The Factors (Job Burnout, Job Engagement, the Workplace Safety) Influencing Employees' Job Satisfaction in School Food Service Operations / 대한지역사회영양학회지

The study was conducted to investigate the influences of food service employees' job burnout, job engagement, and workplace safety perception on their job satisfaction. A survey was administered on 589 school food service employees in Gyeongbuk from December 5, 2005 to February 18, 2006. The final response rate was 71% (N = 416); the data were analyzed using SPSS Windows (ver. 12.0). A majority of the respondents were females (99.0%) and 40 years old or older (75.3%); 84% were temporary contract-based or irregular workers. Among the job burnout dimensions, exhaustion (2.98 +/-0.59) was rated higher than cynicism (2.33 +/-0.54), while professional efficacy level (3.61 +/-0.47) was relatively high. In terms of job engagement, the means of absorption (3.67 +/-0.49) and dedication (3.65 +/-0.52) were higher than that of vigor (3.22 +/-0.46). A systematic environmental level (3.15 +/-0.58) was lower than safety knowledge level (3.63 +/-0.49) among the workplace safety statistics, whereas the anxiety level (3.25 +/-0.74) was relatively high. The food service staff were more satisfied with 'supervisors' and 'co-workers' than with 'pay' and 'promotion'. A hierarchial regression analysis revealed that dedication, absorption, systematic environment, and safety knowledge were significant factors to increase job satisfaction and exhaustion which significantly decreased their job satisfaction.

Influences of School Food Service Employees' Food Safety Training on Food Safety Knowledge and Practices / 대한지역사회영양학회지

The purpose of the study was to investigate relationships among food safety training, knowledge, and practices of school food service employees. A questionnaire that identified employees' food safety training experience, knowledge, and practices was developed based on a review of literature. A total of 341 Korean school food service employees participated in the survey; the final usable responses were 293 (a response rate: 86%). Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS for Windows (version 10). Most of the respondents (> 86%) took training sessions on 'proper hand washing' and 'proper food storage temperatures', whereas less than 60% had training on 'monitoring procedures and corrective actions at critical control points'. The mean score of their food safety knowledge was 8.02 out of 11. The majority of the employees knew correctly 'potentially hazardous foods (93.2%)' and 'diseases and symptoms with which they are excluded from working (87.0%)'; less than 50% chose a correct answer for 'sanitizing food contact surfaces.' A chi-square analysis revealed that the employees' actual knowledge did not differ significantly by whether they had food safety training (at the level of alpha = 0.01), except one topic "diseases and symptoms with which they are excluded from working." Their self-reported practice scores were rated as 2.98 - 3.39 based on a 5-point Likert-type scale (1-not at all, 5-always). Employees' food safety training should be conducted continuously and repetitively to improve the effectiveness of the training.