1. Introduction

In Africa, Physical Education and Sports (PES) teachers generally act as sports coaches, umpires and organizers of intra and extramural sport events. As the PES teachers pursue the dual roles of classroom teachers and coordinators of sports activities within and outside their institutions, they are likely to experience stress and dissatisfaction more than the other teachers. Singh, Sharma and Kaur[1] observed that PES teachers require a greater variety of talents than any other teaching area in order for them to survive in an educational institution.PES teachers working conditions are far from similar in comparison to other school based teachers in terms of workload and other responsibilities and in Kenyan universities just like other countries, PES lecturers double as sports officers. They are directly responsible for the sporting programmes in their universities in terms of supervision and coordination. Their job include coaching of teams in selected sport, administering sport programmes, travelling with teams, officiating and at times counseling both regular students and athletes. These situations may cause high level stress and burnout for sport officers amid heavy workload, emotional breakdown and heavy responsibilities[2]. Secondly, sport programmes heavily depend on equipment and facilities which results in increased problems in maintaining optimal utilization and this demands constant alertness for students. Thirdly, some sport officers have a dual role to teach and coach and they are frequently expected to fulfill these roles with minimal support from other lecturers. Singh et al[1] reported that PES and sport officers feel their workload is heavier, strenuous and difficult too. Some of them feel that in proportion to the expectations of the society, they are not given due place, recognition, autonomy, pay, working conditions, opportunities for growth and advancement and so on. All these lead to job dissatisfaction or low job satisfaction.

In general, job stress has been viewed as an antecedent of job satisfaction[3] and an inverse relationship between job stress and job satisfaction among various populations has been reported[4]. Higher levels of stress were related to lower job satisfaction and reduced commitment to remain in the job for a long-term[5, 6]. The definition of job satisfaction most often cited is defined by Locke[7] who explained the construct as “a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the approval of one’s job experiences” or the universal attitude employees develop about their job based on past experiences, current conditions and available employment alternatives. Fisher[8] found that individuals tended to support the commonsense theme that satisfied workers were more likely to be productive workers. When workers are dissatisfied, they result to turnover or exhibit withdrawal behaviours such as absenteeism, lateness or documented grievances[9, 10]. Findings on job satisfaction of PES teachers have been reported to vary according to gender[11, 12], level of training[13], location of the school [11], nature of the school (Government or private)[13], age[14] where older workers tend to manifest higher satisfaction than younger ones. Equally, studies reveal that there was a significant difference between male and female physical educators in the sources and symptoms of stress[15, 16]. As the work of PES teachers is closely related to that of sport officers then it can be hypothesized that sport officers suffer from stress and job dissatisfaction.

1.1. Theoretical Framework

Hertzberg, Mausner and Syndermann[17], formulated a two factor theory categorizing factors affecting job dissatisfaction. They used the term hygiene factors to refer to the factors that affect job dissatisfaction. These include benefits, organizational policies, salary, supervision and working conditions. Hertzberg et al[17] referred to factors that affect job satisfaction as motivators which include achievement, recognition, and responsibility and work itself. Hertbergs theory asserts that factors leading to job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are different and separable i.e. employees job satisfaction cannot be simply be achieved by taking away the factors that lead to dissatisfaction nor can being satisfied with some aspects of the job compensate for factors that lead to dissatisfaction. They argued that job dissatisfaction arises from factors that relate to the job environment such as company policy, salary and status. The hygiene factors are important metaphors for a clean environment. People get dissatisfied in an unhygienic environment and want to leave it because they derive minimal positive motivation from it. Job satisfaction is derived from factors related to job nature that is what employees actually do. Job is perceived as providing positive satisfaction if it has characteristics that lead to the satisfaction of higher order human need such as personal growth and recognition from others. Thus this study was interested in establishing the sources of satisfaction of sports personnel in Kenyan Universities.

2. Review of Literature

Turner and Jordan[18] investigated specific factors associated with job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of male and female PES teachers working in different Finnish schools. Five sources of job satisfaction were found; Interaction with students, multifaceted work, professional success, autonomy and interaction with colleagues. Sources of dissatisfaction included poor working conditions, work under pressure of time, student misbehaviour, large class sizes and lack of resources. Koustelios and Tsigilis[19] found that role conflict and role ambiguity are significant predictors of job satisfaction among sport officers. Warr[20] found that recreation and sport managers reported frustration, overburdening, worry, tension and uncertainty in their work environment.

Literature contains evidence that the frequency to stressors impacts levels of perceived stress as well as job satisfaction[21]. There is also evidence that intensity of stressors has a large impact on job satisfaction than does frequency[22]. Singh et al[1] found that PE teachers working in government schools had better job satisfaction than their counterparts in public and private schools. This was attributed to factors such as better service conditions, job security and prestige along many more. These teachers may have a better position in the job in terms of higher pay scales, job security, more freedom, decision-making power and, less interference by management.

Onifade et al.,[23] examined the relationship between job satisfaction levels of sports officers and sports performance of secondary schools in Lagos state, Nigeria. Job Description Index was used to determine job satisfaction while performance in soccer competitions was used as a measure of performance. Results showed that job satisfaction was not related to performance and study concluded that job satisfaction might be more dependent on the psychological and social conditions of the job. Dixon and Pastore[24] explored the role of human resource management practices on coaching satisfaction, commitment, tenure and performance. They found that coaches were generally very satisfied with their jobs and human resource sophistication had little impact on job attitude.

Chelladurai and Ogasawara[25] investigated the satisfaction of Japanese and American collegiate coaches using their well developed coaching satisfaction questionnaire which measured 11 equally weighted dimensions of satisfaction including coaching,job autonomy, facilities, media and community support,pay,team performance, amount of work, collegues, athletes academic performance and job security. They found that the highest levels of reported satisfaction were with intrinsic elements such as the job itself and autonomy. The lowest reported satisfaction was with pay, community and media support, facilities and supervision.

Consequently this study was to determine the job satisfaction levels of sports personnel in Kenya and to establish whether the job satisfaction of sports officers is mediated by selected socio-demographic factors of age, gender, professional qualifications and nature of the educational institution (private/public).

3. Methodology

3.1. Research Design

The design of the study was a cross-sectional survey design. This was apt as variables of the study did not warrant any manipulation or control. Data was collected from (n=40) participants who were drawn from 12 universities (private and public) in Kenya. These participants had agreed to voluntarily take part in the study after being requested to be part of the study. Signing the consent forms was construed to be part of the agreement to take part in the study. Consequently, questionnaires were retrieved from 49 respondents. During the cleaning of the responses some 9 questionnaires could not be processed and the results of 40 sports officers are presented in subsequent sections. The demographic details of the participant are shown in table 1.

3.2. Data Collection Instruments

The instrument selected to measure job satisfaction was derived from the job descriptive index (JDI) questionnaire developed by Smith, Kendall and Hulin[26]. The instrument measures job satisfaction using multi-facet approach.The Questionnaire had two major sections. Section A captured demographic information of the respondents such as age, gender, teaching experience, marital status, academic and professional qualifications. Section B dwelt on job satisfaction which contains 72 item statements measuring five specific job facets: present job, pay, promotional opportunities, supervision and co-workers. A respondent was required to respond to each item on a 5 point rating scale of Very Important, Important, Undecided, Not important and Very Unimportant..Each facet scores were added together for each respondent to obtain a JDI Total score which reflects overall job satisfaction. The instrument was validated through a Delphi panel of experts in sport management while internal consistency was examined through a test-retest of the questionnaire to 20 subjects who did not take part in the main study. The period between the first administration of the trial questionnaire and second administration was two weeks. This was done to ensure that the responses which were given in the first instance could not be recalled. The test-retest yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.75 which was considered adequate for the study. The test instrument was administered to sports officers during a national sports championship.

3.3. Data Analysis

Data was organized through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and was coded for frequencies, means and percentages. Inferential statistics of t-test of independent measures and ONE way analysis of variance was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. ANOVA was selected to determine the effects of independent variables (age, marital status, experience in sport administration and highest education level) on the dependent variable ( job satisfaction) Any significant F-ratios were subjected to post-hoc tests of Tukey Honestly Significant Differences (HSD).

4. Results

The demographic details of the participants are presented in table 1 while the sources of satisfaction are presented in table 2.

Table 1 shows that majority of the participant were males 29 ( 75.5%) while females were 11( 27.5%), 16(40%) of the participants were aged between 21 – 30 yrs, 13(32.5%) were aged between 41-50 years and 32( 80%) were married while 5 (12.5%) were single and majority of 20(55.5%) had experience in sports administration of over 11 years followed by those experience in sports administration of 6-10 years 8(22.2%). Half or 20(50%) of the participants were coaches and 11(27.5%) were assistant games tutors. In regard to academic qualifications, Diploma holders were 7(17.5%), Bachelors 15(37.5%) and those with a masters degree were 9(22.5%) while 9(22.5%) did not indicate their academic qualifications. It may possible that these sports officers may have not attained any college education. The sources of satisfaction among sports personnel is presented in table 2.

Table 1. Demographic Details of the Participants

Table 2 reveals that sports personnel are highly satisfied with relationship with colleagues, co-workers behaviour, supervision, relationship with administrators in the university and work itself. The sports personnel were least satisfied with allowances, promotional opportunities, staffing in sport departments, Pay and medical cover for athletes. The influence of socio-demographic factors on the causes of satisfaction had University status returned significance differences on promotional opportunities t = 2.407 df = 38 p < 0.021; rewards allowances t = 2.407 df = 38 p < 0.021; working conditions t = 2.435 df = 38 p < 0.020; Age F-ratios returned significant differences on promotional opportunities ,F=2.87 df=3,p>0.049. Highest academic qualification returned significant differences on control of student while outside the university F = 3.432 df = 4 p < 022 in favour of Bachelors holders.

Table 2. Means and standard deviations on sources of satisfaction of university personnel

5. Discussion

Results on demographic details of the participants reveals that males were 75.5% while females were 27.5%. This finding corroborates Njororai, Achola and Mwisukha[27] observations that women are under-represented as participants in competitive and recreation sports, sports leadership and sport related academic fields in Kenya. Majority of the respondents were aged between 31 – 50 yrs (72.5%). The recruitment of sport personnel in Kenyan universities need some level of experience. Most of the times these sports personnel are recruited or “poached” from secondary schools and Teacher Training colleges in Kenya. A good percentage of the sports personnel are recruited from associations/federations based on their coaching competencies/certificates or experience.

Most of the respondents 55.6% had experience in sports administration running for over 10 years. Thus, they had adequate experience in sport administration and it is possible that sport officers have limited opportunities to work elsewhere due to their specialization in sport management. Indeed, 50% of the participants were coaches. The coaches in universities are recruited on part-time basis and the ones recruited on permanent/pensionable level are placed at lower job grades. Others are employed on contractual basis (i.e. one or two years). Universities may not wish to spend a lot of finances by hiring senior staff at the level of games tutors as the bulk the allocations in the department are spent on student allowances, travel and accommodation. The promotion criteria for games personnel are not well-defined and this justifies the low number of respondents who were senior games tutors at 10%. Te results on demographic details of the participants reveal that 37% of the respondents had a bachelor’s degree possibly in Physical Education and Sport. This corroborates Shehu[28] findings that personnel in the university sport centers’ in Nigeria were composed of men and women with at least a diploma and Bachelors degree in P.E. with relatively few of them having a masters degree.

The main five causes of dissatisfaction among sports personnel in Kenyan universities were promotional opportunities, contingency reward (allowances) staffing, pay and medical cover for the athletes. Turner and Jordan[18] found that the sources of satisfaction among PES teachers were interaction with students, multifaceted work, professional success, autonomy and interaction with collegues. Sunay[29] determined that trainers were not satisfied with their work facilities, the opportunities for improvement and promotion. Onifade et al[23] found that sport officers in Nigeria are more satisfied with job facets of supervision, job itself and co-workers.

The study was interested in establishing whether the level of satisfaction of sports personnel in Kenyan universities were mediated by selected socio-demographic factors of status of university, gender, age, marital status, highest academic qualifications experiences in sports administration and academic ranks. t- test and ANOVA results show that satisfaction levels differed based on university status, status, age, and highest academic qualification. University status returned significant differences on promotional opportunities, rewards (allowances), and working conditions while age returned significant differences. Highest academic qualification returned significant difference on the control of students while outside the university. These findings are supported in Judge and Watanabe[30] found that age and education were significantly correlated with job and life satisfaction. Pal[13] reported that the level of training had influence on satisfaction and the nature of school (government and private).This findings corroborates with Corbin[31] on education that if employees are satisfied with job characteristics of supervision and have positive feelings about interpersonal relationships with colleagues then there was no significant influence on this personal variable should be expected on job satisfaction level. It is notable that selected socio – demographics of gender, marital status, experience in sports administration and academic rank did not return significant differences. These findings are contrary to those studies which found that women have reported lower levels of satisfaction than men[11,32,12,33]. For example,Pastore and Judd[12] and Sagas and Cunning, [33] reported that female coaches felt frustrated with their jobs and higher levels of burn out and experience lower job satisfaction than do men. Other studies such as Kiende[34, Davis[35] and Aiyejuyo[36] found no significant influence of gender on job satisfaction.

Onifade et al[23] found that male sports officers were significantly more satisfied than female counterparts, older sport officers were more satisfied than younger sport officers and sports officers with more years of experience were more satisfied than those with fewer years of experience. Sports officers who are degree holders were not significantly more satisfied than those with Nigerian Certificate of education. Coaches who have a higher senior in coaching showed a higher level of satisfaction than those with lower seniority [37]. Peirorani[38] reported that married coaches showed a high level of life satisfaction than single ones. This is an interesting finding if one considers that the demands of coaching (extra hours of working, travelling, having competitions in weekends) one could expect that this would cause extra pressure on the married coaches private life.

Age returned significant differences on promotional opportunities with older sports personnel being more satisfied than the younger sports officers. This is corroborated with the findings of[14, 20] where older workers tend to manifest higher satisfaction than younger ones. On the contrary, Clarke, Oswald, and Warr,[39] suggested that younger workers may feel satisfied because they have little experience about labour market against which to judge their work. He noted that older workers may have reduced aspirations as they realize that they face limited alternative choices as they get older. On the contrary, these studies indicate that job satisfaction seems to increase with age and years of service[40-43]. Blood et al[43] reported that older workers are more comfortable and tolerant and may learn to more expectations for their jobs. The findings on the influence of age on job satisfaction could be explained by the fact that age is considered for duties and responsibilities of sport officers in the school system especially where they have to go out with the students for competition.Spector[40] opined that older worker may have jobs that use their skills better, work under better job conditions, benefit from advancements and promotions and appreciate fringe benefits more than younger or less experienced employees. Knight et al[44] highlighted factors such as organizational support, flexibility and control, quality of supervision, salary, relations with other and recognition of coaches. Contributions may not influence the satisfaction coaches have with their new position and their intention to remain in the role.

6. Conclusions and Recommendations

Sports personnel were satisfied with relationship with colleagues, co-workers, supervision and relationship with administrators. Causes of job dissatisfaction among the sports personnel were essentially revolving around pay and promotional opportunities. The selected socio-demographic factors of age, educational level and university status had variant significant influences on the satisfaction of sport personnel. To retain qualified collegiate coaches, administrators must strive to ensure that these individuals are satisfied in their current positions by addressing factors likely to affect their job experience[45] Therefore; universities may need to amend their promotional criteria in favour of the sports personnel. Divergent correlates of age, educational level and university status had differenced influence on sports personnel satisfaction. It would be prudent for universities to create motivational practices that would take cognizance of the diversity of the sports personnel needs. Further research will be valuable to determine the coping strategies used by sports personnel in managing dissatisfaction and possible outcomes of dissatisfaction such as commitment or quitting the job as a consequence of job dissatisfaction.