KADIRI MOHAN* AND S.V. PRASAD

Department of Agricultural Extension, RARS, Tirupati – 517 502, A.P.

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted on job satisfaction of agricultural graduates working in selected avenues of employment in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. Majority of agricultural graduates working in both Department of Agriculture (57.33%) and ANGRAU institutions (74.67%) had high job satisfaction. A positive and significant relationship was noticed with respect to experience, training received, level of aspiration, job involvement, organizational climate and achievement motivation for job satisfaction. The partial regression analysis further indicated that 12 selected independent variables put together about 58.34 per cent variation in job satisfaction. Experience, level of aspiration, job involvement and organizational climate were fond positively significant and contributed to the most of the variation in job satisfaction of agricultural graduates.

KEY WORDS:

Agricultural Graduates, Achievement Motivation, Job Satisfaction

INTRODUCTION

Job satisfaction is a complex of several attitudes possessed by the employees. For Hoppock (1935), the proponent of the term ‘Job Satisfaction’, it is the force that makes the work pressure and vigour bearable. Blum (1956) defined job satisfaction as a general attitude which a worker has as consequences of several specific attitudes in the following three areas, specific job factor, individual adjustment and group relationships outside the job. Prestonjee (1973) noted that job satisfaction can be taken as a summation of employees feeling in four important areas. Likert (1961) considered job satisfaction derived by members of organization as one of the criteria proposed for evaluating the effectiveness in the functioning of any organization. Job satisfaction of the employees is another criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of an organization, as greater satisfaction leads in a simple or direct way to achieve results. Keeping these aspects in view, the present study was conducted on “Study on job satisfaction of agricultural graduates working in selected avenues in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh” with the following objectives.

1. To study the job satisfaction of agricultural graduates working under selected avenues of employment.

2. To study the relationship of personal, socio-psychological and situational factors with job satisfaction.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Using Ex-post facto research design, the study was conducted in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh in the year 2002. All the available agricultural graduates working in Department of Agriculture and ANGRAU institutions in Chittoor district were selected for the study. Out of 78 agricultural graduates working in the State Department of Agriculture, 75 available respondents were taken for the study. In case of ANGRAU institutions, out of 80 agricultural scientists, 75 available agricultural scientists were selected for the study. Total number of respondents taken for the study was 150.

Job satisfaction ladder originally devised by Cantril (1985) was used with slight modifications in this study. A 32 items ladder was used for scoring as per the procedure given by Cantril i.e., -5 to +5 was used. Total score on 32 items were the total job satisfaction score of a respondent. Categories to which the agricultural graduates in selected avenues belonged were decided based on mean score. Mean and scores above mean were high job satisfaction

scores and below mean were taken as low job satisfaction scores (Table 1). Also, an attempt has been made to find out whether or not there was any significant difference between independent variables and job satisfaction by finding correlation coefficient ‘r’ and tested for significance. In order to determine the combined effect of all the selected independent variables in explaining variation in job satisfaction of respondents, Multiple Linear Regression analysis was carried out.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Job satisfaction of agricultural graduates: It was observed from Table 1 that 57.33 per cent of respondents had high job satisfaction followed by low (42.67%) job satisfaction in the Department of Agriculture, whereas, 74.67 per cent of respondents had high job satisfaction followed by low (25.33%) job satisfaction in ANGRAU institutions. The probable reason for the high job satisfaction might be due to good organizational climate, praise and recognition for good work, cooperation from superiors, peers and subordinates and clerical assistance provided in their jobs. As the satisfaction of the employees in their job is high, simultaneously the job performance will also increase. Hence, the organization should try to provide incentives to improve their job satisfaction as far as possible which will increase the out turn of employees.

Relationship between independent variables and job satisfaction: Experience, training received, level of aspiration, job involvement, organizational climate and achievement motivation had positively significant relationship, where as, age, sex, educational qualification, rural urban background and economic orientation had no significant relationship, while work load had negatively non-significant relationship with job satisfaction of agricultural graduates. The probable reasons were the experience facilitates better job perception and job performance. These will inturn yield high job satisfaction

simultaneously. Training received by agricultural graduates increases their knowledge, skills and inturn yields job satisfaction. As recognition and rewards increase job satisfaction which will lead to increase in the level of aspiration. This indicates that efforts to ensure better job performance of agricultural graduates should be made. It can be stated that one should set realistic and moderate level of aspiration in professional life. When a job is done with greater interest and enthusiasm, then the chances of better performance will be there leading to higher job satisfaction. Organizations components like supervisor-subordinates relations, guidance, supervision, cooperation, coordination which were strong points in the present organization climate were felt by the respondents (Table 2).

Multiple regression of independent variables with job performance: Table 3 indicated that (‘R2’ value of 0.5834) all the selected 12 independent variables put together explained about 58.34 per cent variation in job satisfaction of agricultural graduates. The partial regression coefficient in Table 3 further indicated that independent variables i.e., experience, level of aspiration, job involvement and organizational climate were found positively significant as evident from their ‘t’ values. This implied that, experience, level of aspiration, job involvement and organizational climate were positively and significantly contributed to most of the variation in job satisfaction of agricultural graduates. The probable reasons for this trend was due to that experience leads to better job perception and performance and thus will results with higher satisfaction in their jobs. Level of aspiration is associated with the individual’s ambition to learn more, acquire more, participate more and achieve more. The possession of this particular trait predisposes the individuals to perform better in his job and tries to satisfy him self. More job involvement will results in yielding satisfactory results in their jobs. A better organizational climate will promote better understanding between the

employees and increase their cooperativeness to deal with difficult situations. This leads to better job satisfaction in the agricultural graduates.

The results of the investigations show that the job satisfaction working in both Department of agriculture and ANGRAU institutions was high. This shows that the organizational climate is congenial for agricultural graduates to work and deliver the results. Further, high job satisfaction of the employees is always good sign for the organization to reach new heights of development and to provide better services to the farming community. The results of the study will be helpful for the organizational management and other policy makers to undertake some of the reforms in human resources management which results in sustaining the employee’s higher level of job satisfaction.

REFERENCES

1. Blum, M.C., 1956. Industrial psychology and its social foundations. Harper and Brothers., New York.
2. Cantril, H., 1985. The Pattern of Human Concerns.
3. Rudgers University Press, New Bronsuick.
4. Hoppock, R., 1935. Job satisfaction. Harper and Brothers, New York.
5. Prestonjee, D.M., 1973. Organizational structure and job attitude, Minerva, Calcutta.
6. Likert, R., 1961. New patterns of management. Mc Graw Hill, New York, USA.