Gender and Age Differences in Job Satisfaction among Junior and Senior Staff in the University of Cape Coast, Ghana

Abstract

This study is an attempt to examine the positive relationship between age and gender on job satisfaction. The Gender of a person and the Age of an individual has some link with the job satisfaction of a member of staff. Management theorists including Sheppard and Herrick (1972) attest to this. This research aims at ascertaining how gender and age differences affect the individual’s satisfaction on the job as far as junior and senior staff in the University of Cape Coast are concerned.The study involved an accessible population size of 100 staff which comprised 47 senior staff and 53 junior staff. The short form of the Minnesota questionnaire was used. The findings from the study depicted among others the following: that both male and female staff were satisfied with their present professional status. It is clear from this, that attaining a higher professional status through upgrading oneself will bring its concomitant financial benefits. It is therefore recommended that junior and senior staff should be urged to improve upon themselves academically.As remuneration no doubt affects the job satisfaction of workers, the study elucidated the fact that male and female staff were dissatisfied with remuneration. It is therefore recommended that this aspect of job satisfaction is reviewed periodically based on inflationary trends and more so to reflect the current cost of living in the country.In the area of welfare package for staff, it was recognized that male workers were more dissatisfied than their female counterparts.The study also indicated that females were more satisfied than males in the area of academic qualification depicting that they did not have the urge to attain higher academic qualifications probably because of the assumption that a highly educated woman may not get a husband to marry which is a purely gendered attitude. The researcher being a female does not want to assume that females are afraid of attaining higher academic laurels, hence it is suggested that public universities should institute measures to make attaining higher academic qualification more attractive to female staff.

Keywords: Gender, Age Differences, Job satisfaction, Extrinsic and Intrinsic areas of job satisfaction.