Attitudes and perceptions of medical doctors towards their jobs in the state of j&k, India.

BACKGROUND Management gurus have long since established a relationship between the attitudes held by an organization's work force and its job satisfaction. The foundations of individual behavior lie in individual attitudes, and employee attitudes, if understood properly, can be modified by operant conditioning. METHODOLOGY The following study was undertaken in different but comparable study populations of doctors in Medical Education and Health selected through stratified random sampling to understand their attitudes towards and satisfaction from their work, through a cross sectional study design with the help of an anonymous questionnaire. RESULTS Doctors in both Health and Medical Education have comparable levels of job satisfaction i.e. 67% for Health and 69% for Medical Education. Both study populations strive for professional excellence, but self-actualization is a potent motivator for doctors in Medical Education while financial and social security are exceedingly important for doctors in the Health sector. Satisfaction falls among doctors by the second decade of service to rise again gradually DISCUSSION Job satisfaction among doctors is at the lowest during the most productive years of their lives, when knowledge is tempered with experience and age is still on their side. It is important to recognize the motivations of doctors and provide them with opportunities and resources for professional excellence, self-actualization and growth CONCLUSIONS Both study populations were found to have a high level of job satisfaction. They also rated professional excellence on a high scale as a job motivator, but did not think that their organization considered it important.