Job Satisfaction Levels Among Iowa Public School Superintendents

While there is still much to learn about superintendent tenure, this study explored the importance of superintendent job satisfaction connected to longevity. The correlation research was designed to extract which factors increase superintendent job satisfaction and influence a superintendent to stay. The national average tenure for superintendents has been reported as 5.6 years, with other numbers between five and six years, depending on who conducts the study (Johnson, Huffman, Madden, & Shope, 2011). Regardless of the actual number, there is a general agreement that turnover occurs more frequently than is optimal (Marzano, Waters, & McNulty 2009; Pascopella, 2011). A de-centennial study done in December 2010 by the American School Superintendent found it has become very apparent that one of the key elements in running a successful district is stability. This quantitative study measured public school superintendent job satisfaction in the state of Iowa. Five research questions guided this study: What are the demographics and school settings of the superintendents who participated in the study, what components of the PERMA Model contribute most strongly to superintendent job satisfaction, to what extent do number of total years of experience as a superintendent, total years of experience as superintendent in the current district, education level, and salary have on overall job satisfaction, to what extent do the various factors that superintendents indicate they might consider in deciding whether or not to leave their current position have on job satisfaction, to what extent does school setting, student enrollment, and student enrollment trend have on superintendent job satisfaction? The survey instrument was based on the work of Dr. Martin Seligman, director of the positive psychology center at the University of Pennsylvania, who designed the PERMA (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment / achievement)Model and sent out to all Iowa public school superintendents. Overall, on a scale one to five, superintendents reported a job satisfaction level of 3.78. The findings yielded five statistically significant factors that either positively or negatively impacted overall superintendent job satisfaction. This study is recommended to be replicated over the course of several years to generate comparable data sets. Another recommendation is to conduct the study and break down the results by the age of the superintendent and then sorted by the various generations such as baby boomers, generation x, and millennials.

Grantor dc:publisher

Drake University

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Joel, Derrick

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://escholarshare.drake.edu/handle/2092/2172

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:escholarshare.drake.edu:2092/2172