The assessment of organizational commitment of academic staff at University of Kwazulu-Natal (UKZN).

Abstract

Organisational commitment refers to as the degree which an employee finds synergy in the goals and values of an organisation and is willing to exert great effort to stay within the organisation. This study aimed to assess organizational commitment among academic staff in the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The study adopted the quantitative research design. The questionnaire survey that consists of organizational commitment items, namely affective commitment, normative commitment and continuance commitment has been utilized to collect data from the academic staff. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), was adopted to statistically analyze and interpret the data collected from the respondents.

The Organisational Commitment Model or the theoretical framework, which is the threecomponent of organizational commitment model by Allen and Meyer (1990) was used, as it is appropriate for this study. This study identified the imperative factors which influences an employee’s commitment, the organizational commitment antecedents, as well as the factors that elevate organizational commitment among employees. There were fifty academic staff from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who participated in the study.

From the analysis it was reported that from the three forms of organisational commitment, affective commitment was found to be the most significant type of organisational commitment that drives the academic staff of College of Law and Management at UKZN.” Individuals that reflected an affective orientation towards the organisation and have psychological bond between the employee and the organisation, hence; the employee identifies with the organisational values and increases job involvement of the employee in the organisation. Few participants depicted low normative commitment. This indicated that the workforce will not retain their organisational membership because of the sense of obligation hence, can seek better employment opportunities if the employer does not meet their expectation and needs. Study findings revealed a low continuance commitment level among the academic staff. These employees perceived greater employment alternatives hence, will not commit to the organisation because of the scarcity of employment however; due to the passion and the benefit accrued whilst working in the organisation.