Job involvement and job satisfaction of South African nurses compared with other professions

The study was designed primarily to compare the work outcomes of job satisfaction and job involvement of South African nurses with those of members of 13 other professional groups in South Africa and with American nurses where data was available. Secondary aims included identifying areas where job satisfaction was particularly low and demonstrating the relative independence of the job involvement and job satisfaction constructs. A questionnaire incorporating the Kanungo Job Involvement Scale and the Short Form of the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire was mailed to random samples of people between the ages of 29 and 41 drawn from 14 professional registers. There were 114 nurses in the final sample and 1677 members of other professions. Differences among professions were tested for significance using one-way analyses of variance and Bonferroni ranges tests. South African Nurses were shown to have extremely low job satisfaction relative to American nurses and to other professional groups in South-Africa. By contrast their job involvement was moderately high. The implications of these findings for the medical profession as a whole and for nurses in particular are discussed. The fear is expressed that wide spread dissatisfaction may lead to fewer people entering the profession and highly trained people leaving.