Examining Job Satisfaction and Career Motivating Factors of Female Sport Media Professionals

This study served a purpose of examining job satisfaction and career motivation of female sport media professionals of the Association of Women in the Sports Media (AWSM), a support network for women working in the sport media profession, as well as looking at the relationship between selected demographic variables and job satisfaction. The instrument, a three-part questionnaire, was composed of two Likert-type scales as well as several demographic questions. The first section contained the Job Satisfaction Scale ([JSS], Spector, 1997) which is made up of nine facets: pay, promotion, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, supervision, coworkers, operating procedures, nature of work, and communication. The second section, designed to measure employee motivation contained the 12-statement Motivation at Work Scale ([MAWS], Gagné et. al, 2010) comprised of four subscales: intrinsic, identified, introjected, and external motivations.

Household structure, professional status, and age were selected from the collected demographic variables to examine relationships with job satisfaction. Findings indicated AWSM members were ambivalent with their jobs, were most satisfied with the nature of the work itself, and were most strongly motivated to continue in their careers by intrinsic factors. Household structure, including marital status and whether the participant had children under age 18 living in the home, were not areas of significance in the job satisfaction of AWSM members. Members indicated they were most likely satisfied in the nature of the work itself based on intrinsic motivators and were least likely to be externally motivated to do their jobs as was shown in the low number of and association with the nine facets and overall job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction of AWSM members tends to follow a career stage path, evident in the significant associations found with the selected demographic variable of age. The areas of contingent rewards and communication satisfaction decreased as these variables increased, providing a possible pattern for employers striving for employee satisfaction. Findings indicated a trend in the career motivation of participants, also in line with Deci and Ryan’s (1982) self-determination theory that posits the needs of employee autonomy, competence, and relatedness to be associated with greater employee satisfaction.