Effect of Leadership Support, Work Conditions and Job Security on Job Satisfaction in a Medical College

BACKGROUND: Faculty members are crucial elements of an educational institution, and their job satisfaction is likely essential for success of the educational process. Leadership support, work conditions and perceived job security could be factors affecting academic job satisfaction. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of leadership support, work conditions and perceived job security on the overall academic job satisfaction of faculty. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey, using a structured questionnaire, was conducted to determine the effect of leadership support, work conditions and perceived job security on academic job satisfaction among faculty and teaching staff at the College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the significance of these relationships at 95% confidence interval and P < 0.05 level of significance. RESULTS: Leadership support (β = 0.187, t = 2.714, P = 0.007), work conditions (β = 0.199, t = 2.628, P= 0.009) and perceived job security (β = 0.264, t = 3.369, P = 0.001) were found to be significantly associated with overall academic job satisfaction. CONCLUSION: The results of this study support the hypothesis that faculty and teaching staff working with supportive leaders and favorable work conditions as well as having an optimized sense of perceived job security demonstrate significantly higher levels of overall academic job satisfaction. These findings provide input for policymakers, and their implementation could enhance an institution's vitality and performance, and thus enable it to fulfill its goals.