Lots of changes are developing in working environment of long-term care facilities for the elderly(hereinafter called Elderly Facilities) in terms of regulations, constituent workers, facilities and service because of enforcement of long-term care insurance (LTCI) as of July 1, 2008. These changes conflicts with the working environment of the existing welfare facilities for the elderly in many aspects, therefore, it is necessary to newly restore job satisfaction of such employees.
We found that most of the previous studies on job satisfaction of the employees narrowed their subjects to a specific job, social workers, therefore, there was inherently limitations in the studies. Because of this limitations there are lots of differences between the past working environment and that of present Elderly Facilities where various types of employees work together.
Following enforcement of LTCI, job types of the employees for Elderly Facilities have diversified to care givers, social welfare workers, nurses, practical nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, cooks, care workers, etc. We selected 9 Elderly Facilities, one from each city or gun located in north of Gyeonggi Province, for which 30 employees or more work, and distributed 300 copies of questionnaire to these Elderly Facilities. We conducted not only literature analysis but face-to-face interview focusing on above job holders as subject of this study in order to achieve the study object effectively.
In literature survey, we analysed the existing data related to the job satisfaction to understand the status clearly, and we sorted out related theories based on books and articles. We reviewed concept of job satisfaction relevant to the job satisfaction of Elderly Facilities and performed content analysis of major factors of working environment which determines job satisfaction.
In confirmatory survey, we measured job satisfaction of employees working for Elderly Facilities and compared the results from the view point of categories such as socio-demographic, characteristics of Elderly Facilities, working, self-satisfaction, and regulation. SPSS WIN 15.0 program was used to analyse the work related data. T-test and one-way ANOVA(Analysis of Variance) was applied for frequency analysis and statistical comparisons; Pearson's chi-square test was applied for analysis of correlation between independent variables and job satisfaction, and Duncan's multiple range test was applied for post confirmation.
The results of the confirmatory survey are summarized as following;
1. Relationship between socio-demographic characteristics of the subject surveyed and the job satisfaction: Age groups of forties, fifties and higher showed higher job satisfaction than age groups of twenties and thirties. For religious groups Catholics showed higher job satisfaction than Christians, Buddhists or atheists, and other religions groups showed the lowest job satisfaction. For marital status groups of married or bereaved showed higher job satisfaction than groups of unmarried, divorced or separated.
2. Relationship between type of jobs and the job satisfaction: Groups of care givers, social welfare workers and physical therapists showed higher job satisfaction than the other job type groups. Groups who are given annual leaves freely showed higher job satisfaction than the other groups.
3. Relationship between internal factors of working environment and the job satisfaction: Groups having better work-attitude, better relationship with their bosses and colleagues, and Elderly Facilities with lower leaving rate showed higher job satisfaction, and groups feeling satisfactory with the overall internal factors of working environment showed higher job satisfaction.
4. Relationship between the job satisfaction and external factors of working environment, relations with Elderly Facilities, supports and resources belonging to lower ranking factors: Groups who are more satisfied with Elderly Facilities, supports or resources showed higher job satisfaction.
5. Relationship between the job satisfaction and factors of self-satisfaction such as self-esteem and self-efficacy: Groups having higher self-esteem or higher self-efficacy showed higher job satisfaction.
6. Analyses whether there are any relationship between the job satisfaction and perception of changes since enforcement of LTCI revealed that groups perceiving improvement of working conditions, increase in work load and job specialty showed higher job satisfaction.
Multi-regression analysis was conducted to analyse factors affecting job satisfaction of Elderly Facilities employees. It was also reviewed if there are any correlation among variables such as multicolinearity.
It was found that job satisfaction was influenced by relationship with colleagues, improvement of working conditions, self-efficacy, and self-esteem in the order of high satisfaction. It was also found that job satisfaction becomes higher as the relationship with colleagues is better, as employees perceive improvement of working conditions since enforcement of LTCI, and as self-efficacy and self-esteem of employees are higher.