Job satisfaction of graduates in the public and private sector

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the job satisfaction level of graduates in the public and private sectors. There are few local researches done in this area. However, foreign researches done in the past on job satisfaction of managers in the two sectors indicated that public sector's managers reported lower organisational commitment, lower satisfaction of work needs, and lower job satisfaction as compared to private sector's managers (Buchanan, 1974; Rainey, 1983; Rhinehart, Barrek, Dewolfe, & Spaner, 1969). This study chose 500 accountancy graduates as a representative sample of the graduate population. Data was collected through questionnaires sent either by post or by hand. Results from the questionnaires were used to compute scores for general and specific satisfactions comparison between the public and private sectors. The specific satisfactions relate to 6 facets of job satisfaction. They are wages, promotional prospects, work environment, job nature, company identification and fringe benefits. Analysis of the findings found that graduates in the private sector are more satisfied than graduates in the public sector with regard to wages, promotional prospects, job nature and company identification, while equally satisfied with regard to fringe benefits and working environment. Moreover, graduates in the private sector also enjoys a higher level of general satisfaction as compared to their counterparts in the public sector.