Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-tn8tq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-06T10:45:43.756Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Job Satisfaction and Salary: An Illustration from Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

K. N. Bame
K. N. Bame*
Affiliation:
Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The literature on job satisfaction and work attitudes clearly shows that salary or money is one undisputed source of people's motivation to work. They work in anticipation for money which they get to exchange for most of their needs. Salary as a source of workers' dissatisfaction has teen revealed in several studies. Studies conducted in British factories (Marriott and Denerley 1955) and those carried out in the United States—one based on a national sample (Center and Cantril 1946) and another, a follow-up study of gifted children by Terman and Oden (1959)—all show that the income level and job satisfaction of workers are positively related. Reiner (1957) found that inadequate salary was one of the factors which made the teachers he studied leave the teaching profession. Research by Rudd and Wiseman (1962) on some 432 teachers from the University of Manchester School of Education revealed similar findings. Phipp's study (1968) of Ugandan teachers and Nelson's (1970) of Congolese teachers also revealed that salary was one of the dissatisfying factors indicated by the teachers.

Another facet of the role of money in the motivation of workers has been explored by Herzberg and his colleagues (1959). From the findings of their study, they have formulated their motivation-hygiene theory in which, using an analogy from medical field, they call those factors which they claim cause the dissatisfaction of workers—dissatisfiers—the hygiene factors.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , April 1974 , pp. 151 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES CITED

Bame, K. N. The Ghanaian Elementary Teacher and His Career: A Study of Sociological Factors Which Influence the Job Statisfaction and Career Aspirations of Ghanaian Elementary School Teachers. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Toronto, December 1972.Google Scholar
Center, R. and Cantril, H.. “Income Statisfaction and Income Aspiration.” Journal of Abnormal Social Psychology, XLI (1946), 64–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coombs, Philip H. The World Educational Crisis: A Systems Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.Google Scholar
Getzels, J. W. and Guba, E. G.. “Social Behaviour and the Administrative Process.” The School Review, LXV (Winter 1957), 423–441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herzberg, Frederick. “Motivation, Morale and Money.” Psychology Today (March 1968).Google Scholar
Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., and Snyderman, Barbara. Motivation to Work. 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 1959.Google Scholar
Marriott, R. and Denerley, R. A.. “A Method of Interviewing Used in Studies of Workers' Attitudes: II, Validity of the Method and Discussion of the Results.” Occupational Psychology, XXIX (1955), 69–81.Google Scholar
Mills-Odoi Commission, Republic of Ghana. Report of the Commission on the Structure and Remuneration of the Public Services in Ghana. Accra: Ministry of Information, 1967.Google Scholar
Nelson, Q. D. The Congolese Teacher: A Study of Teacher Recruitment and Wastage in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, March 1970.Google Scholar
Phipps, B. A. The Teaching Profession in Uganda. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of London, 1968.Google Scholar
Reiner, H. L. A Study of the Factors Which Have Caused Elementary School Teachers to Leave the Profession. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1957.Google Scholar
Rudd, W. G. A. and Wiseman, S.. “Source of Dissatisfaction Among a Group of Teachers.” British Journal of Educational Psychology, XXXII (1962), 275–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terman, L. M. and Oden, M. H.. The Gifted Group at Mid-Life: Thirty-Five Years' Follow-Up of the Superior Child. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1959.Google Scholar