Abstract

Introduction: In the military, different aspects of job satisfaction are taken into account as
compared to the civilian workforce. Some of the job satisfaction is related to as the working
environment, nature of work and task, military operations and organizational traditions (e.g.
obedience, policies and military disciplines). All these job stressors have an influence on the job
satisfaction. Therefore, the military cannot be regarded as a normal and traditional work setting.
The objectives of this study were to determine the differences of occupational stressors among
submariners and surface ship personnel, the job satisfaction itself and to find a relationship
between job satisfaction and occupational stressors among those two groups of occupation.
Methods: In this cross-sectional comparative study, self-administered NIOSH (USA) Generic
Job Stress Questionnaire was used as a tool to measure occupational stressors and job
satisfaction among 50 submariners and 48 surface ship personnel.
Results: The response rate was 98%. The result showed that there are statistically significant
difference in the means in terms of job stressors among submariners and surface ship crews
except for the conflict at work (P=0.03) and job requirement (P=0.01). Simple linear regression
analysis shows that only mental demands had significant relationship with job satisfaction
(P<0.001). Other job stressors such as the physical environment which were very different
between these two occupations did not show any significant association on the occupational
stress and job satisfaction when compared.
Conclusion: Further study would hope to examine the mental demand aspect as this can
improve the overall job satisfaction level among these two groups of occupation.
Keywords: Occupational stress, Job satisfaction, Royal Malaysian Navy, Submariners, Surface
Ship Personnel