MARIA NÄTHER,JANINE STRATMANN,CHRISTINA BENDFELDT,LUDWIG THEUVSEN
Der Beitrag wurde in dieser oder in ähnlicher Fassung als wissenschaftlicher Vortrag präsentiert und veröffentlicht im begutachteten wissenschaftlichen Tagungsband
„Places of Possibility? Rural Societies in a Neoliberal World”,
26th Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology in Aberdeen 2015.
Abstract
In the course of changes in agricultural policy and structural changes in agriculture, fam-ily-run farms are developing into extended famfam-ily-run farms with additional non-family employees. As a consequence, farm managers increasingly have to deal with issues of personnel management. Considering the growing shortage of skilled labour, the im-portance of job satisfaction is also growing. This study analyses the influence of various farm associated factors as well as life and health satisfaction on the job satisfaction of agricultural employees. The results of a multivariate regression analysis show that health-related factors and the work itself exert an especially large influence on the job satisfac-tion of agricultural employees. These results offer farm managers a chance to influence farm-related factors positively in order to maximise job satisfaction among farm employ-ees.
Introduction
For decades more and more people have been moving from rural to urban areas due to the limited number of attractive jobs in rural areas. Furthermore, living conditions are more attractive in or near cities. Moreover, in recent years agriculture in various countries has undergone profound structural changes as a result of increasing liberalisation in agricul-tural policy and markets as well as technological progress (BALMANN et al. 2006). In the course of these changes, farms have been developing towards what might be called ex-tended family-run farms through the employment of additional nonfamily labour (SCHAPER et al. 2011). Hence, issues of personnel management, including tasks such as staffing, remuneration and leadership (ANDREÄ et al. 2002), have become more important. Fur-thermore, recruitment of personnel has become a significant challenge due to the growing shortage of skilled workers. In this context, a connection between job satisfaction and motivation to accept a job is frequently explained by the contribution-inducement theory (MARCH and SIMON 1993). Often, research on job satisfaction is substantially based on classical motivation theories (SCHÜTZ 2009). As a result, the concepts of job satisfaction and work motivation are closely interlinked in the literature (HACKMAN and OLDHAM 1980).
A few studies only consider individual determinants of job satisfaction in agriculture, for example, the influence of the design of incentive schemes. Further influences on job sat-isfaction that cannot be ascribed to daily business are life and health satsat-isfaction, which have seldom been addressed so far. All in all, there is only scant evidence on the deter-minants of job satisfaction in agriculture. This study takes an initial step toward closing this research gap by examining various determinants of job satisfaction among agricul-tural employees.
Fig. 6: Model of job satisfaction among agricultural employees, authors’ illustration based on NEUBERGER and ALLERBECK 1978
Methods
Our model of job satisfaction among agricultural employees was based on the Job De-scriptive Questionnaire developed by NEUBERGER and ALLERBECK (1978). Since not only farm-associated factors influence job satisfaction, personal factors such as life and health satisfaction have also been included as independent variables in the model (Fig. 6).
A standardised questionnaire with 45 questions was used to collect data. The survey was completed by 348 agricultural employees from northwest, north and East Germany. The data accumulated was analysed using IBM’s SPSS Statistics 21.
To answer the research question how farm-associated factors as well as life and health satisfaction influence job satisfaction, an explorative factor analysis was first conducted, which identified seven factors. Later, two factors were excluded from the analysis due to a negative loading or high error probability. Then, a regression analysis was run to identify determinants of job satisfaction in agriculture.
Results
In this study, 86.7% of the respondents are men and 13.3% women. The average age is 43 years (20 to 68 years; σ = 11.56). The majority are permanent employees in full-time (78.0%) or part-time (9.7%) capacity. The remaining respondents are seasonal workers and spare-time workers. The average gross wage is μ = € 12.42 (σ = € 3.94) per hour.
The respondents are mainly employed in arable farming (64.9%), dairy production (9.4%) and pig production (8.2%).
Fig. 7 presents the results of the regression analysis, which explains 44% of the overall variance of job satisfaction; this model is highly significant. Four factors, representing various farm-associated factors, as well as life and health satisfaction, have a significant influence on the job satisfaction of agricultural employees. As can be seen, health satis-faction exerts the greatest influence (ß = 0.331), followed by job content (ß = 0.244).
Fig. 7: Influence of certain factors on the job satisfaction of agricultural employees, source: authors’ results
Discussion and Conclusion
Before this study was conducted, there was a research gap regarding how various factors influence job satisfaction among agricultural employees. Most recent studies have fo-cussed only on how financial factors influence job satisfaction. Like other studies (VON DAVIER 2007; MUßHOFF et al. 2012) and in alignment with contribution-inducement theory (MARCH and SIMON 1993), this study shows that job satisfaction among agricultural employees does not depend on financial factors alone.
In addition to compensation, this study has identified a number of important farm-associ-ated factors as well as personal factors that influence job satisfaction. Additional analyses have shown that the job satisfaction of agricultural employees also depends on working hours, compensation level, and employees’ decision-making competence as well as on personal attributes such as age. Furthermore, farm employees with decision-making competencies and a higher monthly income are more satisfied with their jobs than are employees who do not have decision-making competencies and whose income is lower.
This is also the case for life satisfaction. According to our analysis, not all of the farm-associated factors included in the model contribute towards the explanation of job satis-faction. Nevertheless, the universal applicability of the basic model of NEUBERGER and ALLERBECK (1978) is confirmed. The relevance of life satisfaction and health satisfaction to job satisfaction, which has already been shown in earlier studies (FELFE 2012), is also confirmed.
Overall, this study empirically identified the most important influencing variables on the job satisfaction of agricultural employees. The results have implications for personnel management in agricultural businesses. They indicate how farm managers can increase employees’ job satisfaction and, hence, their motivation to continue working on a farm, thereby helping to reduce the shortage of skilled labour.
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