Job Content
Once this change occurs, the reasons for staying in service, and for struggling when post-service, become more about the job content and less about the reasons for entering service. If the choice to enter a service organisation for these participants is framed within the factor of job satisfaction, and related to job opportunity, and motivated by a desire to help the community; then job opportunity offers the entry pathway, and job security and helping the community are two factors that should remain as motivations to do the job. If fulfilled actively, they will contribute to an individual’s positive attitude towards their job. However, within this group of participants, across all services, these factors morphed into something more. Job security was a certainty so long as they did not do anything that breached the rules of their employment and remained physically fit and able to undertake their job roles. So that left the helping the community which was achieved in numerous ways so long as they performed their job roles. However, it is not just these factors that engaged the participants with their roles in the service organisation. In investigating this, job content as a determinant of job satisfaction is most relevant here (Warr et al., 1999).
When asked about their favourite parts of their service, Walter recalls ‘lots of favourite times, I don’t know if I have an absolute favourite time or one, probably for me I suppose the one I sort of talk about most is the Canberra fires’ which many may see as a tragic time, but for Walter it was the pinnacle of team work and camaraderie, as well as the ultimate use of his skills as an emergency service responder. For Alastair it was a multi-state heavy vehicle interception operation and the autonomy; for Vanessa it was working as the only responder at a small and single-staffed station; for Natalie it was a debate between spending time in a car with a partner at three in the morning on patrol or being on a ferry to help the ferry master if any issues arose with the passengers. For Jasper it was driving heavy vehicles, whilst for Michael it was deployment to Sierra Leone. For Warwick it was the travel. The stories exemplify the variety within each role in each service, but the majority of responses had a central focus on the people they were with and the challenging tasks they completed.
The participants, across all three service groups, described the variety of their job as one of their favourite parts. No longer did they explain their love of their job in terms of generic references to ‘helping the community’, but instead they could identify specific events that not only fulfilled their job requirements but also provided high levels of personal satisfaction and achievement within that role. The evolution from job security as a determinant of job satisfaction (Clark, 2005) to job content (Warr et al., 1999) is not unusual, given that the individuals have full exposure to the job once they are actively employed and have completed basic training. This full knowledge is not possible from outside the job, but a desire for variety could have been a factor for entry. This did not present for this group. As such, the love of the job content developed once they were in the role. It is significant that all participants verbalised their love of the job with none expressing poor job satisfaction when narrating their time in the role/s.
The development and expansion of the factors that contribute to job satisfaction during service are important for this group, as they demonstrate the change and growth of the individuals from entry throughout their service. They are significant factors in their timeline of service that contribute to a better understanding of transition issues post-service. The participants wanted to go into the job for a variety of reasons, and once in the job those reasons expanded and motivations to stay increased. They reached for new personal goals and, for most participants, they achieved outcomes that were beyond anything they had imagined when they first enlisted or joined. At this point in their story telling, there is no indication why the participants would leave this employment. A return to the first factors that motivated them to enlist or join indicate that neither job security nor helping the community have changed. Therefore, it is logical that a reason they may leave this employment is because another job opportunity presented that in some way offered levels of job satisfaction that were not being met in the service role. This is the case for only a small number of participants (n=3).
It is here that the narrative arc of the participants begins to become apparent. The narration around this questioning was extensive. These individuals have an endless supply of what they call ‘war stories’ (Ethan) and their favourite moments are linked to actual ‘jobs’ or incidents as well as roles and teammates. However, they are already identifying with the organisation and their role at this point. Further questioning revealed that this is linked to their initial training but reinforced by the daily activities of their service role.