The paper focuses on job satisfaction of scientific professionals working in government-run research and development organizations which are targeting indigenous technology developments. The organizational structures of most of these organizations are divided into projects and facility groups, where the former plays a proactive role in planning and conceiving and the latter provides the deliverables and fulfilling requirements. The scientists in both the groups are engineers, and therefore, are equally qualified and recruited at the same starting salary. Therefore, it made an interesting study to investigate and compare their job satisfaction levels using Paul Spectors' Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) as the measurement instrument. The results show that as against the common perception that the educated and learned scientists of our country are dissatisfied and are looking towards careers in Western countries, the scientists are generally a satisfied lot and that beyond salary, contingent rewards and recognition among co-workers will be the deciding factors for job satisfaction among the intellectual and scientific community.

Is job satisfaction important? Initially, the question seems to have an obvious answer. It seems logical that a happy and satisfied employee is a `better' or a `more productive' employee. Thousands of studies have been carried out to establish a positive and unmistakable correlation between high job satisfaction, and high productivity have not been able to prove that conclusively. In its most basic sense, job satisfaction is a positive emotional state, resulting from evaluating one's job experiences.

Job satisfaction is the degree to which people like their jobs. There are a variety of factors that influence a person's level of job satisfaction. Some of these factors include: level of pay and benefits, perceived fairness of the promotion system within an organization, quality of the working conditions, leadership and working relationships, and the job itself (variety of tasks involved, interest and challenge the job generates, and clarity of the job description/requirements). Other influences on job satisfaction include: management style and culture, employee involvement, empowerment and autonomy enjoyed by the employee. Hence, job satisfaction is a very important attribute, which is frequently measured by many organizations.

Management Research Journal, Research and Development Organizations, Scientific Professionals, Job Satisfaction Survey, Department of Space, Department of Atomic Energy, DAE, Defense Research and Development Organization ,DRDO, Technological Development, Literature Review, R&D Management Theory, Decision Making, Psychological Studies.