Organization and overall job satisfaction among publicly employed, salaried dentists in Sweden and Denmark

In Sweden and Denmark, clinical dentistry is changing and public dentistry is in transition towards more market orientation. Dentists' overall job satisfaction is important for how public dentistry can fulfil the new expectations from patients, the public and politicians.

The aim of this study was to investigate what organizational factors were important for publicly employed salaried dentists' overall job satisfaction.

A random sample of active, general dental practitioners (private and publicly employed) was selected in Denmark and in Sweden, and they received a postal questionnaire. The number of questionnaires was 1835 and the response rate was 68% (n = 1226). This study analysed only the publicly employed dentists. The sampling frame for the Swedish dentists was 431, response rate 68.9% (n = 297) and for the Danish ones 194, response rate 81.9% (n = 159). Multivariate regression was used with overall job satisfaction as a dependent variable.

Common organizational variables were important. The used model explained between 32% (Sweden) and 39% (Denmark) of the variance in overall job satisfaction. The only significant individual factor was less job satisfaction for Swedish dentists born outside Sweden. An organizational climate characterized by a focus on professional values was associated with job satisfaction in both countries. Among the Swedish dentists, number of colleagues and degree of influence were also important and among the Danish ones sufficient time for patients.

Organizational factors had an impact on salaried publicly employed dentists' overall job satisfaction in both countries. The findings may have implications for other Human Service Organizations with employed professionals.