Factors associated with organizational commitment of academic employees in Botswana

Abstract

Organizational commitment is a major determinant of organizational effectiveness and desirable employee attitudes and behaviours. Highly committed academic staff are the backbone of universities since they play an important role in the success of their institutions. This study investigated factors associated with organizational commitment among academic employees of a university in Botswana using a representative sample of 165 respondents. The study also sought to develop a parsimonious model that can predict organizational commitment among academic employees in Botswana. The results show that about 3 out of 5 academic employees sampled showed evidence of commitment to the university, regardless of their socio-demographic or socio-economic background. The study found 11 factors that were associated with commitment to the university. Most of the factors that affected organizational commitment involved decisions and actions that were directly or indirectly at the disposal and control of the management. The single most important factor that predicted commitment to the university was acceptance of the new criteria for the assessment of academic staff, followed by perception of opportunities for research.

Relating job satisfaction and organisational commitment: The moderating and mediating roles of positive individual strengths

“…According to Morris (2013), organisational commitment and loyalty occur when public institutions create an attractive work environment. Highly committed public sector staff are the backbone of institutions and fundamental for the success of their respective institutions (Thabo, Nkhukhu-Orlando, Wilson, & Forcheh, 2018).…”

Establishing Valid and Reliable Measures for Organizational Commitment and Job Performance: An Exploratory Factor Analysis

“…Organizational commitment has been recognized as a significant human element which is a crucial determining factor of organizational success (Alsiewi & Agil, 2014) university success (Dou, Devos, & Valcke, 2017) and intrinsic motivation which aids to encourage university academics to perform activities for attaining favorable outcomes (Ahluwalia & KaurKamal, 2017). OC of university academics suggests their substantial commitment and participation in the university (Markovits, Davis, Fay, & Dick, 2010) confidence in and recognition of the university"s objectives and principles, a readiness to employ significant exertion on behalf of the university and devotion or a substantial need to retain association in the university (Thabo, Esther, Debra, Ntonghanwah, & James, 2018). Commitment to the academic career has been positively linked with intrinsic motivation to participate in research, and with higher research outputs (Becker, 2016).…”

“…In the Malaysian context, research works on organizational commitment (OC) has been regarded as an essential area in determining workers" conduct (Daud, 2010). Some researchers have studied and determined the significance of OC among academics in their studies (e.g., (Bashir & Long, 2015;Lew, 2011;Thabo et al, 2018)). A study carried out in a Malaysian public university by Bashir and Long (2015) focused on the correlation between training and OC among academics in Malaysia.…”

Professional Development Practices, Promotions and Organizational Commitment: A Propoundment of Professional Integration Interaction Practices (PIIP) Model

“…Nonetheless, professional development practice often contributes to higher employee organizational commitment (Mathias & Jackson, 20008). Similarly, organizational commitment of academic staffs is one of the important factors for ensuring the effectiveness of the university (Hanaysha, 2016;Thabo et al, 2018).…”