A Case Study of Staff Perspectives on Job Satisfaction in the Community College Setting

This single embedded case study explores the influence of job satisfaction perceptions of employees in the roles of full-time support staff within the community college setting. The theory guiding this study is Herzberg’s motivator-hygiene theory, which defines job satisfaction as having two sectors of components: the hygiene factors relating to extrinsic needs and the motivators relating to intrinsic needs. The outcomes for employees are linked to their motivation from satisfaction and dissatisfaction components, as well as their interpretation of values within this framework. The central research question is “How does the perception of job satisfaction components influence non-teaching, full-time employees within two-year, higher education institutions?” This question focuses on the influences of job satisfaction on this population within the community college setting. A single embedded case study promotes investigating and collecting participants’ lived experiences. Participants for this study were full-time staff employed for at least one year within one of three specific divisions under the Executive Vice President and Chief Programs Officer at the National Community College, located in the southeastern United States. Data was gathered through focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and document collection. A subsequent thematic analysis of each data source provided triangulation for the study. Research findings describe an overlapping balance of intrinsic and extrinsic factors as the most important indicator for job satisfaction and for the organization itself to sustain opportunities for employees to prioritize factors that are important to the individual regardless of role.