IMPACT OF LABOR RIGHTS ON JORDANIAN PHARMACISTS’ SATISFACTION

IMPACT OF LABOR RIGHTS ON JORDANIAN PHARMACISTS’ SATISFACTION

1. A. Abujarad Alhuwitat ^*1, M. S. Abu- Salih ¹ and M. M. Eseid ²

Department of Business Administration, ¹ Amman Arab University, Amman, Jordan.

P.O. Box 86,² Rumana, Palestine

ABSTRACT: Background: Pharmacists’ jobs in Jordan are important and contribute to the welfare of patients and citizens. Through interviews of a number of pharmacists it was felt that there is need to study their feelings about their rights and satisfaction. Objectives: The aim of this study is to measure the perceptions of Jordanian pharmacists on attaining their rights, and the impact of these rights on their satisfaction. Methods: The study is an observational one. A random sample of 49 pharmacists was chosen to fill a self- administered questionnaire covering the dimensions of pharmacists and their satisfaction. The study tested the following hypothesis: there is no significant impact (at level α=0.05) of Pharmacists’ rights on their satisfaction. Results: The null hypothesis was rejected indicating a significant impact of pharmacists’ rights on their satisfaction. The results also showed that pharmacists were not highly satisfied, whereby they reported satisfaction mean of 2.8 out of 5. Pharmacists’ perception on salary was also low, (mean=2.71). Means and standard deviations of all questionnaire items are reported.  Conclusion: Based on the results of this research, there should be effort from the employers and the Jordan Pharmacists’ Association to develop higher understanding and regard toward Pharmacists’ rights, especially salary and working conditions which showed effect on satisfaction.

Pharmacists’ rights,

Satisfaction, impact, Jordan Pharmacists’ Association

INTRODUCTION: Merriam Webster dictionary¹ defines pharmacy as "The art, practice or profession of preparing, compounding, and dispensing medical drugs". According to Wikipedia ², "pharmacy is the science and technique of preparing and dispensing drugs. Pharmacists are the experts on drug therapy and are the primary health professionals who optimize use of medication for the benefit of the patient". Jaiswal ³ defines pharmacy as "the health profession that links the health sciences with the basic sciences; it is committed to ensuring the safe and effective use of medication".

Our usage of the term "pharmacy" is in line with these definitions. Six decades age, pharmacists in Jordan were graduates of neighbouring and foreign countries. Nowadays, there are about ten universities in Jordan which grant B.Sc. and M.Sc. in pharmacy and its branches. The pharmacy graduates from Jordanian and other countries Universities work in private and hospital pharmacies in addition to pharmaceutical companies, government hospitals and medical centers, universities and in neighbouring countries.

In 1957 the Jordan Pharmaceutical Association (JPA) was established as pharmacists Union to regulate the profession and to help, promote welfare of its members, speak in their name and protect their rights in all matters regarding the profession. Its role is to enhance awareness of the profession and regulate the relationship between pharmacists and their employers.

Pharmacy is a very important profession in Jordan whereby it plays a vital role in providing the pharmaceutical services required for the health care of patients and it is an effective factor in the economy and development of the nation.

Being an important constituent of the work force in Jordan, pharmacists are keen to secure and attain their job rights. Like other constituents of the society, they are entitled to enjoy high level of satisfaction to enable them to promote their profession. There is need to study the pharmacists rights and their effect on job satisfaction.

The term "private sector pharmacist" refers to every Jordanian employee who holds a B.Sc. degree in pharmacy as a minimum qualification, works in private pharmacies in Jordan, is a member of pharmacists' Union (JPA), and is certified for the pharmacy profession. A pharmacist has rights as depicted in laws and regulations of Jordan Labor Law (JLL), Pharmacy and drugs Law, and Jordan Pharmacists law. And in return he has responsibilities toward the profession and society.

Through several interviews conducted by the first author and due to her work as a practicing and teaching pharmacy, it was concluded that the private pharmacies' owners have different views towards the rights of pharmacists employed by them. Also, some owners have not complied with the Jordan Labor Law (JLL). In addition to that some Jordanian pharmacists do not have knowledge of JLL and are not satisfied with the existing laws of the pharmacists Union (PW) regarding the pharmacists’ rights. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to measure the degree of satisfaction among pharmacists employed in the private sectors, investigate the level of getting their rights and determining the impact of their rights on their job satisfaction. To achieve the purpose of this study the researchers will test the following hypothesis:

 Main hypothesis:

Ho: There is no statistically significant impact (at level α = 0.05) of pharmacists' rights on their job satisfaction in Jordan private sector. Based on the statement of the problem, the frame work of the study is given in   Fig.1. The dimensions of the independent variable (IV) are chosen because of their importance to pharmacists’ daily life in addition to being recognized as factors of human rights.

FIG. 1: FRAME WORK OF STUDY

 Literature Review:

Research on job satisfaction of pharmacists has been widely done in the last few decades. It is widely recognized that job satisfaction, in general, and among pharmacists in particular, is of importance since it may have effect on performance and employees' retention. Predictors of job satisfaction amongst employees in general and among pharmacists in particular were the subject of study by many researchers. Abu-Hussein et al ⁴ studied the impact of job stress on job performance among the employees of the Jordan Telecom Group and reported that stress factors negatively affect performance and its dimensions.

Hardigan and Carvajal ⁵ conducted a Rasch Analysis to investigate the effect of gender, ethnicity, practice site, income, and age on levels of job satisfaction among practicing pharmacists. In a study of five star hotels in Istanbul, Akova et al ⁶ reported a negative correlation between job stress and job satisfaction and a positive relationship between job stress and turnover intent.

Several factors affecting job satisfaction, positively or negatively have been examined by researchers. Liu and White ⁷ investigated the key factors determining hospital pharmacy staffs’ job satisfaction and their relative importance among pharmacists and pharmacy support personnel practicing in Australian hospitals. They considered sex, job positions, education levels, size and location of the hospital and work experience, and reported that none of these factors were significant in determining job satisfaction. Also, they reported that ability utilization and recognition were predictors of job satisfaction. Manan et al ⁸ studied predictors of job satisfaction among Pharmacists in public hospitals and health care clinics in Malaysia. Al Khalidi and Wazaify ⁹ reported that the type of pharmacy practices setting has a significant effect on pharmacists' job satisfaction. Also their study showed that community pharmacists in Amman are less satisfied with their jobs than their hospital counterparts. Murawski¹⁰ reported that extrinsic factors have significant effect on job and career satisfaction, but intrinsic factors do not have significant effect. Also they reported that job satisfaction is a predictor of career satisfaction.

In a pilot study of chain pharmacists in the Tucson area, Hindcupie et al ¹¹ used the Warr-Cook-Wall questionnaire of job satisfaction to evaluate community pharmacists' satisfaction with their current position. The study concluded that pharmacist experience outside community practice affects pharmacist job satisfaction and leads to less job satisfaction. Tekingunduz and Kurtuladu¹², by studying a sample of hospital staff in Kahramanmar as, reported that job satisfaction has negative impact on intention to leave while job stress has positive effect. Also they showed that job stress has negative impact on job satisfaction.

Seston et al ¹³ explored the relationship between pharmacists’ job satisfaction, intention to quit the profession, and actual quitting. The study reported that pharmacists appeared to be satisfied with their work. Males were less satisfied with their job than females. Pharmacists of the community sector were less satisfied than those in other sectors. Salary was found the least satisfying regardless other factors, namely, age, sex, or sector of practice. Strength of desire to practice pharmacy was a predictor of both job satisfaction and intention to quitting. Alhuwitat & Shehada ¹⁴ studied the services offered by the JPA and their impact on its members. They reported that services offered by JPA were financing, health insurance and loans. They found out that loans with interest have the highest impact on the association's services.

 Methodology:

This study uses the observational methodology whereby the aim was to measure the levels of the factors of the IV and DV which are expressed in the framework of the problem. The population consisted of all private sector pharmacists working in Amman. Their total number is about 1200. The sample consisted of 49 pharmacists.

TABLE 1: CROSS TABULATION OF THE SAMPLE ACCORDING TO GENDER & MARITAL STATUS

Table 1 shows that 71% of the sample were females and 57% of it were married.

A self – administered questionnaire was designed and distributed to the members of the sample. The questionnaire covered the dimensions of IV and DV, and followed the 5-point Likert Scale. Its validity was established by taking the advice of pharmacy academicians and professionals on its suitability. Reliability of the questionnaire was established by calculating Cronbach’s Alpha measure whose values are presented in Table 2.

All values were more than 0.65 indicating reliability of the scale used.

TABLE 2: VALUES OF CRONBACH’S ALPHA

Results:

The collected data were analyzed using SPSS V.18 and the results are as follows.

Table 3 shows the means and standard deviations of the respondents views on dimensions of the IV (rights of pharmacists in private sector pharmacies), and satisfaction.

TABLE 3: MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS OF DIMENSIONS OF IV, AND DV

Table 3 shows that Job description has the highest mean of 3.41 out of 5, but salary has the lowest mean of 2.71. The mean of pharmacists satisfaction was 2.80, meaning that satisfaction was just above average (2.5 out of 5).

The means and standard deviations of the items of the questionnaire according to the dimensions were calculated but are not reported here.

Testing of the hypothesis:

The hypothesis of the study was tested using multiple regression. The main hypothesis was:

 Ho: There is no significant effect (at significance level α=0.05 of pharmacists’ laborrights on their satisfaction in private sector pharmacies. To check the adequacy of the regression model, ANOVA for Regression was carried out and then the coefficients and their significance are reported in Tables 4 and 5.

TABLE 4: ANOVA FOR REGRESSION

TABLE 5: COEFFICIENTS IN THE MULTIPLE REGRESSION MODEL

Correlation coefficient R= 0.63 and coefficient of determination (R²) =0.369.

Tables 4 and 5 show significant linear relationship between the dimensions of the IV (the Pharmacists’ rights) and satisfaction.

From Table 4 it is seen that the null hypothesis is rejected, F =7.239 and P-value = 0.000, indicating that the model is adequate, and there is significant impact of pharmacists’ rights on their satisfaction. Effect size is = SS for regression / Total SS = 39.7% which indicates a strong effect of the dimensions of the independent variable on the dependent variable. The coefficient of R² =0.397 explains 39.7% of the total variation and the remaining 60.3% are due to other factors not studied in our model.

 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The results of the study show that pharmacists’ rights have significant impact (α = 0.05) on their satisfaction. The means of responses of the sample on items of salary were the lowest among all items (mean = 2.17) with relatively large standard deviation. The lowest mean (1.59) was on item 4: my salary is proportional with the cost of living in Jordan.

This result is in agreement with findings of Seston et al ¹³ whereby they reported that remuneration was constantly ranked as 1 of the aspects of their work that pharmacists found less satisfying".

The next lowest mean was that of pharmacists’ satisfaction (mean = 2.80) and the lowest mean of Satisfaction times was that of item 38: I am satisfied about the role of JPA in protecting my rights and following up my issues. Its mean 1.84 indicates very low satisfaction of respondents on that item dealing with the role of JPA.

It is concluded that pharmacists in general did not report high satisfaction level (mean = 2.8 out of 5). They also indicated that job description has significant effect on their satisfaction. Results show that pharmacists complain on the status of their salary which has a low mean of 2.17 and has effect on satisfaction (almost significant with p-value = 0.054).

Table 5 indicates that job description has significant effect (at α = 0.05) on satisfaction, p-value = 0.007. Also salary (with p-value 0.054) has an almost significant effect at α = 0.05.

The dimensions of vacations and working hours and overtime did not show significant effect on satisfaction, indicating that these two dimensions are not worrying the pharmacists and are not of much concern to them in the sense that they are not affecting their job satisfaction. This is in contrast of what Lea et al ¹⁵ has related regarding some researches which reported that increasing work hours contributed to decreasing job satisfaction. It is recommended that further studies are to be done on more factors which might have impact on the level of pharmacists' satisfaction.

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The authors appreciate highly the views of referees who improved this research. This research was a winning report of Scientific Research Award by the first author. The award was organized by the Center for Middle East studies. The first author likes to thank her children, Ameera, Sarah, Al Harith, Faris and Ward, for their patience and support.

 CONFLICT OF INTEREST: There is no conflict of interest among the authors in carrying this research.

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    How to cite this article:

    Abujarad Alhuwitat MA, Abu- Salih MS and Eseid MM: Impact of Labor Rights on Jordanian Pharmacists’ Satisfaction. Int J Pharm Sci Res 2016; 7(8): 3361-65.doi: 10.13040/IJPSR.0975-8232.7(8). 3361-65.

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