The Effect of Organizational Culture on Job Satisfaction in Jordanian Tourism Public Sector

Objective: The significance of this study comes from the lack of previous direct discussion on improving organizational culture and job satisfaction in tourism public sector. It aims at identifying dominant organizational cultures in the Jordanian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, and to statistically test their influence on job satisfaction among the employees working in this public entity. Methods: A questionnaire was used to collect responses of 200 employees in the centre and branches of Jordanian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, where stratified proportional sampling was adopted. Besides the demographic section, there were two sets of questions derived from Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument developed by Quinn and Cameron, and the Job Satisfaction Survey by Spector. Both descriptive analysis and Structure Equation Modelling were manipulated to achieve the study objectives. Results: All organizational culture dimensions were of insignificant influence on job satisfaction; the highest regression coefficient was for management of employees, while it was the lowest for dominant characteristics, and organizational glue. The “clan” and “adhocracy” turned out to be the dominant organizational cultures. Conclusion: The insignificant influence of organizational culture on job satisfaction could be due to the bureaucratic nature of the public sector, where high levels of control, centralism and inflexibility assumingly exist. This study has significant contributions to decision makers since they would recognize more the need to make the work environment more rewarding and achievement oriented. Moreover, researchers have shed more light on organizational values and cultures influencing work performance in developing countries.