Work is regarded as the most important activity which helps a person to reach the necessary tools to continue his/her existence, gain a respectable place in society and have a better life. Also, work makes people to feel satisfied with a sense of achievement by utilising their talents. In this sense, what people think of, what they do and what/how they feel are directly linked to their social environment.

The early systematic information about work satisfaction dates back to 1930s (Agho et al., 1993:1009). As in classical and neo-classical approach, many studies refer to Maslow’s “hieararchy of needs approach” and Herzberg’s “two-factor theory” while explaining work satisfaction theoretically (Burnard et al., 1999:12). Work satisfaction is multidimensional, which leads to different definitions. Some of these definitions are below.

Work satisfaction, in the simplest term, is to define how happy an employee is at work (Mrayyan, 2005:46). Work satisfaction is defined as employees’ emotional reactions towards their work (Weiss, 2002:183).  Work satisfaction includes the positive or negative feelings of an employee in relation to inner, external and general point of view towards his/her job (Odom et al., 1990:164). Work satisfaction is a name given for  the emotional reaction an employee shows as a result of comparing what (s)he wants from his/her job with what (s)he gets (Samad, 2006:115).

Work satisfaction helps an employee become attached to his/her job and work efficiently; with it, the ratio of faulty and defective products decreases and labor turnover rate shrinks in addition to increasing the workers’ happiness (Querstein et al., 1992:864). In case of work dissatisfaction, low performance and high employee turnover rate are seen, absenteeism and the intention of leaving the job increase and work commitment decreases and nonproductiveness increases due to alienation, stress, destruction of machines and facilities, mental and physical disorders (Dole and Schroeder, 2001:242; Noe et al., 1997:184). Work dis-satisfaction can stem from role ambiguity, role conflict, role stress, work overload, professional development and advance in the career (Tull, 2006:478).

Work satisfaction is the total of the attitudes held towards the various sides of the work done. Each person who wants to take part in work life creates an expectation for physical conditions of the environment where (s)he will work in accordance with her/his education and habits, and wants the work (s)he had to meet these expec-tations. There is a success level which is expected from an employee and s(he) is expected to succeed it in accordance with her/his habits and traits. Work satisfaction is considerably an emotional bond created with the elements such as the fact that the relationships in an institution are warm, employees can use their skills totally, they feel respected, the work they have done is awarded and the necessary tools are provided in order to do well. (Özen, 2013:60).

Employees’ attitudes towards their jobs occur in accordance with their expectation and needs. For this reason, employees are demoralized and lose productive-ness if an organization does not meet their needs and expectations even if it has structural, physical and economical conditions in order to be effective (Agho et al., 1993:1008). From emphasizing the psychological aspects of work environment indicates that two factors affecting people’s happiness are “to produce” and “to love- to be loved”. A person’s increasing work satisfaction makes his/her labor productivity higher. A person whose success and productivity needs are fulfilled also will have met loving and beloved needs with more positive behaviours by establishing healthier relationships with his/her surroundings.

While a person feels satisfied with some conditions of the job or work environment, he or she may feel unsatisfied with some conditions. The more satisfaction, the higher work commitment and content will be. Employees must obey the rules at work. Exaggerating these obligations can disincline employees. Also, when people do the job which can require initiative, they want to maintain control and responsibility on their own.

Even if there is a feeling that prestigious jobs in society bring more work satisfaction, jobs with low prestige create satisfaction among many employees. Work satisfaction can be used as an indicator of work quality. However, the relationship between work quality and work satisfaction is not that simple. Work satisfaction is affected by expectations. Accordingly, if the expecations of two different people doing the same job with the same qualities are different, their work satisfaction can be totally different (Llorente and Macias, 2005:664). Locke (1976:1311) defines work satisfaction as a satisfying or positive situation as a result of evaluating his/her job or work life. According to expectancy theory, work satisfaction is determined by the difference between what people need to get or what people think about the fact that they deserve and all the things they get (Porter, 1962:382; Vroom, 1964:80; Lawler, 1994:75). In other words, if employees cannot get what they believe they deserve, they feel disatisfied (Lawler, 1994:76). As understood from these definitions, work satisfaction occurs as a result of individuals’ various attitudes.

Many elements can be effective to achieve work satisfaction. These elements can be categorized into three groups such as environmental (job itself and work envirionment including social interaction at work)  psychological (personality, behaviour, attitude) and demographical (age, gender) elements (Crossman and Haris, 2006:35). The work satisfaction of a teacher means emotional relationship related with teaching role. This relationship is a function of the relationship between what a teacher wants from teaching and what (s)he comprehends (Zembylas and Papanastasiou, 2005:443). The main factor which contributes to the work satisfaction of teachers is that they work with children. Teachers improve warm, candid and personal relationship with children, teaching is intellectual and hard work and the job of teaching provides autonomy and independence, which contribute to work satisfaction (Shann, 1998:69). However, a series of factors such as the monotony of daily routines, the lack of motive and discipline in some of students, the lack of support and appreciation of colleagues and directors might harm teachers’ work satisfaction feelings and cause them to feel disappointed and to perceive their self-respect negatively (Nias, 1996:298).

Employees’ work satisfaction is not apparent most of the time. The first indicators of their dissatisfaction could be coming to work late, the difficulty in adapting to work, being unable to perform the task completely. In human’s nature, there are searching and renewing desires, which means that an employee will be able to change his/her job despite the fact that (s)he is pleased with it. People want to be successful in the organizations they work for and get promoted. Promotion increases a person’s social status and change his/her place in society positively as it increases income from a job. People with the desire of promotion get high satisfaction from the work as they find the chance of advancing in their career.

In the research conducted in many developed countries, the factors such as the lack of professional autonomy, diminishing sources, low salaries, changes imposed insensibly and continuous criticism in the media are found to bound to the low level of teachers’ work satisfaction (Scott and Dinham, 2003:83; Van den Berg, 2002:623; Zembylas and Papanastasiou, 2005:457). The reasons such as teachers’ work load and expectations, students’ performance, behaviours and discipline pro-blems, the relationships with their friends, administrative staff and supervisors, administrative routines and various paper works, low salary, lack of development opportunities, decreased respect towards the job  are ranked as the sources of teachers’ work dissatisfaction (Thompson et al., 1997:34). Also, research findings show that many personal qualities such as sex, age, marriage, parental situation, work experience affect work satis-faction in different ways (Koustelios, 2001:356). The satisfaction of social and psychological needs as well as physical ones by earning money in the scope of getting job is the point in question (Michaelowa, 2002:75).

Work satisfaction is related to the level of meeting these needs in a way. In this respect work satisfaction directly affects satisfaction getting from life and the physical and psychological health of individuals. Due to this reason, it has become an important subject in health and psychological counseling fields. Because, the work satisfaction of the ones giving this service in counseling jobs aimed at protecting and maintaining people’s physical and psychological health has a critical importance in terms of the quality and effect of service they give as well as their own health (Van der Berg, 2002:628). Teaching profession is different from other jobs in various aspects. Teachers spend most of their time with students or working alone (Barnabé ve Burns, 1994:182). Teachers’ work satisfaction can function as a tool for improving the quality of education and providing good education. Teachers’ work satisfaction can increase with the long-term and reliable job opportunity with a high salary in a well-equipped school. Besides, teachers’ work satisfaction is positively affected from good relationships with colleagues, directors and parents, while negatively affected from oppressive management (Michaelowa, 2002:418).

As is known, if work conditions are not perceived well or suitably, it decreases work satisfaction. Employees’ feelings and thoughts about the work also present important data about work environment.  The necessary regulations can be done in work conditions in the event that work satisfaction is evaluated periodically. Consi-dering that teachers’ work satisfaction or dissatisfaction affects the structure and operation of the school they work in (Sargent and Hannum, 2005), the regulations at school can contribute to improving the quality of education as well as teachers’ work satisfaction. Due to work satisfaction’s relationship with an employee’s physical and mental wellness – in other words his/her health- (Oshagbemi, 2000), determining  the  levels  of teachers’ work satisfaction and attracting attention to the areas they are dissatisfied with are of vital importance. In literature, there are a great number of studies in which work satisfaction is analyzed in terms of teachers’ working conditions, personal qualities and various variables (Av?aro?lu et al., 2005; Bishay, 1996; Crossman and Haris, 2006; Dinham and Scott, 1996; Hulpia et al., 2009; Ma and MacMillan, 1999; Menon and Reppa, 2011; Perie and Baker, 1997; Sargent and Hannum, 2005; Zembylas and Papanastasiou, 2005). 

In this study, the aim is to make a new contribution to the literature on the subject. Some studies have been done in order to determine psychological counselors’ work satisfaction. However, such a study is thought to be necessary as any study comparing psychological counselors at state and private primary and secondary schools with Counseling and Research Centers is unavailable.

Data analysis

One way analysis of variance has been used in comparing the work satisfaction levels in terms of various identity attributes depending on the institution they work in and being more than two groups when analysing the data; and in finding out that F value is meaningful, Scheffe test (post- hoc test) was used. T- Test technique was used in pair groups. The analysis was done by means of SPSS packaged software and the level of significance was accepted as 0.05.

The work satisfaction levels of psychological counselors were analyzed in terms of some independent variables. According to six variables taken into account respectively below, the findings about the work satisfaction points of psychological counselors working for the state and private primary and secondary schools and the Counse-ling and Research Centers are presented.

The work satisfaction levels of psychological counselors working for the state and private primary and secondary schools and the counseling and research centers in terms of their gender

The scores of female and male psycholgical counsellors in terms of internal and external satisfaction points and total satisfaction point are given in Table 1.

As a result of t-test for whether the scores taken from Work Satisfaction Scale are different or not in terms of their gender, it is determined that there is no significant difference among groups [t (256) = 0.568, p>05]. The same result is valid for internal satisfaction [t(256)  = 0.064, p>05] and external satisfaction [t (256)= 0.924, p>05] subscales of the scale. In other words, gender varible does not cause difference in both two sub-dimensions and total score.

The work satisfaction levels of psychological counselors working for the state and private primary and secondary schools and the counseling and research centers in terms of their degree of learning

The scores of the subscribers who have undergraduate and postgraduate education in terms of internal and external satisfaction scores and total score are given in Table 2. 

The work satisfaction levels of psychological counselors working for the state and private primary and secondary schools and the counseling and research centers in terms of the institution they work in

The relevant scores of psychological counselors’ work satisfaction in terms of the institution they work in are given in Table 3. 

In order to determine whether the difference among means is statistically significant or not, one-way analysis of variance has been done to the scores taken from each sub-scales (internal –external) and total scale. The analysis results are given in Table 4. 

As it is seen on Table 4, it is understood that the difference in terms of the institution they work in is [ F(2-255) = 14.086,  P<.01) ] in general satisfaction, [ F(2-255)  = 7.281,    P< .01) ]   in   internal   satisfaction,  [ F(2-255)  =21.815, P< .01) ] in external satisfaction in each sub-dimension and total work satisfaction. As a result of  post-hoc t-test (Schfee) to determine which groups the difference stems from, it is determined that there is a statistical significant difference between private schools and state schools and again between private schools and Counseling and Research Centers in support of private schools when each sub-dimension and total scores are taken into account.

The work satisfaction levels of psychological counselors working for the state and private primary and secondary schools and the counseling and research centers in terms of their seniority

The relevant scores of psychological counselors’ work satisfaction levels in terms of their seniority are given in Table 5.

To determine whether the difference among means in Table 5 is statistically significant or not, one-way analysis of variance has been done to the scores taken from each sub-scales (internal –external) and total scale. The analysis results are given in Table 6. 

As it is understood from Table 6, seniority does not cause any difference in satisfaction scores when both sub-scales and total satisfaction scores are taken into account;  General satisfaction [ F(2-255) = 1.09,  P> .05) ], Internal satisfaction [ F(2-255) = 1.26,  P> .05) ] , External satisfaction [ F(2-255) = 0.77, P>.05) ].

The work satisfaction levels of psychological counselors working for the state and private primary and secondary schools and the counseling and research centers in terms of their major

The relevant  scores  of  psychological  counselors’  work satisfaction levels in terms of their major are given in Table 7.

To determine whether the difference among means in Table 7 is statistically significant or not, one-way analysis of variance has been done to the scores taken from each sub-scales (internal –external) and total scale. The analysis results are given in Table 8. 

As it is seen from Table 8, it is found that groups differ in terms of internal [ F(2-255) = 3.54 P< .05 ] and general [ F(2-255) = 3.05 P< .05 ] satisfaction scores; however, there is no significant difference among groups in terms of external satisfaction [ F(2-245) = 2.20 P> .05 ] As a result of post-hoc t-test analysis to determine which groups mean differences in relevant dimensions stem from, it is dermined that there is a significant difference between the graduates of Psychological Counseling and Guidance department and the graduates of other departments of Faculty of Education in support of the graduates of PCG in both two groups (internal and general). It is found that there is no significant difference between the graduates of PCG department and the graduates of Psychology department and between the graduates of other departments of Faculty of Education and the graduates of Psychology department.

The work satisfaction levels of psychological counselors working for the state and private primary and secondary schools and in the Counseling and Research Centers have been analyzed in terms of six variables. These variables are gender, degree of learning, the institution they work in, seniority, major and income.

In this part, the findings about the relationship between independent variables and work satisfaction levels analyzed in the research are discussed and commented on respectively.

The discussion and comment of the findings about psychological counselors’ work satisfaction levels in terms of gender

In the research, in terms of gender variable it is found out that there is no significant difference among psychological counselors’ work satisfaction levels (internal, external and general work satisfaction). This result shows consistency with the results of some research results in body of literature (Wiggins, 1984). However, gender is seen to be a deterministic factor of work satisfaction in some of the research over other occupational groups and Psycho-logical Counselors. Crossman and Haris (2006) found out that gender is an important predictor of work satisfaction in the research they did. Abd-El- Fattah (2010) determined that the work satisfaction levels of female teachers working in primary and secondary schools are higher than that of male teachers. Bishay (1996), Mwamwenda (1997), Menon and Reppa (2011) found that the work satisfaction levels of females are higher than that of males in the research. Despite this, it is confirmed that the work satisfaction levels of males are higher than those of females in some research (Abd-El- Fattah, 2010; Spear et al., 2000; Oshagbemi, 2000; Akiri and Ugborugbo, 2009; Klecker and Loadman, 1999; Ma and MacMillan, 1999). According to the research by Witt and Nye (2000), the work satisfaction levels of male psycho-logical counselors working  in  state  and  private  schools are higher than that of female psychological counselors. In some studies, it is found that there is no relationship or difference between psychological counselors’ work satisfaction and gender. In these studies, it is determined that female and male teachers have similar work satisfaction levels (Av?aro?lu et al., 2005; Sargent and Hannum, 2005; Clark, Oswald and Warr, 1996).

According to this, it seems difficult to say a certain thing about the relationship between work satisfaction and gender. When gender variable is together with other variables, it can be effective over work satisfaction.

Therefore, it can be said that more systematical research about this subject is necessary.

The discussion and comment of the findings about psychological counselors’ work satisfaction levels in terms of degree of learning

In the research, in terms of degree of learning variable it is found out that there is no significant difference among psychological counselors’ work satisfaction levels (internal, external and general work satisfaction). Accor-ding to this, the work satisfaction levels of psychological counselors who have undergraduate and postgraduate degree are similar. This result shows consistency with the research of De Mato (2001), Brice (2001), Rode (2004) and Rose (2005). However, Witt and Nye (2000) found a signifcant relationship between external work satisfaction and degree of learning in the research they did with psychological counselors.

When employees from other occupational groups are taken into account, it is seen that there are different results between degree of learning and work satisfaction. While it is seen that there is no difference in some of the studies (Rain et al., 1991; Nguyen et al., 2003; Bowling, 2007), they found that there is a positive relationship between work satisfaction and degree of learning in some other studies (Klecker and Loadman, 1999; Michaelowa, 2002).

As a result, it is seen that there is no consistent relationship between degree of learning and work satisfaction. Taking it into account with the common effects of other variables can help us arrive at a more certain conlusion.

The discussion and comment of the findings about psychological counselors’ work satisfaction levels in terms of the institution they work in

In the research, it is concluded that there is a significant difference between private and state schools and between private schools and CRC in support of private schools among psychological counselors’ work satisfaction levels (internal, external and general work satisfaction) in terms of the institution they work in. This result shows consistency with the results of  the  research by Shann (1998).

The work satisfaction levels of psychological counselors working in private schools are high, bringing to mind that protective factors – external factors (salary, work conditions, supervision, organization facilities, etc.) which are the most deterministic qualities of work satisfaction play a vital role according to Herzberg’s two factor theory because internal factors- incentives (the core of the work, the suitability of activities for interests and abilities, possibility of creativity, development, etc.) are mainly related to the term job. External factors are mainly related to the term work. While external factors may vary according to the conditions for workplace, internal factors does not vary very much. Therefore it is possible to transfer the protective factors contributing to work satisfaction of psychological counselors in private schools into state schools to increase the work satisfaction level of psychological counselors working in state schools and work efficiency.

The discussion and comment of the findings about psychological counselors’ work satisfaction levels in terms of seniority

In the research, in terms of seniority variable it is found out that there is no significant difference among psychological counselors’ work satisfaction levels (internal, external and general work satisfaction). This result shows consistency with the studies of Ashforth and Humphrey (1993).

The similar results can be seen in the work satisfaction studies done with other occupational groups. In spite of this, there are research done by people such as Thompson et al. (1997), Crossman and Haris (2006), De Mato (2001) showing that the higher the seniority level becomes, the more work satisfaction is seen. Although it is highlighted that work satisfaction increases with age in the psychology of industry and organization (Halloran and Benton, 1987), such a result may stem from no change and expectation especially in teaching. Magunson et al. (2004) analyzed the levels of work satisfaction, commit-ment and stress learning consultants had after the first two years in the study they did. According to the findings, it is seen that consultants have less work satisfaction level after the second year than the first year.

This result is not seen to be a generalizable result for different research groups despite the therotical informa-tion about the fact that work satisfaction is high in the first years when people start to work and later it becomes lower and in the last years it increases again.

The discussion and comment of the findings about psychological counselors’ work satisfaction levels in terms of major

It is concluded that there is a significant  difference between the work satisfaction level of the graduates of Psychological Counseling department and the work satisfaction level of the graduates of Psychology department (internal and general work satisfaction) but there is no significant difference in terms of external satisfaction in the research in terms of major. This result shows consistency with the studies of Bowling (2007). Despite this, it is found that the graduates of Psychology department vary in some sub-dimensions of work satisfaction and the graduates of Psychology Counseling department vary in some other sub-dimensions in the study by Koustelios (2001), Akiri and Ugborugbo (2009). The graduates of Psychological Counseling department have more work satisfaction than the graduates of Psychology department. In addition to this, a significant difference cannot be found between major of psychological counsellors working in private schools and their work satisfaction. Besides, a significant difference cannot be found between work satisfaction and major in the studies by Abd-El-Fattah (2010), Sargent and Hannum (2003)

According to this, it is possible to say that having a job related with a person’s major affects work satisfaction positively. Because a person will find a chance to transfer the knowledge and skill (s)he has in the relevant department into real life so (s)he will be able to adapt to work more easily and get more efficiency from his/her job and so (s)he will have more work satisfaction. The research findings support these views. 

The author has not declared any conflict of interests.