Analysis of factors affecting job satisfaction and the challenges before scientists in Agricultural Universities

Introduction

The effective and efficient utilization of available human resources is main concern for the administrators of any organization. This is required for an employee to be satisfied with his/her job. Job satisfaction is an important aspect in an individual's life as it impacts the life of the individual in general. Hajjaj (2015) [18] considered that the job satisfaction represents the reactions resulting from the comparison made by the employee between his expectations and what he gets in reality from his job. Bhatti and Qureshi (2007) [7] noted that job satisfaction results in higher productivity through bringing high quality motivation and by improving working capabilities of employees. These job experiences spill over onto other spheres of life, and vice versa, suggesting that a positive relationship exists between the two variables (Heller et al. 2002) [20] . This feeling of job satisfaction is affected by so many variables. Salary package, for instance was found to be more influential factor in affecting the job satisfaction of the individuals (Kumar and Garg 2011) [23] . Job satisfaction of an employee depends upon the working environment where they work, facilities, resources they had, etc., to give their best (Manisha et al. 2022) [27] . Likewise, organizational climate can also have a positive impact on the job satisfaction (Rakesh, 2014) [32] . Hamidia and Phadett (2011) [17] on their research on the effect of Human Resource Management practices on the job satisfaction reported that HRM practices had a positive and significant effect on the job satisfaction of the employees. Organizational effectiveness is majorily affected by the job performance of the employees (Anshida et al. 2022) [5] . Organizations should also be wary of the problems being faced by its employees to know whether they are satisfied or not. Reasonable working hours, reasonably good pay structure, performance-based incentives, conducive working environment are the basic requirements and expectations of employees (Vijayalakshmi 2006) [41] . Anitha (2011) [4] reported that employees are more satisfied when they get what they anticipate. This indicates that the problems which surround the working environment of an organization should be surely dealt with in a proper manner. If the workers feel that the organization is considerate about them, they will involve themselves in their jobs more committedly. Job involvement and organizational commitment are important factors affecting their job performance (Anshida et al. 2022) [5] . Sarnaik et al. (2020) [37] ; Channappa et al. (2023) [10] found a positive correlation between achievement motivation and role performance of para-veterinarians in Karnataka signaling www.extensionjournal.com that it is important to keep them motivated. Pay and promotion have been important factors influencing job satisfaction (Alina and Simona 2013; Saeed et al. 2013; Boroumand and Abaadi 2013) [2,36,9] . Other factors influencing it are professional associations (Dar et al. 2013; Davies et al., 2013) [11,13] , good working environment (Arif et al. 2017) [6] , Human relations and motivation (Mustafi et al. 2016) [28] . Razik and Maulabakhsh (2015) [34] have stated that the esteem needs (as per the hierarchy of needs given by Maslow) have a strong impact on the job satisfaction. It is worth-noting that the necessity of job satisfaction can be undertaken with respect to two decisions: (a) decision to belong which means to join and remain a member of an organization and (b) decision to perform which constitutes working hard in pursuit of high levels of task performance. The decision to belong is pertinent to an individual's attendance and longevity at work. Workers who are satisfied are more regular in their attendance and are less likely to be absent for unexplained reasons than dissatisfied workers (Boggie 2005) [8] . These variables can affect job satisfaction either positively or negatively. For example, Channappa et al. (2023) [10] reported that variables such as age, education, work experience, training received, achievement motivation, job involvement and job satisfaction had positively significant relationship with the role performance of paraveterinarians in Karnataka. In agricultural organizations, scientists are indulged in three major works; teaching, research and extension. Agriculture is an educational service which brings information and new technologies to farming communities to enable them to improve their production, income and standard of living (Phanisha et al. 2022) [30] . So, for obvious reasons, there is so much pressure on them which might result in situations of stress and a lower job satisfaction. So, to increase their productivity at work, we need to focus prudently on the factors influencing their work life and the amount of satisfaction that they receive from it. It is not just the individual who gets benefitted from the fact that he or she is satisfied, but rather the whole organization as a satisfied individual will add more efficiency to obtain the organizational goals. To enhance productivity on site, general awareness among managers, of the factors affecting the job satisfaction is crucial. Management should give recognition to effort of staff; enrich tasks which employees perform, provide better and humane supervision and also ensure good work environment for their staff to enhance job satisfaction (Anin et al. 2015) [3] . Hence, it is an important facet of an individual's work life especially agricultural scientists because they are going to impact the lives of millions of the farmers and youth of the country. Every scientist has to play a set role related with a position in an organization (Kumar and Kaur 2017) [24] . Keeping this in view, a study was conducted in two agricultural universities viz. SKRAU and RAJUVAS both located in the city of Bikaner, Rajasthan with the following objectives: • To ascertain the factors affecting and shaping job satisfaction of the respondents • To analyze the constraints being faced by them in their working environment

Through the study, the major aim of the researchers is to highlight the fact that working conditions can have a major role to play as according to Purnima et al. (2018) [29] inadequate training, unavailability of materials, delayed salaries, multiple duties etc. were major constraints faced by Subject Matter Specialists in KVKs of South India.

Literature review

Recent studies relevant to the subject have been conducted in different parts of the globe. Some of the studies have been cited in the previous section but a comprehensive review of some other pertinent reports has been given in this section: Herzberg (1964) [21] gave two factor theory where he talked about two kinds of factors which yield in job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. There are certain factors in the organization, the presence of which yields in the satisfaction. Herzberg called them motivators. These factors include attainment, the work itself, accountability, involvement, changing positions through promotion and opportunities for progress and innovation. The other kind of factors were denoted as Hygiene factors, the absence of which would yield in dissatisfaction among the employees. These factors include administration, inter-personal relationships, gratitude, organization policies and supervision, salaries and benefits, position in the hierarchy, job security and physical working ambience. Raziq and Maulabakhsh (2015) on their study on the impact of working environment on the job satisfaction of employees working in different institutions of Quetta in Pakistan reported that there existed a positive correlation between the two variables. Randhawa and Chaudhary (2018) [33] in their study on the job satisfaction of employees of agri warehouses identified 9 influential factors that affected job satisfaction. These were: training opportunities, incentive and pay, job security, opportunity for promotion, supervision, fringe benefits and recognition, relationship with co-workers, nature of work and communication along the line of hierarchy. Gautam et al. (2020) [14] conducted a study on the job satisfaction of faculty members in some selected Indian Universities and found that intrinsic factors such as sense of responsibility, work itself and extrinsic factors social status, job security and salary were pivotal in the job satisfaction of the faculty members.

As far as the problems faced by the employees in the organizations are concerned, Tiwari (2015) [39] conducted a study on the job satisfaction of teachers in selected 20 private universities of Rajasthan, India reported that teachers find teaching very repetitive and monotonous which turns out to be a major challenge so to make teaching more productive, training should be given to improve their pedagogy skills. Solanki and Pandey (2015) [38] in their study on the problems faced by the scientists working in Agricultural Technology Information Centre (ATIC) of GBPUAT, Pantnagar found that insufficient supporting and technical staff, non-availability of experts from each discipline, lack of infrastructure facilities, lack of timely availability of funds, lack of contingency grant and diversion of revolving funds of the centre for other uses. Besides this, lack of transportation facility for procurement of inputs (79.31%), non-availability of diagnostic lab facilities in ATIC (75.86%), scarce supply of literature related to technology (72.41%), no remuneration for scientists (63.79%), clashes between duty timings at ATIC and college for teaching (56.89%) and scarcity of separate vehicle facility for field visits (55.17%) were some of the major constraints being faced by the ATIC scientists.

Research methodology

In order to achieve the major objectives of the study, two universities were selected viz. Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University (SKRAU) and Rajasthan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (RAJUVAS) both located in Bikaner, Rajasthan. These two universities were selected on purpose by the researcher. A total of 120 respondents were taken out of which 67 were from SKRAU and 53 were from RAJUVAS constituting a total of 120 respondents. The Ex-post facto research design was adopted for present study. The ex-post facto research design is defined as systematic and empirical enquiry in which, the scientists have direct control of influencing independent variable because their manifestations have already occurred or because they are inherently not manipulable (Dashora and Henry 2022) [12] . 11 independent variables were considered namely age, gender, educational status, annual income, background, marital status, family type, accommodation, mode of transport, job experience and designation. The measurement of these variables was done using structured or developed schedules as shown in the table 1.

The impact of independent variables on the dependent variable i.e. job satisfaction was assessed by using chisquare test, correlation and multiple regression analysis. Chi-square test was employed to measure the relationship of those variables which fall under ordinal or nominal levels of measurement.

For variables which fall under Interval and rank order levels, correlation coefficient was calculated to find out their association with job satisfaction level. The correlation coefficient was calculated by using the following formula:

In order to analyse the constraints being faced by the respondents, a questionnaire was prepared. It was designed to know what problems might the respondents be facing so, the questionnaire was divided into four categories: administrative problems, infrastructural problems, technological problems, and work-environment related problems containing 21, 6, 3 and 11 statements respectively. The respondents were asked to mention the severity of the problem on a continuum ranging from High, Moderate and Low. The scale used to know problems was taken from Gurjar (2018) [16] and used with modifications. Ranking was given to the responses based on the Mean Percent Score (MPS) which was calculated by:

Results and Discussion Factors affecting and shaping the job satisfaction of respondents

The following tables 2 and 3 depict the relationship between independent variables and job satisfaction. Pearson correlation coefficient and chi square test were used to work out the relationship between these variables. Correlation of age, annual income and job experience was computed with Job satisfaction: The table 2 shows that age is positively correlated with job satisfaction with r value of 0.467 at 0.01% level. This might be attributed to the fact that majority of the scientists working in both the universities belonged to medium age group where they have acquired enough expertise in their respective fields and are still energetic, productive and resilient in producing satisfactory results and thereby are satisfied with their jobs. The correlation coefficient between annual income and job satisfaction is positively significant with r value equals to 0.564 at 0.01% level of significance. This is because the greater annual income helps an individual fulfill his basic needs as well as esteem needs and more satisfaction from the work. The individual feels more determined towards his work if he gets paid more for it. The r-value of correlation coefficient between Job experience and Job satisfaction is 0.673 at 0.01% level of significance which shows a positive and significant relationship between both the variables. This can be justified by the fact that more job experience provides an individual with ability to cope successfully with the adverse working condition and finding effective ways to make the situation less stressful. Also, more job experience earns an individual respect from colleagues thus leading to a feeling of satisfaction at workplace. The results are in concordance with Gurjar (2018) [16] who also found positive correlation of age, annual income and job experience with the job satisfaction. These results, on the other hand are in contradiction with those of Kumar (2020) [25] who found significant but negative correlation with age, salary and job experience. Sarnaik et al. (2020) [37] reported that age had no significant effect on the job satisfaction of Subject Matter Specialists in KVKs To ascertain the relationship between job satisfaction and the variables measures nominally or ordinally, chi-square test was employed. It is discernible from the table 3 that variables such as age, annual income, marital status, job experience and designation had a positively significant relationship with job satisfaction as the chi-test values are higher than the table values (also, p values<0.05) whereas rest of the other variables were shown to have not impacted job satisfaction significantly. The results are in concordance with those of Hee et al. (2020) [19] who showed that income was a major contributing factor for the satisfaction of academicians. Abuhashesh et al. (2019) [1] also found out that wages were the major impacting factor for yielding job satisfaction. Gurjar (2018) [16] found out a positive relationship of job experience and designation with the level of job satisfaction of teachers of SKNAU, Jobner which gives a support to the results of the presented study. A negative relationship between marital status and the job satisfaction was found by Gurjar (2018) [16] . Contradictory to the presented results, Kumar (2020) [25] found a non-significant relationship of marital status, job experience and designation with job satisfaction. This might be due to certain underlying factors www.extensionjournal.com in the working conditions of the area where the study was conducted. On the other hand, Manjunath and Shashidhara (2011) [26] reported that education and job experience did not affect the job satisfaction of agricultural scientists.

Constraints being faced by the respondents in their working environment

Administrative problems faced by the respondents They consisted of 21 statements to which respondents responded as rating them as High, Moderate or Low. Mean Percent scores of each statement were calculates and Ranks were accorded accordingly. These have been presented below in table 4 and Fig. 1. The results show that the statement obtaining maximum MPS and rank 1 is 'Assignment of unrelated work due to lack of staff'. This means this is the major problem being faced by the respondents collectively from both the universities. It is followed by 'Multitasking and excess workload' and 'Delayed promotion' as they were given 2 nd and 3 rd ranks by the respondents. Gurjar (2018) [16] also reported that the teachers working in SKNAU, Jobner also faced the pronblem of 'Multi-tasking' as the major one. The results are also in line with Purnima et al. (2018) [29] who reported that similar problems were being faced by the SMSs working in KVKs of South India. Manisha et al. (2022) [27] in their study on women field veterinarians in Telangana also found that lack of transport facility, multitasking and lack of manpower were top three administrative constraints faced by the respondents.

Infrastructural problems faced by the respondents

This aspect contained 6 statements of which MPS were calculated and Ranks were assigned to each accordingly. Infrastructural problems pertain to those arising out of the available infrastructure in the universities. These statements have been discussed in Table 5 and depicted in Fig. 2. Table 5 shows that the major infrastructural problem faced by the respondents was 'Insufficient modern facilities for field work' as it obtained maximum MPS and hence rank 1. It was followed by statements 'Lack of physical facilities in the department viz. internet, air-conditioning, conference rooms, etc.' and 'Bad condition of the office, labs, classrooms, toilets etc. in the departments' having 2 nd and 3 rd ranks respectively. This can be due to insufficient funding to the departments or mismanagement of funds within the departments. The results again find similarity to those of Gurjar (2018) [16] .

Technical problems being faced by respondents

This section of statements contains the technical problems which the respondents might be facing. A set of 3 statements was presented to the respondents and their responses were elicited as given in the table 6 and Fig. 3.

From the above table it can be seen that the major technical problem pertinent to respondents was 'Lack of audio-visual aids' which was accorded 1 st rank followed by 'Lack of electronic facilities' and 'Electricity problems.' It can also be noted that the problems of electricity and lack of electronic facilities are not that severe as the MPS obtained by each of the respective statements is less. The lack of audio-visual aids like a video conferencing room, modernday projectors etc. remains by large the central problem in the selected universities. The results are contradictory to those obtained by Dashora and Henry (2022) [12] who found that the unavailability of ICT tools like audio-visual aids is one of the less severe technical constraints faced by the KVK scientists of Rajasthan. They also reported that the major technical constraints faced by the respondents was poor internet connectivity.

Work environment related problems being faced by the respondents

This aspect contained 11 statements pertinent to the work environment in the universities and departments. The results have been presented in the form of Table 7 and Fig. 4. Under the sphere of problems relating to work-environment, the major problem being faced by the respondents is the paucity of a cooperative atmosphere in their departments. Cooperation is a must in the attainment of organizational objectives and it becomes the essence of the organization. This is concordance with the reporting of Rahiminia et al. (2013) [31] and Wang et al. (2012) [42] who have stated that job dissatisfaction was caused by the lack of mental support to the employees. Kumar and Kaur (2017) [24] also reported that developing and maintaining good relations with superiors, subordinates and associates was a popular notion among KVK scientists as far as their role performance was concerned. The second major problem in these universities is the biasness based on caste which leads to groupism and the formation of closely knit cliques. Again, it is perilous to the growth of the organization and is a rot to the society as well. The respondents also reported that improper or no use of available teaching facilities is also a major problem. They are not able to make use of available facilities due to factors like lack of autonomy and proper training. Age Schedule developed by researcher 2 Gender Procedure followed by Kumar (2020) [25] 3.

Educational status Procedure followed by Gopika (2014) [15] used with modification 4.

Annual income Schedule developed by researcher 5.

Background Scale developed by Hosur (1977) [22] used with modification 6.

Marital status Procedure followed by Kumar (2020) [25] used with modification 7.

Family type Scale developed by Trivedi (1963) [40] used with modification 8.

Accommodation Procedure followed by Gurjar (2018) [16] used with modification 9.

Mode of transport Procedure followed by Sabar (2015) [35] used with modification 10.

Job experience Schedule developed by researcher 11.

Designation Procedure followed by Sabar (2015) [35] used with modification Dependent Variables 1.

Level of Job satisfaction Schedule developed by researcher www.extensionjournal.com Biasness on the basis of caste 65.72 2

Suggestions

As the study highlights the factors affecting job satisfaction of the scientists working in the selected institutions and the problems that they face related to their organizational climate. These factors create an impact on the psychology of workers and ultimately affect the working capabilities of workers and the productivity of the institutions. So, there is a dire need to consider these factors which have an impact on psychology of workers at workplace and ultimately their

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementWe want to express their sincere gratitude to both the universities, RAJUVAS and SKRAU, Bikaner for their support and resources provided in conducting the research. We also want to express our heartfelt appreciation to the scientists who participated as respondents in the study.

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