Relationships between employee perceptions of a post merger working environment and organisational commitment : a case study of the academic staff at Thekwini FET College.

Abstract

The restructuring of South African Higher Education Insti tutions by the government has seen mergers becoming a feature amongst these institutions. The aim of these mergers was to redress past imbalances, creating synergies and promoting rationalisation of resources. Thekwini FET College was one such institution, merged out of the former Cato Manor, Durban Central and L C Johnson Technical Colleges. This research document investigates the relationship between the full time Level 1 academic staff's perception of their post merger working environment and organisational commitment. 51 staff members' were selected using a quantitative and qualitative approach in a correlation cross-sectional research design. The measuring instrument comprised of a structured questionnaire incorporating a Likert type scale and an open ended interview schedule. These instruments aimed to expose staff perceptions of their post merger working environment and levels of their organisational commitment. The findings of the research reveal that there was a strong and positive correlation between staff perceptions of their post merger working environment and organisational commitment. Staff who perceived their post merger working environment to be negative, was lowly committed to Thekwini FET College and vice versa. The general feeling from the research findings show that staff had a negative perception towards their post merger working environment and were therefore lowly committed to Thekwini FET College. Most of the reasons for these negative attitudes point to the poor management of the college. Finally, some recommendations were made to try and improve the negative attitudes of the staff towards the institution.