Differences in Job Satisfaction among Suburban and Inner-City High School Physical Education Faculty

Abstract

The purpose of the present investigation was to determine whether faculty in suburban and inner-city schools differ with respect to job satisfaction. Subjects were 49 physical education faculty in three inner-city and three suburban Los Angeles-area high schools. The Job Description Index (JDI) was used to evaluate four aspects of job satisfaction: work, colleagues, supervision, and pay. Correlations were calculated among all pairs of job satisfaction values for suburban and inner-city subjects. Results yielded highly significant differences between intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of job satisfaction. These data indicated that subjects dissatisfied with intrinsic job satisfaction factors (work, colleagues, supervision) were satisfied with the extrinsic aspect (pay), and vice versa. The suburban subjects scored high on the intrinsic scales and low on the extrinsic aspect. Inner-city faculty yielded low intrinsic and high extrinsic scores.