Relationships of the meaning and value of work, job satisfaction, and performance factors of medical laboratory personnel

Abstract

The study was an ex-post facto comparative design with the purpose of exploring the relationships between selected demographic variables of medical laboratory personnel and their perceptions about the meaning and value of work, job satisfaction, and performance factors.

Questionnaires were mailed to 556 Illinois medical laboratory personnel that were certified by the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP). The stratified proportional random sample yielded a 63.5% return rate.

The Meaning and Value of Work Scale (MVWS), Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), and Medical Laboratory Personnel Demographic Inventory (MLPDI) were used to collect data. The data (N = 347) were used to answer 12 research questions, and to test 9 null hypotheses at the.05 level. Any significant differences were evaluated using Scheffe's test.

The study found that no significant relationships existed between the meaning of work and the selected demographic variables. On the value of work, significant relationships were found with gender and the number of years employed in the field. Significant differences were also found between job satisfaction and gender, place of employment, number of years employed in the field, salary, and working status. With performance factors, three of the demographic variables were found to be significant: occupational category, number of years employed in the field, and salary.

Scores from the MVWS, Parts I and II, and MSQ were separated into thirds representing high, medium, and low values. The scores were sorted so that respondents scoring in the same range on all three tests were categorized as High, Medium, or Low (n = 67). The univariate (F (2, 64) = 6.91, p $<$.05) value between performance factors and test scores was significant at the.002 level. Further evaluation by the Scheffe test showed that a significant difference existed between mean scores of the High and Low groups. Overall, this study showed that medical laboratory personnel with a broad interpretation of the meaning of work, intrinsic work value orientations, and high levels of job satisfaction, perceive that they were more productive and more satisfied with their jobs than those with a narrow interpretation, extrinsic work values, and low levels of job satisfaction.