209
Total Score of JSSM
Within Groups 1821.482 99 18.399
items
Total 2116.991 111
Between Groups 326.130 12 27.178 1.563 .115
Total Score of JSSE
Within Groups 1721.834 99 17.392
items
Total 2047.964 111
Between Groups 141.876 12 11.823 .972 .481
Total Score of SSWE
Within Groups 1204.374 99 12.165
items
Total 1346.250 111

For each of the subscales there is statistically significant association to predict job
satisfaction of experts in the Ministry of Education.

58
Table 13: Association between Scales

One way-ANOVA
Association/Correlations
Sum of df Mean F Sig.
Squares Square
Between Groups 330.711 6 55.118 1.485 .190
Total Score of JSSL
Within Groups 3896.003 105 37.105
Items
Total 4226.714 111
Between Groups 73.910 6 12.318 .961 .455
Total Score of JSSR
Within Groups 1346.055 105 12.820
Items
Total 1419.964 111
Between Groups 104.665 6 17.444 1.155 .336
Total Score of JSSJO
Within Groups 1586.326 105 15.108
Items
Total 1690.991 111
Between Groups 212.944 6 35.491 1.957 .078
Total Score of JSSM
Within Groups 1904.047 105 18.134
items
Total 2116.991 111
Between Groups 190.053 6 31.676 1.790 .108
Total Score of JSSE
Within Groups 1857.911 105 17.694
itemes
Total 2047.964 111
Between Groups 124.563 6 20.761 1.784 .109
Toal Score of SSWE
Within Groups 1221.687 105 11.635
itemes
Total 1346.250 111

In order to see the contribution of each of the subscales on the overall performance of the
experts multiple linear regression was run the result of which is presented below.

59
The regression model significantly associates to represent the prediction of the
performance appraisal of experts accounted by the six subscales.
Table 14: t-test
Unstandardized Standardiz t Sig.
Coefficients ed
Coefficien
ts
B Std. Beta
Error
(Constant) 75.531 2.069 36.498 .000
Total Score of JSSL Items .173 .110 .178 1.571 .119
Total Score of JSSR Items -.159 .177 -.095 -.901 .370
Total Score of JSSJO Items -.258 .164 -.167 -1.567 .120
Total Score of JSSM items .314 .180 .228 1.748 .083
Total Score of JSSE itemes .198 .181 .141 1.095 .276
Toal Score of SSWE itemes .397 .183 .230 2.174 .032

The adjusted R2 value is .222 that means 22.2% of the performance of the experts is
accounted for the subscales. The regression model is expressed as Performance Appraisal
Result of Experts = 75.53 +.173 JSSL -.159 JSSR -.258 JSSJO + .314 JSSM + .198
JSSE . Though the subscales seem to be non-significant, as noted in the ANOVA
presented above, the regression was statistically significant. This shows that both reward
and job organization are negatively account to performance appraisal of the experts.

60
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter includes the major findings, conclusions and recommendations. It begins
with the description of the study and goes to summarize the findings of the study
followed by conclusions. Finally, recommendations were forwarded. The purpose of this
study was to investigate the challenges of leaders in raising job satisfaction of experts in
the Ministry of Education. In order to achieve this objective, the following three basic
questions were discussed:

1. To what extent are experts satisfied with their job?

2. Is there significant difference in the perceptions of experts on each of the six job
satisfaction sub-scales (leadership, rewards, job organization, motivation, expectations
and work environment) between groups (sex, service year, department) in the Ministry of
Education?
3. Is there significant relationship between the perceptions of job satisfaction of experts

and leaders evaluation in the Ministry of Education?

Primary data, questionnaire and interview were collected from experts and middle level
leaders by using slightly adapted standardized questionnaire from Stride, Wall & Catley
(2007). The questionnaire consisted 28 items with five-likert scale. It also incorporated
demographic characteristics and open-ended questions. To identify the demographic
characteristics of the respondents, variables such as sex, age, department they were
working in, their working experience and their academic qualification were included in
the questionnaire. There were three open-ended questions. The questionnaire was
distributed to 115 experts. Of these experts, 112 (97.4%) of them were returned the
questionnaire. The analysis was done accordingly. Taking the three research questions in
to account, the collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.

5.1. Summary of Major Findings

1. Concerning the extent of experts’ satisfaction with their job, the minimum of means

for each of scales for leadership subscale was 2.95 and the maximum was 3.3. From this,

61
 one can conclude that the satisfaction level of experts is closer to the average and most of

experts satisfied with respect to leadership.

2. In accordance with satisfaction of experts with rewards from the ministry, minimum of
means for each of scales for reward subscale was 1.83 and the maximum was 2.54. From
this descriptive statistics, it is possible to say that most of the respondents were
dissatisfied with reward and its system in the organization.
3. Regarding satisfaction with job organization in the ministry, the minimum of means for
each of job organization subscale was 2.57 and the maximum was 3.15. Therefore, from
this finding one can understand that the satisfaction level with respect to the job
organization is close to the average 3.0 even if it seems to skew to a lesser satisfaction.
4. The result of this study with regard to satisfaction with motivation, the descriptive
statistics portrays that the minimum of means for each of scales for motivation subscale
was 2.60 and the maximum was 3.39. From this description, one can conclude that
respondents were satisfied with respect to motivation. Although satisfaction under the sub
scale, the mean values for commitments of the leadership for making changes and
appreciation from leaders are the lowest.
5. As far as the satisfaction of experts with their expectation is concerned, result from the
data reveals that minimum of means for each of scales under expectations subscale was
2.3 and the maximum was 2.68. This description explains that the satisfaction level with
respect to the expectations is below average 3.0 and most of the respondents were
dissatisfied with respect to their expectation.
6. Regarding satisfaction of experts with work environment, the minimum of means for
each of scales under work environment subscale was 2.5 and the maximum was 2.74, this
description shows that the satisfaction level of experts with respect to the work
environment is below the average 3.0. Therefore, most of the respondents were
dissatisfied with the working environment they have.
7. Finding from comparison of the scales with respect to sex tells that only the subscales of
Job Satisfaction Scale of Rewards (JSSR) (t = 2.364, df = 23.989, and p =.027) and of
Job Satisfaction Scale of Expectations (JSSE) (t = 2.311, df = 23.711, and p =.030) were
found to be statistically significant difference while all the other subscales are not. The

62
 differentiation could be justified as the affirmative action that is taking place in the
organization favor females. However, different literatures and practices in Ethiopia do
not favor female. there is discriminatory practice that let male have power over higher
position than female. Concialdi (2014) further states that women could be happier when
they have less demanding jobs because of their lower expectation.
8. As of comparisons by groups with respect to service year presented in chapter four table
13, p-values that are greater than 0.05 for each of the subscales. This implies that there is
no statistically significant difference between groups of service years for each sub-scale.
Therefore, it is possible to say that satisfaction level has nothing to do with to service
year.
9. Regarding comparison between departments with respect to leadership satisfaction,
statistically significant difference between departments on the leadership subscale was
seen (F 12, 99) = 2.48, p = 0.007. However, there is no statistically significant difference
between the departments with respect to all the other subscales. This could be due to role
conflict, role ambiguity among experts, mismanagement of conflict at work, negative
interpersonal interactions with co-workers, and negative reactions to management
decisions which emerge as significant predictors of emotional overtiredness and low level
of job satisfaction.
10. Contribution of each of the subscales on the overall performance of the experts was
checked by multiple linear regressions. Consequently, the adjusted R2 value is .222 that
means 22.2% of the performance of the experts is accounted for the subscales. The
regression model is expressed as Performance Appraisal Result of Experts = 75.53 +.173
JSSL -.159 JSSR -.258 JSSJO + .314 JSSM + .198 JSSE . Though the subscales seem to
be non-significant, as noted in the ANOVA. The above analysis shows that both reward
and job organization are negatively account to performance appraisal of the experts.
11. In addition, some challenges of leaders in raising job satisfaction of experts are clearly
indicated in the experts’ open-ended questionnaire and middle level leaders interview.
These challenges include :
 Interference of high-level leaders in decision making of middle level leaders. This shows
that middle level leaders (directors) have no positional power in decision-making and
they are forced to depend on the higher-level leaders or higher officials’ willingness.

63
 Politically assigned leaders who are with knowledge and skill gaps of leadership. These
leaders poor experience and leading ability can pave the way for experts job satisfaction.
This challenge is the serious and bottle neck to leaders in their effort of raising job
satisfaction.
 Poor promotion system of the organization which has no room for encourage middle
level leaders to promote and keep their followers job satisfaction. Here experts are
strongly point out that there is no promising hop for salary increment and fringe benefit
provision.

5.2 Conclusions

From the major findings of the study, the following conclusions have been drawn. Job
satisfaction level of experts with their leadership is closer to the average and most of
experts were satisfied but this satisfaction did not happen with rewards. Most of the
respondents were dissatisfied with reward and its system in the organization.

The extent of experts’ satisfaction with their job organization was satisfactory even if it
seems skew to less satisfaction. Respondents were satisfied with respect to motivation.
To the contrary, dissatisfaction was seen under the sub scales of commitments of the
leadership for making changes and appreciation from leaders.

Concerning expectation of experts, their satisfaction level is below the average. This
depicted that most of the respondents were dissatisfied with respect to their expectation.
The same is true with working environment. Majority of the respondents were
dissatisfied with their working environment.

Finding from comparison of the scales with respect to sex indicates that only the
subscales of Job Satisfaction Scale of Rewards (JSSR) and of Job Satisfaction Scale of
Expectations (JSSE) were found to be statistically significant difference while all the
other subscales are not. The differentiation is seen as affirmative action that is taking
place in the organization, which favor females and discriminatory practice that let male
have power on higher position than female. Because of low expectation, female could be
happier when they have less demanding jobs.

64
 There is no statistically significant difference between groups of service years for each
sub-scale. This reveals that satisfaction respect to service year is not limited by the
experts’ service year. This means service year does not matter for experts’ satisfaction.

The comparison between departments with respect to leadership satisfaction was

identified. statistically significant difference between the departments with respect to all
the other subscales was observed. This could be due to various reasons such as role
conflict and role ambiguity among leaders, mismanagement and negative interpersonal
interactions, and negative reactions to management decisions.

Concerning the contribution of each of the subscales on the overall performance of the
experts, only 22.2% of the performance of the experts is positively accounted for the
subscales and 77.8% of the performance is negatively accounted to performance appraisal
of experts. Here, sub scales negatively accounted are both reward and job organization. In
addition, challenges of leaders in raising job satisfaction of experts were reiterated in
open-ended questions and leaders’ interview. Some of them are presented as follows:

 Interference of high-level leaders (higher officials) in decision making of

directors.
 Politically assigned leaders having knowledge and skill gaps of leadership
 Poor promotion system of the organization

5.3. Recommendations

Based on the conclusion the researcher makes the following recommendations:

1. Reward gives a significant effect to the employees, performance and job satisfaction in
organizations. The type of reward practices used by an organization play an important
role in motivating employees to perform well. To understand reward management and all
the aspects is important to implement effectively. In this study, most respondents
responded that they are not satisfied with the reward system in the Ministry of Education.
Among identified gabs, one is lack of awareness about rewards. To improve the reward
system, the Ministry of Education is recommended to establish rewarding system, which
can raise job satisfaction of employees.

65
2. Leaders mentioned their positional power as gab and challenge to raise their
subordinates’ job satisfaction. For complaints about absence of leaders’ positional power
mentioned above, the researcher would like to recommend the Ministry of Education to
guarantee the mandate and decision power leader should have and protect them from
higher leaders interference in their decision.
3. Experts including leaders expectations from their organization (MoE) were seen from
their response to the question they have been asked to level satisfaction they have with
their expectation. They revealed that they were dissatisfied with it. This conflict between
the experts’ expectations and actual experiences may influence their satisfaction as well
as their commitment to the organizations they serve. The existing expectation gaps needs
to be filled with solution involving employees in identifying the gabs. Therefore, the
researcher would like to recommend the Ministry of Education to identify the experts
expectation gabs and set strategies to fill with the solutions considering their
expectations.
4. Conducive working environment is the first step to initiate job satisfaction within the
employees. However, from the finding of this research one can understand that there is
experts’ dissatisfaction with their working environment. As a solution the researcher,
recommend middle level leaders (directors) to make work environment conducive using
different strategies and reform tools.
5. One of the main sources of challenges facing middle level leaders in raising experts’ job
satisfaction was identified as politically assigned leaders who were with knowledge and
skill gaps of leadership. Since this is serious problem needs to be addressed, the
researcher recommend the Federal Ministry of Education to assign leaders based on
merit. This enables leaders to exercise their power effectively and fruitfully. It can also
call for competent leaders to the position.

66
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 Appendices

Appendix A: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR EXPERTS

ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND BEHAVIORAL STUDIES
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

Dear Respondent,
The purpose of this questionnaire is to assess challenges of leaders in raising job
satisfaction of Experts in the ministry of education. So, you are kindly requested to give
genuine and appropriate response. The researcher would like to assure you that the
information you give will be kept confidential and used only for academic purpose. The
researcher wishes to extend gratitude for your cooperation in advance.
General Direction:
This questionnaire has three parts. There is direction under each part. Read it carefully
and you are expected to respond accordingly. You are not required to write your
name.

Part I: Personal Information:

Read each item carefully and put a “√” mark in the blank space against your choice.
1. Sex: M _____ F ____
2. Age: 21- 25 years __26-30 years __ 31-35 years __36-40 years ___ 41years and above
______
3. Academic Qualification: Diploma ____Degree ______ Masters ____ PhD ______
4. Experience (service year):1-5 __ 6-10 __ 11-15 __ 16- 20 __ 21 -25__ 26 – 30
__31&above__
5. In which department are you currently working?
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

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Part II: The Job Satisfaction Scale
This part has 28items. It asks to what extent you are satisfied / dissatisfied with your job.
Each item is presented with five rating, ranging from highly dissatisfied to highly
satisfied. Please indicate how satisfied or dissatisfied you feel by putting tick (√) in the
appropriate box.
Use the rating scale to mean 1= Highly dissatisfied ; 2= Moderately dissatisfied; 3=
Not sure 4= Moderately satisfied 5= Highly satisfied

No 1 2 3 4 5
How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with:
Leadership
1. the freedom your leader gives you to choose your
own method of working.
2. the way your leader facilitates cooperation with your
colleagues.
3. the recognition that your leaders gives for your
good work.
4. the way your leader leads the directorate ( how
optimistic you feel).
5. the attention your leader pays to suggestions you
make.

6. constructive feedback you get from

your leader.
Rewards
7. your leader’s genuineness to let you have chance of
promotion.
8. the fairness of the wages system at your
work place compared to the tasks you do.
9. the fairness of the wages system at your
work place compared to your colleagues wages.

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No 1 2 3 4 5
How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with:
10. the fairness of the wages system at your
work place compared to other people working in the
same field.
Job Organization
11. your leader’s ability in allocating different tasks for
different people.
12. the organization as a place to work.
13. the communication channels used at your work
place? (telephone, internet, intranet, postal)
14. the reasonableness of the amount of work that is
expected from you.
Motivation
15. the work you perform everyday.
16. your future success with the organization.
17. your knowledge and understanding on the direction
and goals of the organization.
18. the commitments of the leadership for making
changes.
19. the appreciation from your leader for your
contributions.
Expectations
20. Opportunities your leaders provide to fully utilize
your abilities.
21. your leaders concern about your job security.
22. possibilities to take initiative at your work.
23. the possibilities to be promoted in your work.
24. the compensation you get compared
to your work responsibilities.
Work Environment
25. safety of your work place.

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No 1 2 3 4 5
How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with:
26. the supporting equipment you are using to help your
job.
27. the training and re-training you are provided at your
work place.
28. the discussions you make with your leader on
ways to improve your working environment.

Part III: Open-ended questions

Dear respondent, you are kindly requested to answer the following questions briefly.

1. What challenges do you think your leader face in enhancing job satisfaction of the
employees?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

2. What tasks are expected from your leader to raise job satisfaction of the experts?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

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3. In what ways do you think your leader can improve job satisfaction of experts?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

Thank you for completing the Questionnaire!!!

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 APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW

ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND BEHAVIORAL STUDIES
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

The purpose of this interview is to assess challenges of leaders in raising job satisfaction
of Experts in ministry of education. Personnel who are involved in the interview will be
directors of different directorates in the ministry. At the beginning of the interview,
information about the background of the participants will be asked.
Confidentiality: The records of this study will be kept private. In any sort of report, the
researcher will not include any information that will make it possible to identify a
participant. Research records will be stored securely, and only the researcher will have
access to the records. All responses submitted in the pre-survey instrument will remain
confidential. Interviews will be done in a confidential location.

Title of Study: The Challenges of Leaders in Raising Experts’ Job satisfaction in

Ministry of Education

Time of interview:_________ Date: _________Place:_____________________

Interviewer: ___________________ Interviewee:
Introduction/Description of Project _______________________________
1. Thank you for your willingness. Would you tell me about yourself your name, your
directorate name and your position in the ministry?

2. Would you tell me about your qualification for this position?

3. How have your educational and work experiences prepared you for this position?

4. What strategies do you use to meet the professional and personal needs of your
subordinates ( experts) in terms of giving:
 recognition,
 encouragement and
 feedback?

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5. How far are you open, fair and genuine in promoting your subordinate in your
directorate?

6. How conducive is the work place in your organization in terms of allocation of

responsibilities to the right person and from the point of view of fulfilling logistics such
as telephone, internet, postal, etc?

7. How you motivate your subordinates in the organization? In addition, what are
challenges you face to motivate your subordinates to the level you supposed to
motivate?

8. What do you think your subordinates (experts) expect from the organization (ministry
of education) in terms of promotion, compensations and job security? and to what
extent do you think they satisfy with their expectation?
9. What does the work environment look like from the point of view of training
opportunities, the platform for holding discussions among experts (colleagues)?

10. In your directorate, what do experts complain about their job dissatisfaction?

11. Tell me about difficult situations/ challenges that you encountered to raise job
satisfaction of your subordinates/experts?

12. What strategies does your organizational management put in place to ensure that
your experts are satisfied with their job?

Thank you!!

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 DECLARATION

I, the under signed, declared that this thesis is my original work and has not been presented
for a degree in any other university, and that all source of materials used for the thesis have
been duly acknowledged.
Name: Abera Lakew
Signature: ________________
Date. ____________________
This thesis has been submitted for examination with my approval as university advisor.
Name: Demoze Degefa (PhD)
Signature _________________
Date ____________________

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