The level of technological development and skill acquisition seems to be the basis for determining social, economic and industrial development and advancement of any nation. Adequate skill acquisition training programmes through technical-vocational education (TVE) holds the key to development and economic survival of a nation. Skills refer to an individual’s ability or abilities to perform specific tasks or assignments successfully.

Vocational educators as used in the study are those male and female teachers who are professionally qualified to teach vocational education courses in any tertiary institution, while tertiary institutions are those postsecondary institutions that offer vocational education programmes.

Clark (2005) reported that the technological development of a nation is highly dependent upon the adequacy of its teaching force in number and quality. No nation can develop above its human resources. As a result of this, it is important that teachers that should make this development possible should be properly developed, effectively managed and sufficiently motivated. The future of any nation rests in the hands of its teachers, for the qualities they possess today will inevitably be reflected in the citizens of tomorrow. There may exist the most sophisticated equipment, best facilities and funds but if these are not effectively utilized and managed by effective, efficient and dedicated teachers, the objectives for which they are meant may not be attained.

It could be expected that the degree of job satisfaction of a vocational educator, has significant effect on his/her search for alternatives or the attrition rate of workers. The non-recognition for excellent work done, lack of opportunities for advancement, value creation, promotion, in-service and on-the-job training, ineffective communication system, unstable political and economic situations, irregular pay, among others, tend to have significant influence on the degree of job satisfaction among teachers. Job satisfaction is a bi-dimensional concept consisting of intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions. This is why Robbins and Judge (2007) viewed job satisfaction as a worker’s emotional response to different job related factors resulting in finding pleasure, comfort, confidence, rewards, personal growth, and various positive opportunities, including upward mobility, recognition and appraisal done on a merit pattern with monetary value as compensation. Eduwen (2010) observed that an aggrieved worker is an unhappy worker and unhappy worker cannot do effective work. He becomes depressed; his morale is low and as a result, his effectiveness drops. Nollen (2003) also observed that happy employees are productive and efficient.

Pennsylvania State University (2010) stated that many organizations in the United States currently stand the risk of losing their employees who feel undervalued and de-motivated. The same argument may be applicable to other countries including Nigeria. Some people, including vocational educators, often leave their jobs probably because there is no value in the work they do, or/and value is not created for employees by their employers, or the value created by lecturers are not met by the value created by their employers. Business Dictionary (2010) defined value creation as the performance of actions that increase the worth of goods, services or even a business. Ikeda (2003) saw value creation as the capacity to find meaning, to enhance one’s own existence and contribute to the well-being of others, under any circumstance. Zeng (2012) opined that value creation refers to the organization of how to determine and how management creates value for shareholders and successful operations and realizes the organization of the value of the main process. From the above value creation can be seen as a bi-dimensional concept by employer and employee meeting the value created by each of them to satisfy their needs. This will help the lecturer to remain committed to his/her work irrespective of prevailing circumstance favourable or unfavourable, thereby increasing the organization’s profit in terms of reducing the attrition rate. Favaro (1998) stated that it has been shown time and again that putting growth first can destroy wealth at prodigious rates and, ironically, reduce a company longer-term growth prospects. He maintained that no company ever grows its way to greatness either, without first learning how to make value creation second nature to the entire organization. If you want to grow your way to greatness, put value creation first. He concluded by saying that value creation tells you where and how to grow, gives you the capital and talent to grow, and increases your capacity to grow. Employers and employees including vocational educators have value they create for themselves before and after they are engaged to work in an educational institution. This is why O’Malley (1998) pointed out that value must be created for employees in order to motivate them work assiduously for their organizations. These include meaningful work, excellent compensation, opportunities, and continued training and development. He added that value for employees also includes being treated respectfully and being involved in decision- making. This is why some experts recommend making value creation the first priority for all employees and all company decisions. Hence, there is need to assess the extent vocational educators are satisfied with their job offerings through value creation.

In order to improve the welfare of teachers in tertiary institutions both at the federal, state and private levels, the government of Nigeria at various times seems to have approved new pay packages for teachers. In spite of this identified role played by government and other stakeholders to improving the welfare of teachers in tertiary institutions in Nigeria, the exodus of vocational educators from tertiary institutions to other sectors seems to be on the increase (Clark, 2005). Turnover may incur a significant amount of costs to the organization. These costs include opportunity costs, costs required for reselection and retraining, and decreased level of morale of the remaining workers. These costs would become more serious when an organization loses valuable employees who are difficult to replace. This level of turnover may be injurious to human resource development in the various tertiary institutions in the states. This state of affair strained the interest of the researchers.

The findings of this study will contribute to a body of knowledge and increase information in the area of job satisfaction of vocational educators. Therefore, the findings may likely be of benefit to educational planners, government, teachers, and other stake holders in the education industry.

Purpose of the study

The main purpose of the study was to determine the influence of value creation on job satisfaction of vocational educators in tertiary institutions in Edo and Delta States.

Research questions

The following research question guided the study:

To what extent are male and female vocational educators in tertiary institutions in Edo and Delta States of Nigeria satisfied with their jobs with respect to value created by them?

Hypothesis

The following null hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance.

There is no significant difference in the level of job satisfaction between male and female vocational educators in the extent of value created by them are met by their employers in tertiary institutions in Edo and Delta States of Nigeria.

The survey research design was employed for this study. According to Leary (2010), a survey uses questionnaire and interview to collect information about people’s attitudes, beliefs, feelings, behaviours, and lifestyles. This design was found most appropriate for this study because the study sought information from the res-ondents relative to their attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and behavior.

Population of the study

The population was made up of 189 vocational educators in federal and State universities, in Edo and Delta States of Nigeria. This was made up of thirty-nine university lecturers, thirty-eight polytechnic lecturers, one hundred and nine lecturers at the colleges of education, and three lecturers at the monotechnic. The population was made up of males and females vocational educators with different qualifications, experiences, and age.

In view of the limited number of vocational educators that made up the population, the researchers made use of the entire population as sample. Therefore no sampling was carried out.

Instrument for data collection

The instrument used to gather data for the study was structured questionnaire. The instrument was an adapted version of the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) that was developed by Smith et al. (1969).

The instrument was made up of two sections, A and B. Section A consisted of demographic data, such as name of school, gender, and teaching experience. Section B consisted of 17 items on value creation. The responses to the items on dimensions of value creation by vocational educators were assigned the following scores:

Response Category       Rating   Boundary Limit

Very Great Extent                      5          4.50 – 5.00

Fairly Great Extent                    4          3.50 – 4.49

Great Extent                               3          2.50 – 3.49

Low Extent                                 2          1.50 – 2.49

Very Low Extent                        1          0.50 – 1.49

Validation of the instrument

The instrument designed for the study was validated by three experts. These experts made their comments and suggestions on the content validity of the instrument bearing in mind the significance of the hypothesis tested.

Reliability of the instrument

The reliability of the data collected was determined by using Cronbach Alpha method. The instrument was administered on 20 vocational educators at the College of Education, Benin City. The value of the reliability obtained was 0.94

Method of data collection

The questionnaire was administered on vocational educators in tertiary institutions where they work in Edo and Delta states. The researchers personally administered the questionnaire to the respondents with the aid of two research assistants who were trained for two weeks.

Method of data analysis

Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. The null hypothesis was tested using t-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance.

Research question

To what extent are male and female vocational educators in tertiary institutions in Edo and Delta States of Nigeria satisfied with their jobs with respect to value created by them?

The data shown in Table 1 revealed that the mean rating of the respondents ranged from 2.45 to 3.36. It further revealed that the standard deviation ranged from 0.096 to 1.22 with a grand mean of 3.06.

All the items on the table were rated satisfied to great extent. It showed that all vocational educators expressed satisfaction that value created by them is met by their employers.

Hypothesis

There is no significant difference in job satisfaction between male and female vocational educators in the extent of value created for them by their employers in tertiary institutions in Edo and Delta States.

The information shown on Table 2 revealed that the t-table value indicated 5.86. The t-calculated value had shown 4.38. The degree of freedom (Df) is 3, while the total number of respondents was 179.

On this note, the null hypothesis that there is no significance in the level of job satisfaction between male and female vocational educators in the extent of value created for them by their employers in tertiary institutions in Edo and Delta States was accepted based on the fact that the t-table value of 5.86 was greater than t-calculated value of 4.38.

Major findings

The major findings observed in the study as per the data collected were based on the research questions and hypothesis. They are as follows:

1. All vocational educators also expressed satisfaction that value created by them was met by management.

2. There is a significant difference in job satisfaction between male and female vocational educators in the extent of value created by them while working in organization.

The discussions of the results obtained in this study were organized according to research questions and hypo-thesis.

All vocational educators expressed satisfaction in the ways management provides recognition for achievement, the ways management behaves toward staff, their work load, as well as their work environment. This finding is in agreement with the finding of Hearthfield (2010) who stated that excellent compensation is provided to attract and retain employees for the value they perceived to add to the employment relationship.   

All vocational educators expressed satisfaction with the ways their organizations encourage growth and development objectives as well as the ways their organizations conduct performance appraisal that defines strength, weakness, and career development needs this finding is in agreement with Wikipedia (2012) that organization should be concerned with activity at bettering the performance of individuals and groups in an organizational settings.

All vocational educators were dissatisfied with the ways their organizations give attention to career development in order to attract and retain value employees, as well as the ways their organizations refer employees to staff internship programme for self initiative. This finding is in agreement with Heathfield (2010) that organizations should take initiative to assess skills, and interest as well as seek development activities that match needs, as well as encourage growth and career development of staff by coaching and helping staff to achieve their personal goals.

All vocational educators expressed satisfaction with the ways their organizations provide office equipment, keep them informed about matters affecting them, as well as the provision of tools and resources to do their jobs well. This finding is in consonance with the findings of Steger et al. (2012) who maintained that meaningful work score reflects the depth to which people experience their work as meaningful as something they have personally invested in and which is a source of flourishing in their lives. Low scores on any of these scales reflect an absence of work meaning, and may be predictive of poor work engagement, low commitment to one’s organization and intentions to leave, low motivation, a perceived lack of support and adequate guidance from leadership or management. People who score low on these scales are also more likely to be absent from work and experience both low levels of well-being and higher levels of psychological distress. Many vocational educators stated that they were not satisfied with the ways the job itself provides feedback on how well they are performing as they are working. The finding is at variance with the findings of Blanchard and Ridge (2009) who stated among others that work is meaningful when it positively affects organizations and communities, giving the work which makes impact that extends beyond the workers, as well as providing learning and growth, offers challenges, requires creativity, pushes workers to surpass limits, and creates exciting results, providing recognition and rewards for workers’ achievements, and allowing workers to succeed as a team while excelling as individuals.

The analysis of the hypothesis revealed that there is significant difference in job satisfaction between male and female vocational educators. This is an indication that value created by vocational educators before they joined the organization and even when they were already in the organization was not met by management. The result is at variance with O’Malley (1998) who stated that value must be created for those employees by their employers in order to motivate and enable them work assiduously for their organizations. In the same vein, Pennsylvania University (2011) observed that many organizations in the United States currently stand the risk of losing their employees who feel undervalued and de-motivated.

In the light of the findings of the study, the following conclusions were drawn:

1. There is no significant difference in the level of job satisfaction between male and female vocational educators in the extent of value created by them are not met by their employers in tertiary institutions in Edo and Delta States.

2. The t-test statistics employed showed that null hypothesis was accepted as critical value was greater than the calculated value, while null hypothesis was rejected as calculated value was greater than the critical value.

Implications of the study

The primary focus of this study was to assess the level job satisfaction and value creation of business educators in tertiary institutions in Edo and Delta States of Nigeria. A very pertinent implication of this study to management, councils and policy makers is that, it has contributed efforts toward the enhancement of educational standards by identifying the relevant dimensions of job satisfaction that will ensure business educators’ commitment to their schools. This study, therefore, has greater awareness of job satisfaction dimension of value creation. When vocational educators increase their commitment, students may benefit by having consistency in teaching they receive and thus potentially increasing their academic career and personal/social success. As vocational educators demonstrate more professional commitment, retention and recruitment of new vocational educators may increase, thereby ultimately enhancing the teaching profession which vocational educators are a part.

From the findings of the study the following recommendations were made:

1. The study has revealed that there is no significant difference in job satisfaction between male and female vocational educators on in the extent values created by them are not met by their employers. Deliberate efforts should be made by management of various universities, and councils of various tertiary institutions not only to ensure that this variable is sustained in schools but improved upon to promote professional commitment of vocational educators to their jobs in order to enhance productivity and effectiveness.

2. Management and more especially heads of department, deans of faculties and schools of various tertiary institutions should ensure that vocational educators should be given meaningful work, excellent compensation, opportunities, continued training and development, should be treated respectfully, and being involved in decision- making in order to enhance value creation, thereby reducing the attrition rate of vocational educators as presently experienced in schools.

3. There is need for management of various used for the study to meet genuine demands of vocational educators to strengthen their motivation, job satisfaction and commitment to minimize turnover.

4. There should be on-the-job training for vocational educators to cope with full integration of information technology into vocational education teaching and learning.

The author(s) have not declared any conflict of interests.