ABSTRACT
A university researcher decided to carry out a research study in a British steelworks, paying particular attention to the organisation and behaviour of the men working in the melting shop, one of the major departments in the steelworks. The researcher first interviewed a one-in-five sample of the labour force in all four major departments of the steelworks: melting shop, rolling mills, finishing department and barmill. He began the interview with an explanation of the confidential nature of the research project, its university auspices and long-term research aims. After this explanation the researcher asked the interviewee to mention any factors which contributed to his liking or disliking his job. Finally, the researcher made use of a uniform schedule of questions on specific aspects of the steelworks’ social and technical environment. The researcher expected that in this open-ended way he would spontaneously obtain information on what the employee considered to be important in his work environment. There were three questions especially on job satisfaction in the schedule of questions used by the researcher during the interview. One was intended to elicit from the employee a self-assessment of overall job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The second required the interviewee to talk about favourable or unfavourable characteristics of the job itself. The third asked for more general opinions on the company which owned the steelworks, as well as on the working environment. Job Satisfaction of Employees in Four Main Departments<xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn4_3_1_a"> <sup>a</sup> </xref> https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
Department
Number of employees interviewed
Per cent satisfied with their jobs
Melting shop
30
90
Rolling mills
28
71
Finishing department
19
68
Barmill
17
53
This data was derived from the interviews with the one-in-five sample of the labour force in the four departments, selected by the random stratified sampling method.
