A comparative analysis of the impact of quality practices in higher education on the job satisfaction: The ımplementatıon in Mersin and Sakarya Universities

In today's global competitive environment, quality practices are felt important in higher education as it is the case in other sectors. In this context, the quality practices of Mersin University and Sakarya University adopting the philosophy of quality have been designated as the research subject of this thesis study. The aim of this study is threefold; first to determine the relationships between the quality practices and the job satisfaction, second to reveal the quality practices affecting job satisfaction in order of their importance, and third to unveil the relationships of personal and institutional features with job satisfaction and quality practices. In accordance with these aims, the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale and Quality Practices Scale were employed in order to measure the attitudes of academic and administrative staff working in two different higher education institutions constituting research population of the study. The data collected by conducting questionnaires have been analyzed by using SPSS 20 software program. Firstly, the reliability of Likert-type scales has been checked by using Cronbach's alpha technique. It is found that for both scales Cronbach's alpha is approximately equal to +1. Using Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test it is observed that research population is not normally distributed, and consequently non-parametric tests have been used in the analysis. On the one hand, the difference between the scores according to type of cadre and sex is analyzed by using Mann-Whitney U test, and on the other hand, the difference between the scores according to age, duration of work, monthly income and education status is analyzed by using Kruskal-Wallis H test. Subsequently, the relationships between the quality practices and the job satisfaction are analyzed by using Spearman's Rho correlation analysis. The results of the correlation analysis have showed that there is a positive relationship between job satisfaction and quality practices.