The Relationship Between Job Satisfaction And Job Performance Among University Academic Staff In Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Job satisfaction and job performance have aroused interest in scholarly debates due to their importance and impact on organizational productivity. The purpose of this study was to examine academic staff’s job satisfaction and assess the extent to which this influences their performance. The main objectives of the study were: (a) to examine the relationship between recognition job satisfaction and job performance of academic staff in universities in Tanzania (b) to assess the relationship between responsibility job satisfaction and job performance of academic staff in universities (c) to determine the relationship between remuneration job satisfaction and job performance of academic staff in universities (d) to examine the relationship between promotion job satisfaction and job performance of academic staff in universities. The study was motivated by the situation in Tanzanian universities over the past three decades when universities encountered numerous challenges including funding shortage which negatively impacts teaching and research functions in universities. Consequently, strikes by academic staff have been on the rise demanding better terms of service as they are dissatisfied with the lack of recognition, low wages, responsibility and promotion practices, which ultimately cause high job turnover as a number of academic staff pursue other seemingly financially promising non-academic jobs, such as politics. The study was based on Herzberg’s Two-Factor theory. The study is significant because its findings may contribute to universities enhancing their motivation strategies so as to make academic staff satisfied and hence perform better in their teaching and research functions. The study adopted a correlational research design, which embraced both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The data for this study were collected using questionnaires from 826 academic staff from six universities, with a response rate of 50% (411 academic staff). The data was analysed using statistical package (SPSS) version 16. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 Deputy Vice Chancellors – Administration, 12 senior academic staff and 2 leaders of the academic staff union. Content validity was determined by seeking the expert judgement of an educational management specialist. Purposive sampling was used to select universities based on the following factors; geographical location, mode of academic programmes delivery, year of establishment and size of the university. Cronbach’s technique was used to ascertain reliability of the instruments. Qualitative data were analysed in themes while quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings indicated that there is no statistically significant relationship between recognition, responsibility, remuneration and promotion job satisfaction indicators and job performance of university academic staff. The study recommends that university management need to recognize academic staff’s efforts so as to encourage them to perform better in their job and hence increase universities’ performance.