Abstract

Steadily rising labor costs are forcing health-care institutions to give increased attention to meeting manpower needs. Dietary service management is recognizing the need for employees to be satisfied with their work, as well as the difficulty of providing adequate training for each employee. A study of the effect of a training program on job satisfaction should provide information relevant to more effective planning for the training and development of human resources within the hospital dietary service.

The purpose of this research was to determine the level of job satisfaction among hospital dietary supportive personnel; relate it to such factors as sex, job classification, educational level, job tenure, and income; and to determine the effect of an in-service training program on the job satisfaction of these employees.

The Job Descriptive Index developed by Smith, et al. (1969) was the instrument used to measure the job satisfaction of dietary supportive personnel at four hospitals (1) at the beginning of the study, (2) after the experimental group had completed the training program, and (3) after the control group had completed the training program.

The investigational findings indicated that female workers were more satisfied with Work and Supervision than were the male workers. Mean satisfaction scores for the Promotions, Pay, and Co-Workers scales were higher for the male dietary workers than for the female dietary workers, Dietary workers were significantly less satisfied than workers in general (Smith, 1969) on all scales except Promotions.

With regard to job classification, the data indicated that office workers were more satisfied on all scales than the other groups of dietary workers. The supervisor group of dietary workers was the least satisfied.

Female workers with an eighth-grade education were slightly more satisfied on all JDI scales than those with nine or more grades of education. With regard to education, dietary workers had lower scores on all scales than workers in general (Smith, 1969) with similar education.

In terms of job tenure, dietary personnel scored lower than workers in general on all satisfaction scales. Dietary workers showed slightly lower satisfaction than workers in general (Smith, 1969) when compared in terms of individual annual income.

Mean scores were higher on the Supervision and Co-Workers scales than in the other areas of job satisfaction for the personnel in this study. Similar results were found by Smith (1969) for workers in general.

Job satisfaction after the training program was slightly lower, but the decrease was not significant. This was true for both the experimental and the control groups.

Based on this research, it was recommended that additional studies of job satisfaction among hospital dietary supportive personnel be conducted to determine if a larger sample would yield similar findings.

Additional data is needed before generalizations can be made on the job satisfaction of hospital dietary supportive personnel. Further refinement of training programs is necessary to adequately determine their effect on job satisfaction.

Department

Food Science

School

Graduate School

First Advisor

Kathleen K. Zolber

Second Advisor

Peter G. Strutz

Third Advisor

Paul Y. Yahiku

Fourth Advisor

Albert Sanchez

Fifth Advisor

Jene E. Chrispens

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Degree Level

M.S.

Year Degree Awarded

1973

Date (Title Page)

3-1973

Language

English

Library of Congress/MESH Subject Headings

Food Service, Hospital; Job Satisfaction

Type

Thesis

Page Count

xi; 80; iv

Digital Format

PDF

Digital Publisher

Loma Linda University Libraries

Usage Rights

This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Collection

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collection Website

http://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/

Repository

Loma Linda University. Del E. Webb Memorial Library. University Archives

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