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In and Out of the Laboratory: Herzberg, Job Satisfaction and the Attitudes of Finnish University Academics

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Biographies and Careers throughout Academic Life

Abstract

Based on analysis of data from the Changing Academic Profession (CAP) survey, this chapter compares and contrasts the characteristics and attitudes of Finnish university academics according to their presence in laboratory or non-laboratory disciplines, including a ‘case study’ of Finnish academic engineers. This discipline-based division is an important one in Finland, because the laboratory-based disciplines have been the beneficiary of a range of government-sponsored programmes. The aim is to see whether this financial emphasis has paid off in terms of enhanced job satisfaction for academics in the laboratory disciplines. In fact, this does not seem to be the case. At the aggregated level, results indicate that about two-thirds of Finnish academic staff in laboratory disciplines were very satisfied or satisfied, compared with about 70 % of academics in non-laboratory disciplines The chapter examines job satisfaction broadly according to Herzberg’s two-factor concept of job satisfaction.

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Aarrevaara, T., Dobson, I.R. (2016). In and Out of the Laboratory: Herzberg, Job Satisfaction and the Attitudes of Finnish University Academics. In: Galaz-Fontes, J., Arimoto, A., Teichler, U., Brennan, J. (eds) Biographies and Careers throughout Academic Life. The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27493-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27493-5_8

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