Dr. Rick Black

The purpose of the study was to make recommendations to school administrators for establishing work environments in which employees can be most productive by measuring the levels of role conflict, role ambiguity, and job satisfaction in selected noncertified employee groups. Specific research questions addressed were: Are there significant differences in the variables for clerical, custodial and maintenance, and food service workers when considered by (1) role group and (2) other demographic factors? Also, (3) how do the employee groups compare with other groups in national measures for job satisfaction? The variables studied were found to have distinct qualities according to previous studies. The review of literature substantiated the findings that there is a correlation between the three variables when tested to measure perceptions in role conflict, role ambiguity, and job satisfaction. The population for the study included the noncertified public school employees presently employed in Class II, III, and VI school districts in Nebraska. A random sample was drawn from these classifications of districts. The return rate was 73.0 percent of the 580 surveys; the completed surveys were analyzed for this study. An analysis of variance for the role conflict and role ambiguity variables found significant differences between the role groups. The Tukey test for significant pair-wise mean differences found: custodial/maintenance workers had higher levels of role conflict and lower levels of role ambiguity than clerical and food service workers; role conflict was lower for workers 61 and over than in all categories except the 21-30 age category; and role ambiguity was higher for all groups older than 21-30 years. Significant differences existed in six of ten job satisfaction subscales. Custodial/maintenance workers had lower levels of satisfaction on all subscales. The age groups of 41-50 and 21-30 exhibited low levels of job satisfaction.