Male occupational therapists: A profile of job satisfaction and work environment variables

Abstract

Occupational therapy is a female-dominated profession with only 4% of all clinicians in Canada being men. Traditionally, occupational therapy train' ing programmes have had limited success recruiting men into their educational pro' grammes and those men who do qualify as therapists tend to work only in the profession for short periods of time. The purpose of this study was to identify workrelated factors that impact on male occupational therapists. Specifically, five job satis faction factors (work, pay, co-workers, supervision and promotional opportunities), work environment traits and the demographic characteristics of male occupational therapists in Canada were examined. A mailed survey questionnaire was sent to all male therapists who were members of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (n = 199) during the 1990-1991 membership year; 83% of the sample responded. In terms of job satisfaction, male occupational therapists indicated that they were refotively dissatisfied with their work, pay, promotional opportunities, supervision and co-workers as a group. However, they characterised their work environments as being above average in terms of supervisor support, autonomy and physical comfort, whereas they obtained a well below-average score for the control dimension. Further research is needed to explore the issue of job satisfaction among occupational therapy personnel and to identify what factors impact on the job reten tion of male occupational practitioners.

Job satisfaction in occupational therapy: a qualitative investigation in urban Australia

“…In an investigation of the job satisfaction levels of male occupational therapists working in Canada, Brown (1995) used the Job description index (Smith, Kendall & Hullin, 1985), a standardised instrument measuring a number of variables, and sought participation from all male occupational therapists working in Canada who were members of their professional association. It was found that participants were very dissatisfied in all categories, including work, pay, promotions, supervision, co‐workers and the job in general.…”

Work‐related stress and occupational therapy

“…Reasons given for leaving the field were other professionals' lack of respect for occupational therapy, other professionals' lack of understanding of occupational therapy, stress and overload, chronicity of clients, continually having to justify the occupational therapy role, role conflict, professional isolation and lack of a career ladder. A Canadian study of 165 male occupational therapists showed that they were dissatisfied with certain aspects of their job, including the work, pay, promotional opportunities, supervision and co-workers, and were planning to leave the profession at some point (Brown, 1995).…”

Factors Influencing Job Satisfaction Among Swedish Occupational Therapists in Psychiatric Care

“…Employers and head occupational therapists need to be aware that measures must be taken continuously to counteract detrimental forces. The literature suggests social support, autonomy and a sense of control as important factors for a sound psychosocial work environment and job satisfaction (3,4,7,9,11). A job enrichment program outlined by Clakeley (44) included similar measures.…”

“…2000. ISSN 0283-9318 dissatisfied, for example, with their pay and promotional opportunities (9), but those with more working years in the profession were more satisfied with respect to the standing of the profession (10).…”