MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS, HO CHI MINH CITY Lê Thị Mỹ Nhung HIGHER EDUCATION AND JOB SATISFACTION: A STUDY WITH POSTGRADUATES IN HO CHI MINH CITY MASTER‟S THESIS In Business Administration Ology code: 60.34.05 Supervised by Dr Trần Hà Minh Quân Ho Chi Minh City – 2010 Acknowledgement Completing a dissertation is one of great efforts in my education It is an opportunity for me to practice, apply the knowledge and understand how market is working However, I would not able to finish it without kind helps and supports from whom I would like to express my eternal gratitude I highly appreciated the lecturers in the University of Economic Ho Chi Minh City who provided me precious knowledge during last three years Specially, the MBA course in English was so pleased that I had a chance to know how a student can have new approach and new studying method in second language within limited time and budget A sincere thankfulness is for my supervisor, Dr Tran Ha Minh Quan, for all his guidance, ideas and inspiration throughout the research as well as during the course I would express my heartfelt thanks to my MBA Batch 16 classmates, especially Mr Nguyen Thanh Trung, Mr Lam Hong Phong and Ms Dang Hai Yen They all have been along with me for years and given me so many supports and encouragement to complete this thesis Many thanks to all my close friends, my colleagues and interviewees who I may not mention herein, but they did help me on data and gave me many kind advice to improve the study Finally, I am deeply indebted to my parents, who gave me the life and shape of how I am now, for their loves, encouragement, understanding and patient to keep asking me how I was doing Let me take a chance to give them my best regards and dedicate this work as a gift to them all ii Abstract Attending higher education, especially Master level, is a movement in Vietnam in recent years Meanwhile, job satisfaction is a well know research topic for years However, a link better these two dimensions have not been either reviewed much or performed in Vietnam A model was developed from extensive literature and a study of 220 postgraduates from many Master programs in Ho Chi Minh City was conducted to examine the relationship between reason for pursuing Master‟s degree courses and participants‟ overall job satisfaction Besides, some extensions were done to find out the different concepts among groups of postgraduates Fine hypotheses were developed to represent three research questions and analysis techniques including multiple linear regression, sample t-test and ANOVA were then applied to test all the hypotheses According to the result, the original measurements could be applicable in Vietnam market, but the content was changed as local respondents‟ evaluation It showed insignificant impacts from attending Master‟s degree courses to overall job satisfaction In addition, there were small variances among groups of postgraduates when they were different from each other in job level, study languages and study duration Key words: higher education, Master’s degree course, postgraduates, Job satisfaction iii Table of Contents Acknowledgement ii Abstract iii Table of Contents iv List of Tables vi List of Figures vii List of Abbreviation viii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Rationale of the research 1.3 Research objectives and Questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Methodology of research 1.6 Implication of the research 1.7 Structure of the study Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Higher education and relevant theories 2.2 Reasons for continuing education and PRS 11 2.3 Job Satisfaction 14 2.3.1 Definitions and outcomes of job satisfaction 14 2.3.2 Measuring Job Satisfaction 17 2.4 Relationship between continuing higher education and Job satisfaction 24 2.5 Summary 25 Chapter 3: Research Methodology 27 3.1 Research design 27 iv 3.1.1 Research process 28 3.1.2 Measurement and Scales 28 3.1.3 Focus group discussion 30 3.1.4 Pilot testing 31 3.1.5 Main survey 33 3.2 Conclusion 39 Chapter 4: Data analyses and results 40 4.1 Descriptive statistics of sample 40 4.2 Scales assessment 43 4.3 Hypotheses testing 48 4.3.1 Correlation between reasons for pursuing Master‟s level and Job satisfaction 48 4.3.2 Difference in reasons for pursuing Master‟s degree courses among groups of postgraduates 50 4.3.3 Difference in overall job satisfaction among groups of postgraduates 55 4.4 Conclusion 58 Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implication 60 5.1 Introduction 60 5.2 Conclusions from the research 60 5.3 Implication of the research 63 5.3.1 Theoretical implications 63 5.3.2 Practical implications 64 5.4 Limitation and recommendation for further researches 66 List of References 68 Appendixes 71 Focus group outline 71 Survey Questionnaire 72 Total Variance Explained 76 v List of Tables Table 3.1: Scales to measure reasons for pursuing Master‟s degree courses 32 Table 3.2: Scales to measure Job satisfaction 33 Table 3.3: Estimating margin of Error on Sample survey results 36 Table 4.1: Communication methods and respondents 40 Table 4.2: Respondents‟ demographic profiles 41 Table 4.3: Reliability of measurement instruments 45 Table 4.4: Rotated Component Matrix 47 Table 4.5: Linear Regression 49 Table 4.6: Group Statistics of Job Level 50 Table 4.7: Independent Sample T tests for Job Level groups 52 Table 4.8: Group Statistics of Language 53 Table 4.9: Independent Sample T tests for Language groups 54 Table 4.10: Independent Sample T tests 56 Table 4.11: Test of Homogeneity of Variances 57 Table 4.12: ANOVA Testing 57 Table 4.13: Multiple Comparisons 58 vi List of Figures Figure 2.1: Aspects of participation 12 Figure 2.2: Definitions of job satisfaction 15 Figure 2.3: Consequences of high and low job satisfaction 19 Figure 2.4: Average Job Satisfaction levels by facet 22 Figure 2.5: Proposed Research model 26 Figure 3.1: Research process 29 Figure 4.1: Language characteristics 42 Figure 4.2: Duration characteristics 42 Figure 4.3: Job level characteristics 43 Figure 4.4: Hypothesis testing results 58 vii List of Abbreviation CPE Continuing Professional Education JDI Job Descriptive Index JIG Job in General Scale JSS Job Satisfaction Survey HE Higher Education LLL Lifelong Learning MOET Ministry of Education and Training MSQ Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire NOSQ Neutral Objects Satisfaction Questionnaire PRS Participation Reasons Scale SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences viii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction In the first chapter, researcher provides general introduction of the study through five sections Rationale and objectives of the research help explain the circumstance and concerns in which the study may become necessary From that, research questions as well as their hypothesis are developed in the context However, the mentioned circumstance would be so wide and overall that researcher needs to narrow down the scope of the study in section 1.4 Then, section 1.5 presents research methodology used for this study, section 1.6 mentions main implications of the research while the hypotheses are tested in other chapter later on Finally, section 1.7 provides whole structure of the essay 1.2 Rationale of the research Higher education (HE) has been prioritized and considered as one of the essences in national strategy for the development of education and training in Vietnam towards the years The aims are to build a modern system that is capable of training professionals with the high level of education demanded by the causes of industrialization and modernization, and to secure development of the country as well The growth of HE in Vietnam during recent years, especially in the training field, has resulted in the increase of high level human resources; thus it meets requirements of economy and social, as well as creates good opportunities for citizens in various backgrounds who have the desire and the ability to keep up with their studies of HE, improves the common cultural standard in the whole country (Ministry of Education and Training [MOET], 1998) Over the past ten years, HE in Vietnam has continuously experienced many changes including diversification in types of institutions and the establishment of quality improvement standards for its developing accreditation model According to statistic data from MOET, there were 140 universities (divided into public and non-public groups) in 2007-2008 Particularly, mentioned by Dung (2009), Vietnam had 160 universities by August 2008 They were invested in many types such as public, private (the fastest growing sector), and foreign related Primary authority for governing the HE system in Vietnam lies with the highly centralized MOET, which is responsible for drafting and implementing policy guidance, as well as supervising the connection between all education programs and management of HE institutions The government allocated 20% of the national budget for education (VND 67 trillion or US$ 4.3 billion in 2007) of which HE received VND 297 billion or US$ 18 million (MOET, 2006) Dung (2009) also lists out characteristics of the higher education system of Vietnam as following:  Training focus: be small size, create a restricted market; little research on the potential of higher education; formal institutional uniformity (although there are numerous types of institutions) with hierarchy ostensibly recognised  Centralised management: relatively centralised control of the curriculum, funding, and resources; low institutional initiative, since the conditions of centralisation inhibit the taking of initiatives, challenging bureaucratic rule in the universities, or the developing an entrepreneurial spirit  Restricted competition: not due to markets, students, or business but to statecontrolled resources; high consumer demand but low recognition of this by the universities With limited resources (teaching staff, facilities and funding), universities are able to select only more capable students (about 15-25%) In the respect that labor markets have been seeking for skilled, well-trained people, higher education graduates and postgraduates, there are more and more people attending higher education including Master‟s degree courses They are not only spending money but also sacrificing time and taking into account the trade-off between time for academic learning and time for working and families, and they choose the course for some specific reasons Recently, globalization trends have made thousands of Vietnamese apply to study abroad The most favorite countries are United States, Europe countries, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, etc (Vietnam MOET, 2008 – cited by Thuy, 2009) The students have different purposes to study abroad, but mainly are to gain knowledge from the developed countries and high ... have any impacts on postgraduates? ?? job satisfaction by interpreting the root causes made postgraduates choose the courses at Master‟s degree in Ho Chi Minh City In addition, researcher analyzes... formal and informal learning and higher education as provider training services for professional groups In the standards framework of Higher Education Academy, it refers to a range of professional... Learning MOET Ministry of Education and Training MSQ Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire NOSQ Neutral Objects Satisfaction Questionnaire PRS Participation Reasons Scale SPSS Statistical Package