The aim of this study was to investigate the job satisfaction status of
occupational therapists in the Public Health Sector (PHS) of the Free State
(FS). For the purpose of this study, job satisfaction referred to the occupational
therapistâs perception of the fulfillment and gratification experienced while doing
their work within the context of the PHS.
A scientific inquiry was instigated to assess and address the job satisfaction of
occupational therapists in the PHS of which the researcher, at the time of the
study, was part. Employees of the PHS at that time seemed to suffer from low
morale and the frequency with which occupational therapists became
disillusioned with either the profession or the PHS was worrisome.
The investigation was conducted by making use of multiple research methods
namely questionnaires for the quantitative typical descriptive study design and
semi-structured interviews for the qualitative phenomenological study design.
Electronic self-administrative questionnaires were distributed to all the
occupational therapists in the service of the Free State Department of Health in
November 2008. Thirty-five (n=35) questionnaires were used for the analysis of
quantitative data. In augmentation to this base-line data gathered, semistructured
interviews with an opening question and an interview schedule were
conducted among fifteen occupational therapists practicing in the PHS of the FS
between November and December 2008.
The thirty-five respondents in the quantitative investigation, as well as the
sixteen participants in the semi-structured interviews, represented a largely
homogenous group of white, Afrikaans-speaking females on senior, chief and
assistant manager level. Community service occupational therapists who had
already completed at least six monthsâ tenure were also included. Only
occupational therapists directly involved in clinical services were eligible to
participate in the study. The results of the study showed that the occupational therapists in the PHS of
the FS experienced low levels of job satisfaction. This was found to be in
contrast with most other studies conducted on the job satisfaction of
occupational therapists in other parts of the world.
This disparity was clarified when the contextual factors of the PHS such as;
inadequate resources, excessive red-tape, poor management and an
undesirable working environment were configured. The results and findings
showed that the afore-mentioned facets were sources of dissatisfaction for the
participants and consequently increased their job dissatisfaction. More so
however, the main causes of the occupational therapists dissatisfaction were;
the low status of occupational therapy as a profession and poor salary.
Inadequate career-paths and disillusionment with the current performance
appraisal system of the PHS added to further dissatisfaction for the participants
in this study.
The main source of the occupational therapistsâ satisfaction with the job was
that of âworking with people, making a difference and experiencing success with
clientsâ. Secondary facets of satisfaction were the relationships colleagues had
with each other, inherent characteristics of the profession such as autonomy,
creativity, diversity and to a lesser degree some advantages to working in the
PHS such as fringe benefits and job/income security.
In conclusion it was found that the job satisfaction status of the occupational
therapists in the PHS of the FS was low. This was mainly due to the influence
of contextual factors and not with regards to profession itself. As was the last
objective of the study, extensive recommendations were made to redress the
balance between job satisfaction and dissatisfaction for this population.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-10042011-103520 |
| Date | 04 October 2011 |
| Creators | Swanepoel, Juanita Millicent |
| Contributors | Me T van der Merwe, Dr SM van Heerden |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-10042011-103520/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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