Personality traits, organizational cynicism and job satisfaction among teachers

Job satisfaction is one of the most important attitudes developed by individuals towards their jobs. High job satisfaction contributes to happiness while low job satisfaction can cause professional dissonance and to have psychological problems in addition to apathy and estrangement. The dissatisfaction experienced at work can lead to low job performance, negative attitudes towards the job, conflicts and insensibility in educational organizations as it does in other institutions and professions. Teachers are the most important figure of the researches related to job satisfaction in educational organizations. The job satisfaction of teachers is associated with the management, school culture, the quality of relationships and some psychological factors. The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational cynicism and personality traits of the teachers. The relationship between teachers' job satisfaction and some variables such as age, gender, marital status, seniority, grade, branch, administrative tasks, education level, type of school (public-private) are also investigated in this study. The research group consists of 500 teachers (Female= 239, Male= 261) working in different majors at public and private educational institutions in Trabzon. Personal Information Form, Five Factor Personality Traits, Organizational Cynicism and Job Satisfaction Scales were used in collecting the data. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, multiple linear regression analysis, independent t test, one way ANOVA, Kruskal Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests were used for data analysis. The results of study showed that extraversion personality traits and cognitive and affective sub-factors of organizational cynicism significantly predict job satisfaction. Teachers' job satisfaction scores were not differentiated in terms of age, gender, marital status and education level. The job satisfaction scores of teachers working in private and formal educational settings differed significantly in terms of wage sub-factor. It was found that there was a significant difference between wage sub-factor scores of teachers who have one-five years of seniority and more senior teachers' wage sub-factor scores. It was found that teachers' job satisfaction scores working at pre-school were higher than job satisfaction scores of teachers working at other grades. The findings are consistent with findings in the literature. These findings were interpreted in the framework of relevant literature. Some suggestions have been developed in light of the data obtained.