Tarisai Chikungwa

Job Satisfaction on Organisational Commitment Among Academics: a Case of an Eastern Cape Higher Education Institution Tarisai Chikungwa

The biggest challenge faced by Human Resources Managers in tertiary institutions in trying to execute staff recruitment and retention strategies, is the employment of reward and motivation techniques that build job satisfaction and high commitment to excellent performance. Much debate exists on whether job satisfaction has effects on commitment levels among academic staff. Deductive reasoning was adopted for this research project utilising Herzberg?s two factor theory to fully understand and explain the effects of job satisfaction on organisational commitment amongst academics. The results of the study showed that a greater proportion of the academic staff was not satisfied with their jobs with reasons for dissatisfaction including interalia high volume of work, inadequate salaries, allowances and unclear advancement opportunities. The findings of the study also indicated a significant relationship between job satisfaction and organisational commitment. There is, therefore, a need to craft a responsive incentive package that addresses the concerns of academic staff on issues related to job satisfaction and thus stave off turnover and lack of commitment.