ABSTRACT
The
success and failure of every institution largely depends on employees’
commitment. Institutional support and job satisfaction are considered essential
factors for employee commitment to an organization. In the absence of commitment, organizations may suffer low productivity
and high rate of staff turnover that can negatively impact on their existence.
However, studies have shown that public servants in Nigeria including
librarians have poor attitude to work and exhibit low level of commitment. The
study examined the influence of institutional support and job satisfaction on
employees’ commitment in public university libraries in South-East Geo-Political Zone, Nigeria.
The
survey research design was adopted for the study. Total population was 359
librarians in Public University libraries in South-East Nigeria made up of
professionals and para-professionals. Total enumeration was used for the study.
The instrument for data collection was a validated questionnaire. Cronbach’s
alpha results ranged from 0.86 to 0.90. The response rate was 87.5%. Data were
analyzed using Pearson product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression.
The
findings showed that there was a significant positive relationship between Institutional Support and Employees’ Commitment in public
university libraries in South-East Geopolitical zone Nigeria, (r=0.650, p<
0.05); and a significant positive relationship between job satisfaction and
employees’ commitment, (r=0.706, p< 0.05). The study further found that
there was a significant joint influence of institutional support and job
satisfaction on employees’ commitment (Adj.= .772, = 25.048, p< 0.05). It was
found that institutional support positively influenced employees’ commitment as did job satisfaction (Adj.= .772, = 25.048, p< 0.05).
The study concluded that librarians’ level of institutional
commitment was determined by the extent at which their institutions supported
them. The
study recommended that for management of public university libraries to
succeed, they must find means of increasing institutional support and also
promote job satisfaction among their employees.
Keywords: Employees commitment, Organizational
commitment, Institutional support,
Job
satisfaction, Public university libraries, South-East Geo-Political Zone,
Nigeria
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Content page
Title page i
Certification ii
Abstract iii
Acknowledgements iv
Dedication v
Table of Contents vi
List of Tables x
List of Figures xi
Appendices xii
CHAPTER
ONE: INTRODUCTION
- Background to the Study 1
- Statement of the Problem 9
- Objective of the Study 10
- Research Questions 10
- Hypotheses 11
- Scope of the Study 11
- Significance of the Study 12
- Operational Definition of Terms 13
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.0 Introduction 15
- Institutional Support for Employees 15
- Concept of Employees’ Job Satisfaction 27
Content Page
- Employee’s Commitment to Organization 37
- Employee’s Institutional Support and Commitment to Organization 57
- Employees’/Librarians Job Satisfaction and Commitment to Organization 63
- Factors Challenging Employees’ Institutional Support, Job Satisfaction and Employees’ Commitment 77
- Theoretical Framework 85
- Relevance of Theories to the Study 88
- Appraisal of Literature 95
CHAPTER
THREE: METHODOLOGY
- Introduction 98
- Sample size and sampling Technique 100
- Validity of Instrument 102
- Reliability of Instrument 102
- Method of Data Collection 103
- Method of Data Analysis 103
- Ethical Consideration 104
CHAPTER FOUR:
DATA ANALYSIS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
OF FINDINGS
4.0 Introduction 105
4.1 Analysis of Respondents’ Demographic Characteristics 105
4.2 Analysis of Research Questions 108
4.3 Testing of Research Hypotheses 118
4.4 Discussion of Findings 122
Content Page
CHAPTER
FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0 Introduction 127
5.1 Summary 127
5.2 Conclusion 128
5.3 Recommendations 128
5.4 Contribution to Knowledge 129
5.5 Suggestion for Further Studies 130
REFERENCES 131
APPENDICES
LIST
OF TABLES
Table Page
2.1: Illustrations of the five domains of well-being 18
2.2: CIPD (2006) Initiatives used by Organizations to Support Employees’ Well-Being (Well-Being Continuum) 19
3.1: Distribution of Professionals and Para-Professional Librarians in Public University Libraries 99
4.1: Analysis of Respondents’ Demographic Data (Characteristics) 105
4.2: Level of Employee Commitment 108
4.3: Extent at which Librarians are given Institutional Support 113
4.4: Level of Job Satisfaction of Librarians in Public University 115
4.5: Factors Challenging Institutional Support, Job Satisfaction and Employees’Commitment 117
4.6:
Relationship between
Institutional Support and Employees’ Commitment 119
4.7: Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Employees’ Commitment 119
4.8: Influence of Institutional Support and Job Satisfaction on Employees’ Commitment 120
4.8: Multiple Regression showing the Joint Relationship between Independent and Dependent Variable 121
LIST
OF FIGURES
Figure page
2.1: Five Domains of Well Being 17
2.2: Conceptual Model for the Research Variables and their Relationship 91
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background to the Study
The success and
failures of institutions are reflections of several factors, particularly
factors that center on the employees or workforce. They are seen as the most
valuable asset in achieving institutional goals because the greatest concern of
institutional management is to get work done by employees. Hence, institutions
cannot succeed without their human resource (employees) efforts and commitment
(Cmar & Kareroglu, 2012). In this regard, employees’ commitment towards
institutional goal is an important concept for management wishing to succeed.
Thus, institutions want their employees to be satisfied to become more
productive, efficient and committed (Khan, Khan & Khan, 2010). However,
employees’ commitment to institutional goal is subject to certain underlying
psychological factors such as institutional support factors and job satisfaction.
Institutional
support and job satisfaction have been
described as key determinants of employees’ commitment to organization (Madhuri,
Srivastava& Srivastava, 2014). As institutions face global competitiveness in modern times
due to technological advancement, reputable managers in various institutional
type, are vigorously seeking avenues to gain competitive advantage wherein institutional
support and job satisfaction of
employees are important factors. Institutional support, organizational support or perceived organizational
support as most existing literature features them, are used inter-changeably in
this study. Institutional support,
is therefore an employees’ perception or belief that the institution values his
or her contribution to the success of the organization and cares or have
concern about his needs. Alternatively, institutional support refers to
employees’ perception concerning the extent to which the institution values
their contribution and cares about their well-being. Institutional support has
been found to have important consequences on employees’ performance,
commitment, and well-being. For
instance, institutional support theorists Krishnan and Mary (2012), hold that in order to meet socio-emotional
needs and to assess the benefits of increased work effort, employees form a
general perception concerning the extent to which the institution values their
contributions and cares about their well-being. Such Institutional support, in form of adequate
provisions for employees’ physical/accommodation and health wellbeing, career
goals, supervisor support in form of guide and recommendations for additional
in-service training where necessary, and fair treatment in terms of reward for
extra-role performance among others would increase employees’ felt obligation
to help the institution reach its objectives.
Behavioral
outcomes of institutional support would include increase in in-role and
extra-role performance and decrease in withdrawal behaviors such as absenteeism
and turnover. Research on Institutional support however began with the
observation that if managers are concerned with their employees’ commitment to
the institution, employees on the other hand, are focused on the organizations
commitment to them (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchinson, & Sowa, 1986). For
employees, the institution serves as an important source of socio-emotional
resources, such as respect and caring, and tangible benefits, such as wages and
medical benefits; being regarded highly by the institution, helps to meet
employees’ needs for approval, esteem, and affiliation. Positive valuation of
employees by the institution also provides an indication that increased effort
will be noted and rewarded. Employees therefore take an active interest in the
regard with which they are held by their employer (Krishnan & Mary, 2012); expressing that institutional support
is one of the most important institutional concepts that keep employees in the
organization, since institutional support is known as a key factor increasing
job satisfaction and organizational commitment of employees.
Moreover,
while an employee evaluates his/her institution, he/she often tends to compare
present institution with the previous one and tends to compare the future of
his/her job position in the organization with similar positions of other
organizations (Kanaga & Browning, 2007). This process employed by employees
as a mental process affects perception of their institutional support.
Expectations of this perception in the employee mind are outcomes such as
considering employees’ goodness by the institution, appreciation in the
institution and sharing common values between the institution and employees.
Employees supported by their institution, feel this support is given because
they are valuable employees for their organizations. Employees who feel their
institution value and appreciate them are not only emotionally attached to
their institution in terms of affective, normative and continua but equally
satisfied with their job.
Previous
studies also demonstrated that institutional support given to employees by
their organization engenders improvement of positive behaviours and attitudes
like affective and normative commitment, and sometimes on continuous commitment
(Colakoglu, Culha & Atay, 2010).
The amount of institutional support employee perceives from the organization
has been proved to influence employees’ job attitudes. Moreover, Konijnenburg
(2010), indicates that perceived institutional support relates to a large
extent the quality of the relationship between the organization and the
employees in form of institutional concern on employees’ wellbeing, supervisor
support and fair treatment.
Studies
of employees’ attitudes and behaviours have gained much importance to determine
employees’ possible future behaviors or commitment at work place. Employees’
perception about organizational attitude regarding their support is based on
organizational employees’ caring activities; for example, rewarding employees’
contribution, employees’ well-being programs and opportunities for employees to
have participation in key organizational decisions (Beheshtifar & Zare, 2012).
Such institutional support would ultimately shape employees’ work attitude in
institutions in form of commitment or lack of it. Deductively, institutional support induces feelings
such as being important and being useful for the organization and these
feelings improve personal function of employees. Most literature as highlighted
above, have actually proved that institutional support encourages employees to work better and more effectively,
as it encourages employees to satisfy their managers and the organizational
expectations as they see the organization trying to meet their needs and
improve their working and family lives or wellbeing.
In
this vein, Fakhraei, Imami and
Manuchehri (2015), argue that when employees feel satisfied and
supported by their organization, they will try to work better and then they
will feel committed to the organization and leaving the organization would be
difficult for them. This is not often the case with librarians, as studies have
shown that most librarians in public sector have the intention to quit their
job if they find a better one unlike their counterparts in private corporate
system such as the oil and related industries for instance. Hence, Aborishade
and Obioha (2009) report that librarians in most public institutions
demonstrate lack of dedication and commitment to their organization and that
some show sign of regret and dissatisfaction and as such show lack of
commitment; and many are intending to leave if they find better offer somewhere
else. In other words, institutional
support plays salient role in employees’ job satisfaction and employees’
commitment to organization of any type
including libraries/librarians based on the relationship between
institutional support, job satisfaction and dimensions of employees’ commitment
as projected in social exchange and social identity theory.
Job satisfaction on the other part,
is made up of two words “job” and “satisfaction”. Job on one hand, is an
occupational act that is carried out by an individual in return for a reward.
It connotes what one does to receive regular payment or appreciation, while
satisfaction on the other part, is the way one feels about events, rewards,
people, relation and amount of mental gladness on the job (Somvir & Sudha, 2012; Imran, Arif, Cheem & Azeem,
2014). They alsoview
Job satisfaction as the degree of an employee affective orientation toward the
work role occupied in the organization; claiming that employees or workforce
who are satisfied with their job by reasons of several institutional factors
such as leadership, pay/salary, co-worker, promotion opportunities,
communication flow and working environment among others, feel highly committed
to their organization.
Job satisfaction and
organizational commitment are equally very important to customer or patrons’
satisfaction particularly in service-oriented organizations such as educational
institutions like the public universities which must recognize that employees’
satisfaction will go a long way toward contributing to their goal of having
happy and fulfilling students. Thus, Job
satisfaction is a frequently studied subject in work and organizational
literature in several disciplines such as psychology, sociology, economics and
management sciences. This is mainly because many experts believe that Job
Satisfaction trends can affect employment scenario and influence organizational
commitment, work effort, employees’ absenteeism and turnover. Moreover, job
satisfaction is sometimes considered among indicators as a strong predictor of
overall individual well-being (Syahputra, 2014), as well as a good predictor of
intentions or decisions of employees to leave or stay in a job depending on
prevailing management practices in such institution.
Many years ago, job satisfaction
indicators or predators are generally classified into two groups known as
intrinsic and extrinsic factors in job satisfaction literature. In Herzberg
(1959), combination of several factors as earlier pointed out, creates job
satisfaction and dissatisfaction among employees, which could be either
motivators/intrinsic or hygiene/extrinsic factors. Motivators (such as
achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility and promotion)
promotes job satisfaction; while hygiene factors (such as pay/salary,
communication with colleagues and work environment) absence could lead to
employees’ dissatisfaction but do not have direct effect on employees’ job
satisfaction.
Imran, Arif, Cheem and Azeem (2014),
suggest that improvement on the intrinsic factors (such as promotion,
achievement, recognition, advancement, work environment, leadership among
others) will lead to a higher level of motivation and satisfaction among
employees. They explained further, that extrinsic (whether the task allow the
worker to use his/her ability and initiatives), financial/pay (fringe benefit,
relationship with colleague/co-worker support and communication flow) have been
identified as the predictors of job satisfaction among employees in the place
of work as they affect/determine employees’ level of job satisfaction and
organizational commitment of employees.
A
study in telecom sector by Tariq and Nadeem (2013) also reveal that there are
different variables like leadership/supervision, salary/pay, job task,
communication and relationship with family and co-worker leads an employee
towards satisfaction or dissatisfaction that further determines employees’
organizational commitment. This makes job satisfaction an issue of substantial
importance for both employers and employees. Studies such as Syahputra (2014),
express that employers benefit from satisfied employees, as they are more
likely to profit from lower attrition and higher productivity if their
employees’ experience high level of job satisfaction. However, job satisfaction
is simply how people feel about their jobs and different aspects of their jobs.
It is the extent to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike
(dissatisfaction) their jobs.
Job satisfaction can thus be seen as
an emotional response to a job situation which cannot be seen, it can only be
inferred and regarded as how people feel about their job and different aspects
of it. It also means a positive attitude that an individual has from what he
does to earn a living. It is simply the degree to which people
(employees) like their jobs. Thus, organizations want their employees to be
satisfied to become more productive, committed and efficient (Khan, Khan &
Khan, 2010). A person such as librarians
with a high level of job satisfaction would hold positive attitudes towards the
job, while a librarian who is dissatisfied with his or her job would no doubt
hold negative attitudes about his or her job. Job satisfaction has
been the focus of many researchers measuring employees’ level of satisfaction
on organizational commitment. Job satisfaction is however a complex attitude to
understand because an array of factors has been identified as determinants, predictors
or ‘input- variables’ of job satisfaction with a variety of ‘outputs’ or
results.
Surveys on job
satisfaction abound with results showing significant influences of employees’
satisfaction factors (input- variables) on organizational commitment (output-
variables). Thus, job satisfaction is an important attribute frequently
measured by organizations. The most common way of measurement is the use of
rating scales where employees report their reactions to their jobs. In this
ambience, there is a renewed interest in the commitment level of the public
sector in many developing economies as they face a more competitive global
environment. Efforts to improve the performance/commitment level of the public
sector focus on both personal and contextual variables. The study of Sokoya
(2000) reveals that employees’ job satisfaction do affect their commitment to
work and that satisfied employees are happy and thus productive. Therefore, the
success of organizations depends on the satisfaction of their employees. The
happier people are with their job, the more satisfied and committed they are
said to be is unarguable in this respect.
Employees’ commitment or organizational commitment as interchangeably
used in existing literature is another important organizational
outcome which often results from institutional support and job satisfaction. As
institutional support theory
suggests, institutional support, which is an indicator of the organization’s
commitment to the employees, creates an obligation within the employees to care
about the organization and reciprocate with commitment and loyalty.
Institutional actions indicating caring of, fairness and concern for employees
may enhance their commitment to the organization. On the basis of the
reciprocity norm, institutional support should create a felt obligation to care
about the organization’s welfare. The obligation to exchange caring for caring
should enhance employees’ affective commitment to the personified organization.
Institutional Support should also increase affective commitment by fulfilling
such socio-emotional needs as affiliation and emotional support. Such need
fulfillment produces a strong sense of belonging to the organization, involving
the incorporation of employees’ membership and role status into their social
identity (Krishnan & Mary, 2012).
Moreover,
Daneshfard and Ekvaniyan (2012) hold that employees’ commitment is a multidimensional construct comprising
of three components: affective, continuance and normative. In this regard,
affective commitment has been described as employees’ emotional attachment to
the organization. As a result, he or she strongly identifies and desires to
remain as a part of the organization. According to them, these employees
commits to the organization because he/she wants to. Continuance commitment on
one end, has to do with one’s awareness of the cost associated with leaving the
present organization, that is, perceiving high cost of losing membership
including economic losses (such as pension accruals) and social cost (friendship
ties with co-workers) that would have to be given up. Therefore, the employee remains a member of
the organization because he/she has to.
Normative commitment
has to do with feeling of obligations to the organization based on personal
norms and values. For instance, the organization may have invested resources in
training an employee in form of institutional support, who then feels an
obligation to put forth effort on the job and stay with the organization to
repay the debt. It may also reflect an internalized norm developed before the
person joins the organization through family or other socialization processes,
that one should be loyal to one’s organization. The employee therefore stays
with the organization because he/she ought to.
Unfortunately in
Africa, particularly in a country like Nigeria, institutional support and job
satisfaction of employees that could lead to high employees’ commitment to the organization seem
to be a misplaced priority as public servants like librarians hardly devote adequate
time in pursuing library goals in their organization or institution due to one
form of dissatisfaction or the other (Aborishade & Obioha, 2009); as often
and collectively protested under the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) platform
during yearly workers day celebrations for under-care or pay. For instance,
lack of care and poor wages/salary agitation dominated the activities of the
recently celebrated world worker’s day of 1st May, 2016 celebration
in which fifty-six-thousand-naira minimum wage was demanded by NLC as against
eighteen thousand five-hundred-naira current payment (Punch, 2nd
May, 2016) often leading to one form of service failure or the other in the
Nigerian public service system. This circumstance over the years has led to the
establishment of SERVICOM (Service Compact) in 2004 under the administration of
President Olusegun Obasanjo with popular slogans such as “Challenge Bad Service
Anywhere Anytime; and Do Not Walk Away from Service Failure” (Uaboi-Egbenni,
2015).
Inspite of this form of
measures on ground, studies have shown that workers, in Nigeria, including
library personnel in academic institutions still have poor attitude to work and
exhibit poor commitment to organizational goals (Aborishade & Obioha, 2009
and Akinyemi & Ifijeh, 2012). This could be due to what Yaya (2016)
disclosed about academic librarians that they are been treated as second class
staffers in academic institutions in Nigeria. In buttressing this claim,
Abigail and Oluwatobi (2015) cite Nwosu, Ugwoegbu and Okeke (2013); Amusa,
Iyoro and Olabisi (2013) among others, who stated that there appears to be low
commitment of library personnel as mobility/high turnover has characterized
academic libraries which have resulted in low performance among library
personnel.
This could be due to poor institutional
support and high level of dissatisfaction among employees that consequently
affect their job commitment. From personal observation in some academic
libraries where the researcher had worked, there exist poor institutional
commitment to the observation of Aborishade and Obioha (2009); Abigail and
Oluwatobi (2015). Librarians in these
institutions demonstrate lack of dedication and commitment to their
organization. Some show sign of regret or dissatisfaction even in taking the
profession as career choice, as such show lack of commitment; and many are
intending to leave if they find better offer somewhere else. All these forms of
attitudes are signs of poor institutional support and dissatisfaction that
requires empirical evidence of this nature.
Moreover, the present
day librarian is expected to play a fundamental role within the university
community. These roles are teaching, research and community service towards
social, political and economic development of the country. According to Samuel
and Chipunza (2009) library personnel in carrying out their duties are expected
to be committed to the values and goals of the library in an organization,
knowing fully that without commit
