ABSTRACT
Indications are that job satisfaction of nurses in South Africa is at a low level. The need to determine factors related to this situation prompted a study in which an attempt was made to determine whether self-concept (measured by Vrey's self-concept Scale) and career orientation scores (determined by means of the Career Orientation Inventory (COI) developed by Schein) could predict the level of job satisfaction of nurses (measured by means of the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ)). The instruments were applied to 86 professional nurses employed in an academic (teaching) hospital. The sample was divided into a high satisfaction group (N = 46) and a low satisfaction (N = 40) group. Hotelling's T2, MANOVA, Stepwise Multiple Regression and discriminant analyses were used to analyze the data. Results indicated that the two groups differed on several self-concept scales and on one career orientation scale. Eighteen per cent of the variance in job satisfaction could be explained by means of career orientation and self-concept scores. Sixty seven per cent of the respondents were placed in the correct group (in terms of their job satisfaction level) using self-concept and career orientation scores.