Abstract:
This study examines the effect of demographic factors on job satisfaction of non academic staff in universities.
The study was conducted in university of Ruhuna; one of the leading national universities in Sri Lanka.
The job dissatisfaction of non academic employees was identified by doing pilot study and that was taken
as research problem. This research employed deductive approach. This study involves job satisfaction as
dependent variable and 9 independent variables. Questionnaire was developed as a research instrument to
measure level of satisfaction and level of importance and measurements were done using liker scale. The
target population consisted of three main job categories of non academic staff named technical grade, clerical
grade, and labourer grade and 354 completed questionnaires were used for data analysis. Study found
that civil status and age were the most significant factors affecting the job satisfaction and gender and level
of education has no significant affect on job satisfaction. The job satisfaction of unmarried staff was higher
than the married staff and job satisfaction of unmarried staff was 9.8 and job satisfaction of unmarried staff
was 8.7 out of 20. The younger staff members (age group 20-40) were more satisfied than older staff members
(Age group 41-60) and the satisfaction values were 9.5 and 8.6 out of 20 respectively. The unmarried
labourers have the highest job satisfaction of 11.1 out of 20 and older technical staff members have the least
job satisfaction of 7.98 out of 20. Research also explained the nature and intensity of demographic impact
on job satisfaction of non academic employees. Findings of this research are important to policy makers of
higher education system.
