Determinant factors of job satisfaction: A case of unit trust agents in Johor Bahru

One major issue faced by the unit trust industry in Malaysia is job satisfaction among agents. This is followed by the concerns of the unit trust supervisors’ preference for good leadership and the supervisor-subordinate troubled relationship.
Past studies have shown that job satisfaction could be influenced by a variety of factors. Therefore, this study determines to investigate the relationship between leadership, span of control, Islamic unit product and service perception, internal service quality perception and job satisfaction, and the mediating effect of attitude
towards switching to another agency. Several key instruments like job satisfaction scale were used in this study. A total of 13 hypotheses were developed, and regression analysis was performed to analyze the mediation effect. The population
consisted of 303 respondents who were unit trust agents from various organizations in Johor Bahru. All 13 hypotheses were supported, and the results show that leadership, span of control, perception towards Islamic unit trust products and services, and internal service quality have a significant relationship with job satisfaction. Similarly, attitude towards switching agency has a significant
relationship with job satisfaction, and it also significantly mediates the relationship between the independent variables and job satisfaction. The findings of this study may contribute important insights into several major practitioner knowledge gaps concerning attitude and job satisfaction such as the causes of employee attitudes and how to manage and measure them. Also, the findings clearly imply that good leadership, low span of control, positive perception of Islamic unit trust and services, and high internal service quality lead to favourable attitudes and higher job satisfaction. Thus, they should provide assistance to policy makers, practitioners and marketers in their sustainability and growth efforts.