The study was conducted to confirm the construct of individual perception and preference for work characteristics as personal factors influencing Korean nurses' job satisfaction. The subjects of the study were 231 nurses who are currently working in intensive care units and have been for a minimum of 6 months. The study used the Staff Perception and Preference Scale(Song et al., 1997) to measure the individual's perception and preference on the technical, practice, and management components of the ideal work environment. The Korean version of the Staff Perception and Preference Scale consists of 16 items on perception and 13 on preference with each item related on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 4 (a great deal). Psychometric testing revealed that the preference and perception scale is internally consistent with Chronbach's alphas of .83 for perception scale and .80 for preference scale. The subscales of the perception and preference scale also showed acceptable reliability for the early stage of the development of the instruments with Chronbach alphas of .62-.76 and .69-.83 respectively. Criterion0related validity of the scale was tested by examining correlations with individual growth need that is conceptually close to individual preference, but not to individual perception. Individual growth need was significantly related to individual preference(r=.63, p<.05), but the correlation with the perception scale was not significant. A separate factor analysis for the each of perception and preference scales was performed with a three-factor loading solution based on a previous study. The results on the staff perception scale confirmed with varimax rotation that the items were cleanly and strongly loaded on technique, practice and management components, which together explained 50.7% of the variance. The factor analysis on the staff preference scale also yielded a three factor solution that explained 56.7% of the variance, but items on technique and management components were loaded together. This phenomena may due to the current nursing delivery system in Korea where nurses never experience either shared governance nor case management, and as a results they may not be able to consider management roles as their potential extended roles. Therefore, more efforts should be given to enhance nurses' autonomy and decision making in the technique, practice and management components of their work environment. Meanwhile, there is a need for continuously confirming and developing tools for individual perception and preferences to effectively enhance job satisfaction among Korea nurses through innovative work environments.

The purposes of this study were to determine the factors that influence job satisfaction for ICU nurses and to analyze group differences in job satisfaction based on the nurses' preference and perception of the work environment with an enhanced professional role. A total of 231 nurses who had been working in Intensive Care Units at least for 6 months at selected university hospitals participated in the study while head nurses or those with administrative positions were excluded. The study participants had an average of 33 months of clinical experience with an age range of 23 to 40 years. The data were analyzed by utilizing SPSSWIN and the results are as follows. 1) Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that work characteristics defined by Job characteristics theory and nurses' preference/ perception of ideal work environment together explained 33% of variance in job satisfaction. Skill variety, task identity and autonomy as well as individual perception of work environment were significant variables for explaining job satisfaction. Job satisfaction was not significantly related to age, marital status, education, and clinical experience. 2) The groups classified by nurses' preference and perception of work environment were significantly different in their job satisfaction. Nurses with high preference and high perception showed significantly higher general and specific job satisfaction than other nurses. The nurses who showed high preference but perceived their work environment as not reflecting ideal job characteristics reported the lowest job satisfaction among the groups. In conclusion, the role of individual preference and perception of the work environment in explaining the relationship between the redesign of work environment and job satisfaction was supported by the study. The preferences of nurses to the innovative work characteristics should be considered in the process of enhancing job characteristics to lead job satisfaction and low turn over and ultimately to improve quality of care.