JOB SATISFACTION AMONG ACADEMICIANS

The academic fraternity may be compared with a deck of playing cards. Since the academics are engaged in the shaping of 'men of tomorrow today', they remain at the top of the pack, the 'Aces'. There can never be a perceptible difference in strategies employed between selling of merchandise and imparting of knowledge. Before the actual 'sale' of ideas or knowledge, a teacher has to go through the whole gamut of preparation or 'Spade' work so as to ensure that the 'cognitive' domain is well taken care of. In every approach, it should be his constant endeavour to hit his students in the 'Heart', which represents the 'affective' domain. As the teacher starts realising that each one of his students has a mind and a mouth, he should allow them to use both. As he starts giving importance to class room 'interaction' backed by frequent feedback, he will come to realize that he is dealing in 'Diamonds' precious enough for the posterity. The teacher tries to cushion his lectures with a 'Club', linking the unknown with the known. Teaching is a human experience and since all encounters within the class room centre around the 'Joker', the teacher has to prepare himself well in order to see that he has all the 'ingredients' to fit into any teacher-student learning situation.
In the midst of such situations prevailing, for academicians, productivity is a function of their eagerness to increase their personal status, and their intellectual pilgrimage, if we may say so, is dictated by external conditions. The credit goes to Mao Tse-tung (1967) who said 'external causes are the conditions of change and internal causes are the basis of change. In a suitable temperature an egg changes into a chicken, but no temperature can change a stone into a chicken because each has a different basis'. Achievement and recognition are both considered as intrinsic. However achievement is determined by performance, while recognition may have something to do with job satisfaction. It is to be recognised that job satisfaction levels can vary performance.

An examination of the problems of job satisfaction is called for since it is a question of the incumbent's satisfaction that is considered as essential to checkmate the diminishing returns of productivity. Merton (1949) makes a distinction between ' locals' and ' cosmopolitans' and sharing a parochial nature of the 'locals' and ecumenical nature of the 'cosmopolitans' , Gouldner (1957) goes on to add that while the 'locals' loyalty to employing organisation is ' high', they are 'low' on commitment to specialised role skills and are likely to use an inner reference group orientation. The 'cosmopolitans' on the other hand are those 'low' on loyalty to employing organisation, 'high' on commitment to specialised role skills and are likely to use outer reference group orientation.
It needs to be seen whether academicians can have access to rewards far beyond the levels of job satisfaction. In other words, independent of levels of satisfaction, productivity is their life breath and without it their survival will be in jeopardy. For them ‘contended mind is not a continual feast'. Unless academicians who are comparable to 'cosmopolitans' have an 'urge' to be seen as men of eminence, mere presence of 'high' level of job satisfaction will be of no avail. Viewed against the background of a condition in which 'high satisfaction' is prevalent with 'urge' conspicuous by its absence, it is discernable that there exists a 'paternalistic relationship' between the academicians and the management with their eyes not focused on productivity. Increased productivity with an 'urge' for 'outer group reference' contributes to the eminence of academicians.
The heads of the academicians, though small, need to carry all the news in order to stay put in their professional pursuits and thereby make a mark. Such of those who lag behind and fail to make a mark are sure to go 'unwept, unhonoured and unsung to the vile dust whence they sprung'.





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http://drpadmalatha.blogspot.com
Bibliography
Job Satisfaction Among Academicians by Dr.C.S.RANGARAJAN