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

Abstract

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

Key Words::

• dentists
• public dentistry
• organization
• international comparison
• psycho-social work environment

Acknowledgements

We want to acknowledge Acta Odontologica Scandinavia for publishing the present paper, which in a preliminary version was published in the doctoral thesis ‘Organization and management of public dentistry in Sweden' defended by the first author (Sven Ordell) at Malmö University on 8 April 2011. The authors wish to acknowledge financial support from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS). We would also like to thank the participating dentists for their time and effort to answer our questionnaire. The helpful comments and suggestions from two anonymous referees to an earlier version of this manuscript are gratefully acknowledged.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.