Demographic Characteristics as Predictors of Job Satisfaction of Commercial Bank Employees in Tanzania

Abstract

This paper presents results of an analysis of job satisfaction of 234 employees of a commercial bank in Tanzania. The study’s main objective was to analyse differences in job satisfaction overall and its dimensions, based on employees’ demographic characteristics. Spector’s (1994) job satisfaction survey instrument with 36 items in nine different dimensions was used. Descriptive statistics, independent sample T-test, and analysis of variance techniques were employed. Overall job satisfaction was significantly higher for the older, married, junior, experienced, less educated, and rural based branch employees. Significant differences were found in: (i) satisfaction with pay, benefits, contingent rewards and operating procedures across education, job rank and branch location groups; (ii) satisfaction with pay, promotion, and supervision based on age, marital status and working experience groups; (ii) satisfaction with benefits, operating procedures and communication across marital status groups; (iii) satisfaction with communication across marital status; (iv) satisfaction with communication across experience groups; and (v) satisfaction with nature of work across job ranks. These results lead to a conclusion that demographic characteristics of employees are important factors that managers should take on board when designing and implementing measures to enhance employees’ satisfaction with the job overall as well as with its different facets.