Government/Public Sector Managers/Executives/Administrators
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between leadership practices and employee job satisfaction and how demographic variables might impact this relationship.
METHODOLOGY Participants were a random sample of 900 non-supervisory NASA Langley employees (population N = 1,674) from which 338 responded (44% response rate). They completed the Leadership Practices Inventory and the Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1995) and provided demographic information. Sixty-four percent of the respondents were male, about one-third had master’s degrees (another 15% doctoral degrees), and the majority had between 16-30 years of work experience (53%).
KEY FINDINGS The rank order for the leadership practices was from Enable to Encourage, Model, Challenge and Inspire. There was a moderate, positive, and significant correlation between the overall scales of leadership and job satisfaction (r = .67). There was a strong, positive, significant correlation between satisfaction with supervision and all five leadership practices (r > .71), followed by moderate correlations between the five practices and satisfaction with communications and rewards (r > .52 and r > .54 respectively). Satisfaction with pay, promotion, coworkers, nature of work, and benefits were all significantly correlated with each of the five leadership practices. Satisfaction with procedures was not correlated with any of the leadership practices.
There were no significant relationships between job satisfaction and overall leadership on the basis of gender, educational levels, or tenure.