Satisfaction comprises 2 birfucations:

I have always thought that by endowing teachers with more money, they will get
more job satisfaction. However, I came to realize that there is more than meets the
eye. I found out that the problem lies mainly in my understanding of satisfaction. I
discovered that satisfaction is comprised of two bifurcations; firstly "what makes me
satisfied with, say, a customer service in a restaurant, and secondly but most
importantly "what gives me meaning in what I do" or "what is satisfyING". Obviously,
doing something that is meaningless for me wouldn't increase my satisfaction, even
with an increased pay.

As a teacher in a remote rural annexe of a junior high school, I wanted to

understand what influences my satisfaction along with my fellow teachers and our
deputy principal. What was the nature of our satisfaction and how could it be
enhanced?

What I discovered is that the job was more satisfactory than satisfying, not
because of the nature of the job but because of personal, environmental and
mediating variables. Personal variables included sociodemographic characteristics,
personality traits, stage in career cycle, professionality and concomitant roles;
environmental variables included the physical setting, organisational structure and
staff roles; and mediating variables comprised elements of motivation such as
meaningfulness, impact, choice and competence, relative perspectives and
expectations. Given the variety of these variables I learnt that I won't be motivated or
satisfied in the same way as somebody else. For instance the deputy principal who
reached a career plateau wouldn't be motivated and therefore wouldn't be satisfied
like me who has been working in the field for 8 years only. Therefore, the top down
approach of managing human resources that is resorted to by our employers is
actually very futile. As a matter of fact, it only creates dissatisfied people who, out of
their dissatisfaction, become witty enough to circumvent central laws. The living
example in my investigation was my deputy principal who opted out of teaching
philosophy when his school subject became as he stated "stifled with curriculum
targets", something that stripped it of its essence as a subject of unrestricted inquiry,
and which in turn induced feelings of meaninglessness of what he does in the

classroom. As a result, the deputy principal had to find a way out without losing his
salary. He applied then for viceprincipalship, a position any teacher with a couple of
years of teaching experience can have, without any selection based on the variables
I mentioned earlier to ensure the 'the goodness of fit', and without any leadership
training.

My conclusion which was a set of recommendations I offered to the school

leadership was that firstly human resources management should be devolved to
schools. Secondly school leaders should become aware of the fact that motivation
and satisfaction is an individual phenomenon which is in constant change. Teachers'
various needs, expectations and motivational factors should be taken into account in
managing school staff. I have reitereated in minutes of meeting these ideas and
stressed that teachers should be given more opportunities to voice their opinions and
problems and at the same time to be involved in the circle of control. This latter is the
missing ingredient, because staff meetings are constantly held and reports about the
situation of the school are regularly sent forward to no avail. As a result teachers feel
their voices have no impact and therefore consider this to be worse than silence.
Impact is one of the factors of empowerment as postulated by Thomas and
Velthouse in 1990. Therefore, the absence of empowerment means the lack of
motivation, the lack of meaning and consequently dissatisfaction in the self-fulfilment
sense.

As I have anticipated, one of my fellow teachers, a French teacher, with 15 years

of teaching experience applied for a viceprincipalship role, because of his desperate
need for wielding power. I will end my reflection on job satisfaction with one of his
quotes that illustrated the disempowered and misrepresented voice of teachers:

"There is a sort of conspiracy amongst people in decision-making positions. You file

a complaint to the principal of the main school and hed just bin it. I felt there are no
feelings of responsibility, so I thought I can also practise some authority !"

( French teacher)