Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

First Advisor

Dr. Karen T. Jackson

Abstract

Organizational leadership, at any level, strives to increase performance and efficiency, among other outcomes. One way to accomplish this is by increasing follower job satisfaction. Literature indicates that there are intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence job satisfaction. These factors, however, have not been explicitly studied for the profession of nutrition and dietetics for the Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of personality characteristics and job satisfaction of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists in North Carolina. Personality characteristics were defined by the Big 5 Inventory personality test, while job satisfaction and its components were collected through the Spector Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS). Areas of practice for RDNs included clinical, community, food and nutrition management, education and research, and consulting, business and private practice. Personal and professional characteristics were collected to obtain background information about education level, years of experience, years in current setting, and other demographic information. Survey data were collected from 380 RDNs in North Carolina. Results showed that agreeableness was positively correlated with overall job satisfaction for RDNs, while neuroticism was negatively correlated. The r² indicates that 15.4% of the variance was explained by the Big 5 personality characteristics of agreeableness and neuroticism. Based on practice area, clinical RDNs have significantly lower job satisfaction when compared to consultation, business, and private practice RDNs. Driving factors of job satisfaction for the practice areas were identified, with the exception of education and research. In the clinical practice area, neuroticism was shown to have a negative correlation with overall job satisfaction, while agreeableness was found to be positively correlated with overall job satisfaction. In the community practice area, agreeableness was shown to be positively correlated with overall job 2 satisfaction. Likewise, agreeableness was shown to be positively correlated to overall job satisfaction for the food and nutrition management practice area. In the practice area of consultation, business, and private practice, neuroticism was demonstrated to have a negative correlation to overall job satisfaction. Examination of personality characteristics in the practice areas were also conducted without factoring in job satisfaction. Future research should explore other relationships that may exist with job satisfaction in the field of nutrition and dietetics. Expansion of this study to a national sample and other professions is also recommended.

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