The Impact of Financial and Non-financial Factors on Self-employees’ Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Although job satisfaction is an important aspect of both employees and self-employees, the literature has primarily focused on examining job satisfaction of employees rather than that of self-employees. However, studies have examined financial and nonfinancial factors as major predictors of self-employees’ job satisfaction; scholars are arguing that job satisfaction is a critical aspect of entrepreneurship. According to the literature there is no unique argument about which factors strongly affect on selfemployees’ job satisfaction. Hence, this study investigates the impact of financial and non-financial factors on self employees’ job satisfaction. With the objective of examining the impact of financial and non-financial factors on job satisfaction, a self-— administered survey was carried out among sample self-employees, registered with Small Enterprises Development Division (SEDD), Galle. 75 questionnaires were distributed at a training program and 50 usable questionnaires were received. A structured questionnaire with five point Likert scale questions to state the level of agreement on overall job satisfaction, financial factors and non-financial factors were used to collect primary data. Job satisfaction was the dependent variable while financial and non-financial factors were the independent variables of this study. Income and profit were used as major financial determinants; non-financial measures included autonomy, skill utilization, creativity and variety. In reliability analysis, the consistency and the stability of the data ensured with Cronbach’s Alpha values above 0.80 (Income-0.981, Profit- 0.785, Autonomy-0.985, Skill utilization- 0.966, Creativity- 0.976, Variety- 0.934, Overall job satisfaction- 0.847). According to the results of multiple regression analysis (R2 0.807), Beta values for financial factors and non-financial factors for job satisfaction are 0.387 and 0.257 respectively. The results indicated both financial and non financial factors were significantly related with job satisfaction at 5% level (P<0.05). The results indicated that financial factors have relatively higher impact on self-employees’ job satisfaction. Thus, the study has an important contribution to existing literature because previous studies have argued that non-financial factors are prominent. In this context, people engage in self-employment prioritizing for financial motives as well.