This article examines the influence of work-place factors, job satisfaction and professional commitment on the intent to leave the profession of 165 primary school teachers in the city of Lagos, Nigeria. Most of the teachers were women (74.5 per cent). Teachers’ satisfaction was characterized by job apathy, satisfaction with pay and benefits, and intrinsic satisfaction. Women teachers found the job more satisfying than men. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that professional commitment was significantly related to intrinsic satisfaction, job apathy, and satisfaction with pay and benefits. Material rewards and advancement, working conditions, intrinsic satisfaction, job apathy and professional commitment were associated with an intention to leave the profession. Finally, teachers with higher satisfaction levels were strongly committed to the profession and less likely to leave. Administrative intervention requires financial expenditure to achieve the desired results; thus, the government needs to improve upon the level of funding to the primary education sector.

Ce travail fournit une évaluation empirique des effets de l’ambiguïté du rôle professionnel sur la perception de la politique de l’organisation (PPO) et de l’impact du sentiment de devoir sur la relation entre la PPO, la souffrance professionnelle et les comportements de citoyenneté organisationnelle (CCO). On a mené une enquête sur du personnel supplémentaire de deux programmes de développement agricole dans le sud‐ouest du Nigeria. 229 questionnaires traitables ont été récupérés. Une analyse de régression hiérarchique montra que l’ambiguïté de rôle prédisait la PPO. La PPO était corrélée négativement avec le sentiment de devoir et les CCO, mais positivement avec la souffrance professionnelle. La relation entre la PPO et les CCO était renforcée quand les employés présentaient plutôt des niveaux faibles du sentiment de devoir envers l’organisation. Cependant, il n’y avait pas d’interférence significative du sentiment de devoir sur la relation entre la PPO et la souffrance professionnelle. This study provides an empirical assessment of the effects of job ambiguity on perceptions of organisational politics (POP) and the moderating role of an employee's felt obligation on the relationships between POP and job distress and organisational citizenship behaviors (OCB). A census of extension personnel in two Agricultural Development Programs (ADPs) in Southwestern Nigeria was undertaken. In all, 229 extension personnel returned useable surveys. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that job ambiguity predicted POP. POP was negatively related to felt obligation and OCB, and positively associated with job distress. The relationship between POP and OCB was stronger when employees reported lower rather than higher levels of felt obligation toward the organisation. However, there was no significant moderating effect of felt obligation on the relationship between POP and job distress.

The mediating influence of job satisfaction on the relationship between perceived supervisory support (PSS) and organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB) was examined. We hypothesised that perceived supervisory support would be positively related to employee satisfaction, which in turn would be associated with performance of citizenship behaviours. Results from two agricultural organisations (N = 270) indicated that job satisfaction partially mediated the PSS-OCB linkage. The implications of the results are discussed.

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