School of Social Sciences

Masters in Business Administration (MBA)

Postgraduate Dissertation

Job satisfaction in the Public Sector:

The case of the Directorates

of Primary and Secondary Education

Amalia Tsoukia

Supervisor: Apostolos Giovanis

Patras, Greece, July 2020 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

© Hellenic Open University, 2020

The content of this thesis/dissertation along with its results is owned by the Hellenic Open University and his/her author, where each of them has the sole and exclusive right to use, reproduce, and publish it (totally or partially) for educational or research purposes, with the obligation to make reference to the thesis’s title, the author’s name and to the Hellenic Open University where the thesis / dissertation was written.

Postgraduate Dissertation ii Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Job satisfaction in the Public Sector:

The case of the Directorates

of Primary and Secondary Education

Amalia Tsoukia

Supervising Committee

Supervisor: Co-Supervisor: Apostolos Giovanis Lamprini Piha

Patras, Greece, July 2020

Postgraduate Dissertation iii Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

To my family, for all their support

My gratitude to my supervising professor A. Giovannis, for his guidance and help

Postgraduate Dissertation iv Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Abstract

The Public Sector in Greece always faced many problems regarding its daily operation, the level of quality in services to the citizens and the vast bureaucracy that makes every procedure complex, time consuming and frustrating to both the public and the employees of the Ministries.

The Ministry of Education and Religions is the ministry with the highest number of employees, both teachers and administrative staff. One would expect that it should also be the one with the most effective administration. That is not the case because of many factors, as the appointment of Directors with no obligatory administrative skills or studies, the staffing of the regional services not with permanent staff but with relocated teachers with no administrative skills, the transfer of employees from other closed public companies such as Olympic Airways, irrelevant to the nature of the duties of an administrative employee. Neither the permanent transfers of other employees nor the temporarily relocated teachers have been evaluated or trained in administrative skills. Also, the lack of an organizational chart until recently, created many barricades possibly affecting among other things, the degree of job satisfaction of administrative staff.

The aim of this research is to determine the job satisfaction levels of the administrative staff and the teaching staff that perform administrative duties at the regional education services and to examine if government policies at the regional educational offices have been effective.

This study is organised in four sections. The first chapter is the theoretical basis about job satisfaction and defines the common theories of job satisfaction. The second chapter reviews the literature on the satisfaction of employees in public administration and specifically for the Ministry of Education. The third section is about the methodology that has been used for the research and the fourth section lists the results of the survey.

Keywords

Human resources, job satisfaction, motivation, work environment, efficiency

Postgraduate Dissertation v Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Περίληψη

Ο Δημόσιος Τομέας στην Ελλάδα αντιμετώπιζε πάντα πολλά προβλήματα σχετικά με την καθημερινή λειτουργία του, το επίπεδο ποιότητας των υπηρεσιών προς τους πολίτες και την τεράστια γραφειοκρατία που καθιστά κάθε διαδικασία περίπλοκη, χρονοβόρα και απογοητευτική τόσο για το κοινό όσο και για τους υπαλλήλους των Υπουργείων.

Το Υπουργείο Παιδείας και Θρησκευμάτων είναι το υπουργείο με τον υψηλότερο αριθμό υπαλλήλων στη χώρα. Θα περίμενε κανείς ότι θα ήταν και αυτό με την πιο αποτελεσματική διοίκηση. Αυτό δεν συμβαίνει λόγω πολλών παραγόντων, όπως ο διορισμός διευθυντών χωρίς υποχρεωτικές διοικητικές δεξιότητες ή σπουδές, η στελέχωση των περιφερειακών υπηρεσιών όχι με μόνιμο προσωπικό αλλά με αποσπασμένους καθηγητές χωρίς διοικητικές δεξιότητες, τη μεταφορά υπαλλήλων από άλλη επιχείρηση του Δημοσίου όπως η Olympic Airways, άσχετες με τη φύση των καθηκόντων ενός διοικητικού υπαλλήλου. Ούτε οι μεταταχθέντες διοικητικοί υπάλληλοι ούτε οι προσωρινά αποσπασμένοι εκπαιδευτικοί δεν έχουν αξιολογηθεί ή εκπαιδευθεί σε διοικητικές δεξιότητες. Επίσης, η έλλειψη οργανογράμματος μέχρι πρόσφατα, δημιούργησε πολλά εμπόδια που ενδεχομένως επηρέαζαν, μεταξύ άλλων, τον βαθμό εργασιακής ικανοποίησης του προσωπικού.

Ο στόχος αυτής της έρευνας είναι να προσδιορίσει τα επίπεδα ικανοποίησης από την εργασία του διοικητικού προσωπικού και του διδακτικού προσωπικού που εκτελεί διοικητικά καθήκοντα στις περιφερειακές εκπαιδευτικές υπηρεσίες και να εξετάσει εάν οι κυβερνητικές πολιτικές στα περιφερειακά εκπαιδευτικά γραφεία ήταν αποτελεσματικές.

Αυτή η μελέτη οργανώνεται σε τέσσερα τμήματα. Το πρώτο κεφάλαιο είναι η θεωρητική βάση για την ικανοποίηση από την εργασία και καθορίζει τις κοινές θεωρίες της ικανοποίησης από την εργασία. Στο δεύτερο κεφάλαιο εξετάζεται η βιβλιογραφία σχετικά με την ικανοποίηση των εργαζομένων στη δημόσια διοίκηση και συγκεκριμένα για το Υπουργείο Παιδείας. Η τρίτη ενότητα αφορά τη μεθοδολογία που χρησιμοποιήθηκε για την έρευνα και η τέταρτη ενότητα παραθέτει τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας.

Λέξεις-κλειδιά

Ανθρώπινοι πόροι, ικανοποίηση από την εργασία, κίνητρα, εργασιακό περιβάλλον, αποτελεσματικότητα

Postgraduate Dissertation vi Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Table of Contents

Abstract ...... v Περίληψη ...... vi Graphs Index ...... ix Tables Index ...... x Introduction ...... 1 Chapter 1 – Job satisfaction theories...... 5 1.1 Maslow’s pyramid of needs theory ...... 6 1.2 Job characteristics model ...... 8 1.3 Herzberg’s motivator – hygiene theory ...... 9 1.4 Locke’s Range of Affect theory ...... 11 1.5 Other job satisfaction theory ...... 11 Chapter 2 – Literature review on job satisfaction ...... 14 2.1 Job satisfaction in the Public Sector ...... 14 2.2 Job satisfaction in the Greek Public Sector ...... 16 2.3 Hetero employment and job satisfaction ...... 24 2.4 Job satisfaction of Ministry of Education employees ...... 26 Chapter 3 – Research Methodology ...... 32 3.1 Scope and targets ...... 32 3.2 Research questions ...... 32 3.3 Research tools ...... 33 3.4 Research sample...... 34 3.5 Research design ...... 34 Chapter 4 – Research results ...... 35 4.1 Descriptive statistics ...... 35 4.2 Research questions ...... 40 4.2.1 Total job satisfaction question ...... 41 4.2.2 Job satisfaction by the questionnaire subcategories ...... 44 4.2.3 Job satisfaction by demographics ...... 46 4.3 Conclusions ...... 53 4.4 Suggestions ...... 55 4.5 Research restrictions ...... 57

Postgraduate Dissertation vii Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Bibliography ...... 58 Appendix I – Statistics ...... 64 Appendix II – Questionnaire ...... 68

Postgraduate Dissertation viii Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Graphs Index

Graph 4.1 Participants by age …………………………………………………………………36

Graph 4.2 Participants by years of experience ………………………………………………...37

Graph 4.3 Participants by position in the Directorate …………………………………………38

Graph 4.4 Participants by level of education…………………………………………………..39

Graph 4.5 One sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test …………………………………………..42

Graph 4.6 Total Job Satisfaction by answers …………………………………………………..43

Postgraduate Dissertation ix Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Tables Index

Table 4.1 Participants by gender ………………………………………………….………………34

Table 4.2 Participants by age ……………………………………………………………………..35

Table 4.3 Participants by years of experience ……………………………………………………36

Table 4.4 Participants by position in the Directorate ………………………………………….....37

Table 4.5 Participants by level of education …………………………………………………..…37

Table 4.6 Participants by job relationship ……………………………………………………...... 38

Table 4.7 Descriptive statistics by subcategory JSS …………………………………………..…39

Table 4.8 Tests of normality ……………………………………………………………………..40

Table 4.9 Hypothesis test summary ………………………………………………………….…..41

Table 4.10 Hypothesis test summary ………………………………………………………….…42

Table 4.11 Total Job Satisfaction …………………………………………………………….…..42

Table 4.12 Job Satisfaction by subcategory hypothesis test summary …………………………..44

Table 4.13 Categorized scores by subcategory …………………………………………………..45

Table 4.14 Gender Differentiation…………………………………………………………..……46

Table 4.15 Differentiation in terms of employment …………………………………….…..……47

Table 4.16 Terms of employment statistics …………………………………………….…..…….47

Table 4.17 Statistics by major categories by terms of employement …………………………….48

Table 4.18 Statistics position in the Directorate ………………………………………………….49

Table 4.19 Differentiation by position in the Directorate ………………………………………...49

Table 4.20 Hypothesis testing by assigned department …………………………………………..50

Table 4.21 Statistics by categories of coworkers and nature of work …………………………….51

Postgraduate Dissertation x Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Introduction

According to the literature, Latham and Budworth (2007) note that Uhrbrock (1934) was the first psychologist who endeavoured to evaluate how employees feel about their work by implementing new techniques for the measurement of behaviour. They report that Hoppock (1935) carried out a study that was concentrated on the effect of the nature of work and the relationship with co-workers to the level of job satisfaction. Hoppock (1935) found that the variety of factors that are possible to affect job satisfaction is extensive, both psychological and environmental playing a significant role. Wanous and Lawler (1972) asserted that job satisfaction can be reached when the needs of the employee are met by the characteristics of the job.

Locke suggested that job satisfaction is related to the job achievement and experiences and the appraisal of an individuals’ work (Locke, 1969). In addition, Vroom (1982) defined job satisfaction as an employee’s emotional alignment toward their present job duties and roles. Likewise, Schultz (1982) described job satisfaction as basically being the psychological mood of people toward their job. Siegal and Lane (1982) stated that job satisfaction is an emotional reaction outlining the degree to which people enjoy their job. Lastly, Lofquist and Davis (1991) described job satisfaction as “a person’s positive reaction” of the target environs.

The satisfaction of employees with their work and a positive viewpoint of the organization, shared with broad and cultured human resource management practices are very imperative forecasters of the prospective productivity of enterprises (Lofquist & Davis, 1991). Similarly, these elements seem more important in order to predict subsequent productivity, managerial highlighting on quality, technological modernization, or emphasis on research and development. ‘People are our most important asset’ did not become a managerial cliché by chance. Employees are actually the most important asset of a company. Involving the existing staff in managerial levels and procedures is significant, but it is also crucial to make certain that the new draftees are well treated and well informed, in order to achieve job satisfaction with their work (Mishra et al., 2014).

The definition of the term job satisfaction has significantly evolved through time, but most definitions agree that job satisfaction is a positive affective reaction (Rafferty & Griffin,

Postgraduate Dissertation 1 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education 2009). When the causes of job satisfaction are discussed though, there is a lower level of agreement as to what are those causes that affect a person’s job satisfaction.

Wexley and Yukl (1984) argued that job satisfaction is subjective to many facets, including personal characteristics of the work. Initial theories suggested that a singular bipolar scale, with satisfaction on one end and dissatisfaction on the other, would be enough to define job satisfaction. Later amendments of theories involved a two-continuum model that positioned job satisfaction on the first scale and job dissatisfaction on the second (Brown, 1998).

These later theories were more focused on the absence or presence of certain intrinsic and extrinsic factors that possibly determined a person’s satisfaction level. Intrinsic factors are based on individual perceptions and inner feelings, and consist of factors such as advancement, recognition, and responsibility. Those factors have been strongly connected to job satisfaction (O’ Driscoll & Randall, 1999). Extrinsic factors are exterior work related variables that include working conditions, salary and supervision. These extrinsic factors were found to have an important effect on job satisfaction levels per Martin and Schinke (1998). To comprehend these employee and job characteristics better and to examine their relationship to job satisfaction, many theories emerged and outlined the framework for forthcoming job satisfaction studies.

Paul Spector processed and empirically validated one of the most widely accepted job satisfaction questionnaires in the world (Spector, 1985), the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS). This questionnaire includes nine facets to determine job satisfaction: salary, rewards, promotions, benefits, relationship with the boss, procedures, and relationships with colleagues, the nature of work and communication to record the level of satisfaction, or dissatisfaction that is felt by the employees.

According to Spector, job satisfaction is the level to which an individual likes or dislikes their work. According to research by Herzberg (Herzberg, 1987), job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are probably attributed to factors such as job security, salary, working conditions, relationships with co-workers and relationships with supervisors. Herzberg gives managers advice to always make certain that they provide employees with elements that increase job satisfaction.

Hulin and Judge (2003) suggest that job satisfaction is a function of emotional, cognitive and behavioural factors. The degree of job satisfaction can differ, depended on the valuation of

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feelings about the work and its cognitive valuation. Emotional satisfaction is determined by personal criteria and denotes the feeling that the person has from his work, and it mirrors the level of pleasure felt about the nature of work that is created.

On the other hand, cognitive satisfaction is determined by more impartial criteria and can either be one-dimensional when it contains the assessment of just one characteristic of the work, or multidimensional, when it contains the assessment of two or more characteristics. Cognitive satisfaction does not measure the level of satisfaction that results from the work but measures the level to which work is thought by the employee to be satisfactory according to his or her goals or compared to other tasks.

Human Resources management is a very important function of the management of an enterprise, as its successful management practices contribute to the satisfaction of the staff and also to the accomplishment of the objectives and goals of the organization. The efficiency of organizations is contingent directly on the work behaviour of their employees. Thus, the implementation of management practices ought to be human-centered, to determine the needs of the people working for the company, and give incentives to reach mutually the satisfaction of personnel and the achievement of the goals of the organization by efficient operation of the company (Bakotić, 2016).

Simultaneously, employee performance is contingent on two types of factors (Bourantas, 2002). The first category contains components such as knowledge and skills, necessary for employee performance. The second one contains factors that define and illuminate the employees’ disposition to perform at the highest of their abilities. One of the crucial roles that managers need to perform is to act in a way that guarantees their subordinates willingness for optimal performance. Generally, in most cases, at the lower levels of the pyramid, work is not accepted as desirable for the individual employee (Bourantas, 2002).

Whereas organizations compensate for the time and qualifications of each person, they are unable to drive him to optimal performance if the individual himself does not wish to. Thus, the management, in addition to salaries, would consider using other appropriate incentives in order to motivate their employees to the willingness for best performance. One of these methods is satisfaction (Bourantas D, 2002)

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The study of work satisfaction has been, and still is today, an object of intense interest in academic research. The continuous modifications in the work environment due to globalization, the constantly increasing competition and the challenges of the "Great Recession", in many countries in the world have major consequences for the work environment and play a significant role in job satisfaction.

When we examine the case of the public sector, factors like the declining government revenues, the growing government stress to decrease public debt, and public administration restructurings with the austerity measures that were imposed on Greece since 2010 enforced public organizations to try to operate with fewer resources and fewer employees. To achieve this, public organizations had to maximize the use of their employees' abilities and skills. The motivation of the staff can be centred on various factors (incentives, good work environment), which will make them efficient and satisfied in their place of work (Batiou & Valkanos, 2013)

The purpose of this dissertation is to inspect the theories in the literature on the satisfaction of employees in their place of work, especially in the public sector and record the level of satisfaction of administrative staff working in regional services of the Ministry of Education and Religions, as well as the level of satisfaction of the teaching staff that is working in the Directorates of Education, performing duties completely irrelevant to their field of studies.

The subject of this study work is firstly covered on a theoretical level, through the review of the relevant bibliography. The secondary data collected was identified by the review mainly of research studies from around the world, books on the subject and articles in scientific journals and webpages, and additionally Greek sources about job satisfaction. At the empirical level, the subject is examined through a primary survey of employees of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education of the Ministry of Education and Religions, to assess the factors that affect the satisfaction of the staff in the administration of the regional education services.

The term job satisfaction is very popular in the field of organizational and professional psychology and given its popularity worldwide, many researchers and psychologists have offered their own definition. The following chapter will examine the most known job satisfaction theories.

Postgraduate Dissertation 4 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Chapter 1 – Job satisfaction theories

Occasionally different theories about motivation have been developed to examine human needs and their association with work behaviour. Incentives such as financial recompenses and decent working conditions or social incentives such as effort recognition, trust, etc. are factors for increasing satisfaction and mobilization for performance. Nevertheless, when the incentives are not of high quality and do not meet the personal needs of employees, then it is possible to cause, in addition to low work performance, dissatisfaction, disorder of human relations and problems in the mood and mental health of employees (Demoussis & Giannakopoulos, 2007).

Theories of job satisfaction largely overlap with theories that explain human motivations (Chatzopoulou et al, 2015). Various authors and researchers define motivation as a person's predisposition to behave in a specific way to achieve specific, unsatisfied needs (Buford et al, 1995) or as a process that provokes, activates, directs, and maintains the behaviour and performance of individuals (Luthans, 1998) or as "the inner strength that leads individuals to achieve personal and organizational goals" (Lindner, 1998, 1-8).

The two terms of employee motivation and satisfaction have been studied in combination by several researchers. Their difference lies in the fact that "job satisfaction is an individual's emotional response to the current state of his work, while motivation is the driving force to continue to meet the individual's needs" (Wang & Lee, 2013, 34-40). The relationship between motivation and job satisfaction has been confirmed by many studies (Belias et al, 2014), (Canrinus et al., 2012).

Primarily in the areas of human resource management and organizational behaviour, motivations are often divided into "endogenous" or "exogenous" in nature. Exogenous incentives exist "... when employees are able to meet their needs indirectly, mainly through monetary compensation", while in contrast, intrinsic incentives are evident "... when people's behaviour is oriented towards satisfaction of innate psychological needs and not oriented to the acquisition of material rewards" (Chatzopoulou et al., 2015).

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The most common theories in the field of employee motivation and satisfaction include a) Maslow's needs hierarchy theory, b) the Job Characteristics theory, c) Herzberg's motivator- hygiene (or maintenance) theory and d) Locke’s Range of Affect theory.

1.1 Maslow’s pyramid of needs theory

Maslow's theory is known in the literature as the theory of human motivation and was one of the first theories used to examine the factors that contribute significantly to job satisfaction (Maslow, 1954). The theory suggests that human needs can be prioritized into a five-level model, as shown in the figure below.

According to Maslow's model of human needs prioritization, at the lower level of hierarchy there are physiological needs, safety and security needs follow, self-esteem needs continue to the highest levels, while at the top of the hierarchy are self-actualization needs. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs claims that there are basic needs that must be met first (such as physiological needs and safety-security needs) before the most complex needs (such as self- esteem and self-actualization needs) (Pardee, 1990).

Maslow's hierarchy of needs was developed principally to explain human motivation, but several researchers later used it to explain job satisfaction. Within an organization, salary and security are the basic physiological needs of employees. Security can be manifested when employees feel physically safe in their work environment, but also in a more general context, when they feel safe at any level, given the organization's policies. When this need is met, the employee feels that he is an active part of his workplace. This can be demonstrated in the form of positive relationships with colleagues and supervisors in the workplace, and the feeling that the employee is part of the team / organization. The organization can be defined as the union of a group of people who through their work try to achieve the common goals they set. Key elements that define the organization are people, goals, work-systems-plans, duration and boundaries (Bouradas, 2002). Also, the structure is defined as the structure and interconnection of various factors in order to achieve a purpose determined in advance.

When physiological needs as well as safety and security needs are met, the employee will feel valued and appreciated by his colleagues, the leadership and the organization as a whole,

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where the final step in this sense is that the employee tries to be self-realized. To do this, he must be developed and evolved. Progress from one stage of hierarchy to the next also contributes to the process of self-realization and completion of the employee. Therefore, organizations wishing to improve employee job satisfaction should try to meet the basic needs of employees before making progress to address the needs at higher hierarchical levels. The goal of a business-organization can be a situation that it wants to achieve, such as the execution and development of work more efficiently and correctly than employees and the fulfilment of its goals (Maslow, 2013).

More recently, however, this approach is becoming less and less popular, as it does not consider the employee's cognitive process and, in general, there is insufficient empirical evidence. In addition, several researchers suggest that in the final stage, that of self- realization, the absence of a clear definition and the conceptual understanding of the term self-realization, combined with the difficulty of measuring it, makes it difficult to assess whether this ultimate goal has been achieved or not (Kaur, 2013).

Figure 1.1: Maslow Pyramid of needs (www.simplypsychology.com)

Maslow's theory, however, formed the basis on which another theory of job satisfaction, Herzberg's, was created. Herzberg's theory of the two factors of motivation and hygiene or maintenance suggests that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not two opposite concepts, but two different concepts and often unrelated concepts, in the sense that they are due to different factors (Chatzopoulou et al., 2015)

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1.2 Job characteristics model

Organizational psychologists Hackman and Oldham (1975) created the Job Characteristics Model as a regulating methodology to job enrichment. It stipulates five job dimensions that will lead to crucial psychological states of the individual. The model of job characteristics states that job satisfaction exists when the job environment integrally boosts motivating factors. According to this model, there are five main characteristics of work, which are the variety of skills required, its importance, its identity, feedback and autonomy and that have an effect on three psychological situations, as depicted in the figure below (Ali et al., 2014).

Figure 1.2: Job characteristics theory (http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/)

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1.3 Herzberg’s motivator – hygiene theory

“The human animal has two categories of needs. One set stems from his animal disposition, that side of him previously referred to as the Adam view of man; it is centered on the avoidance of loss of life, hunger, pain, sexual deprivation, and on other primary drives, in addition to the infinite varieties of learned fears that become attached to these basic drives. The other segment of man’s nature, according to the Abraham concept of the human being, is man’s compelling urge to realize his own potentiality by continuous psychological growth.” – Frederick Herzberg

In 1959, Frederick Herzberg, a behavioural scientist proposed a two-factor theory or the motivator-hygiene theory. According to Herzberg, there are some job factors that result in satisfaction while there are other job factors that prevent dissatisfaction. According to Herzberg, the opposite of “Satisfaction” is “No satisfaction” and the opposite of “Dissatisfaction” is “No Dissatisfaction”.

Figure 1.3. Relationship between satisfaction and dissatisfaction with work, according to Herzberg`s theory (Herzberg, 1968, 2003)

So on one hand there are the motivating factors of human resources, such as benefits and wages, achievement of goals, project recognition, freedom to take responsibility, promotion system, initiative, the nature of work, etc. while on the other hand there are the factors of hygiene or preservation which do not motivate the employees respectively and which are the

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working conditions, occupational safety, the organization’s policies, relationship with colleagues, the style and quality of management, the way of supervision and employee position. Motivation factors can be comprehended as an inner force that leads employees to achieve personal and organizational goals. Motivation and retention factors are considered independent depending on the group to which they belongs and can lead either to employee satisfaction or dissatisfaction with work (Dugguh & Ayaga 2014). This separation of factors can assist to understand the intricacy of the employee's feelings, as they may feel both satisfied and unhappy at the same moment, or they may feel neither satisfied nor unhappy (Chatzopoulou et al., 2015).

The theory is widely accepted but there are some detractors. There is a belief that its methodology does not address the fact that people tend to look at the things they find enjoyable about their work when things are going well. When things are not going well, however, they tend to blame other external factors.

The academic debate over Herzberg's two-factor theory, which lasted for at least ten years, is also known as the Herzberg Controversy (Bockman, 1971). Proponents of the theory argue that the large number of conflicting results in empirical research is due to 1) the broader misinterpretations of the theory, 2) the mythological weaknesses, and 3) the misinterpretation of the results (Sachau, 2007). Today, Herzberg's theory has been used again in the research of positive psychology, while other proponents point to the fact that the theory has often been misinterpreted to understand it. Finally, it is stated that it could be better understood as a meta-theory or worldview of job satisfaction (Batiou & Valkanos 2013). Despite its limitations the theory is accepted broadly.

The Two-Factor theory implies that the managers must stress upon guaranteeing the adequacy of the hygiene factors to avoid employee dissatisfaction. Also, the managers must make sure that the work is stimulating and rewarding so that the employees are motivated to work and perform harder and better. This theory gives great importance to job-enrichment as a way to motivate employees. It states that the job must utilize the employee’s skills and competencies to the maximum and that focusing on the motivational factors can improve work-quality.

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1.4 Locke’s Range of Affect theory

Edwin Locke developed the Range of Affect theory in 1975, one of the most famous models for measuring job satisfaction. The main belief of this theory is that job satisfaction can be determined by a discrepancy involving what one wants in his job and what one actually has in his job. Also, the theory suggests that the value one contributes to a certain aspect of his work, for example the level of autonomy and discretion in a job, explains how satisfied or dissatisfied that person feels when his expectations are met or not.

When an individual assigns value to a particular aspect of his job, his satisfaction is influenced in both positive and negative ways compared to an individual who does not value that aspect as much.

To elucidate, if person A values autonomy in his work place but person B does not care as much about autonomy, then A would be more satisfied in a job position that provides a higher degree of autonomy and less satisfied in a job position with less autonomy compared to B. The theory also suggests that too much of a specific aspect will yield stronger feelings of dissatisfaction the more an employee gives value to that aspect of his work (Locke & Henne, 1986)

1.5 Other job satisfaction theory

Additionally to the job satisfaction theories mentioned above, there are more that have been independently developed. The Affective Event Theory, for example, was developed by the psychologists Weiss and Cropanzano (1996), to describe how mood and emotions affect job satisfaction. The theory explains the relationship between internal factors that affect employees’ cognitive functions, mental state, emotions etc. and their reactions to events that occur in their work place, which affect their performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction (Ashkanasy & Dorris, 2017).

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The theory also suggests that emotional behaviours at work are explained by the mood and emotions of employees, while cognitive behaviours are the optimal predictor of work satisfaction. Furthermore, the theory of emotion expression emphasized that the formation of positive or negative emotions in the workplace is distinct and each of them has a noteworthy psychological impact on job satisfaction. Following research on personality in support of the expression of emotions showed that there are numerous factors that influence the theory. These were extroversion, consciousness, grandeur, openness to experiences and neuroticism. Also, according to the same theory, performance feedback has a significant effect on employees and suggests that the nature of feedback on performance produced by managers can affect employee performance and job satisfaction (Dugguh & Ayaga, 2014).

A different theory for job satisfaction is the Equity Theory, developed by Walster et al. (1973). It shows how a person sees justice in relation to social relationships (Huseman et al., 1987). The theory adopts that at the duration of a social exchange, a person determines the amount of input he receives from a relationship, in this case the relationships in his employment, as compared to the output. Based on the theory, subsequent researchers showed that if an employee thinks that there is a level of inequality between two groups or individuals, the employee will probably be troubled or unhappy because the input and output are unequal.

The entries include the quality and quantity of the employee's contribution to his work. Examples of inputs are time, dedication, effort, hard work, adaptability, ability, determination, flexibility, endurance, trust in supervisors, enthusiasm, personal sacrifice, and joint support from employees, associates and skills. Results on the other hand are the positive or negative consequences that an employee perceives as being generated as a consequence of his relationship with other people. Examples of outputs are job security, employee benefits, self-esteem, salary, recognition, expenses, responsibilities, fame, praise, sense of accomplishment and so on.

The main problem of this theory of justice is compensation, which is a cause for concern for justice and inequality in organizations. In any position within a business, an employee wants to feel that his contribution and performance at work is rewarded with his salary and in general through payment and incentives. So, if an employee does not feel adequately

Postgraduate Dissertation 12 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

rewarded for what he offers, he will be not be happy and consequently hostile to the organization or other employees and frontrunners, which may eventually lead to a absence of motivation and inadequate performance (Grund & Rubin, 2017).

The theory of justice additionally identifies four tools for job satisfaction or dissatisfaction as follows (Dugguh & Ayaga, 2014):

1) Employees seek to maximize their results (rewards minus results).

2) Teams can maximize the collective benefits of developing acceptable systems for fair distribution of rewards and expenses among their members. This means that justice systems will evolve into groups, and their members will try to challenge other members to accept and comply with these systems.

3) When employees are found to be involved in unfair relationships, they are unhappy or upset. The theory of justice explains that in this situation, both the person who gets the "maximum" and the person who gets the "little" feel dissatisfied. The employee who gets "the most" may feel ashamed or guilty, while the one who gets "the little" may feel angry or humiliated.

4) Employees who consider themselves to be in an unequal relationship try to eliminate their dissatisfaction with the restoration of justice. This can be done either by falsifying the inputs - outputs, or by withdrawing them from the organization.

Thus, the theory of justice has far-reaching implications for employee morale, efficiency, productivity, productivity and turnover. It also shows that employees see themselves, through the way they are treated in terms of their environment, teams, system, etc., collectively, and not individually and so they should be managed and treated accordingly. In addition, the total inputs and outputs of employees must be measured including their personal values.

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Chapter 2 – Literature review on job satisfaction

2.1 Job satisfaction in the Public Sector

Factors of professional satisfaction are undoubtedly one of the most widely studied topics in the field of industrial psychology. As early as the 1970s, a major researcher in this field reported that these studies numbered 51 thousand. Today, the number of such studies is even higher, as the landscape of working conditions has changed significantly in both the private and public sectors, due to changes in the business environment due to the impact of globalization, intense competition and the recent recession in many countries of the world and especially in Europe. The study in this field is constantly intensifying, as researchers are trying to find out whether the levels of professional satisfaction have changed due to the new conditions, but also the change in the factors of motivation - satisfaction.

A survey of 3,400 civil servants in Malta found that employees' perceptions of the organization, employee-leadership relationships and job characteristics were the most important motivators. Another study in Australia on civil servants found that reward and recognition programs can positively affect employee motivation, performance and interest within an organization (Milne, 2007).

Much of this research has been done on public sector employees, but also on a combination of public and private sector employees. A survey of 101 public and private sector workers in the United States found that the nature of work (describing work as essential), job opportunities, job security, and high incomes were among the factors that were more important in job satisfaction for civil servants (Houston, 2000).

In the same country, other researchers studied the factors of job satisfaction in government employees in government and employees in the respective Ministry of Health and found that job satisfaction is strongly and positively related to the level of education and participation in professional organizations. The results of this study also highlight the significant influence of organizational institutions, suggesting that bureaucracy is negatively related to workplace

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motivation, while hierarchical structures and reform efforts are positively related to workplace motivation (Moynihan, 2007).

Another survey of civil servants in Europe and the United States (UK, USA, Canada, France, Denmark, Norway and Germany) found that highly motivated workers had higher levels of endogenous workplace characteristics, especially in interesting and autonomous work, but also exogenous characteristics of the workplace, such as increased wages, more prospects for promoting and improving job security, better working relationships with managers and higher levels of cooperation with colleagues. In general, these employees were more satisfied with their work, compared to their counterparts, with lower levels of motivation, fewer endogenous and exogenous properties in the workplace, and poor working relationships with managers and colleagues (Taylor & Westover, 2011).

A researcher in Europe, who studied the motivational factors in the workplace in civil servants, based on Herzberg's two-factor theory, concluded that among the model's hygiene factors, wages, job security, and supervisory practices management and relationship with leadership, were the most important factors influencing staff motivation, with salary playing the most important role. On the other hand, relationships with colleagues, working conditions and personal life were the factors that had the least impact on motivating staff (Barzoki et al., 2012).

A similar study of more than 200 employees from 45 public companies in Ireland during the downturn in the country said the variety of skills was more satisfying than working for people with strong organizational mobility. People who specialize in the subject of work have achieved lower job satisfaction (O'Shea et al., 2014).

The economic crisis is a difficult situation, which can affect people's approaches to assessing their work situation. Employee motivation is one of the most important issues for organizations, whether public or private, under the threat of the economic crisis. This interest is focused on trying to understand the importance of human resources in the organization and consequently in the need to provide incentives to maximize employee productivity and efficiency (Markovits et al., 2014).

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As far as public administration is concerned, we have seen that many modern problems and vulnerabilities pre-existed the recession, and with its advent, some of them have intensified and others have been corrected to some extent through the reforms that have taken place. However, wage cuts, cuts in benefits, a lack of staff and a lack of public administration are a modern reality. This new reality makes the operation of public enterprises problematic and confronts them with challenges that affect their efficiency and effectiveness. Therefore, more emphasis should be placed on human resources in public organizations.

2.2 Job satisfaction in the Greek Public Sector

The poor state of public administration and the malfunction of the country's administrative system have been the subject of scholarly research for many years. This situation undoubtedly affects the satisfaction of public sector employees, although the connection between these two factors is a particularly neglected issue in the literature in Greece. The Greek public administration has significant vulnerabilities, which, among other things, are related to its staff, but also to other factors that affect staff performance and satisfaction. These vulnerabilities have not been unheard of in recent years, but they have been around for several years (Makrydemetres et al., 2016).

Varvaressos was the first, in 1952, in his research for the World Bank entitled "Report on the economic problem", to talk about the ineffectiveness of public administration as a deterrent to the country's efforts to rebuild and economic growth in the aftermath of the war and the period of the crisis of the 1940s. The researcher considered that the most important weaknesses of public administration were, among other things, the unequal distribution of staff in the various government services and institutions, resulting in its concentration in the central services in the capital and their very low staffing in regional and decentralized units, the high degree of development of customer relations and favoritism, the lack of meritocracy and the existence of widespread corruption, as well as bribery and low morale, in the procedures for appointing civil servants, public domination and law enforcement persistent bureaucracy in operation and the performance of public services (Makrydemetres, 2013).

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These vulnerabilities have also been highlighted more recently in the literature. A researcher in Greece reports that the number of jobs created in the existing structures of public administration over the years has been much higher than required, making its organizational size large.

This in turn makes it difficult to coordinate and guide actions toward consistent implementation of public administration objectives (Manitakis, 2012). Another source also points out that until recently public organizations were poorly organized, and their actions had been developed with an unstructured way, without a serious strategic plan. This has resulted in the inefficiency and inefficiency of public services, which has ultimately led to a decline in the quality of services, provided and increased dissatisfaction on all sides. The author talks about the strong criticism that the Greek public administration has received from the media, non-governmental organizations and from economic and international organizations, for its inefficiency and poor performance, which is due, among other things, to the unequal distribution of the duties of the staff, the overlapping of their responsibilities, the poor organizational structures that complicate the work of civil servants, the complex legal framework, the lack of transparency and the absence of modern methods, principles and management techniques (Lampropoulou, 2012).

Despite efforts to reform in recent years, some of the above vulnerabilities in public administration have so far failed to be addressed effectively. The reforms were the result of bailouts reached by Greece with its lenders in the wake of the country's 2009 economic crisis. The country has called on European authorities to provide immediate financial assistance provided by Europe's financial support mechanisms, in particular by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB). The aid was accompanied by the signing of Memoranda, which, among other things, required reforms in the public sector (Triantopoulos, 2016).

The recession in Greece has generally created significant challenges in the labour sector. Greece's agreements with its creditors (memoranda), from May 2010 until the latest ones signed into law in the summer of 2015, had serious negative effects on labour issues. Thousands of people lost their jobs and there was a significant reduction in wages. Growing

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pressure on the government to reduce public debt was a fact that forced many public administration services to "do more with less." In particular, in the seven years from 2010- 2017 the reduction of expenditures for salaries in the public sector reached 41% mainly because the number of civil servants was reduced by 30% (Katsaganis, 2018)

To continue operating at a satisfactory level of services provided, public organizations had to make the most of their employees' skills (Chatzopoulou et al., 2015).

At the same time, public administration reforms have led to a reduction in public sector jobs, either due to the retirement of employees, or through the privatization of public property, but also to the high mobility of civil servants through secondments and transfers. Thus, the former overcrowding, in terms of staff size, public sector is now facing a shortage of staff. However, these reforms have also led to an improvement in the distribution of staff between public administration services, to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of public services. Simultaneously, the introduction of Information and Communication Technologies in public administration, required high and / or specially trained staff (Makrydemetres et al., 2016).

In the light of the current economic crisis, the vast majority of civil servants today are deeply frustrated and discouraged, as further cuts have been implemented, focusing mainly on public sector workers' wages and benefits, given the large number of civil servants and its effects on the public deficit (Ioannides, 2014).

These developments are likely to have affected the job satisfaction of public administration employees. However, in academic research, few reports have been found on related issues, and in particular how reforms due to the economic downturn in the country have affected the job satisfaction of public administration employees or the factors that affect job satisfaction. . The studies, the findings of which will be presented below, confirm the complexity of motivation (motivation) and job satisfaction and their interaction with many factors.

Starting with what happened before the crisis in Greece, a team of researchers found that motivational techniques used by human resources managers in public organizations vary depending on the level of hierarchy of employees. In more detail, managers believe that the prospect of promotion after employee evaluation is the best means of motivation for

Postgraduate Dissertation 18 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education employees, while based on their importance, followed by the factors of job responsibilities, job security and financial reward (Dimitriadis et al., 2003).

At a later date, another survey looked at job incentives in the enlarged public sector in Greece, in three major state-owned enterprises, which were the Public Electricity Company (PPC), the Capital Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYDAP) and Hellenic Airlines. Industry (EAB). The final sample consisted of 454 employees and the data collection was carried out in early 2005. The research findings showed that in the expanded public sector in Greece public bodies are trying to encourage their employees and improve productivity, emphasizing exogenous rewards and more specifically in the provision of fair wages and increased employment security (Manolopoulos, 2007).

A similar survey conducted on employees in the Municipality of Athens in 2008 underscores the impact of leadership on employee motivation, job satisfaction and performance. Its results showed that team building, positive discipline, dedication to vision, the factor of change, trust and justice are the factors that leaders must provide to their employees in order to inspire and inspire them and motivate the bureaucratic work environment of the public sector. In this way, leadership will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of civil servants (Akrivos & Koutras, 2009)

Investigating the recession in Greece, Batiou and Valkanos (2013), conducted a survey of 67 permanent and contract employees of the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs, in order to a) measure their job satisfaction and explore its various aspects and b) to look at factors that affect their job satisfaction, with an emphasis on demographics. To cover the purpose of the research, Herzberg's two-factor theory was used as a methodological tool. In this context, the factors that were investigated in terms of the degree to which they affect job satisfaction were divided into endogenous and exogenous. Exogenous factors studied were wages and earnings, monetary and non-monetary margins (additional benefits), direct supervisor (supervision), operational policies and procedures, while endogenous factors included opportunities for promotion, appreciation and recognition, reward for good work and work duties (nature of work). Finally, communication was studied as a factor, but without being classified in any of the above two categories of factors. The results of the study showed moderate levels of job satisfaction among participants. Age was found to be the only demographic variable that significantly affected job satisfaction, while three aspects of job

Postgraduate Dissertation 19 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education satisfaction, one inherent (nature of work) and two exogenous (supervision) and (colleagues), appeared to be factors that affect aspects of job satisfaction (Batiou & Valkanos, 2013).

The survey, which was conducted the same year by Kormikiari et al. (2013), aimed to assess the level of job satisfaction of employees in public sports, with an emphasis on the study of the impact of demographic factors such as age and gender. Other factors examined were working conditions, wages, the organization as a whole, the nature of work, supervision, and promotion. A total of 102 people participated in the research. The results showed that employees were moderately satisfied with their work in terms of working conditions, their salary, the organization as a whole, the nature of the work and supervision. In addition, a small degree of satisfaction was recorded in relation to the factor of promotion. As for the correlation between satisfactions with demographic characteristics, the results showed that the working groups who were of different ages did not statistically show significant differences in their views on job satisfaction, while the same was true for employees of different ages and gender.

Another research by Demopoulou et al. (2010) was aimed at investigating the job satisfaction of employees in both the public and private sectors. Specifically, the degree to which employee satisfaction with factors such as years of service in the service / organization is affected, the degree to which the employee holds the job and the work he performs within the service / organization in relation to senior management, were studied. The way colleagues work in the workplace, the climate of cooperation with colleagues and the climate of cooperation in the employee's activity department. The results showed that there was a correlation between job satisfaction with the factors of the relevance of the employee's degree and the way of management of the superiors. However, this study does not separate the results on public sector employees, with the result that these results cannot be generalized to the public sector, since the factors of job satisfaction and the way they operate differ from the environment work of public and private enterprises.

A similar study, conducted by Markovits and Van Dick (2017), also looked at the relationship between organizational commitment to work and job satisfaction in Greece, but also between endogenous and exogenous motivational factors from Herzberg's two-factor theory. And this research was done on public and private sector employees. In this sample, public sector employees accounted for almost 1/3 of the total sample. Emotional organizational commitment has been found to be more influential than intrinsic and exogenous factors of

Postgraduate Dissertation 20 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education work motivation. Although these findings are consistent with the findings of the international literature, however, as in previous research, they cannot be generalized to public sector employees.

In general, research shows that civil servants are motivated by a combination of external and internal motivations. They also believe that in times of economic crisis, incentives do not have to be financial. It is important to note that the public administration does not apply methods similar to those of the private sector. For example, in the private sector, the employer or the supervisor may dismiss his staff at any time if he deems it inappropriate for his work. Or on the other hand to give a bonus to the staff who considers that it responds more efficiently to its objects (Markovits et al., 2006). However, all these management practices are not applied in the modern Greek public administration. Obviously, there are also objective reasons for the difficulty of implementation.

In Greece in general, private and public organizations differ significantly in matters relating to labour relations, employment status, wages, benefits and human resources policies. Civil servants have a secure job, a steady career scale, salary development and guaranteed additional benefits. Inherent reward and personal motivation are rarely considered in the employment relationship. In the private sector, on the other hand, employees face job instability, large wage gaps, and human resources and incentive policies are determined by the needs and interests of that employer. Research conducted on public and private employees in Greece has shown that, in general, exogenous rewards determine the differences in the size of organizational commitment between private and public sector employees. Therefore, when there is economic prosperity and opportunities for personal and professional development, employment in the private sector is more attractive than in the public sector and creates a greater sense of organizational commitment. The findings of this study suggest that private sector workers demand more exogenous job satisfaction from civil servants and at the same time are more focused on their organizations. In addition, internal rewards have the ability to make people feel inherently satisfied with their work and thus be committed to their organizations, no matter where they work (Markovits et al., 2006).

In addition, according to another study, employees in Greece systematically have lower job satisfaction than other Europeans, while there are differences in the level of satisfaction between employees between the private and public sector. Public sector employees have been found to be more satisfied with issues such as security, working hours and financial benefits

Postgraduate Dissertation 21 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education (Demoussis & Giannakopoulos, 2007). Nevertheless, the public sector is undergoing continuous reforms in order to achieve the economic efficiency and effectiveness of the services provided. However, continuous changes in the public sector can affect employee satisfaction, performance, and health.

A research into Air Force officers investigated the motives that ensure employee satisfaction and motivate them. The findings reveal that five motivators contributed effectively to satisfaction and organizational commitment. These factors included supervisory management skills, job enrichment, role clarity, working conditions and promotion opportunities (Stephanides, 2012).

Another series of surveys between employees of Greek banks and credit institutions was conducted to assess job satisfaction levels, their role conflicts and autonomy. According to the results, the factors that contributed the most to satisfaction were the organization as a whole, the promotion opportunities and the nature of the work. In the higher hierarchies, working conditions and wages were factors that contributed less to job satisfaction. This finding confirms previous studies conducted among bank employees in Greece, the majority of which show that the levels of job satisfaction are quite high today. In particular, the results show that among the inherent factors, the content of the work seems to be at a higher level and has the greatest impact on motivation and job satisfaction. Employees, on the other hand, also tend to attach great importance to exogenous motivations, such as wages (Belias et al., 2014).

Regarding job satisfaction during the economic recession in Greece, a recent study by Chatzopoulou et al. (2015), examined the role of motivation and job satisfaction during the recession, in order to identify the most important factors of motivation - satisfaction that could lead Local Government workers, in a more efficient manner, under the conditions of the current economic crisis. It was also examined whether these factors differ in relation to social and demographic data, or depending on the nature of the work. The survey was conducted on 85 employees of the Local Government in the Regional Unit of Grevena. The results revealed that the most important motivating factors for the employees examined were job interest, equal and fair treatment, good working relationships with supervisors and colleagues, objective assessment, and decent wages.

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Postgraduate Dissertation 23 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

2.3 Hetero employment and job satisfaction

If everything was perfect in the world, higher education would be in balance with the labour market and each graduate would easily find work related to his or her academic degree and studies. Sadly the reality is very different. A study conducted to investigate the nature of the relationship between higher education and the labour market, states that there does not appear to be a relationship between the increase in occupations, the level of knowledge and changes in the labour market (Escotet, 1998).

In addition, the relationship between higher education and the employment of graduates has common features in most economically developed countries. Differences between countries, however, are significant in some areas. In Belgium and Sweden, two of the European Union (EU) countries with the lowest unemployment rates, employers believe that while university graduates are hardworking and have excellent knowledge of their specialty, they are not well prepared for the real conditions. In the job market and show few signs of creativity, adaptability and flexibility. This view is also expressed in some other countries, including Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom, which are driven by the demands of labour market leaders (Kostoglou & Paloukis, 2007).

A survey conducted a few years ago by Kostoglou & Paloukis (2007) to look at the employment status of university graduates in the EU, citing and comparing data between 11 member countries (Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom), concluded that many graduates eventually choose jobs that are not relevant to their degree and generally to their educational background. In particular, the European average for hetero- employment was 6.2%, while in some countries it exceeded 50%. Hetero-employment rates were higher in Southeast European countries (France, Italy, Spain and Greece), with lower rates in the Nordic countries. The employment rate in Greece was 40%. Therefore, the labour market often functions as a "forbidden fruit" for many university graduates. Employers usually prefer to hire experienced employees rather than new graduates without significant work experience.

Postgraduate Dissertation 24 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Another study also states that hetero employment is a predominant phenomenon among higher education graduates, and this percentage for Greece is four out of ten. In fact, in the field of hetero-employment, Greece ranks second in Europe (Katsikas, 2008).

The findings for Greece were confirmed by a more recent survey, which aimed to investigate existing differences in graduates 'attitudes towards employment and to study the effects of graduates' personal and educational characteristics on their vocational rehabilitation (Kostoglou & Adamidis, 2010). The survey was conducted on 1,541 graduates of the Alexander’s TEI of Thessaloniki, and the results showed a high percentage of hetero employment for graduates of only certain departments. Specifically, one in four graduates had turned to hetero employment. More specifically, the hetero employment rates were found to be higher in graduates of the Departments of Rural Development and Management of Agricultural Enterprises and Management of Tourism Enterprises and Hospitality Enterprises and less in graduates of the Departments of the School of Health Professions and the School of Technology (Kostoglou & Adamidis, 2010)

Even though hetero-employment is very common in the private sector it does not mean that it is not recorded in the public sector, especially since some public services are abolished and their employees must be transferred to other services, as was the case recently after the start of the economic recession in Greece. Very recent examples of services abolished in Greece were the Hellenic Motorways Operating and Management Company (TEO SA), the National Institute of Labour and Human Resources (EIEAD), etc. Many of those employees were transferred to the regional directorates of the Ministry of Education, for administrative positions, even though they did not have a relevant degree or experience.

In addition, in the current context of the recession in Greece, hetero employment in the public sector may stem from the fact that unemployment, economic hardship and low employment opportunities, as well as other factors such as the plethora of scientists, have forced young graduates to seek jobs in the public sector, with qualifications lower than those they have, but also jobs not related to their field of study. For example, a graduate with a higher education degree may apply or be hired for a lower management position in a lower educational level (such as a secondary or compulsory graduate) because that position is in the public sector, and may be meet the safety and security needs of employees. The public sector in Greece now seems to be an ideal outlet for the new generations of graduates, who seek to work in

Postgraduate Dissertation 25 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education them, even when the subject of work and the nature of the work are different from the subject of their education (Demopoulou et al., 2010).

So, the phenomenon of hetero employment may intensify in times of economic recession, although there is insufficient empirical evidence to support it. Also, academic research on the connection between hetero employment and job satisfaction is incomplete. In Greece, only one study has examined the link between hetero employment and job satisfaction in public administration. This research concluded that when an employee is not employed in a position related to the subject of his studies, then this affects his satisfaction with the way his superiors are managed. Nearly one-third of employees in this study reported that their subject matter had nothing to do with their subject matter (Demopoulou et al., 2010).

The Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs allows teachers to submit an application to be transferred yearly from primary and secondary schools to various administrative positions, either at the Ministry, at its regional directorates of education and many other positions. There is no requirement for any particular skill, or any degree that is relevant to the position. For example, an educator with a degree in theology and not experience at administrative work, can be transferred to a directorate of Education for a year. This study will also examine how hetero employment affects the educators that chose or were forced to work in a completely different field from their studies.

2.4 Job satisfaction of Ministry of Education employees

The Ministry Of Education and Religious Affairs was founded in 1833, it is among the oldest ministries and is responsible for the operation of the country's education system and the supervision of churches of all religions in Greece. The current minister is Niki Kerameus.

The main regional services of the Ministry of Education are the 13 Regional Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education at the capital of each region of the country, the 58 Directorates of Primary Education and the 58 Directorates of Secondary Education at the capital of each prefecture. Attiki and Thessaloniki have more than one Directorate of Education given the population of the regions. There are 58 KEDDY which are responsible for evaluating the special needs of students in both primary and secondary education and

Postgraduate Dissertation 26 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education suggest a course of action for their case. The Regional Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education were established by Law 2817/2000 (Government Gazette 78 / APS) as decentralized services and are directly subordinated to the Minister of Education. They were initially organized and structured in accordance with Law 2986/2002 (Government Gazette 24 / APS).

The Ministry of Education and Religions is the most populous ministry in employees according to the 2019 census data of the Hellenic Public Human Resources Registry of the country. Specifically for the personnel Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education the Ministry employs a total of 2,017 employees in the PE, TE and DE branches.

The case of the Ministry of Education is not similar to any other Ministry and it presents many peculiarities compared to the general public sector in the country. This is because government policies so far have led to staffing the administrative positions with educational staff for various reasons lacking the basic one, the actual qualifications needed for the positions. Recruitment of administrative staff did not take place for about thirty years not by chance but by design. It is noteworthy that staff of the Administrative Department were hired in a written competition in 1977 and then recruited in a written competition in 2004 by ASEP but for a minimum number in relation to the existing vacancies. Any few employees hired during this time were all transferred from other services, abolished or not, e.g. NELE, MOMA or with individual recruitments.

The administrative positions remained vacant each year, to be filled temporarily by teaching staff as is evident in the Ministerial Decisions about the hundreds of postings to both the central services as well as the regional throughout the years.

The targeted non-staffing of the Management with the specialized staff in the vacant organic positions, served the yearly transfer of teachers who had organic positions at long distances and did not want to move or wanted to be excluded from educational duties for personal reasons. There was also always a surplus of teaching staff that had to work somewhere. It is noteworthy that the Ministry gradually appointed 2,000 teachers in the PE11 branch (gymnasts) from 2004 to 2009, whom they did not need because there were no vacancies in their field. Most of them have been transferred or are seconded in recent years to the administration of the regional services and the central service of the ministry as employees of the PE Administrative branch.

Postgraduate Dissertation 27 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education With the closure of Olympic Airways SA and Olympic Airlines SA A significant number of IDACH employees were transferred to positions of management of the regional services in 2010. Also, 450 teachers of technical specialties who were excluded from the availability of Law 4172/2013 (Government Gazette 167 / AD) were transferred as administrative employees to the Secondary Directorates. Education where they belonged as teachers and 350 teachers of Secondary Education were compulsorily transferred to administrative staff positions of the Directorates of Primary Education. Following their application, another 600 teachers who had been seconded to administrative services were transferred and were given the opportunity to transfer to the institution they were seconded to in 2013 or had applied for transfer for their own reasons.

It should be noted that all the staff that have been transferred have not been evaluated by the Ministry of Education before the transfer, in relation to their formal and substantive qualifications, which would prove their suitability. In addition, the staff has not received even a basic training in the development of public administration skills. The burden of informing - training them from time to time has been borne by the already serving staff, the directorates supervisors or by themselves, who are trying to find out and cope with their duties. This makes it difficult for services to function on a daily basis because most of the time many transferred employees, especially former non-affiliated teachers because of their lack of knowledge of basic administrative and financial education, are unable to enter into the logic of Public Administration.

Regarding the regular staff of the Ministry of Education, the reforms in the public administration that took place in the light of the economic recession in the country, led to a reduction of its staff during the years of the recession and the lack of new recruitments. The needs for personnel were once again fulfilled to a certain degree by temporary postings of teaching staff.

In addition, the Ministry had a unique feature in its procedures for the permanent administrative staff. In contrast with other Ministries if an employee wished to work in the central services that could not happen with an application for a transfer but with a procedure similar to applying to change Ministries. The central services of the Ministry were reckoned as a mini Ministry within the Ministry. In any other Ministry in the country, any employee had the right to apply for a transfer of organic positions to their central services but that was not the case for the Ministry of Education.

Postgraduate Dissertation 28 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education A significant problem of the Regional Services of the Ministry of Education and Religions was the lack of an organizational chart and the description of job duties. It is noteworthy that only in August 2014 (PD 114/2014 Government Gazette 181 / AD) an organization of the central service of the Ministry was established.

Numerous letters of complaint were submitted though the years, employee strikes and meetings with the heads of the Ministry took place in order to remedy this peculiarity and allow employees to have the same rights as their colleagues in the rest of the public sector and especially to establish an organizational chart for all its services, especially the regional ones, that the Ministry refused to establish.

In 2016, the General Secretary of the Ministry, mr Ioannis Pantis formed a committee of 11 administrative employees, all in supervising positions in the regional services and assigned the committee the task of suggesting a proposal for the restructure of the Directorates and the establishment of an organizational chart (76128/GD/12-05-2016). The committee, in which the researcher of this study participated as a member, created a questionnaire that was sent to every directorate in the country. Furthermore, it conducted phone interviews with the supervisors of the administrative department in order to take note of all the problems in the everyday functions of each directorate.

In July 2016 the recommendation of the committee was submitted to the Ministry, including proposals for a radical restructure of the Directorates. The proposal included a categorization of the directorates according to the population of students they supported, the number of schools and the number of teaching staff. In addition, it included the simplification of numerous bureaucratical procedures and the establishment of departments within the directorates. Both the DPE and the DDE had two departments, the department of Administrative Affairs and the department of Educational Affairs. The permanent administrative staff could only be appointed as a Supervisor of the Department of Administrative Affairs, since the fact that in the position of the Supervisor of Educational Affairs a teacher is appointed, regardless any administrative qualifications which are needed for the fulfilment of the positions numerous duties.

In contrast to every other Ministry in the country, the position of the Director of the Directorate is by law only open to teachers and the administrative staff of the Ministry is not allowed to participate in the procedure, regardless of studies, educational qualifications,

Postgraduate Dissertation 29 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education degrees or experience. For example, a teacher with a degree in Physical Education, no administrative skills and no other qualifications such as Masters, foreign languages, seminars etc is allowed to apply for the position. An administrative employee with a Doctorate in Management, three foreign languages, a second university degree and 20 years of administrative experience, is not even allowed by law to apply for the position.

The above is a constant battle between the administrative staff and the heads of the Ministry in every government and it has not changed, affecting the employees in all the regional services of the Ministry. The change in the procedure and the equal treatment of employees was also among the many proposals submitted by the above committee. It was established that roughly 90% of the duties performed by the Directorates were purely administrative and not educational. Even though, the pressure by DOE and OLME, two of the largest unions in the country were taken into consideration when the latest law for the selection of senior officers for the regional services was published. Again, the administrative staff was excluded from participating in the procedure.

Additionally, the categorization of the Directorates met with opposition by Directors of certain Directorates that would fall in the “small” category based on the criteria mentioned above. The notion was abandoned and the Ministry put the whole plan on hold, following the unfortunate death of the General Secretary and the reconsideration of the restructure of the Directorates.

After almost two years, in 2018, an organizational chart was finally established for both the Central and the Regional Services of the Ministry (FEK 18/A/23-2-2018) allowing for the first time all employees to be treated as working in the same Ministry and being able to transfer from a regional service to the central service.

The new organizational chart established new departments in the Directorates, the Department of Financial Services, the Personnel Department and the Department of IT and Technologies. The new positions of supervisors in the new departments allowed the permanent administrative personnel to have more opportunities for advancement, even though there were complaints from the teachers unions for the exclusion of the teaching staff from those administrative positions. The position of the Director of the Directorate still remains a chance for advancement only for educators, and the administrative personnel union is still asking for the inclusion of administrative personnel, even though the political

Postgraduate Dissertation 30 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education repercussions of such a decision for any government would be heavy considering the number of teachers in the country and the number of administrative personnel.

Many of the above problems may affect employee satisfaction at the Ministry of Education, and this study will determine this affect, concentrating in the Directorates which had the most changes with the new organizational chart.

Postgraduate Dissertation 31 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Chapter 3 – Research Methodology

3.1 Scope and targets

The nature of the research questions, the purpose and the intermediate objectives of the research, but also the expected results of an empirical research, are the elements that determine the methodology to be followed, as well as the techniques that will be used to conduct it. Once the methodology and the means that will be used for its conduct are properly selected, the effectiveness of the application of the research is ensured (Stavropoulos, 2005).

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the degree of satisfaction of the administrative employees and the transferred teachers in administrative positions, in the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education of the Ministry of Education and Religions in Greece.

The above goal can be achieved by exploring intermediate goals that have been set and which are the study of the factors that determine job satisfaction and the motivation of administrative staff to identify which of them are encouraging or discouraging. The results of the research will provide us with knowledge about the factors that offer low satisfaction to employees employed in the administration of the Regional Services of the Ministry of Education, Research and Religions in Greece. In this way, the conditions will be created so that proposals can be made to improve job satisfaction.

3.2 Research questions

After determining the purpose of the empirical research and the intermediate objectives set, the next step is to determine the research questions, which were set out as follows:

1. What is the degree of total job satisfaction of the personnel of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education of the Ministry of Education and Religions

Postgraduate Dissertation 32 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education 2. How much do the factors according to the JSS Questionaire affect the job satisfaction of the personnel and in particular the factors: • Pay • Promotion • Supervision • Fringe Benefits • Contingent rewards • Operating conditions • Coworkers • Nature of work • Communication

3. The investigation of the existence of a correlation between the demographic and job related factors with the degree of job satisfaction such as age, position in the Directorate, hetero-employment (teachers), years working at the Directorate.

3.3 Research tools

For the present research the JSS questionnaire by Paul Spector (Spector, 1985) was sent to all the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education in the country with the instructions to be distributed to both the administrative personnel and to the teaching staff transferred to administrative positions. The questionnaire was created in Google forms.

The Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) has 36 items with nine subscales to assess how employees feel about the different aspects of their work. Each facet is assessed with four items, while a total score is calculated from all items. Each item is ranked on a 6-point Likert scale going from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. The 36 questions are formed in both directions, so about half of the questions must be scored in reverse. The nine facets are Pay, Supervision, Promotion, Fringe Benefits, Operating Procedures, Contingent Rewards, Nature of Work, Coworkers, and Communication. Although the JSS was originally developed for use in human service organizations, it is valid to a wide range of organizations both in the private and in the public sector (Tsounis & Sarafis, 2018)

Postgraduate Dissertation 33 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education The JSS questionnaire is one of the most used job satisfaction tools, and many studies have been conducted until now about its psychometric features. Research by Andreas Tsounis and Pavlos Sarafis was published about the reliability and validity of the Greek translation of the JSS Questionnaire in 2018 and to test its psychometric properties. The research was published in the BMC Psychology and concluded that the Greek Version of JSS is a reliable and valid tool for determining job satisfaction in Greece. The questionnaire that was distributed was in Greek.

3.4 Research sample

The sample of this research consists of 147 administrative employees and teachers temporarily serving in administrative positions in the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education in the country. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Directorates had to function with reduced personnel as many employees worked from home after the orders from the Ministry. Thus the collection of the questionnaires was far more difficult and time – consuming compared to any different period of the year.

3.5 Research design

The questionnaires were anonymous and no private information was recorded. Every question was obligatory and each participant could give a single answer in the Likert scale. The data was collected and analysed with Excel, Minitab and SPSS software programs.

The Cronbach a factor was used to analyse the internal consistency and reliability of the questionnaire findings. During the processing of the data it was deemed necessary to reverse the arrangement of the answers 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,19,21,23,24,26,29,31,34 since the phrasing of the statements was negative (Spector, 1985). The reliability analysis yielded a Cronbach coefficient of 0.906, which tallies to an excellent consistency.

Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items 0.906 37

Postgraduate Dissertation 34 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Chapter 4 – Research results

4.1 Descriptive statistics

We will first examine the demographics of the participants in the current study by gender, age, years working at the Directorate, studies, position in the organization and the percentage of the participants that are administrative or teaching personnel.

Demographic factors

Gender

From the 147 employees that participated in the research the majority were women, more specifically 61 participants were men and 86 women.

Gender Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid MALE 61 41.5 41.5 41.5 FEMALE 86 58.5 58.5 100.0 Total 147 100.0 100.0 Table 4.1 Participants by gender

Age

The vast majority of the participants belong in the 46-55 age category, thus the 47.6% of employees that participated in this research. In contrast, only 2% belong in the 25-35 age categories, which is logical considering the composition of the personnel in the Directorates. In the 36-45 age categories belong the 37.4% of the participants and in the 55+ age category belongs 12.9% of the participants.

Postgraduate Dissertation 35 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Age Cumulative Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent Valid 25-35 3 2.0 2.0 2.0 36-45 55 37.4 37.4 39.5 46-55 70 47.6 47.6 87.1 55+ 19 12.9 12.9 100.0 Total 147 100.0 100.0 Table 4.2 Participants by age

Graph 4.1 Participants by age

Years working at a Directorate

In the 1-10 bracket falls the vast majority of the participants which is expected, given the fact that many of the participants are teachers that are transferred yearly to administrative positions.

Given the previous laws for retirement, employees with more than 30 years could retire from their job with full benefits, thus the 2% of the participants in the 31+ years of experience bracket is expected. In the 11-20 brackets belong the 40.8% of participants and lastly in the 21-30 bracket only the 10.9% of employees that participated in this study.

Postgraduate Dissertation 36 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Years working at a Directorate Cumulative Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent Valid 1-10 68 46.3 46.3 46.3 11-20 60 40.8 40.8 87.1 21-30 16 10.9 10.9 98.0 31+ 3 2.0 2.0 100.0 Total 147 100.0 100.0 Table 4.3 Participants by years of experience

Graph 4.2 Participants by years of experience

Position in the Directorate

From the 147 participants in the research, the vast majority are employees. In the departments of the Directorates, the administrative personnel can become supervisors in the departments of Administrative Affairs, Financial department, Personnel department and Technology and IT department. The administrative personnel is not allowed by law to apply for the position of the Educational Affairs department supervisor. Similarly, teachers that are transferred to the Directorates are not allowed to apply for the position of Supervisor in any other department than the Educational Affairs department.

The 73.5% of the participants in the research are employees, 108 participants. 39 Supervisors participated in the research, 26.5%.

Postgraduate Dissertation 37 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Position in the Directorate Cumulative Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent Valid Employee 108 73.5 73.5 73.5 Supervisor 39 26.5 26.5 100.0 Total 147 100.0 100.0 Table 4.4 Participants by position in the Directorate

39

Employee Supervisor

108

Graph 4.3 Participants by position in the Directorate

Educational level

As we see in the table below, the vast majority of the participants have a university degree and a master’s degree. Only 3 participants belong in the obligatory education bracket (school up to Gymnasium) and only 9 participants have a high school diploma.

Educational level Cumulative Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent 1 Obligatory education 3 2.0 2.0 2.0 2 High school diploma 9 6.1 6.1 8.2 3 Techonological schools 11 7.5 7.5 15.6 4 University degree 64 43.5 43.5 59.2 5 Master’s 60 40.8 40.8 100.0 Total 147 100.0 100.0 Table 4.5 Participants by level of education

Postgraduate Dissertation 38 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Graph 4.4 Participants by level of education

Work relationship

As previously stated, in the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education, the vacant administrative positions are filled with temporarily transferred teachers. This question was designed to examine if the work relationship of the participants and in the case of teachers the hetero-employment, thus the employment in duties completely different than their studies affects their job satisfaction.

From the 147 participants, 94 are administrative personnel and 53 are transferred teachers. A 36.1% of the personnel are teachers working in administrative positions in the Directorates.

Work relationship Cumulative Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent 1 Administrative 94 63.9 63.9 63.9 2 personnel Teacher 53 36.1 36.1 100.0 Total 147 100.0 100.0 Table 4.6 Participants by job relationship

Postgraduate Dissertation 39 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Descriptive statistics

According to Spector (Spector, 1985) the JSS questionnaire has nine facets. Following his instructions 10 variables were created, one for the total job satisfaction and nine variables for the subcategories, as we see below in the table the basic statistics of the variables. Based on the answers scale and the sum of the questions by four, we determine the width of the scale created to a range of (4-21) with a mean of 14,5 for the nine facets and a mean of 127,79 for the total job satisfaction.

Statistics N Std. Error Std. of Error of Valid Missing Mean Median Mode Skewness Skewness Kurtosis Kurtosis Pay 147 0 11.3605 12.0000 15.00 0.054 0.200 -0.433 0.397 Promotion 147 0 10.9796 11.0000 9.00 0.463 0.200 0.124 0.397 Supervision 147 0 18.4966 19.0000 24.00 -0.675 0.200 0.111 0.397 Fridge_Benefits 147 0 11.7211 11.0000 9.00 0.346 0.200 -0.529 0.397 Contingent_Rewards 147 0 15.0544 15.0000 17.00 -0.119 0.200 -0.577 0.397 Operating_Conditions 147 0 10.9796 11.0000 8.00 0.294 0.200 -0.409 0.397 Coworkers 147 0 17.6871 18.0000 19.00 -0.563 0.200 -0.036 0.397 Nature_of_work 147 0 16.2381 17.0000 19.00 -0.477 0.200 -0.362 0.397 Communication 147 0 15.2721 16.0000 16.00 -0.428 0.200 -0.358 0.397 Total_Satisfaction_JSS 147 0 127.7891 124.0000 111.00 0.195 0.200 -0.316 0.397 a. Multiple modes exist. The smallest value is shown Table 4.7 Descriptive statistics by subcategory JSS

4.2 Research questions

In order to answer the research questions, the appropriate statistical tests were performed. The following table shows the result of the test. The existence of a normal distribution in the answers was considered as a null hypothesis and the non-existence as an alternative. At the level of significance α = 5% and using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, we conclude that the answers to the questions do not follow the normal distribution (sis <0.05) in all cases except the total job satisfaction, which comes from the sum of the individual variables.

Tests of Normality Kolmogorov-Smirnova Shapiro-Wilk Statistic df Sig. Statistic df Sig. Pay 0.087 147 0.008 0.975 147 0.008

Postgraduate Dissertation 40 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Promotion 0.077 147 0.031 0.976 147 0.010 Supervision 0.105 147 0.000 0.938 147 0.000 Fridge_Benefits 0.099 147 0.001 0.969 147 0.002 Contingent_Rewards 0.105 147 0.000 0.979 147 0.025 Operating_Conditions 0.092 147 0.004 0.978 147 0.017 Coworkers 0.112 147 0.000 0.964 147 0.001 Nature_of_work 0.130 147 0.000 0.959 147 0.000 Communication 0.123 147 0.000 0.969 147 0.002 Total_Satisfaction_JSS 0.069 147 0.081 0.987 147 0.202

a. Lilliefors Significance Correction Table 4.8 Tests of normality

The lack of regularity does not allow the use of parametric methods; therefore non-parametric methods will be used to investigate any agreement or disagreement with the corresponding statements in the questionnaire.

Specifically, the One-sample Wilcoxon test and the Kruskal Wallis Test were used, which allow the comparison through the sample with the value corresponding to the neutral position based on the questionnaire. According to Spector (Spector, 1985) the Average value for each subcategory of the questionnaire corresponds to 14.5, while for the total satisfaction it corresponds to 126. The tests performed were one-sided, allowing the investigation of a positive or negative attitude towards the questionnaire statements.

4.2.1 Total job satisfaction question

The first research question explores whether the participants are overall satisfied with their work.

The statistical hypotheses that will be tested in order to answer the research question are: H0: Participants have a neutral attitude towards their overall job satisfaction. H1: Participants do not have a neutral attitude towards their overall job satisfaction.

The results of the test are presented below.

Postgraduate Dissertation 41 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Hypothesis Test Summary Null Hypothesis Test Sig. Decision One-Sample The median of Total 1 Wilcoxon Signed 0 Reject the null hypothesis. Satisfaction JSS equals 126. Rank Test Asymptotic significances are displayed. The significance level is .05. Table 4.9 Hypothesis test summary

Graph 4.5 One sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test

According to the One-sample Wilcoxon test, the Asymptotic Sig (1 sided) = 0.000 <0.05. This leads us to reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative that the participants do not have a neutral attitude towards their overall job satisfaction. But the median is equal to 124 marginally less than 126 while the average value is 127.78, marginally higher than the value of the scale of total satisfaction.

In order to further test the finding, the corresponding question that was asked directly to the participants was also studied. The scale was 1-6 (likert) and its average value was 3.5, based on which the test was performed. Below we see the results, with the observed median taking the value 4.

Postgraduate Dissertation 42 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Hypothesis Test Summary Null Hypothesis Test Sig. Decision

One-Sample Wilcoxon 1 The median of Overall satisfaction 0.001 Reject the null hypothesis. Signed Rank Test with my work:] equals 3,5. Asymptotic significances are displayed. The significance level is .05. Table 4.10 Hypothesis test summary

The descriptive statistics of this variable show a small overall job satisfaction. The average value is below 4 which correspond to a minimum agreement, and the median corresponds exactly to a minimum agreement.

Statistics Total job satisfaction N Valid 147 Missing 0 Mean 3.90 Median 4.00 Mode 5 Std. Deviation 1.500 Table 4.11 Total Job Satisfaction

Graph 4.6 Total Job Satisfaction by answers

Postgraduate Dissertation 43 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

As we can see most of the participants strongly or agree enough that they are overall satisfied from their jobs with 51 participants in the agree enough answer and 16 in the strongly agree bracket, bringing the number of adequately satisfied employees to 67, almost half of the participants. If we add to that the 29 participants that slightly agree, we can determine that there is a positive stance for their overall job satisfaction.

4.2.2 Job satisfaction by the questionnaire subcategories

With the second research question whether the participants are satisfied with the following subcategories of the questionnaire.

By completing the questionnaire and recording and grading the answers, the questions were categorized based on the nine aspects of job satisfaction according to Spector (Spector, 1985) as follows:

• Pay: Questions 1, 10, 19, 28 • Promotion: Questions 2, 11, 20, 33 • Supervision: Questions 3, 12, 21, 30 • Fringe Benefits: Questions 4, 13, 22, 29 • Contingent Rewards: Questions 5, 14, 23, 32 • Co-workers: Questions 7, 16, 25, 34 • Operating conditions: Questions 6, 15, 24, 31 • Nature of work: Questions 8, 17, 27, 35 • Communication: Questions 9, 18, 26, 36

The significance level was set at 5% and the statistical hypotheses to be tested can be formulated as follows:

H0: Participants have a neutral attitude

H1: Participants have a positive or negative attitude

The results of the test are presented below.

Postgraduate Dissertation 44 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Hypothesis Test Summary Null Hypothesis Median Sig. Decision 1 The median of Pay equals 14.50. 12.0000 0.0000 Η1 2 The median of Promotion equals 14.50. 11.0000 0.0000 Η1 3 The median of Supervision equals 14.50. 19.0000 0.0000 Η1 4 The median of Fridge Benefits equals 14.50. 11.0000 0.0000 Η1 The median of Contingent Rewards equals 15.0000 Η 5 0.1430 0 14.50. The median of Operating Conditions equals 11.0000 Η 6 0.0000 1 14.50. 7 The median of Coworkers equals 14.50. 18.0000 0.0000 Η1 8 The median of Nature of work equals 14.50. 17.0000 0.0000 Η1 The median of Communication equals 16.0000 Η 9 0.0170 1 14.50. Asymptotic significances are displayed. The significance level is .05. Table 4.12 Job Satisfaction by subcategory hypothesis test summary

According to the One-sample Wilcoxon test, the Asymptotic Sig (1-sided) = 0.000 <0.05 in most cases. Only in relation to contingent rewards there is a neutral attitude. Satisfaction exists in terms of co-workers (median 18 and sig 0.000), nature of work (median 17 and sig 0.000) communication (median 16 and sig 0.000).

Greater satisfaction is expressed in relation to the bosses (median 19 and sig 0.000). On the contrary, they seem dissatisfied in terms of pay (median 12 and sig 0.000), promotion prospects (median 11 and sig 0.000) and fringe benefits (median 11 and sig 0.000).

If we match the scale of the subcategories with the original by dividing the corresponding scores by 4 and subtracting the mean value, we can characterize the scores based on the original scale.

Subcategory Median Characterization

Pay 3 Disagree slightly

Promotion 2.75 Disagree slightly

Supervision 4.75 Agree > Agree enough

Fridge Benefits 2.75 Disagree slightly

Contingent Rewards 3.75 Neutral

Operating Conditions 2.75 Disagree slightly

Postgraduate Dissertation 45 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Coworkers 4.5 Agree

Nature of work 4.25 Agree slightly > Agree

Communication 4 Agree slightly Table 4.13 Categorized scores by subcategory

4.2.3 Job satisfaction by demographics

In order to deepen the analysis of the participants' views, we investigated whether their answers differ based on their demographics. The demographic data collected relate to gender, age, years of service, studies or employment, etc.

Due to the lack of regularity of the answers distributions, it is not possible to use the parametric analysis of variance analysis (Anova), nor the control of independent samples (Independent Samples t-test). Alternatively the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis H and Mann- Whitney U test methods will be used. The results are presented below only in cases where statistically significant differences occurred.

For all tests the basic tables produced by the statistical program are presented and allow conclusions to be drawn. In all cases the null hypothesis of equality of the medians was examined, as opposed to the alternative of inequality.

Gender Differentiation, Employment Relationship, Studies, Years of Service

In relation to Gender, employment, studies, years of service of the participants, the Mann- Whitney U test (for variables with two answers) and the Kruskal-Wallis Test (for variables with more than two answers) were performed. The specific tests allow the identification of statistically significant differences in a specific level of significance (5% in this case). The following table emerged from the execution of the audits.

Postgraduate Dissertation 46 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Terms of Gender employement Studies Years of work Mann- Kruskal- Kruskal- Kruskal- Whitney Subscale Wallis Test Wallis Wallis Decision U Test Sig. Test Sig. Test Sig. Sig. Non- 1 Pay 0.912 0.505 0.461 0.461 differentiation Non-differentiation 2 Promotion 0.291 0.882 0.433 0.433 Non-differentiation 3 Supervision 0.078 0.772 0.089 0.089 Non-differentiation 4 Fridge Benefits 0.819 0.58 0.993 0.993 Contingent Non-differentiation 5 0.284 0.349 0.076 0.076 Rewards Operating Non-differentiation 6 0.57 0.468 0.141 0.141 Conditions Non-differentiation 7 Coworkers 0.73 0.943 0.349 0.349 Non-differentiation 8 Nature of work 0.603 0.299 0.086 0.086 Non-differentiation 9 Communication 0.836 0.814 0.09 0.09 Total Non-differentiation 10 0.657 0.697 0.082 0.082 Satisfaction JSS Asymptotic significances are displayed. The significance level is .05.

Table 4.14 Gender Differentiation

The table shows that only one of the relevant questions did not show a statistically significant difference in any of the above cases (Sig.> 0.05). We must therefore accept that gender is not a factor that affects the job satisfaction of participants.

Differentiation in terms of employment

In all other cases the Mann - Whitney test was used, which allows the identification of statistically significant differences, based on which the test was performed. There were two possible answers to this variable, administrative or educational.

Postgraduate Dissertation 47 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Hypothesis Test Summary Null Hypothesis Sig. Decision 1 Contingent Rewards 0 Differentiation in terms of employment 2 Coworkers 0 Differentiation in terms of employment 3 Total Satisfaction JSS 0 Differentiation in terms of employment 4 Supervision 0.001 Differentiation in terms of employment 5 Operating Conditions 0.001 Differentiation in terms of employment 6 Communication 0.005 Differentiation in terms of employment 7 Fridge Benefits 0.035 Differentiation in terms of employment 8 Promotion 0.056 Equality in terms of employment 9 Pay 0.064 Equality in terms of employment 10 Nature of work 0.273 Equality in terms of employment Asymptotic significances are displayed. The significance level is .05. Table 4.15 Differentiation in terms of employment

Statistically significant differences were observed in terms of rewards, partners, supervisors, working conditions, communication, benefits and overall satisfaction. Below are the descriptive statistics of the job satisfaction variables.

ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL TRANSFERRED TEACHERS Terms of employment N Mean Median Mode N Mean Median Mode

Pay 94 10.8617 11 15 53 12.2453 13 13 Promotion 94 10.4681 10 9 53 11.8868 12 12 Supervision 94 17.6489 17.5 24 53 20 21 24 Fridge Benefits 94 11.1383 10 5.00a 53 12.7547 12 9 Contingent Rewards 94 13.8511 13.5 10 53 17.1887 17 17.00a Operating Conditions 94 10.1596 9 8 53 12.434 13 11.00a Coworkers 94 16.8298 17 19 53 19.2075 19 22 Nature of work 94 15.8617 17 19 53 16.9057 17 14 Total_Satisfaction_JSS 94 121.2447 119.5 109 53 139.3962 141 137 a. Multiple modes exist. The smallest value is shown Table 4.16 Terms of employment statistics

There is a very clear differentiation with the transferred teachers being generally more satisfied. In all the variables where there was a statistically significant difference, teachers say they are more satisfied. The table below shows the average and median values adjusted to the original scale of the questions.

Postgraduate Dissertation 48 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education We observe that even in cases where there was a statistically significant difference; this cannot be characterized as particularly large, in terms of scale. In terms of pay, administrators seem less satisfied, but the median (2.75) is a little far from the median of teachers' responses (3.25). The same goes for benefits and co-workers. Only in relation to supervision by superiors does the difference in responses correspond to a difference in attitude based on the scale (median 4.38 and 5.25 respectively)

ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSFERRED PERSONNEL TEACHERS Mean Median Mean Median

Pay 2.72 2.75 3.06 3.25 Supervision 4.41 4.38 5.00 5.25 Fridge Benefits 2.78 2.50 3.19 3.00 Coworkers 4.21 4.25 4.80 4.75 Table 4.17 Statistics by major categories by terms of employement

Position in the Directorate

The differentiation in terms of holding a position of responsibility was studied with a corresponding methodology. The alternatives were two, employee or supervisor. There could be no manager due to the selection system. Based on the significance level of 5%, the following results were obtained.

Hypothesis Test Summary EMPLOYEES SUPERVISORS Mean Median Mode Mean Median Mode Subscale Sig. Decision Differentiation in 11.4444 11.0000 9.00a 9.6923 8.0000 8.00 1 0.017 position in the Operating_Conditions organization 130.6944 130.0000 137.00a 119.7436 114.0000 111.00a Differentiation in 2 Total_Satisfaction 0.018 position in the organization Differentiation in 18.0185 19.0000 19.00 16.7692 17.0000 18.00 3 0.022 position in the Coworkers organization Differentiation in 19.0093 19.0000 24.00 17.0769 17.0000 12.00a 4 0.029 position in the Supervision organization Differentiation in 15.4537 16.0000 17.00 13.9487 13.0000 13.00 5 0.06 position in the Contingent_Rewards organization Equality in 16.6759 17.0000 19.00 15.0256 16.0000 18.00 6 0.059 position in the Nature_of_work organization Equality in 15.6667 16.0000 17.00 14.1795 15.0000 16.00 7 0.084 position in the Communication organization Equality in 11.1019 11.0000 11.00 10.6410 9.0000 7.00 8 0.287 Promotion position in the

Postgraduate Dissertation 49 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education organization

Equality in 11.9352 12.0000 9.00 11.1282 10.0000 10.00 9 0.334 position in the Fridge_Benefits organization Equality in 11.3889 12.0000 15.00 11.2821 11.0000 9.00a 10 0.658 position in the Pay organization Table 4.18 Statistics position in the Directorate

There was a statistically significant difference in terms of working conditions, co-workers, relationship with bosses, pay and overall job satisfaction. In all cases, the supervisors stated that they were less satisfied, as we can see from the corresponding descriptive statistics. Below are the results of the variables that showed a statistically significant difference, adjusted to the initial scale.

EMPLOYEES SUPERVISORS Subscale Mean Median Mean Median 1 Operating_Conditions 2.86 2.75 2.42 2.00 2 Total_Satisfaction 4.08 4.06 3.74 3.56 3 Coworkers 4.50 4.75 4.19 4.25 4 Supervision 4.75 4.75 4.27 4.25 5 Contingent_Rewards 3.86 4.00 3.49 3.25 Table 4.19 Differentiation by position in the Directorate

Corresponding to the differentiation in terms of employment relationship, the differentiation based on service in this position of responsibility cannot be characterized as particularly large, in terms of scale. The most important are the differences in terms of overall satisfaction (median 4.06 - employees, 3.56 bosses) and benefits (average 4.00 - employees, 3.25 bosses). Overall, bosses have lower scores on job satisfaction.

Assigned department

Finally, in relation to the service department, the Kruskal-Wallis Test was used with the null hypothesis of equality of answers and alternative differentiation. The significance level was set at 5%.

Postgraduate Dissertation 50 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Pay Promotion Supervision Fridge Contingent Operating Coworkers Nature Commu- Total Benefits Rewards Conditions of work nication Satisfaction JSS

Sig. 0.301 0.131 0.225 0.326 0.089 0.059 0.019 0.099 0.011 0.027

ADMINISTRATI Mean 12.3125 12.625 19.5625 12.75 16.6875 12.7188 19.1875 17.2813 17.4063 140.5313 VE AFFAIRS Median 13 12 20 12 17.5 13 19 18 17 145.5 DPT. Mode 15 9.00a 24 9 17.00a 13.00a 16.00a 19 16 114.00a

FINANCIAL Mean 9.84 10.12 18.52 10.12 14.76 9.64 18.24 16.2 14.8 122.24 DPT. Median 10 10 19 10 13 9 18 17 15 118

Mode 4 9.00a 19.00a 5.00a 13 15 16 19 13 104.00a

PERSONNEL Mean 11.6296 10.4444 17.4815 11.8889 14.2963 10.8704 16.8148 15.0185 14.7778 123.2222 DPT. Median 12 10 18 11.5 14.5 11 17.5 15.5 16 121

Mode 9 7.00a 16.00a 8.00a 10.00a 7.00a 19 17 17 109

TECH – IT DPT. Mean 11.7333 10.5333 18.4 12.4667 13.4 10.1333 15.4 16.0667 12.3333 120.4667

Median 11 12 19 13 13 9 16 17 13 121

Mode 8.00a 6 17.00a 18 10.00a 9 13.00a 17.00a 8 100.00a

EDUCATIONAL Mean 10.7619 11.1905 19.5238 11.0952 16.0476 10.8095 18.619 17.9524 15.9524 131.9524 AFFAIRS DPT. Median 12 11 20 10 16 11 18 18 17 124

Mode 8.00a 11 22.00a 9 17 11 18 19 19 121.00a

DECISION Η0 Η0 Η0 Η0 Η0 Η0 Η1 Η0 Η1 Η1

Table 4.20 Hypothesis testing by assigned department

In relation to the department they serve, statistically significant differences were identified in relation to associates (sig 0.019), communication (sig 0.011) and overall job satisfaction (sig 0.027).

From the table above we see that those who serve in the administrative department have consistently greater satisfaction in all three subcategories. On the contrary, lower scores are presented by the employees in the IT departments. Below are the results of the variables that showed a statistically significant difference, adjusted to the initial scale.

Coworkers Nature of work Total Satisfaction Mean 4.80 4.35 4.39 ADMINISTRATIVE Median AFFAIRS DPT. 4.75 4.25 4.55 Mode 4.00 4.00 3.56 Mean 4.56 3.70 3.82 FINANCIAL DPT. Median 4.50 3.75 3.69 Mode 4.00 3.25 3.25

Postgraduate Dissertation 51 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Mean 4.20 3.69 3.85 PERSONNEL DPT. Median 4.38 4.00 3.78 Mode 4.75 4.25 3.41 Mean 3.85 3.08 3.76 TECH – IT DPT. Median 4.00 3.25 3.78 Mode 3.25 2.00 3.13 Mean 4.65 3.99 4.12 EDUCATIONAL Median AFFAIRS DPT. 4.50 4.25 3.88 Mode 4.50 4.75 3.78 Table 4.21 Statistics by categories of coworkers and nature of work

We observe that in relation to the coworkers the statistically significant differentiation does not correspond to a particular differentiation based on the scale of answers that had been given. The medians are above value 4 and below value 5, where the attitude would change. However, there is the lowest score of employees in the IT department.

In relation to the nature of the work, the administrative department states that it is more satisfied (average price 4.35 and average 4.25) and in this case the IT department presents the lowest score (average value 3.08 and average 3.25).

Finally, in terms of overall satisfaction, the administrative department shows a substantial difference (average value 4.39 and average 4.55), while the other departments show scores between the minimum disagreement and the minimum agreement.

Postgraduate Dissertation 52 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education 4.3 Conclusions

The assessment of the level of job satisfaction for the employees at the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education of the Ministry of Education and Religions was evaluated through the structured JSS questionnaire. From the employees, both administrative personnel and transferred teachers, 147 took part in this research and completed the questionnaire.

The research showed that overall the employees of the Directorates show small job satisfaction. The mean is below 4 (3.9) which correspond to a minimum agreement, and the median corresponds exactly to a minimum agreement.

The employees showed dissatisfaction with their salaries, promotion, fringe benefits and operating conditions and greater satisfaction with their coworkers, nature of work and communication, as shown in Table 4.13

The existence of differentiation by demographic and other factors was examined and the research showed that gender did not play a role in the job satisfaction level of the employees.

On the other hand, the terms of employment, being a teacher or an administrative employee showed differences in terms of many subcategories such as rewards, coworkers, supervisors, working conditions, communication, benefits and overall satisfaction as shown in Table 4.16.

There is a very clear differentiation with the transferred teachers being generally more satisfied. In all the variables where there was a statistically significant difference, teachers say they are more satisfied. Their terms of employment are very different from those of the administrative personnel, given the fact that they can return to their jobs at the schools after one year of service in a Directorate, or even before if they apply for a termination of the transfer. Teaching personnel in schools is always needed and their application would be accepted. Knowing that, if they are dissatisfied at the administrative position more than they are possibly dissatisfied from their job at the school, it is safe to conclude that those serving at the Directorates would be satisfied with their current position.

When the position in the Directorate was examined per job satisfaction levels, there was a statistically significant difference in terms of working conditions, co-workers, relationship with bosses, pay and overall job satisfaction. The supervisors answered that they were less

Postgraduate Dissertation 53 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education satisfied, as shown in Table 4.18. The most important are the differences in terms of overall satisfaction (median 4.06 - employees, 3.56 supervisors) and benefits (average 4.00 - employees, 3.25 supervisors). Overall, supervisors have lower scores on job satisfaction which can be attributed to the added responsibility of their positions and taken into account the fact that the employees are satisfied with their supervisors, we can conclude that they show responsibility in the management of the personnel and successful in overcoming the differences in experience, studies and background given the composition of the human resources in the Directorates.

In relation to the department where the employees work in the Directorate, it was determined by this research that there are not great differences to the job satisfaction level, but the lowest score was in the IT department employees (Table 4.20). Being the most understaffed department in the Directorates due to the lack of administrative personnel with an IT degree (Ministry of Education, 2020) and the fact that the technological equipment in the Directorates is not up to date, it is fairly safe to conclude the reason for their lower job satisfaction.

In relation to the nature of the work, the administrative department states that it is more satisfied (average price 4.35 and average 4.25) and in this case the IT department presents the lowest score (average value 3.08 and average 3.25).

Finally, in terms of overall satisfaction, the administrative department shows a substantial difference. The new organizational chart of the Directorates and the duties assigned to each department show that the Administrative Department is the Department with the fewer responsibilities in terms of the nature of their duties and work. This being the only difference with the rest of the departments in any Directorate, we can assume that the nature of work is the reason for this overall higher job satisfaction (Government Gazette Presidential Decree 18/2018).

Postgraduate Dissertation 54 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

4.4 Suggestions

Independently from the questionnaire, an open ended question was sent to the participants in order to suggest what would need to change so they would be more satisfied with their work. The answers varied but there was significant agreement to some major problems that are affecting their everyday work and therefore their job satisfaction.

Bureaucratic procedures: In the age of digital government, the Directorates are far behind in every aspect. Every year they are called to manage a vast number of teaching personnel, many of them substitute teachers and to deal with pointless bureaucratic procedures such as numerous documents and various programs. There should be a simple procedure to achieve a higher level of service and spend less employees’ hours for insignificant and archaic procedures.

Most employees agree that the Directorates need to enter the digital age, to stop using multiple databases and programs for the same things such as the hiring of substitute teachers where they have to update up to 7 different platforms for each substitute teacher.

Promotion system: The vast majority of the administrative personnel agree that they feel they should be allowed to participate in the Director of the Directorate selection process. Most of them feel that the teachers that do not have a degree in Administration should not be allowed to participate in the process, given the fact that more than 80% of the Directorates’ duties are administrative and not educational and the additional fact that the administrative personnel and in particular the supervisors are obligated to “train” every new Director.

Personnel: The administrative employees in their totality agree that the personnel should be all administrative so there would be no temporarily transferred teachers that need to be trained for the execution of their duties. The fact that each year new teachers could be assigned to a Directorate for one year only, causes dissatisfaction to the employees that are obligated to guide them in their duties, especially when the teachers have absolutely no administrative degrees or background experience.

On the other hand, the teachers are applying for those positions because their positions in schools may be far away from their homes or because they are tired from the classroom.

Postgraduate Dissertation 55 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Those that actually prefer to work in a Directorate apply for a permanent transfer and therefore can be valuable employees. The Ministry should therefore legislate a maximum period of yearly transfers after which the teacher is permanently transferred to a Directorate and becomes administrative personnel.

Equipment: The vast majority of employees suggest the urgency for the replacement of the problematic equipment like computers and printers. They also state that the lack of IT personnel is making their work conditions problematic since they do not have the essential knowledge to overcome hardware or software problems that happen every day. The Ministry, asking the Directorates to perform their duties using archaic IT equipment is not logical and there should be an assessment of the needs of each Directorate.

Lack of budget: The Directorates do not have a budget for stationary, office supplies, printer paper or repairs, in essence there is no budget at all for their everyday operations. The budget and the decisions belong to the Regional Unit of each prefecture, an organization that belongs to a different Ministry altogether. This causes problems in the everyday operation and needless bureaucracy with documents asking the Regional Unit for supplies, delays and even complete lack of the essential supplies needed until the application is approved and delivered.

Pay and benefits: Naturally most of the employees, both administrative and teachers agree that their pay is not satisfactory, especially since there have been so many pay reductions in the last years due to the recession. This is not something that is probable to happen in the foreseeable future; therefore the Ministry should consider compensating for the many overtime hours that employees are obligated to work for, in many Directorates that lack the appropriate personnel, especially in high demand times (e.g. September)

Training: Neither the transferred teachers nor the transferred administrative personnel from other organizations, irrelevant to the administrative positions they are occupying has received any training. It is suggested that there should be training of the personnel both when they are assigned to a Directorate but most significantly when new procedures, platforms and software programs are implemented, rather than the current situation when each employee is being asked to train themselves.

Postgraduate Dissertation 56 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Finally, it is suggested that the deadlines set by the Ministry to be more logical and the instructions clear, as a common problem in the Directorates is the miscommunication with the Central Services of the Ministry that cause confusion and affect the work of the employees.

Overall, the Ministry should examine the conditions in each Directorate first and then proceed in implementing new simpler rules and guidances to achieve optimal performance from the Directorates. It should reduce to a very minimum the number of transfers for reasons irrelevant to the actual work and with no consideration for the requirements of the positions the teachers are assigned to.

4.5 Research restrictions

This research had some restrictions. The most basic one was the conditions in the Directorates when it took place, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The personnel were scarce and the sample would have been greater in normal times. The questionnaire was sent to the email addresses of the Directorates with the request to be forwarded to every employee but there is no possible way to estimate how many employees received the email.

For future research, it would be interesting to compare different geographical regions of the country given the fact that Directorates in highly populated regions are better equipped than others.

Also, a research that would examine job satisfaction parallel to work exhaustion would be very helpful in understanding if low job satisfaction is already causing job exhaustion or if it can be improved even with simple changes in the everyday life of the employees.

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Πετράκης, Μ. (2011). Έρευνα Μάρκετινγκ. (3η εκδ.). Αθήνα: Σταμούλη.

Σταθακόπουλος, Β. (2005). Μέθοδοι Έρευνας Αγοράς. Αθήνα: Σταμούλη.

Postgraduate Dissertation 62 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Στεφανίδης, Δ. (2012). Παρακίνηση, Κίνητρα, Εργασιακή Ικανοποίηση και Οργανωσιακή Δέσμευση των Αξιωματικών της Πολεμικής Αεροπορίας. Ανάκτηση από http://www.geetha.mil.gr/media/1.vima-ell-strat-skepsis/2013/meleth-giastrathgikh- skepsh.pdf

Χατζηπαντελής, Ε., Σιγάλας, Ι. (2010). Η εργασιακή ικανοποίηση του νοσηλευτικού προσωπικού στο Εθνικό Σύστημα Υγείας,. Περιοδικό Ιατρικά Θέματα(51).

Χατζηπαντελής, Ε., Σιγάλας, Ι. (2010). Η εργασιακή ικανοποίηση του νοσηλευτικού προσωπικού στο Εθνικό Σύστημα Υγείας,. Περιοδικό Ιατρικά Θέματα (τριμηνιαίο), Τεύχος 51.

Postgraduate Dissertation 63 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education Appendix I – Statistics

Validity analysis

Case Processing Summary N % Cases Valid 147 100.0 Excludeda 0 0.0 Total 147 100.0 a. Listwise deletion based on all variables in the procedure.

Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items 0.901 37

Item-Total Statistics Scale Scale Cronbach's Mean if Variance if Corrected Alpha if Item Item Item-Total Item Deleted Deleted Correlation Deleted [1. Αισθάνομαι ότι αμείβομαι δίκαια για την εργασία που κάνω] 127.90 659.722 0.502 0.898

[2. Υπάρχουν πολύ λίγες ευκαιρίες για προαγωγή σε θέση 128.90 668.731 0.332 0.900 Προϊσταμένου τμήματος στην υπηρεσία μου]

[3. Ο/Η Διευθυντής/ντρια της υπηρεσίας μου είναι πολύ 127.27 657.035 0.503 0.898 ικανός/η στη δουλειά του/της.]

[4. Δεν είμαι ικανοποιημένος από τις πρόσθετες παροχές 128.82 672.713 0.305 0.901 (ασφαλιστική κάλυψη, άδειες μετ’ αποδοχών, συνταξιοδοτικές προοπτικές) που λαμβάνω, πέραν του μισθού μου] [5. Όταν κάνω καλά τη δουλειά μου, λαμβάνω την αναγνώριση 127.81 650.594 0.617 0.896 που θα έπρεπε]

[6. Πολλοί από τους κανόνες και τις διαδικασίες που 128.56 659.344 0.456 0.898 ακολουθούνται στην υπηρεσία με δυσκολεύουν στο να κάνω σωστά τη δουλειά μου] [7. Συμπαθώ τους συναδέλφους με τους οποίους συνεργάζομαι 126.67 676.744 0.461 0.899 στην υπηρεσία μου]

[8. Κάποιες φορές αισθάνομαι ότι η εργασία μου δεν έχει 128.33 657.249 0.475 0.898 νόημα]

[9. Η επικοινωνία μεταξύ των τμημάτων στην υπηρεσία μου 127.48 652.977 0.565 0.897 φαίνεται να είναι καλή]

[10. Οι αυξήσεις του μισθού είναι πολύ σπάνιες] 129.87 691.593 0.099 0.903

[11. Αυτοί που είναι πολύ καλοί στη δουλειά τους έχουν 129.41 665.202 0.398 0.899 αρκετές πιθανότητες τοποθέτησης σε θέση Διευθυντή/ντριας Διεύθυνσης Εκπαίδευσης] [12. Ο/Η Προϊστάμενος/η του τμήματός μου είναι άδικος/η μαζί 127.04 656.820 0.527 0.897 μου]

[13. Οι πρόσθετες παροχές- πέραν του μισθού (π.χ. 128.65 660.874 0.474 0.898 πραγματοποιηθείσες υπερωρίες) που λαμβάνω από την εργασία μου είναι εξίσου καλές με αυτές που προσφέρουν άλλοι οργανισμοί]

Postgraduate Dissertation 64 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education [14. Δεν αισθάνομαι πως η δουλειά που κάνω εκτιμάται από 127.87 644.593 0.618 0.896 τον/την Διευθυντή/ντρια της υπηρεσίας μου]

[15. Οι προσπάθειές μου να κάνω καλά τη δουλειά μου σπάνια 129.42 665.574 0.393 0.899 εμποδίζονται από τη γραφειοκρατία του υπουργείου]

[16. Θεωρώ ότι πρέπει να εργάζομαι σκληρότερα εξαιτίας της 127.87 644.593 0.618 0.896 ανικανότητας ή απειρίας των συναδέλφων μου]

[17. Μου αρέσουν τα πράγματα που κάνω στη δουλειά μου] 127.84 654.261 0.570 0.897

[18. Οι στόχοι της υπηρεσίας στην οποία εργάζομαι δεν είναι 127.88 644.925 0.616 0.896 ξεκάθαροι σε μένα.]

[19. Όταν σκέφτομαι το μισθό μου αισθάνομαι ότι δεν εκτιμάται 128.69 656.460 0.554 0.897 η εργασία μου]

[20. Οι εργαζόμενοι στην υπηρεσία μου έχουν τις ίδιες 128.92 662.212 0.416 0.899 ευκαιρίες προαγωγής σε θέση Διευθυντή/ντριας της υπηρεσίας με τους εργαζόμενους σε υπηρεσίες άλλων υπουργείων] [21. Ο/Η Προϊστάμενος/η του τμήματός μου δείχνει ελάχιστο 127.20 669.790 0.386 0.899 ενδιαφέρον για το πώς αισθάνονται οι υφιστάμενοί του]

[22. Το πακέτο παροχών που έχουμε είναι δίκαιο] 128.65 660.874 0.474 0.898

[23. Υπάρχουν λίγες ανταμοιβές για αυτούς που εργάζονται 128.63 656.631 0.508 0.898 εδώ]

[24. Έχω πολύ μεγάλο φόρτο εργασίας] 129.05 680.161 0.234 0.902

[25. Μου αρέσουν οι συνάδελφοι με τους οποίος συνεργάζομαι] 126.84 672.010 0.485 0.899

[26. Συχνά αισθάνομαι ότι δεν γνωρίζω τι συμβαίνει στην 128.03 665.410 0.423 0.899 υπηρεσία στην οποία εργάζομαι]

[27. Νιώθω υπερήφανος/η για τη δουλειά που κάνω] 127.05 669.525 0.422 0.899

[28. Αισθάνομαι ικανοποιημένος από τις ευκαιρίες 129.14 677.918 0.285 0.901 μισθολογικών αυξήσεων που μου παρέχονται]

[29. Υπάρχουν παροχές που δεν έχουμε ενώ θα έπρεπε] 129.14 681.009 0.194 0.903

[30. Συμπαθώ τον/την Διευθυντή/ντρια της υπηρεσίας μου] 126.96 659.190 0.531 0.897

[31. Η γραφειοκρατική δουλειά που έχω είναι υπερβολική] 128.95 668.977 0.366 0.900

[32. Θεωρώ ότι οι προσπάθειές μου δεν αναγνωρίζονται από 127.60 653.132 0.540 0.897 τον/την Προϊστάμενο/η του τμήματός μου με τον τρόπο που θα έπρεπε] [33. Είμαι ικανοποιημένος από τις προοπτικές προαγωγής που 128.76 675.789 0.302 0.901 μου παρέχονται]

[34. Υπάρχουν πολλές διαφωνίες και διαμάχες στη δουλειά] 127.90 668.476 0.393 0.899

[35. Η εργασία μου είναι ευχάριστη] 127.52 655.238 0.554 0.897

[36. Στην υπηρεσία μου οι δουλειές ανατίθενται χωρίς να 128.31 659.926 0.461 0.898 επεξηγούνται πλήρως.]

[37. Θεωρώ ότι η επιμόρφωση που μου παρέχει η υπηρεσία δεν 127.79 719.935 -0.236 0.910 είναι ικανοποιητική για την εκτέλεση των καθηκόντων μου]

Postgraduate Dissertation 65 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Std. Descriptive statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean Deviation [1. Αισθάνομαι ότι αμείβομαι δίκαια για την εργασία που κάνω] 147 1 6 3.84 1.488

[2. Υπάρχουν πολύ λίγες ευκαιρίες για προαγωγή σε θέση 147 1 6 2.84 1.676 Προϊσταμένου τμήματος στην υπηρεσία μου] [3. Ο/Η Διευθυντής/ντρια της υπηρεσίας μου είναι πολύ ικανός/η 147 1 6 4.47 1.580 στη δουλειά του/της.] [4. Δεν είμαι ικανοποιημένος από τις πρόσθετες παροχές 147 1 6 2.93 1.584 (ασφαλιστική κάλυψη, άδειες μετ’ αποδοχών, συνταξιοδοτικές προοπτικές) που λαμβάνω, πέραν του μισθού μου] [5. Όταν κάνω καλά τη δουλειά μου, λαμβάνω την αναγνώριση 147 1 6 3.93 1.506 που θα έπρεπε] [6. Πολλοί από τους κανόνες και τις διαδικασίες που 147 1 6 3.18 1.634 ακολουθούνται στην υπηρεσία με δυσκολεύουν στο να κάνω σωστά τη δουλειά μου] [7. Συμπαθώ τους συναδέλφους με τους οποίους συνεργάζομαι 147 2 6 5.07 0.944 στην υπηρεσία μου] [8. Κάποιες φορές αισθάνομαι ότι η εργασία μου δεν έχει νόημα] 147 1 6 3.41 1.655

[9. Η επικοινωνία μεταξύ των τμημάτων στην υπηρεσία μου 147 1 6 4.27 1.554 φαίνεται να είναι καλή] [10. Οι αυξήσεις του μισθού είναι πολύ σπάνιες] 147 1 6 1.87 1.331

[11. Αυτοί που είναι πολύ καλοί στη δουλειά τους έχουν αρκετές 147 1 6 2.33 1.585 πιθανότητες τοποθέτησης σε θέση Διευθυντή/ντριας Διεύθυνσης Εκπαίδευσης] [12. Ο/Η Προϊστάμενος/η του τμήματός μου είναι άδικος/η μαζί 147 1 6 4.70 1.523 μου] [13. Οι πρόσθετες παροχές- πέραν του μισθού (π.χ. 147 1 6 3.10 1.523 πραγματοποιηθείσες υπερωρίες) που λαμβάνω από την εργασία μου είναι εξίσου καλές με αυτές που προσφέρουν άλλοι οργανισμοί] [14. Δεν αισθάνομαι πως η δουλειά που κάνω εκτιμάται από 147 1 6 3.87 1.685 τον/την Διευθυντή/ντρια της υπηρεσίας μου] [15. Οι προσπάθειές μου να κάνω καλά τη δουλειά μου σπάνια 147 1 6 2.32 1.588 εμποδίζονται από τη γραφειοκρατία του υπουργείου] [16. Θεωρώ ότι πρέπει να εργάζομαι σκληρότερα εξαιτίας της 147 1 6 3.87 1.685 ανικανότητας ή απειρίας των συναδέλφων μου] [17. Μου αρέσουν τα πράγματα που κάνω στη δουλειά μου] 147 1 6 3.90 1.500

[18. Οι στόχοι της υπηρεσίας στην οποία εργάζομαι δεν είναι 147 1 6 3.86 1.680 ξεκάθαροι σε μένα.] [19. Όταν σκέφτομαι το μισθό μου αισθάνομαι ότι δεν εκτιμάται 147 1 6 3.05 1.468 η εργασία μου] [20. Οι εργαζόμενοι στην υπηρεσία μου έχουν τις ίδιες ευκαιρίες 147 1 6 2.82 1.650 προαγωγής σε θέση Διευθυντή/ντριας της υπηρεσίας με τους εργαζόμενους σε υπηρεσίες άλλων υπουργείων] [21. Ο/Η Προϊστάμενος/η του τμήματός μου δείχνει ελάχιστο 147 1 6 4.54 1.425 ενδιαφέρον για το πώς αισθάνονται οι υφιστάμενοί του] [22. Το πακέτο παροχών που έχουμε είναι δίκαιο] 147 1 6 3.10 1.523

[23. Υπάρχουν λίγες ανταμοιβές για αυτούς που εργάζονται εδώ] 147 1 6 3.11 1.580

[24. Έχω πολύ μεγάλο φόρτο εργασίας] 147 1 6 2.69 1.470

Postgraduate Dissertation 66 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education [25. Μου αρέσουν οι συνάδελφοι με τους οποίος συνεργάζομαι] 147 1 6 4.90 1.077

[26. Συχνά αισθάνομαι ότι δεν γνωρίζω τι συμβαίνει στην 147 1 6 3.71 1.494 υπηρεσία στην οποία εργάζομαι] [27. Νιώθω υπερήφανος/η για τη δουλειά που κάνω] 147 1 6 4.69 1.327

[28. Αισθάνομαι ικανοποιημένος από τις ευκαιρίες μισθολογικών 147 1 6 2.60 1.378 αυξήσεων που μου παρέχονται] [29. Υπάρχουν παροχές που δεν έχουμε ενώ θα έπρεπε] 147 1 6 2.61 1.641

[30. Συμπαθώ τον/την Διευθυντή/ντρια της υπηρεσίας μου] 147 1 6 4.78 1.431

[31. Η γραφειοκρατική δουλειά που έχω είναι υπερβολική] 147 1 6 2.79 1.532

[32. Θεωρώ ότι οι προσπάθειές μου δεν αναγνωρίζονται από 147 1 6 4.14 1.613 τον/την Προϊστάμενο/η του τμήματός μου με τον τρόπο που θα έπρεπε] [33. Είμαι ικανοποιημένος από τις προοπτικές προαγωγής που 147 1 6 2.99 1.429 μου παρέχονται] [34. Υπάρχουν πολλές διαφωνίες και διαμάχες στη δουλειά] 147 1 6 3.84 1.460

[35. Η εργασία μου είναι ευχάριστη] 147 1 6 4.22 1.507

[36. Στην υπηρεσία μου οι δουλειές ανατίθενται χωρίς να 147 1 6 3.44 1.597 επεξηγούνται πλήρως.] [37. Θεωρώ ότι η επιμόρφωση που μου παρέχει η υπηρεσία δεν 147 1 6 3.95 1.807 είναι ικανοποιητική για την εκτέλεση των καθηκόντων μου] Γενική ικανοποίηση από την εργασία μου: [Θα σύστηνα σε 147 1 6 3.90 1.500 άλλους να ακολουθήσουν καριέρα στην υπηρεσία που εργάζομαι αν είχαν τη σχετική ευκαιρία?] Pay 147 4.00 21.00 11.3605 4.01188

Promotion 147 4.00 24.00 10.9796 4.00080

Supervision 147 4.00 24.00 18.4966 4.38768

Fridge_Benefits 147 4.00 24.00 11.7211 4.69594

Contingent_Rewards 147 4.00 24.00 15.0544 4.61947

Operating_Conditions 147 4.00 23.00 10.9796 3.96987

Coworkers 147 7.00 24.00 17.6871 3.71373

Nature_of_work 147 5.00 24.00 16.2381 4.62917

Communication 147 4.00 24.00 15.2721 4.56844

Total_Satisfaction_JSS 147 73.00 199.00 127.7891 26.83160

Valid N (listwise) 147

Postgraduate Dissertation 67 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Appendix II – Questionnaire The participants answered the following questions with a 6-scale Likert as follows:

I disagree completely – I fairly disagree – I slightly disagree – I slightly agree – I fairly agree – I agree completely

1. Αισθάνομαι ότι αμείβομαι δίκαια για την εργασία που κάνω 2. Υπάρχουν πολύ λίγες ευκαιρίες για προαγωγή σε θέση Προϊσταμένου τμήματος στην υπηρεσία μου 3. Ο/Η Διευθυντής/ντρια της υπηρεσίας μου είναι πολύ ικανός/η στη δουλειά του/της. 4. Δεν είμαι ικανοποιημένος από τις πρόσθετες παροχές (ασφαλιστική κάλυψη, άδειες μετ’ αποδοχών, συνταξιοδοτικές προοπτικές) που λαμβάνω, πέραν του μισθού μου 5. Όταν κάνω καλά τη δουλειά μου, λαμβάνω την αναγνώριση που θα 6. Πολλοί από τους κανόνες και τις διαδικασίες που ακολουθούνται στον οργανισμό με δυσκολεύουν στο να κάνω σωστά τη δουλειά μου 7. Συμπαθώ τους συναδέλφους με τους οποίους συνεργάζομαι στην υπηρεσία μου 8. Κάποιες φορές αισθάνομαι ότι η εργασία μου δεν έχει νόημα 9. Η επικοινωνία μεταξύ των τμημάτων στην υπηρεσία μου φαίνεται να είναι καλή 10. Οι αυξήσεις του μισθού είναι πολύ σπάνιες 11. Αυτοί που είναι πολύ καλοί στη δουλειά τους έχουν αρκετές πιθανότητες τοποθέτησης σε θέση Διευθυντή/ντριας Διεύθυνσης Εκπαίδευσης 12. Ο/Η Προϊστάμενος/η του τμήματός μου είναι άδικος/η μαζί μου 13. Οι πρόσθετες παροχές- πέραν του μισθού (π.χ. πραγματοποιηθείσες υπερωρίες) που λαμβάνω από την εργασία μου είναι εξίσου καλές με αυτές που προσφέρουν άλλοι οργανισμοί 14. Δεν αισθάνομαι πως η δουλειά που κάνω εκτιμάται από τον/την Διευθυντή/ντρια της υπηρεσίας μου 15. Οι προσπάθειές μου να κάνω καλά τη δουλειά μου σπάνια περιορίζονται από τη γραφειοκρατία του υπουργείου 16. Θεωρώ ότι πρέπει να εργάζομαι σκληρότερα εξαιτίας της ανικανότητας ή απειρίας των συναδέλφων μου 17. Μου αρέσουν τα πράγματα που κάνω στη δουλειά μου 18. Οι στόχοι της υπηρεσίας στην οποία εργάζομαι δεν είναι ξεκάθαροι σε μένα. 19. Όταν σκέφτομαι το μισθό μου αισθάνομαι ότι δεν εκτιμάται η εργασία μου 20. Οι εργαζόμενοι στην υπηρεσία μου έχουν τις ίδιες ευκαιρίες προαγωγής σε θέση Διευθυντή/ντριας της υπηρεσίας με τους εργαζόμενους σε υπηρεσίες άλλων υπουργείων 21. Ο/η Προϊστάμενος/η του τμήματός μου δείχνει ελάχιστο ενδιαφέρον για το πώς αισθάνονται οι υφιστάμενοί του 22. Το πακέτο παροχών που έχουμε είναι δίκαιο 23. Υπάρχουν λίγες ανταμοιβές για αυτούς που εργάζονται εδώ 24. Έχω πολύ μεγάλο φόρτο εργασίας 25. Μου αρέσουν οι συνάδελφοι με τους οποίος συνεργάζομαι 26. Συχνά αισθάνομαι ότι δεν γνωρίζω τι συμβαίνει στην υπηρεσία στην οποία εργάζομαι 27. Νιώθω υπερήφανος/η για τη δουλειά που κάνω 28. Αισθάνομαι ικανοποιημένος από τις ευκαιρίες μισθολογικών αυξήσεων που μου παρέχονται 29. Υπάρχουν παροχές που δεν έχουμε ενώ θα έπρεπε 30. Συμπαθώ τον/την Διευθυντή/ντρια της υπηρεσίας μου 31. Η γραφειοκρατική δουλειά που έχω είναι υπερβολική

Postgraduate Dissertation 68 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education 32. Θεωρώ ότι οι προσπάθειές μου δεν αναγνωρίζονται από τον/την Προϊστάμενο/η του τμήματός μου με τον τρόπο που θα έπρεπε 33. Είμαι ικανοποιημένος από τις προοπτικές προαγωγής που μου παρέχονται 34. Υπάρχουν πολλές διαφωνίες και διαμάχες στη δουλειά 35. Η εργασία μου είναι ευχάριστη 36. Στην υπηρεσία μου οι δουλειές ανατίθενται χωρίς να επεξηγούνται πλήρως. 37. Θεωρώ ότι η επιμόρφωση που μου παρέχει η υπηρεσία δεν είναι ικανοποιητική για την εκτέλεση των καθηκόντων μου

Postgraduate Dissertation 69 Amalia Tsoukia, Job satisfaction in the Public Sector: The case of the Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education

Author’s Statement: I hereby declare that, in accordance with article 8 of Law 1599/1986 and article 2.4.6 par. 3 of Law 1256/1982, this thesis/dissertation is solely a product of personal work and does not infringe any intellectual property rights of third parties and is not the product of a partial or total plagiarism, and the sources used are strictly limited to the bibliographic references.

Postgraduate Dissertation 70