EMPLOYEES’ COMMITMENTS AS CORRELATES OF JOB SATISFACTION AMONG POLYTECHNIC LECTURES IN RIVERS STATE BY

EMPLOYEES’ COMMITMENTS AS CORRELATES OF JOB SATISFACTION AMONG POLYTECHNIC LECTURES IN RIVERS STATE

EMPLOYEES’ COMMITMENTS AS CORRELATES OF JOB SATISFACTION AMONG POLYTECHNIC LECTURES IN RIVERS STATE

BY

¹PROMISE E. GBARALE & ²DR. G.N. AMADI

¹Department of General Studies, Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Rumuola, Port Harcourt.

²Department of Educational Psychology, Guidance & Counselling

University of Port Harcourt

Abstract

The study investigated the dimensions of employees’ commitment as correlates of job satisfaction among polytechnics lecturers in Rivers State. The study was guided by three research questions and three null hypothesis tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted the correlation design. A sample of 634 lecturers was drawn from population of 674 lecturers in polytechnics in Rivers State through census sampling techniques. The instrument for data collection were Employee Commitment Scale (ECS) and Job Satisfaction Scale (JSS) whose construct validity were tested using convergent validity process. The reliability coefficient was obtained through Cronbach Alpha. The data collected were analyzed using simple linear regression. While the R values were used in answering the research questions, the ANOVA associated with the regression analysis were used in dealing with the hypothesis. From the findings, it was discovered that the components of Affective Commitment, Continuance Commitment and Normative Commitment were found to be positively related to lecturers’ job satisfaction in the polytechnics in Rivers State. Based on the findings, recommendations were made.

Key words: Employee commitment, job satisfaction, polytechnic.

Introduction

Job satisfaction is a household concept used by workers all over the world. It is used to describe the level of feeling of contentment of workers towards their job or the level of happiness placed on the job by the employees. Templer (2012) defines job satisfaction as “the psychological disposition which a worker derives from his/her job”.

Amstrong (2006) defined job satisfaction as feeling or emotion derived from the job an individual is doing. It also denotes the level of contentment of a worker for his or her job. Job satisfaction is the positive orientation of an individual towards the role which he/she is presently occupying. It is also “the degree to which the employee is satisfied and happy with his job” (Kanfer, 2012).

Meyer (2006) stressed that job satisfaction is a determinative of organizational commitment, that through workers, organizations can garner a competitive advantage. Committed employees take pride in organizational membership, belief in the goals and values of the organization, and therefore display. The polytechnics are tertiary institutions and large organizations that comprises of academic staff, non-academic staff and students. They are citadel of learning where students train with adequate skills for manpower development and self reliance. So there is need for it managers and administrators to give adequate attention that would enhance their workers’ level of job satisfaction and also put into cognizance the employees’ level of commitment during recruitment into work place.

Chang & Lee (2005) asserted that business owners and managers of organization face may issues such as how to employ job satisfaction, intensify their organization commitment to create competitive advantages and reach the ultimate goal for everlasting management through reward system, in support of the above, individual behave differently base on their unique expectations, values, previous experiences and temperament. The aim of this paper was to investigate the relationship between employee’s commitments and job satisfaction among polytechnic lecturers in Rivers State.

Swile (2012) defines employee’s commitment as the employee’s emotional attachment to identification with and involvement in the organization. In essence, measuring employee commitment is an assessment of the congruence between an individual own values and beliefs and those of the organization. Employee’s commitment is characterized as employees’ willingness to contribute to organizational goals. When employees are sure that they will grow and learn with their current employers, their level of commitment to stay with that particular organization will increase, (Meyer, 2006).

The components of employees’ commitment that were investigated in this study in relation to job satisfaction focussed on Allen & Meyer (2010) theories of commitment which are affective commitment, continuance commitment is the individual psychological attachment to the organization. It is also a strong belief in and acceptance of organizations’ goal, and values; a willingness to expert considerable effort on behalf of the organization and a strong desire to maintain membership in the organization, (Mowday, 2015).

Continuance commitment is the individual costs associated with leaving the organization. Individuals do not leave an organization for fear of losing their benefits, taking pay cut and being able to find another job, (Murray, 2010).

Normative commitment is the way the individual perceived his obligation to remain with the organization. The employees with strong normative commitment will remain with an organization by virtue of their belief that is the “right and moral” thing to do (Allen & Meyer, 2010).

Settlement of the Problem

Cases of lateness to class, absenteeism, extortion, victimization, aggressive and hostile relationship towards students, management and even among colleague, issues of queries to lecturers, suspension of lecturers sometime without salary, inability to cover course outline, non compliance to course outline when teaching, delay in submission of results exists among lecturers in Rivers State.

Based on the above reports and personal experience, the researcher holds the conviction that apart from salary and non-salary conditions of services as factors related to job satisfaction, the lecturers’ level of work commitment may play major role lecturers relations to job satisfaction.

Research Questions

1. What extents do lecturers’ affective commitment relates to job satisfaction?
2. To what extent do continuance commitment relates to job satisfaction among lecturers in Polytechnics in Rivers State?
3. What is the relationship between normative commitment and job satisfaction among lecturers in Polytechnics in Rivers State?

Hypothesis

1. There is no significant relationship between lecturers’ affective commitment and job satisfaction.
2. There is no significant relationship between lecturers’ continuance commitment and job satisfaction.
3. There is no significant relationship between lectures’ normative commitment and job satisfaction.

Methodology

The study adopted correlation design is relevant because it is concerned with determining the degree of relationship between two or more variables indicate the direction and magnitude of relationship between the variables, (Nwankwo, 2013). Correlation design is suitable for the present study because it sought to find out relationship between the independent and dependent variables.

The population of the study consisted of 647 lectures from the two state polytechnics in Rivers State namely: Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori and Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Rumurolu, Port Harcourt. Lecturers in both state polytechnics were chosen because the researcher feels that they are qualify to respond accurately in providing suitable information as required by the researcher.

A sample of 634 lectures in the two state polytechnics in Rivers State was used for the study. Hence, since the sample size is not much, the researcher used census sampling technique to draw all the lecturers in these institutions.

Two instruments were used for the study, namely; the Employee Commitment Scale (ECS) adopted from Allen & Meyer (2010) and Job Satisfaction Scale (JSS) developed by the researcher.

The Employee Commitment Scale comprises of 17 items on the two instruments were presented as statements to which responded were instructed to indicate their levels of agreement or disagreement on a 4-point scale of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD) weighted 4 points, 3 points, 2 points and 1 point respectively.

To ascertain validity, a draft of the instruments was given to experts in Educational Psychology and Measurement and Evaluation from the Departments of educational psychology, Guidance and Counselling, University of Port Harcourt.

The reliability of the instruments was determined through Cronbach Alpha method. The Employee Commitment Scale (ECS) had a reliability coefficient of 0.89 while Job Satisfaction Scale (JSS) had a reliability coefficient of 0.79 respectively.

Data collected for the study were analyzed basically using simple regression. While the R values were used in answering the research questions, the ANOVA associated with the regression analysis were used in dealing with the hypothesis. All hypothesis were tested at 0.05 level of significance.

 

 

 

 

 

Results

Table 1: Simple linear regression showing the relationship between affective employee commitment and Job satisfaction among Lecturers in Polytechnics in Rivers State.

R	R2	Adj R2	Std. Error	Unstand. B
0.141	0.014	0.021	10.50	0.010

Summary

	Sum of Sq	Df	Mean Sq	F	µ	Sig.	Result
Regression Residual Total	8.35 69795.29 69803.64	1 632 633	8.356 110.43	0.076	0.05	0.000	Significant Reject Ho

 

From the analysis, calculated R=0.141, R²=0.014, adjusted R²=0.021, standard error is 10.50 while the unstandardized B value is 0.010. The R²value shows that affective employee commitment relates about 1.4% with job satisfaction of lecturers. Also, the unstandardized B value suggest that as the value of affective employee commitment increases or decreases by a unit, there will be a corresponding increase or decrease of 0.010 unit in the values of lecturers job satisfaction. From the summary table, calculated F is 0.076 while the sig. value is 0.000. Hence, since the sig. value (p=0.000<0.05) is less than 0.05 alpha, the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternate accepted meaning that there is actually a significant relationship between affective employee commitment and lecturers’ job satisfaction in Polytechnics in Rivers State.

Table 2: Simple linear regression showing the relationship between continuance employee commitment and Job satisfaction among Lecturers in Polytechnics in Rivers State.

R	R2	Adj R2	Std. Error	Unstand. B
0.170	0.021	0.018	10.495	0.034

Summary

	Sum of Sq	Df	Mean Sq	F	µ	Sig.	Result
Regression Residual Total	192.361 69611.287 69803.64	1 632 633	192.361 110.14	1.74	0.05	0.011	Significant Reject Ho

From the analysis, calculated R=0.170, R²=0.021, adjusted R²=0.018, standard error is 10.495 while the unstandardized B value is 0.034. The R²value shows that continuance employee commitment relates about 2.1% with job satisfaction of lecturers. Also, the unstandardized B value suggest that as the value of continuance employee commitment increases or decreases by a unit, there will be a corresponding increase or decrease of 0.034 unit in the values of lecturers job satisfaction. From the summary table, calculated F is 1.74 while the sig. value is 0.011. Hence, since the sig. value (p=0.011<0.05) is less than 0.05 alpha, the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternate accepted meaning that there is a significant relationship between continuance employee commitment and lecturers’ job satisfaction in Polytechnics in Rivers State.

Table 3: Simple linear regression showing the relationship between normative employee commitment and Job satisfaction among Lecturers in Polytechnics in Rivers State.

R	R2	Adj R2	Std. Error	Unstand. B
0.021	0.017	0.152	10.509	0.029

Summary

	Sum of Sq	Df	Mean Sq	F	µ	Sig.	Result
Regression Residual Total	0.452 69803.196 69803.64	1 632 633	0.45 110.44	1.28	0.05	0.036	Significant Reject Ho

 

From the analysis, calculated R=0.021, R²=0.017, adjusted R²=0.152 standard error is 10.50 while the unstandardized B value is 0.029. The R²value shows that normative employee commitment relates about 1.7% with job satisfaction of lecturers. Also, the unstandardized B value suggest that as the value of normative employee commitment increases or decreases by a unit, there will be a corresponding increase or decrease of 0.029 unit in the values of lecturers job satisfaction. From the summary table, calculated F is 1.28 while the sig. value is 0.036. Hence, since the sig. value (p=0.036<0.05) is less than 0.05 alpha, the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternate accepted meaning that there is a significant relationship between normative employee commitment and lecturers’ job satisfaction in Polytechnics in Rivers State.

 

Discussion

From the finding in research table six, it is revealed that there is a significant relationship between affective employee commitment and lecturers’ job satisfaction in Polytechnics in Rivers State. This findings means that lecturers level of satisfaction to a great extent is determined by how attached they are to their current job. From this finding, there is an implication that if individuals are so attached or committed to their current place of work, they will likely be satisfied with the environment and all the associated conditions attached to the work. The finding here may come because all the lecturers are aware that if they are attached affectively to their place of work, they will be satisfied and vice-versa. The finding here is not surprising to the researcher because being committed affectively to something means that one is satisfied with such thing and is willing to be committed to it. The finding of the study is in line with that reported earlier by Saimer and Jonida (2012) who stated that affective commitment significantly relates with job satisfaction among employees in organizations. Similarly, the study of Meyer (2006) as well as Shore and Tetrick (2010) all supported the present findings.

Research finding seven revealed that there is a significant relationship between continuance employee commitment and lecturers’ job satisfaction in Polytechnics in Rivers State.

This finding means that if polytechnic lecturers maintain a relationship to stay in their respective institutions, they will feel more committed and satisfied that those who do not have such continuance motive in mind. In other words, the result implies that the level of futuristic commitment lecturers have towards their institution will determine if they are satisfied or not. If lecturers commit themselves to the future of the organization or school, there is the tendency that they are satisfied and vice-versa. On the contrary, Somers (2006) had argued that even if individuals may be committed to an organization futuristically, this is insignificantly related to their level of job satisfaction. The reason for this finding may not also be far-fetched because individuals will always be committed to what give s them satisfaction and vice-versa. Hence the present study is not surprising at all to the researcher. This is also in line with the findings of Sander and Jonida (2012) mention earlier as well as that of Meyer (2006). They all supported the present finding by stipulating that employee job satisfaction is a function of their level of continued commitment in the organization.

Finally, research finding eight showed that there is a significant relationship between normative employee commitment and lecturers’ job satisfaction in Polytechnics in Rivers State. This finding means that lecturers feel satisfied or dissatisfied depending on their feelings to remain with the organization. From this premise, it therefore means that if lecturers have the feeling of moving from one organization to the other, then they may not be satisfied in the current place of work that they are. On the other hand, if they are satisfied in their current place of work, if their normative commitment is high, then their level of job satisfaction will equally be high and they will be no need to move from one place to the other.  It should be recalled that individuals normative commitment increases as employers perception of their moral obligations to stay with a particular organization, no matter the benefits involved is concern. The findings of this study is not also surprising as the researcher is fully aware that individuals who have high level of normative commitment do so not because of job insecurity but out of a high sense of satisfaction that such jobs may have given to them. In the same spirit, lecturers in polytechnics who have higher sense of normative commitment do so because they are satisfied with their jobs. If not so, the reverse would be the case. The recent finding is in line with the one reported earlier by Allen and Meyer (2010) and Aydogdu and Asikgel (2016) who all found a significant relationship between continuance commitment level and job satisfaction among employees in organizations.

Conclusion

Base on the findings in this research study, the following conclusions were made;

1. There is a significant relationship between affective employee commitment and lecturers’ job satisfaction in Polytechnics in Rivers State.
2. There is a significant relationship between continuance employee commitment and lecturers’ job satisfaction in Polytechnics in Rivers State.
3. There is a significant relationship between normative employee commitment and lecturers’ job satisfaction in Polytechnics in Rivers State.

Recommendations

Base on the findings in this research study, the following recommendations were made;

1. Employers of labour should know the factors that can affect their employees’ job satisfaction level since it would affect their performance of the organization as well.
2. Managers and administrators of tertiary institutions should give adequate attention to employees’ demands and benefits in order to boast their workers level of job satisfaction.
3. Equally those who are not time conscious, plan-oriented, systematic procedural, and careful should learn to do so as it will bring more happiness and satisfaction to them on the job.
4. Lecturers who are committed affectively to their jobs should learn to be satisfied with their job.
5. Those without a long term vision or commitment to the organization should as a matter of urgency get engage in something else. Something they can learn to love a be committed to which can give them more satisfaction in life.

References

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