Content Analysis of Turkish Job Satisfaction Studies in the Field of Sports Management : A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis Study

This study is a meta-synthesis research, which focuses on studies conducted in the field of sports management and featured job satisfaction variable. In this study, a total of 22 studies, which were conducted between 2000 and 2017, were examined and the findings were presented in certain themes after applying meta-synthesis research method processes. In order to determine whether a study should be included in the analysis, Educational Resources Information Centre (ERIC), Google Scholar Search Engine, YÖK (The Council of Higher Education) National Thesis Centre, Dergipark and TUBITAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council) Ulakbim databases were employed. Studies were thoroughly examined regarding their research methods, sample groups, analysis data usage, and findings. In conclusion, within the context of its analyses, this research is envisioned to guide future studies and help increase job satisfaction awareness in the field of sports management.


Introduction
The emergence of sports is as old as human history itself.In early times serving humanity with running, climbing and in the battle against nature, in the recent years, sports is believed to have a positive impact on the human development of mental, social, and many other aspects.Similar to every social phenomenon that morphs in the face of culture, time and social life, sports also has undergone big changes and morphed (Koçak et al., 2012).Within the context of this change, the importance of sports organizations, which enabled sports' accessibility to the masses and ensured that it served its purpose, cannot be denied.Sports Management became a necessity in order to schedule, organize and manage sports activities after establishing an organizational structure.
Sports management is about researching and finding scientific and rational ways of conducting activities that serve realization of policies, decisions, and goals about sports by applying general management's principles, methods and rules.Improving accessibility of sports, which has plays an important role on self-improvement as well as promotion of countries, is much more pronounced with a strong and resilient organizational structure and management (Sunay, 2009).
The aim is to exercise scientific application of basic topics of management field within the process of sports management.Employees' job satisfaction is a crucial criteria with respect to the success of personnel management, which resides among the basic topics of organizational behavior (Ramazanoğlu, 2002).In the year of 1935, Hoppock's first description of "job satisfaction", which was widely adopted, can be considered as the beginning of job satisfaction definitions.According to this definition, job satisfaction is "the personal emotional response of an employee towards their jobs" (Mercer, 1997).Job satisfaction is defined as not only the satisfaction an employee gets by performing a job, but also the resultant emotional state, which consists of what and how much an employee wants to get from their jobs and the perception of what they are getting from their jobs (Işıkhan, 1996).
Job satisfaction, which comprises of one's attitude, knowledge, emotions and behavior about their jobs, is a dynamic process that is very difficult to measure and evaluate within organizations.Therefore, it is a very important field within organizational behavior while being a contemporary problem for both employees and managers (Hodgetts, 1997).At this point, in order to ensure the organization's success, it is imperative to meet the needs and expectations of organization's members and make them feel "better".
It is necessary for an organization's survival and improving its potential that all the factors comprising the organization should be in harmony.High job satisfaction among workers in an organization can be considered as a managerial success.
Although the factors affecting job satisfaction is clear with a broad-spectrum evaluation, they differ when the contents of studies conducted in this topic are examined.In Turkish studies on job satisfaction, it is observed that most of the studies also examined variables related to job satisfaction.Meta-synthesis involves a process of synthesizing, defining and interpreting studies that are conducted around the same concept with a critical point of view by creating categories, theme or main templates.Meta-synthesis studies were interpreted using the results of cultural studies and named as meta-ethnography by Noblit and Hare (1998).Subsequently, Dewitt-Brinks and Rhodes (1992) defined these studies and meta-analysis of quality.On the other hand, Paterson et al. (2001) simply named these studies as meta-studies.In the recent years, all these concepts are gathered together under one umbrella and named as "meta-synthesis" studies (Polat & Ay, 2016).The aim of this study is to present Turkish studies that examine job satisfaction in the field of sports management.

Research Pattern
In this study, in order to synthesize the findings "meta-synthesis" method, which is a qualitative research pattern, is employed.Meta-synthesis consists of defining, synthesizing and interpreting research studies, which are carried out around the same concept, with a qualitative understanding through creating categories, themes or main templates (Cihan & Araç Ilgar, 2018).It is also a systematical comparison, which is used to picture study results; hypotheses, metanarratives, generalizations and interpretive transformations that are created by combining study findings (Polat & Ay, 2016).When compared to meta-analysis and descriptive content analysis, the number of examined researches is rather limited in meta-synthesis studies (Çalık & Sözbilir, 2014).The aim in meta-synthesis is to lay out similarities and differences of studies by utilizing a conceptual analysis (Gül & Sözbilir, 2015).Induction is in the center of everything, while examining social phenomena with qualitative methods, and an inductive approach is a must from the stage of data collection.Conceptualization of social phenomena is only possible through induction (Baltacı & Balcı, 2017).Since the aim of this study is to analyze job satisfaction studies in the field of sports management in Turkey, meta-synthesis is utilized as the research method.

Research Limitations
In this study, criterion sampling, which is a form of teleological sampling, is used.Criterion sampling is comprised of units that fulfill pre-defined criteria and these units can consist of people, events, objects or situations (Büyüköztürk et al., 2008).

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Inclusion of terms "sports management" or "job satisfaction" within either the titles or among the keywords of master theses, doctoral dissertations and research articles.

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Clear indication of research pattern and all utilized data collection methods.

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Sample group being limited to Turkey.
This research is limited to a total of 22 studies, 12 of which are theses and remaining 10 are research papers.

Collection of Data
When accessing the included studies, Educational Resources Information Centre (ERIC), Google Scholar Search Engine, YÖK (The Council of Higher Education) National Thesis Centre, Dergipark and TUBITAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council) Ulakbim databases were employed.Within the process of data collection, during review of literature, keywords were used to determine whether a study should be included.It was observed during literature review that keywords "Youth Sports Organization", "Job Satisfaction" and "Sports Management" were frequently used.The study was carried out using eligible 12 theses and 10 papers, of which problem definitions of each were carefully examined, and are suitable for the goals of this study.

Data Analysis, Coding Process, Validity and Reliability Studies
Deciding and starting a factual study is chosen as the first step in the research.Subsequently, review and examination of gathered resources, determination of inclusion and exclusion criteria and selection of studies were performed.In the next step, extraction of interpretive metaphors were enabled.The ideas and metaphors/concepts residing in the themes and sub-themes of the included studies were carefully noted.Next, deductions were synthesized with respect to themes, and reports have been generated.Papers were coded as X1, X2, etc. and theses as Y1, Y2, etc. Concepts of themes and subthemes were summarized and a code is generated for every theme.Analyses were repeated by the researcher after a 3-week period and using [Reliability = Matched / (Matched + Unmatched)] formula (Miles & Huberman, 1994), reliability level was found to be 92%.Expert opinion was employed during the study in order to improve consistency.Therefore, validity and reliability of data were checked.

Findings
Publication dates, authors and problem definitions of examined studies were presented in Table 1.
Table 1.Studies that are included in meta-synthesis and their respective codes.When Table 2 is examined, it can be said that attention to job satisfaction studies with respect to sports management is increasing year-by-year and the frequency of studies is on the rise.Among research papers on the other hand, there is an observed increase between 2002 and 2012.However, the declining number of papers after 2012 can be the result of research saturation in this topic.When Table .4 is examined, it is seen that the most commonly used data collection tool is Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire job satisfaction scale developed by Weiss et al.Sample size differs between 56 and 301 in the studies.This indicated diversity and wide range of sample groups of studies.It is seen that while sample size increases, so does the number of studies.When studies were examined with respect to the year their scaling method was developed, it is observed that, generally, scales were developed pre-2000.People would like to present and realize their personal capabilities.Even though action of a worker does not depend on satisfaction, satisfaction depends on action.People work more efficiently as long as they are satisfied with their work and work environment.It can said that in order one to succeed in work place, they should be strongly motivated and also organizational culture nurtures this motivation.

Job Satisfaction and Morale
People, who cannot achieve job satisfaction, will never reach psychological maturity.One should enjoy their work, where they spend most of their day, and should love their friends, manager and physical medium of their work.Morale is a performance improving intellectual state and behavior, which dictates one's or a group's desire to collaborate.

Job Satisfaction and Efficiency
Job satisfaction is a cause of high efficiency.The most important indicator that things are not fine in an organization is the decrease in job satisfaction.It is well-known that organizations, which maintains job satisfaction, easily finds employees and their employment is sustainable.In order an organization to survive, employees should be satisfied with various aspects of it such as administrative mentality, organizational relations, reward system, work being done, etc.

Job Satisfaction and Success
Success of an organization is closely related not only to its workers efficiency but also the satisfaction they get from their jobs.Organizations should attract people, keep them in the organization and motivate them from success in order to be effective.

Job Satisfaction and Identification
Positive or negative events that emerge from the root's individual-work relationship affects one's satisfaction that they get by doing their job.Identification of a worker with their job indicates a high level of commitment so much so that the worker would not want to leave.Even though the worker does not get the desired level of job satisfaction, they can be so immersed that they cannot leave the job.The worker sees organization's success, work and health as theirs.

Job Satisfaction and Estrangement
It clear that high levels of job satisfaction contributes to worker's happiness whereas lack of it will cause self-estrangement of the worker.In the case of high job satisfaction, it is evident that negative organizational outcomes such as, conflict, lack of attendance, work-force roll-over and estrangement will diminish.At personal level, they have a tendency to keep distance from themselves, values, organizations or social formations.

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When Table .6 is examined, common findings on 22 studies that are evaluated are as follows: Job satisfaction studies are generally based on key concept of motivation (X9, Y1, Y4, X10, X2 and X1).In these studies, a positive perception of job satisfaction with respect to morale is present (X4, Y3, Y6).Besides, there are studies, which conclude that job satisfaction is effective on efficiency (Y10, X3).In the studies, where the effect of job satisfaction on success is examined (Y2, Y8, Y7, X5), an important correlation was observed.And in the studies, where identification concept is more pronounced (Y5, Y11, X7), it was seen that high level of job satisfaction gravitates towards the concept of identification.Lastly, in the studies, where estrangement concept was frequently used (Y12, X6, X8, Y9), it was determined that the workers mostly have a negative professional life.

Discussion
When studies on job satisfaction in the field of sports management were examined regarding their sample types, it is determined that most of these studies were conducted with Youth and Sports Organization personnel.It was observed that job satisfaction levels of workers are generally low after examining job satisfaction studies in the field of sports management within Turkey.It can be thought that this situation stems from the fact that organizational identity levels are very low among public sector workers.In most of the studies, it is observed that there experimental activities to determine the effects of gender, marital status, seniority, age, level of education, years of service, statute, level of exercise and socio-economical state on job satisfaction.It is remarkable that all of the studies were conducted using qualitative research methods.
Examination of studies with respect to the gender variable concludes that men have higher job satisfaction than women on all levels (Akınaltuğ, 2003;Demir, 2002;Ergün, 2014;Geyik, 2016;Donuk, 2009).The reason for this can be assumed as women's other roles as wives and mothers besides their professional roles.On the other hand, there are studies, where there is no significant correlation between gender variable and job satisfaction of workers (Demireli & Munzur, 2012;Bulut, 2005;Kara, 2011;Mirzelioğlu et al., 2003;Ekici et al., 2009;Kılınç, 2012;Çavuşoğlu, 2014).These results are interpreted as there is no gender difference regarding job satisfaction.Sancar (2017) and Akpınar (2010) determined that women have a higher score of external satisfaction than men.These results are interpreted as such that although women have more responsibilities related to home and family, they are also capable of managing professional life.
When the results are reviewed against the age variable, most of the studies suggest either there is no relation between job satisfaction and age (Mirzelioğlu et al, 2003;Demireli & Munzur, 2012;Akpınar, 2010;Taşğın, 2004;Sancar, 2017), or job satisfaction increases as the participants gets older (Donuk, 2009;Çavuşoğlu, 2014;Baştuğ, 2004;Bulut, 2005;Ergün, 2014).It can be said that increased job satisfaction at older age stems from the fact that workers' accumulated experience and sense of security.Besides these results, Demir (2002) argued that younger participants have a higher level of job satisfaction.There are findings in the literature that support this conclusion (Furnham et al., 2002).High levels of job satisfaction among younger participants can be interpreted as such that since they newly started their jobs, they are more motivated than older participants.
After examining the studies with respect to the level of education variable, it is determined that job satisfaction is inversely proportional to level of education and elementary school graduates have the highest levels of job satisfaction among other participants (Kelepçe & Özbek, 2008;Demir, 2002;Demireli & Munzur, 2012;Akpınar, 2010;Ekici et al., 2009).This result can be interpreted as such that since bachelor and master's degree holders find development opportunities with respect to career planning rather limited, their jobs satisfaction levels suffer.It can be concluded that subjects with high levels of education are expecting more financial compensation, reward and promotion or they feel the need to change jobs and this contributes to low levels of job satisfaction.The results of the study exhibit similarities with Ok's research in 2002.In that study, Ok argues that while workers' level of education rises, emotional burn-out increases.In addition, there are studies, where there is no relationship between education level and job satisfaction (Taşğın, 2004;Ramazanoğlu, 2006;Ergün, 2014;Geyik, 2016;Sancar, 2017).On the other hand, Akınaltuğ (2003) concluded that in their study that job satisfaction increases with education level.The reasoning behind this is that highly educated workers have high expectations from their jobs and organizations, this leads to more work hours and more job satisfaction.On the contrary, Akpınar (2010) and Bulut (2005) determined that college graduates and elementary school graduates have different opinions regarding job satisfaction, promotion opportunities and management styles and job satisfaction levels of elementary school graduates are more than university graduates.This was explained by university graduates having high expectations from their organizations and wanting to have a better title due to their qualitative advantages over elementary school graduates.Under the light of this result, it can be concluded that education level affects expectations and university graduates want more benefits than elementary school graduates.
When studies are examined against the years of service parameter, it is seen that there are studies (Kelepçe & Özbek, 2008;Baştuğ, 2004), where job satisfaction levels decrease with increasing years of service.It can be said that this result stems from the fact that young workers, who joined professional life recently, are more motivated and excited about their tasks and responsibilities.Besides, it was concluded that emotional exhaustion levels among subjects, who have 21 more years of service, are greater than others.Demir (2002) and Akpınar (2010) reached the conclusion, where job satisfaction increases with increasing years of service.Thus, it can be argued that personnel with a certain level of experience identify themselves with their jobs more than younger personnel.Kılınç (2012) concluded that trainers and federation employees with 11-15 years of service have a higher level of job satisfaction within self-development and promotion sub-dimension.Furthermore, there are studies, where there is no obvious connection between years of service and job satisfaction (Taşğın, 2004;Demireli & Munzur, 2012;Akpınar, 2010;Ergün, 2014;Çavuşoğlu, 2014;Geyik, 2016).
When job satisfaction level is examined against the seniority variable, it is determined that job satisfaction increases with seniority (Baştuğ, 2004;Mirzelioğlu et al., 2003;Kelepçe & Özbek, 2008;Akpınar, 2010).With these results, it can be thought that personnel with greater seniority can better analyze a situation and take better actions for the future.Ekici et al. (2009) and Demireli & Munzur (2012) on the other hand, concluded that seniority and job satisfaction are inversely proportional.
In conclusion, if actual gains are close to expected gains among workers, job satisfaction is achieved, else dissatisfaction occurs.It is accepted that healthy relationships with other workers and manager's attitude also affects job satisfaction.Besides all these, according to sample groups, age, seniority, years of service and gender have different effects on job satisfaction levels.On other researched organizational topics, where its relation with job satisfaction is examined, it is observed that mobbing decreases job satisfaction levels (Ergün, 2014), improved organization fairness increases job satisfaction (Kurudirek, 2014), there is a direct relation with job satisfaction and organizational loyalty (Sancar, 2017) and there is a negative correlation between job satisfaction and conflict management (Bulut, 2005).It is seen that financial compensation has a negative effect on job satisfaction (Ramazanoğlu, 2006;Koldaş 2000).General opinion according to examined studies is high levels of job satisfaction will reduce negative outcomes in an organization such as conflict, lack of attendance and estrangement.

Table 2 .
Organizational Loyalty and Job Satisfactions of Provincial Directorates of Youth and Sports Employees Aegean Region After reviewing Table.1, it is seen that number of studies on job satisfaction is on the rise between 2010 and 2017.When the studies included in meta-synthesis are examined with respect to their study group, it is evident that most of the studies were conducted with working personnel.While in one quarter of studies the participants were sports managers, in most of them the study group mainly consisted of human resources.Frequency of studies included in meta-synthesis

Table 3 .
Research methods used among included studiesWhen Table3is examined, it is evident that all research models were quantitative.Qualitative research and mix methods were not preferred.

Table 4 .
Data collection tools and sample sizes among included studies

Table 5 .
Sample groups in the included studies When Table5is reviewed, it is evident that most of the studies were conducted on Youth and Sports Rural Organization (54.54%).General Directorate of Youth Sports occupies the second place regarding sample group frequency (31.81%).The least frequent sample group is Sports Federations.

Table 6 .
Key phrases and concepts about themes