However, there is more to it than a broad liking of the job overall.ĭemers (1995: 93) defines job satisfaction as "a psychological condition that exists when an individual's wants, wishes or desires are fulfilled". journalists: "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your present job?" Many job-satisfaction studies have adopted that question or used a similarly phrased one. Weaver, Beam, Brownlee, Voakes, & Wilhoit (2007: 264) put it this way in their 2002 nationwide survey of U.S. Pollard (1995) notes that when researchers ask journalists about job satisfaction, they typically do that with a one-off, Likert-scale survey question. RESEARCH OF JOURNALISTS' JOB SATISFACTION These data offer a limited longitudinal assessment of how satisfied APN journalists felt toward "Readers First," and the effect they believed it had on their newsrooms and job performances. APN implemented the program in 2004 across its 14 regional dailies in Australia to turnaround their declining circulations. Specifically, this is a secondary analysis of data from two surveys of journalists conducted for APN News & Media on its "Readers First" program. Our focus, however, is on Australia and judging by the popular research-abstract databases, few studies have systematically tested the job satisfaction of its journalists. Most job-satisfaction studies focus on U.S. We do that work within a larger gap in the literature. In this article, we take the fairly less traveled path by investigating job satisfaction during a time of planned change. But it surely would make it harder to achieve.
Dwindling satisfaction by itself may not doom the change. But it surely would help move it toward that. Relatively strong job satisfaction by itself will not ensure the success of the change initiative. That runs the risk of dampening the morale and, in turn, performance of workers who implement the change. During change, uncertainty about new work routines and expectations can run high. It has been generally less common to probe their satisfaction during times of planned organizational change. Much of the scholarship on job satisfaction focuses on how journalists feel about their everyday work and workplace climates. It is the key to the enterprise's journalistic and commercial success.
It is worth worrying about product quality.
Still, job satisfaction stands a greater chance of helping or harming enterprises such as the news media, "where product quality is largely dependent on the individual talents and motivations of key personnel" (Daniels and Hollifield 2002). Clearly this is a universal concept: it would apply to any employee in any profession or trade. They are presumed to be more efficient and productive, and more committed to their employers. Happy newsworkers do better work, to put it simply. (1) A common thread running through this body of work is the normative assumption that job satisfaction affects job performance. Scholars have poured a great deal of energy into the question of how satisfied journalists are with their jobs. Contrary to some of the literature, this study shows that journalists do not always resist organizational change. Support slipped somewhat for the program itself, mostly among sub-editors and newsroom managers. The data show positive impacts on overall job satisfaction and performance, but mostly for reporters and photographers. Over a two-year period, they kept marginally positive attitudes toward a corporate program aimed at reversing circulation declines by changing journalistic values and routines. This article reports a secondary analysis of survey data on the attitudes of Australian newspaper journalists during organizational change.