This chapter presents conclusions of the study based on the research objectives. It is followed by implications, practical and empirical recommendations. This study was developed in an effort to examine teachers’ perceptions of school organizational climate and teachers’ job satisfaction in two residential and two non residential secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur. A comparison of teachers’ perceptions of the seven school climate dimensions and the levels of teachers’ job satisfaction were made between the two selected residential and two non residential schools. The climate perceptions and the level of job satisfaction of the combined samples were determined. Relationships and the direction of associations between the seven climate dimensions and various measures of job satisfaction were explored. Two generic types of overall job satisfaction measures, that is facet free and facet specific measures of overall job satisfaction were also tested for the significant difference.

Objective 1

The first objective of the study was to determine whether there are any differences in teachers’ perceptions of school organizational climate dimensions in selected residential and non residential government secondary schools. With the obvious differences between residential and non residential schools, it was anticipated that there would be differences in teachers’ perceptions of their school organizational climate. The findings of the present study supported this expectation. Teachers in selected residential schools had higher level of perceptions in all the seven school dimensions of student support, affiliation, mission and goal consensus, professional interest, empowerment, resource adequacy and work pressure. Independent t-test for the climate dimensions between the selected residential and non residential schools showed that six of the seven dimensions are statistically significant different at 0.05 significant level. Only one dimension, that is work pressure was not statistically significant different at 95% confidence level

Objective 2

The second objective of the study was to determine whether there are any significant differences in teachers’ job satisfaction in selected residential and non residential government secondary schools. In this study, teachers’ perceived job satisfaction was measured by both the facet specific and facet free job satisfaction instruments. The findings of this study revealed that there was no difference in teachers’ perceptions of their extrinsic and social satisfaction between residential and non residential schools. However, teachers in the selected residential schools perceived slightly higher intrinsic satisfaction when compared with their counterparts in the selected non residential schools. Nevertheless, t-test results showed that there was no significant difference for these three facet specific measures of job satisfaction and their composite measure of facet specific overall job satisfaction at 0.05 significant level.

The findings from facet free job satisfaction instrument was rather different. Facet free measure of job satisfaction depicted that teachers in the selected residential schools had higher level of occupation satisfaction and current job satisfaction than teachers in the selected non residential schools. They were also more satisfied in terms of job expectation satisfaction. Consistent with these three indirect measure of their job satisfaction, teachers in selected residential schools reported greater extent of likelihood of choosing teaching again as a profession and smaller extent of likelihood of opting for early retirement. A composite measure of facet free overall job satisfaction also revealed that teachers in the selected residential schools are more satisfied than teachers in selected non residential schools. Statistically, the finding of this study showed that there was a significant difference in teachers’ perceptions of facet free overall job satisfaction between selected residential and non residential schools.

Objective 3

The third objective of this study was to examine the perceived level of job satisfaction among teachers in the four selected government secondary schools. Majority of the teachers, that is seven out of ten teachers from the combined sample perceived low level of extrinsic job satisfaction. This implies that they are very dissatisfied with their salary and fringe benefit. Therefore, this study provides empirical evidence that teachers are dissatisfied with the monetary and material rewards provided by the government. Serious efforts have to be made to improve the teachers’ salary scheme in order to stop the exodus of teachers to the private sectors or neighbouring countries such as Singapore and Brunei. In terms of intrinsic satisfaction, half of the teachers in the combined sample perceived medium level of intrinsic satisfaction while only three out of ten teachers in the combined sample perceived high level of intrinsic satisfaction. This shows that there is still room for improvement as far as intrinsic satisfaction is concerned. Results of this study revealed that teachers derived a lot of satisfaction from the collegial supports. 73% of the teachers in the combined sample reported high level of social satisfaction; only 3% reported low level of social satisfaction. This goes to show that collegial supports and interactions provide an important source of teachers’ job satisfaction. In terms of overall job satisfaction, majority of the teachers reported medium level of facet specific and facet free overall job satisfaction. This implies that in general, serious efforts are needed to further improve the overall job satisfaction of government school teachers.

Objective 4

The fourth objective of the study was to examine the teachers’ perceptions of the school organizational climate in the selected government secondary schools. Majority of the selected sample teachers perceived highly of the affiliation dimension of their school climate. This means that the atmosphere for collegial interaction was good. Teachers perceived that they can obtain assistance, advice and encouragement from their colleagues. Generally, they felt that they were accepted by their colleagues.

In terms of the student support dimension of the school climate, only about one third of the teachers had high level of perceptions. Another one quarter of the teachers had low level perceptions of student support dimension. This implies that the teachers perceived that the rapport between teachers and students need to be further improved. It is the joint responsibilities of both the parents and schools to instil good mannerism and awareness of self discipline in their children and students respectively.

The findings indicated that the professional interest dimension of the school climate have to be upgraded. Only 33% of the teachers perceived high level of professional interest. This implies that an atmosphere more conducive for teachers’ professional discussion needs to be established; teachers’ interest towards their work has to be enhanced and more avenue for teachers’ professional development needs to be created or made available.

In terms of empowerment, only a very low percentage of teachers had high level of perceptions. This indicated that teachers should be given more opportunity to participate in decision making. Indirectly, this has an important implication that they need more job autonomy and less intervention from the various departments in the Ministry of Education. Bureaucracies should by all means be reduced. Decision making should be decentralised.

With respect to mission and goal consensus, the findings of this study suggested that the extent of consensus within the staffs with regard to the understanding of mission and the attainment of school goals needs to be enhanced. Majority of the teachers have only medium level of perceptions of the mission and goal consensus dimension of the school climate. Resource adequacy is another aspect of the school climate dimension that has to be looked into. 55% of the teachers had medium level perceptions of resource adequacy; only one third of them perceived highly of the resource adequacy dimension of the school climate. This indicated that majority of the teachers felt that more support personnel, better facilities and more resources should be made readily available.

Lastly, this study revealed that quite a substantial number of teachers (37%) perceived high level of work pressure dimension of the school climate. They felt that work pressure dominated their work environment. This indicated that unnecessary work pressure should be reduced. Long hours of staff meetings and other unnecessary meetings should be minimised. Clerical jobs not related to their teaching profession ought to be removed completely. Teachers should be given job specification confined to only their profession unlike what is currently happening in schools where teachers have to perform all sorts of jobs unrelated to teaching. This will reduce unnecessary work load and therefore alleviate unnecessary work pressure.

Objective 5

The fifth objective of the study undertook to examine the potential associations between the perceived school organizational climate dimensions and secondary school teachers’ job satisfaction. Pearson’s correlation analysis showed that six dimensions of the seven school organizational climate were positively correlated to the intrinsic; social; facet specific overall job satisfaction and facet free overall job satisfaction at the 0.05 significant level. The seventh dimension, work pressure, was found to be negatively related to intrinsic, social, facet specific overall job satisfaction and facet free overall job satisfaction at 95% confidence level. This indicated that as the level of teachers’ perceptions of empowerment; mission and goal consensus; student support; professional interest; resource adequacy and affiliation increase, the level of job satisfaction will increase; as the level of work pressure increases, the level of teachers’ job satisfaction will decrease. Although it is not the intention of this study to identify the school climate dimensions as predictors of teachers’ job satisfaction, the statistically significant correlation between the seven climate dimensions and job satisfaction might indicate that these climate dimensions are potential predictors of teachers’ job satisfaction.

Objective 6

The sixth objective of the study was to determine whether there are any significant difference in the operationalization of overall job satisfaction by facet specific and facet free instruments. Paired t-test results showed that the two measures of overall job satisfaction were significantly different at 95% confidence level. This provides further empirical evidence that the two measures of overall job satisfaction were by no means equivalent or congruent. This finding is consistent with other findings by other researchers in job satisfaction studies. The incongruence in the two measures revealed that facet specific measurement of overall job satisfaction might have left out certain aspects of the job. The facet free measurement of overall job satisfaction might be more inclusive in that in deciding the level of satisfaction, teachers have to consider all aspects of job and non job related as well as other organizational variables.

Findings from objective one and objective two provide an interesting insight into the usefulness of school climate measure. One implication is noteworthy of speculation here. Objective one revealed that there was statistically significant difference in teachers perceptions of six climate dimensions between selected residential and non residential schools. Objective two revealed that there was no significant difference in facet specific job satisfaction measures between selected residential and non residential schools but there was significant difference in facet free job satisfaction measures between selected residential and non residential schools. Using facet specific job satisfaction items as control (since there was no significant difference in intrinsic, extrinsic and social satisfaction), the difference in the school climate between selected residential and non residential schools as revealed in objective one could have possibly contributed to the statistically significant difference in teachers facet free overall job satisfaction between selected residential and non residential schools. This implies that school climate dimensions have some positive effects on teachers’ facet free overall job satisfaction. In other words, various school climate dimensions could have possibly constituted some of the considerations that teachers took into account when teachers respond to the global facet free job satisfaction items. Indirectly, this means that teachers’ school climate perceptual data are important source of consideration for job satisfaction. This speculation was not without any empirical basis. In fact, literature review showed that Glatthorn (1984, cited in Dorman, 1996: 188) had suggested that most satisfying and least satisfying schools were distinguished by a subtle distinction in climate.

Even though findings in this study cannot be generalized to other non residential schools, however, findings from objective one and objective two implied that non residential schools are in urgent need of some assistance. Special plans are desperately needed to improve the school climate and teachers morale in non residential schools. Special considerations and allocations awarded to residential schools should be extended to the non residential schools. In other words, Education Ministry should be allocated more budgets by the Government. Teacher-student ratio and class enrolment should be reduced in non residential schools. The more severe student disciplinary problems in non residential schools should be overcome. In this respect, collaborations between schools and parents are vital. Parents have to play a more important and active role because good discipline starts at home.

The use of climate data in yearly school planning is not a common practice. Often, climate is thought of as an intangible construct with difficult, if not impossible, ways to manage in the context of schools. When climate data is used as a tool to begin the dialogue among teachers and administrators, it can facilitate some of the arduous steps toward meaningful school climate improvement.

Practical Recommendations

The findings of this study had revealed that the seven dimensions of the school organizational climate were significantly associated with teachers’ job satisfaction. Despite the Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Arshad Committee’s recommendations to improve the teaching service scheme, due to the huge financial implication, the government has yet to implement any of these recommendations. It is imperative for the government to look for alternative solutions to teachers’ grievances. Hence, this study recommends that the Ministry of Education should look into the possibility of conducting School Climate Survey regularly to evaluate the climate of schools along a number of psycho-social or climate dimensions found to be significantly related to teachers’ perceptions of job-specific and facet free job satisfaction. Follow up actions as a result of these climate survey will support and nurture teachers’ overall job satisfaction which in turn will result in increase in their work performance.

Once the Ministry of Education or a school has administered the climate survey, the next step is using the data. A tremendous amount of information can be generated from one administration of the School Climate Survey, each school should be prepared to select one or two items to focus on for a particular year. For example, student-teacher relations. Once the priorities are determined, each school can create a "climate committee" under the umbrella of the school organizational structure. Whatever the decision, the administrative team should have the responsibility of addressing school climate. This team should identify key findings related to climate and bring them to the Ministry with recommendations. The Ministry of Education should take these recommendations seriously. The Ministry of Education should provide all the necessary structural and financial supports. A certain amount of budget should be set aside for such school climate improvement.

School climate can be improved through systematic strategies and renewed commitment from all members of the school to make a change. The decisions cannot be made in a vacuum. The improvement of school climate can take place through collaboration between the administrative team and the teachers in a significant way. In the Malaysian context, since providing the extrinsic rewards are outside the authority of a school principal, what a school principal can do to enhance the teachers’ job satisfaction is to improve the school organization climate. Administrators who desire to improve school climates need to be committed to the belief that schools can be better and to be willing to test different approaches to climate improvement.

Recommendations for Future Research

This study used teachers’ perceptions in gathering data for both climate and job satisfaction variables. These data were what teachers perceived to be the actual school or work environment. One recommendation for future research is to use both the teachers’ perceived and intended or preferred school climate and job satisfaction. Two sets of questionnaires, presented side by side, one for the actual and one for the intended or what should be rather than what it is, can be used to gather both the perceptual and intended data. By doing so, the extent of discrepancy between the intended and actual perceptions of the school climate dimensions and job satisfaction can be examined. Hopefully, assessments of actual and preferred school environments will provide a useful foundation on which teachers can base attempts to improve the quality of their school settings and professional lives. The schools can make use of these information and come out with action plans to improve the school climate and enhance teachers’ job satisfaction.

This study revealed that overall job satisfaction measured by facet specific and facet free instrumentation were by no means equivalent. This study speculated that the facet free measure of overall job satisfaction might be a more inclusive measure of overall job satisfaction. The measurement of overall job satisfaction by taking the mean of the five global factors of job satisfaction summarily provide an index of overall job satisfaction. No detail information about what happened during the process of answering a particular facet free job satisfaction items. Future research to probe all the considerations involved before a respondent chooses a particular response is suggested here. By doing so, answers to the questions of why they are satisfied or dissatisfied can be studied. Alternatively, an in depth interview or qualitative study can be done to determine the reasons behind why teachers are satisfied or dissatisfied.

In this study, the personal attributes selected are gender, age, educational level, tenure, teaching periods and pay. As cited in Thompson et al. (1997: 9), educational researchers have studied the relationships between job satisfaction and gender (Bridges, 1980, Sweeney, 1981, Miskel, McDonald, & Bloom, 1983), age (Bridges, 1980, Lowther, Gill, & Coppard, 1985), length of experience (Avi-Itzhak, 1988) and years of teaching experience (Miskel, McDonald, & Bloom, 1983). These personal attributes were found to influence teachers’ job satisfaction. This study further suggests that a research on the effects of teachers’ personal attributes and professional demographic variables on teachers’ school climate perceptions and teachers job satisfaction be carried out. One such research question, for example, "Are teachers’ job satisfaction influenced by tenure and number of teaching periods?" Such research can specifically identify groups or categories of teachers who are faced with morale crisis. Once the problem groups are identified, the school administrator will then be able to focus on the problem groups and take the necessary corrective remedies to improve the school climate and enhance teachers’ job satisfaction. Therefore, the suggested research possibly will help the school administrators to handle various organizational, especially school organization climate, and job related issues better.

Conclusions

Given the importance of teachers’ job satisfaction on school quality, student improvement and the attainment of national aspirations envisaged under Vision 2020, it may be useful to place teachers’ satisfaction with their school climate as an important practical and strategic component of the school administration. The study of organizational climate is valuable from a practical point of view, because the climate variables are easier to manipulate than structural variables. Climate components can be altered by some treatments which are usually under the control or within the reach of inside power such as the principal and teachers’ teams while the structural variables are more easily determined by the external authorities. For these reasons, it seems worthwhile to provide school administrators with diagnostic tools for evaluating their school climate in order to alter behaviour or to achieve a more effective workplace.