University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2013 Examining Job Satisfaction and Career Motivating Factors of Female Sport Media Professionals Sharon Melissa Hutton University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Sports Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Hutton, Sharon Melissa, "Examining Job Satisfaction and Career Motivating Factors of Female Sport Media Professionals. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2013. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/1737 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Sharon Melissa Hutton entitled "Examining Job Satisfaction and Career Motivating Factors of Female Sport Media Professionals." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Kinesiology and Sport Studies. Robin L. Hardin, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Steven N. Waller, Joy T. DeSensi, Lisa T. Fall Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Examining Job Satisfaction and Career Motivating Factors of Female Sport Media Professionals A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Sharon Melissa Hutton May 2013 ii Copyright © 2013 by Sharon Hutton All rights reserved. iii Dedication This project is dedicated to my sweet mother, Nancy Hutton who gave me unconditional love every day of my life. My life was made whole having you in it. Mom, I did it. You were ready and I wasn’t, but I am thankful you didn’t give up on me when I was ready to give up on this dream myself. This project is also in loving honor of my father who reminds me every day that there was nothing Mom wanted more than this for me. I love you, Dad and am so thankful that you have given me my time to get this done. iv Acknowledgements I would like to first thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has saved me. I would be writing a long time if I thanked everyone who made it possible to get to this point. My parents above all others have been my inspiration. They taught me how to fight, keep my chin up, and go when I didn’t want to go. Thank you to Dr. Rob Hardin for not giving up on me and for being so enthusiastic about my dissertation idea even when I wasn’t. You taught me to work together and to not be afraid to express my own original thoughts. I am grateful for your advisement and for giving me a chance in the program. I am a better person because of it. Dr. Steven Waller, I am most appreciative of your willingness to work and serve on my committee. The gift of your time was invaluable in the life of this student. I will remember the talks and stories you told. The lessons and encouragement of this experience will follow me throughout my life. It is about the influence you have on a person’s life that matter most and you influenced mine. I would like to thank Dr. Joy DeSensi for being one of the most honorable people I have ever met. You told me once never to quit what I started and I didn’t. Thank you for your help in completing my dissertation, for being the person I could always go to for anything. Thank you for telling me to read when I needed to know more. I am educated by having your Ethics course, but I am also educated by your example. Dr. Lisa Fall, thank you for taking me on as a mentee and for giving me all the pointers in the school of life. I have learned that I must give myself a break from time to v time and that balance is the name of the game. You welcomed me into your family and provided me with a great amount of guidance in all things dissertation. To my dearest friend, Donna Bradley Lancaster, I am so blessed to have you in my life. For over 15 years, it’s hard to thank you in a couple of lines so I’ll just say thank you and see you at CB. Nellie Harmon, Susan Catron, and Sue McClure, you three are amazing and kept your promise to get me here. I’ll never be able to express how much each of you means to me. To Judy Powers, you are a God-send, a true angel on Earth. Thank you for all your sweet words during both the good and the uncertain times. You have taught me to see that good in all things and the positive that will always come through. Thank you to Laura Kildare for teaching me so many things and for all the lunches that we always managed to get in on Wednesdays. Stacie Shain, thank you for being my cheerleader and for reminding me every day of my goals and my ability to accomplish them. AWSM made us friends, but you are above and beyond the definition of a friend. Dr. Bryan Butler, thank you for allowing me to see my name in print for the first time and for being everything with a smile.. I’m thankful to Theresa Frankovich for being the best nurse-turned inspiration to me. To the other faculty and staff and numerous other people who have made this experience worthwhile and kept me on track, I hope I have said thank you along the way: Dr. Dixie Thompson, Dr. Sylvia Trendafilova, Mr. Jim BeMiller, and Jane Johns. vi Abstract This study served a purpose of examining job satisfaction and career motivation of female sport media professionals of the Association of Women in the Sports Media (AWSM), a support network for women working in the sport media profession, as well as looking at the relationship between selected demographic variables and job satisfaction. The instrument, a three-part questionnaire, was composed of two Likert-type scales as well as several demographic questions. The first section contained the Job Satisfaction Scale ([JSS], Spector, 1997) which is made up of nine facets: pay, promotion, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, supervision, coworkers, operating procedures, nature of work, and communication. The second section, designed to measure employee motivation contained the 12-statement Motivation at Work Scale ([MAWS], Gagné et. al, 2010) comprised of four subscales: intrinsic, identified, introjected, and external motivations. Household structure, professional status, and age were selected from the collected demographic variables to examine relationships with job satisfaction. Findings indicated AWSM members were ambivalent with their jobs, were most satisfied with the nature of the work itself, and were most strongly motivated to continue in their careers by intrinsic factors. Household structure, including marital status and whether the participant had children under age 18 living in the home, were not areas of significance in the job satisfaction of AWSM members. Members indicated they were most likely satisfied in the nature of the work itself based on intrinsic motivators and were least likely to be vii externally motivated to do their jobs as was shown in the low number of and association with the nine facets and overall job satisfaction. Job satisfaction of AWSM members tends to follow a career stage path, evident in the significant associations found with the selected demographic variable of age. The areas of contingent rewards and communication satisfaction decreased as these variables increased, providing a possible pattern for employers striving for employee satisfaction. Findings indicated a trend in the career motivation of participants, also in line with Deci and Ryan’s (1982) self-determination theory that posits the needs of employee autonomy, competence, and relatedness to be associated with greater employee satisfaction. viii Table of Contents Chapter I: Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction To The Chapter......................................................................................................................... 1 Overview of Title IX ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Significance of The Study ............................................................................................................................. 6 Challenges in the Profession ....................................................................................................................... 12 Glass Barriers .............................................................................................................................................. 15 Overview of Job Satisfaction ...................................................................................................................... 18 Overview of Motivational Theory .............................................................................................................. 19 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................................................................ 20 Purpose of the Study ..................................................................................................................................