job satisfaction and intention to leave among lect

JOB SATISFACTION AND INTENTION TO LEAVE AMONG LECTURERS IN PRIVATE

HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS (PHEIs) IN KUALA LUMPUR

MUZAHA ASRAIN BIN MUSTAPHA

UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

2009



By


A project paper submitted to the College of Business

Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM),

in partial fulfillments of the requirement for the Degree of Masters of Human Resource

Management

2009

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PERAKUAN KERJA TESIS

(Certification of Thesis Work)

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nama penuh

full name

calon untuk ijazah

candidate for the degree of MASTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

telah mengemukakan tesisnya yang bertajuk :

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The thesis is acceptable in form and content and that a satisfactory knowledge of the field is

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i) Nama / Name : EN. MOHD GHAZALI BIN DIN

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Tarikh / Date : 01 SEPTEMBER 2009

ABSTRAK

Kajian ini mengkaji hubungan aspek kepuasan kerja dengan kecenderungan untuk berhenti

kerja di Institusi Pendidikan Tinggi Swatsa (IPTS) di Kuala Lumpur. Objektif kajian adalah untuk:

1) mengkaji tahap kepuasan kerja dan kecenderungan untuk berhenti kerja: 2) mengkaji hubungan

kepuasan kerja dengan kecenderungan untuk berhenti kerja: dan 3) mengkaji kesan kepuasan

kerja terhadap kecenderungan pensyarah untuk berhenti kerja.

Berdasarkan kepada ulasan-ulasan terdahulu, satu model hubungan telah dicadangkan dan

dikembangkan untuk mengkaji hubungan antara enam faktor dalam kepuasan kerja dengan

kecenderungan untuk behenti kerja.

Bagi menguji hubungan pembolehubah-pembolehubah di dalam model ini, data daripada 152

pensyarah di lima buah IPTS diguna-pakai. Analisis korelasi dan analisis aneka regrasi telah

dijalankan bagi menguji hubungan hipotesis-hipotesis kajian.

Analisis kolerasi telah menunjukkan satu hubungan yang signifikan dan negatif antara

keenam-enam pembolehubah kepuasan kerja dengan kecenderungan untuk berhenti kerja.

Keputusan analisis hubung-kait mencadangkan kecenderungan pensyarah untuk berhenti kerja

adalah negatif dan nyata berkait rapat dengan kepuasan terhadap penyelia, kepuasan terhadap

kepelbagaian, kepuasan dengan kawan rapat, kepuasan terhadap polisi-polisi pengurusan sumber

manusia dan kepuasan terhadap pampasan. Keputusan analisis hubungkait menunjukkan jika

faktor kepuasan kelima-lima dimensi berada pada tahap tinggi, maka kecenderungan untuk

berhenti kerja akan diimbangi. Bagaimanapun, kepuasan terhadap rakan-rakan sekerja tidak

mempengaruhi hubung-kait dengan kecenderungan untuk meletak jawatan di kalangan para

pensyarah.

Keputusan analisis aneka regresi menunjukkan bahawa antara keenam-enam faktor kepuasan

kerja, kepuasan terhadap kepelbagaian dan kepuasan terhadap penyelia adalah dua pembolehubah

utama terhadap kecendurungan untuk berhenti kerja di dalam institusi-institusi akademik dan

secara negatifnya mempengaruhi keputusan pensyarah untuk meletak jawatan. Keputusan dari

analisis hubung-kait dan analisis aneka regresi seterusnya mencadangkan bahawa pengaruh

kepuasan terhadap kepelbagaian dan kesan terhadap penyelia adalah dua kunci pembolehubah

bebas dalam mengurangkan kecenderungan pensyarah daripada meletak jawatan di IPTS di

Malaysia terutama di lokasi Kuala Lumpur.

Berdasarkan hasil kajian, cadangan-cadangan dikemukakan untuk para pengurus dan para

penggubal dasar organisasi yang terlibat dengan IPTS. Selain daripada itu, had-had batasan

terhadap kajian ini dan kajian seterusnya di masa akan datang di dalam bidang ini juga turut

dibincangkan.

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the relationship between the six facets of job satisfaction and the intention

to leave among lecturers in the Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) in Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia. The objectives of the study were 1) to examine the level of perceived job satisfaction

and intention to leave, 2) to examine the relationship between job satisfaction and intention tom

leave, 3) to examine the effect of job satisfaction in relation to lecturer’s intention to leave.

Based on the literature reviews a model of relationship was proposed and developed to examine

the relationships between the six factors of job satisfaction and intention to leave.

To test the relationship of the variables in the model, data from 152 lecturers from five PHEIs in

Kuala Lumpur, were used. To test the relationship hypotheses of the study, correlation, and

multiple regression analysis were performed.

The correlation analysis suggested a significant and negative relationship among five of the six job

satisfaction variables and the intention to leave The correlation results suggests that lecturers

intention to leave is negatively and significantly associated with satisfaction with supervisor,

satisfaction with job variety, satisfaction with closure, satisfaction with human recourse

management polices and satisfaction with compensation. The result of correlation analysis

indicates that if perceived job satisfaction of the five facets of job satisfaction is experienced at

higher level, lecturer’s intention to quit will be neutralized. However lecturer’s perceived

satisfaction with co-workers did not significantly correlated with intention to leave.

Multiple regression analysis result indicated that among the six factors of job satisfaction,

satisfaction with job variety and satisfaction with supervisor were the two main predictor variables

to lecturer’s intention to leave in the private academic institutes and significantly and negatively

influence lecturer’s intention to leave. Results from correlation and multiple regression analysis

further suggested that satisfaction with job variety and satisfaction with supervisor and satisfaction

with co-workers are three key variables to reduce the lecturer’s intention to leave in the Malaysian

private sector institutes in higher learning.

Based on the findings recommendation and suggestions for private higher education institute’s

policy makers are presented. The limitation of the study and the future research opportunities in

this area are also discussed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My utmost gratitude goes to my learned supervisor, Encik Mohd Ghazali Din for his expertise,

kindness, and patience to guide me all the time during preparing this thesis. Moreover, honestly

would say that I wouldn't be performing my Master of Human Resource Management without his

continual encouragement supports given to me. To me, he is the one of the talented lecturer that

could be interpreted very deeps between theoretical and practical-base.

My sincere thanks also goes to Wan Ahmad Asrar Wan Yahya, Wan Hisham Nor Wan Harun, Rosli

Yusof and Mejar (B) Saladin Kamarudin for support me during my studies at UUM, Kuala

Lumpur Branch. I also thank to Cybernetics International College of Technology (CICT)

especially my Managing Director (Encik Mohamad Ebrahim Mohideen), Chief Executive (Prof.

Dr. Haji Saidin Teh) and Adjunct Professor (Prof. Madya Abdul Malek Bin A.Tambi) for their

trust in me and allowing me to further studies in Human Resource Management.

Finally, I would like to thank my family: My late father (Mustapha Bin Salleh), my mother

(Norrayah Binti Awang Pil), my wife (Wan Nor Azuliana Wan Yazid) and my sons (Amir Asrain,

Bilal Asrain and Habib Asrain) to me all of them at the first place and supporting me spiritually

throughout my life.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE i

PERMISSION TO USE ii

CERTIFICATION OF THESIS WORK iii

ABSTRAK (BAHASA MALAYSIA) iv

ABSTRACT v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.0 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 BACKGROUND 1

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT 6

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 10

1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 11

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 11

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 12

1.7 THESIS OUTLINE 13

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 INTRODUCTION 16

2.1 JOB SATISFACTION 16

2.2 INTENT TO LEAVE 17

2.2.1 Job Satisfaction from Measurability Perspective 18

2.3 INTENT TO LEAVE AND JOB SATISFACTION IN EDUCATION SECTOR 22

2.4 SUMMARY 27

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0 INTRODUCTION 26

3.1THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT 26

3.1.1 Hypothesis Development 29

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 36

3.2.1 Sampling and Data Collection Procedure 37

3.2.2 Questionnaire Design 38

3.3 INSTRUMENTATION 39

3.3.1 Job Satisfaction 40

3.3.2 Intention to Leave 40

3.3.3 Demographic Information 41

3.4 RELIABILITY TESTING 41

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS 42

3.5.1 Descriptive Analyses 42

3.5.2 Correlation Analysis 42

3.5.3 Multiple Regression Analysis 43

3.6 SUMMARY 44

CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH FINDINGS

4.0 INTRODUCTION 45

4.1 BACKGROUND OF RESPONDENTS 45

4.2 RELIABILITY ANALYSIS 48

4.3 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF MAIN VARIABLES 49

4.4 CORRELATION MATRIX 57

4.5 HYPOTHESES TESTING 58

4.6 MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS 59

4.7 SUMMARY 61

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

5.0 INTRODUCTION 63

5.1 KEY FINDINGS – LEVEL OF JOB SATISFACTION AND INTENTION TO LEAVE

63

5.2 DISCUSSION FROM THE HYPOTHESES RESULTS AND FINDINGS 64

5.2.1 Relationships between Job Satisfaction and Intention to Leave 64

5.2.2 Effect of Job satisfaction on Intention to leave1 67

5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 68

5.4 RECOMMENDATION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTE’S ADMINISTARTION

69

5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 71

REFERENCES 73

APPENDIX “A” Letter and Survey Questionnaire 81

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 summarizes the instruments used for the present study 42

Table 3.2 Pearson’s r Indices of Correlation 43

Table 4.1 Respondents' Background (n = 152) 46

Table 4.2 Reliability Coefficients of the Constructs (n = 152) 48

Table 4.3 Descriptive Statistics of Variables (n = 152) 50

Table 4.4 Descriptive Results of satisfaction with supervisor (n=152) 51

Table 4.5 Descriptive results of Satisfaction with Job Variety (n = 152) 52

Table 4.6 Descriptive Results of Satisfaction with Closure (n = 152) 53

Table 4.7 Descriptive Results of Satisfaction with Compensation (n = 152) 54

Table 4.8 Descriptive Results of Satisfaction with Co-Workers (n= 152) 55

Table 4.9 Descriptive Results of Satisfaction with HR/Management Policies (n = 152) 56

Table 4.10 Descriptive Result of Intention to Leave (n = 152) 57

Table 4.11 Correlations Matrix (n = 152) 58

Table 4.12 Overall Influences of Job Satisfaction on Intention to Leave 59

Table 4.13 Influence of Each Job Satisfaction Variables on Intention to Leave 60

Table 4.14 Summary of Hypotheses Testing Results 62

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1. Outline of the thesis 13

Figure 3.1. Research model 29

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter is devoted to present the overview of the research background, where focus has

been made to introduce the topic in detail. In particular, in aims to highlight gap in the existing

literature related to the topic of job satisfaction and intention to leave among lecturers or faculty

members in private higher education institutions in Malaysia. In addition, the scope and

significance of the present study are addressed. Finally, a thesis outline is presented in a

diagrammatic form to show how different chapters of this study are relating the entire process of

research.

1.1 BACKGROUND

There are important changes occurring in Malaysian higher education either public or private

education institutions today. As Morris, Yacoob and Wood (2003) point out, these changes include

the implementation of quality standards as well as the growth in mature student entry, the

expansion of courses in the sciences, the removal of the binary divide, the reduction of student

grants, and the likelihood that students will personally have to pay more and more for their

education. Some of these changes have arisen from pressures of demand, the cultural shift in the

way in which higher education is viewed, financial pressures, structural and managerial diversity,

and diversity of university missions or emphases, among other things. These changes would

certainly lead to higher educational institutions in Malaysia towards bringing number of changes

such as implementation of high quality education systems and a n expectations of superior quality

services from faculty member, qualified and trained lecturers in all the disciplines and many other

organizational changes such as hiring and training polices in the institutes. These changes are

directly or indirectly relate to lecturer’s job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of university teachers

and may influence their intention to leave (National Higher Education Research Institute of

Malaysia, 2004)

Recent studies carried out in a number of countries have drawn attention to the degree of job

satisfaction among teachers and have shown that teachers’ work “intensification” (Hargreaves,

1994) mirrors societal trends toward overwork (Naylor, 2001). Imposed and centralized system

accountability, lack of professional autonomy, relentlessly imposed changes, constant media

criticism, reduced resources, and moderate pay all relate to low teacher satisfaction in many

developed countries around the world (van den Berg, 2002; Dinham & Scott, 1998b, 2000a; Scott

et al., 2001; Scott et al., 2003; Vandenberghe & Huberman, 1999). The report presented by

National Higher Education Research Institute of Malaysia (2004), also indicates many problems

in private higher education Institutes in Malaysia (PHIEs), among many of the issues this report

presented, one of the major issue raised in his report was the increasing turn over rate among the

private sector institutes due to many satisfaction or dissatisfaction factors such as better

compensation offered by another institutes, trainings opportunity.

The effects of these trends include declining job satisfaction, reduced ability to meet students’

needs, significant incidences of psychological disorders leading to increased absenteeism, and

high level of claims for stress-related disability (Troman & Woods, 2000). Most importantly,

though, teacher dissatisfaction appears to be a main factor in teachers leaving the profession in

many countries like Malaysia (National Higher Education Research Institute of Malaysia, 2004;

Vandenberghe & Huberman, 1999; Woods et al., 1997).

Since new management approaches such a as creating value and satisfaction to consumers

through creating learning organization (Senege, 1990), seek constant development by placing the

human factor in the foreground, and since institutions can only progress based on the views,

attitudes, and perceptions of their human resources, the number of studies related to employee

satisfaction has increased very rapidly (Vandenberghe & Huberman, 1999; Jenkins, 1993).

Although most of the research in this field has been made related to profit making industrial and

service organization, there has been a growing interest in employee satisfaction in higher

education, especially related to quality management, all over the world since the beginning of

1990s. The reason for this growing interest is the reality that higher education institutions are labor

intensive. Their budgets are predominately devoted to personal and their effectiveness is largely

dependent on their employees. Therefore, satisfaction of the employees in higher education

institutions is very important. Although there is an increasing interest in employee satisfaction in

higher education sector, it is clear that the majority of the dominant theoretical and empirical work

in this field is concentrated in the west and shaped mainly by North American and Western

European influence, for example (Kanji & Tambi, 1999;Hargreaves, 1994). Hardly ever has any

research been done in other parts of the world, that is, in developing or underdeveloped countries

on this subject. Therefore, more research is needed to understand the satisfaction of the staff

particularly teachers in higher education in developing or less developed country. So, in a way,

this studies aims to fill the gap in this field in developing country. Thus, the result of this study

will give a new perspective to the findings of the previous studies on the issue of employee

satisfaction in higher education in Malaysian perspective in a somewhat different culture.

According to Koustelos (2001) and Morris et al (2003), one major reason for conducting

research on job satisfaction is that positive or negative attitudes effects towards largely to the

many forms of organizational behavior. The topic of job satisfaction is also important because of

its implications for job related behaviours such as productivity, absenteeism or turnover.

Therefore, apart from its humanitarian utility, it appears to make economic sense to consider

whether and how job satisfaction can be improved. Evidence shows a relationship between low

job satisfaction and intent to leave (Samad, 2006; Zurn, Dal Poz, Stillwell, & Adams, 2004).

While existing studies generally focus on one concept or on the relationship between two

concepts, very few documented studies explore the relationship between the job satisfaction of

lecturers/faculty members in private higher education institutions (PHEIs) and intent to leave,

particularly in countries suffering from knowledge workers shortages. (Moris et al, 2003). While

recognizing the importance of the job satisfaction, it is the objective of this study to investigate

how this phenomenon is related to faculty or school of studies of the university or colleges in

higher education learning in private sector.

The aim of this research is therefore to examine the job satisfaction factors, which contribute

to faculty member’s intention to leave. Moore (2002) gives an argument to the Herzberg et al.,

(1959) expounded the dual factor theory of job satisfaction, which states that there are two groups

of factors, which determine job satisfaction or job dissatisfaction.

According to Moore (2002), Herzberg’s (1966) two-factor theory suggests that only job

content-related facets (e.g. achievement, responsibility, the work itself) lead to satisfaction. On the

other hand, job context-related factors (e.g. pay, security, working conditions) lead to job

dissatisfaction but not to satisfaction. As pointed out by Moore, the two-factor theory is not

entirely clear, and there are, at least, five possible interpretations of the theory. Indeed, several

reviews of the Herzberg related literature have cast serious doubt about the validity of his theory

(House &Wigdor, 1967). However it is very important to observe that the many contextual related

factors of this theory such as pay, working conditions are found to be the core factor of

dissatisfaction or satisfaction among teachers in education institutes (Scott & Dinham, 2001;

Shann , 1998).

Recently, Quarstein et al. (1992) posit the situational occurrences theory of job satisfaction,

which contends that job satisfaction is determined by two factors, as does Herzberg’s theory.

However, as the authors indicate, this is the only similarity between the two theories.

The situational occurrences theory argues that job satisfaction is a function of situational

occurrences and situational characteristics and that any given factor, e.g. pay or recognition, can

result in either job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. It does not distinguish between job content or job

context-related. In this study using a situational occurrence theory, a survey questionnaire

developed by wood et al., (1988) is used to capture the employee’s job satisfaction, which can

relates to their intention to leave.

There have been many studies done in different working set up for example evidence for a

relationship between employee’s shortage and low job satisfaction, a relationship between low job

satisfaction and intent to leave and a relationship between low job satisfaction in sales profession

(Sagar, 1994) and employee migration in health care profession (Shields and Ward 2001). While

existing studies generally focus on one concept or on the relationship between two concepts, very

few documented studies explore the relationship between faculty’s job satisfactions, intent to

leave, particularly in countries suffering from faculty shortages. In Malaysia according to National

Higher Education Research Institute of Malaysia (2004), reports that private higher education

institute (PHIEs) are facing serious turn over problems among faculty members and currently it is

at the rate of 4 percent, however it is expected to increase by 7 to 9 percent or even more in the

future.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Globalisation – above all, in terms of the increased mobility of capital, the integration of

markets, and rapid technological change has presented individual nations with stark challenges, to

compete or to try to secure a position as a “high-wage, high skill” economy, as opposed to a “low

wage, low skill” one. Crucial to achieving the “high road” is a high level of flexibility through the

optimal utilization of human resources (Storey, 1995), which, in turn, calls for an effective

national skills development infrastructure. Based on Storey (1995) thoughts on globalization and

it overall impact on nation’s economy, it is obvious reality that any industry based nation’s

economy is dependable on highly skilled human resources in Sciences and Technology. For this

purpose education institutions in the country and its faculty play a crucial role in developing

skilled human resources. The Malaysian Government’s stated aim of securing the nation’s place

amongst the industrialized countries by the year 2020 has received wide support from all the

Government’s agencies and the private sector as well. In line with the Government call, the

institutions of higher learning in Malaysia have developed their strategy and policy to meet the

demand for graduates of high caliber and professionalism that will be vital in the growth towards a

modern economy. However the Government has often expressed its concern at the high turnover

of academic staff in higher education institution (National Higher Education Research Institute of

Malaysia, 2004; Morris et al, 2003). National Higher Education Research Institute of Malaysia

(2004) presented a research report on the issues and problems in private higher education institutes

in Malaysia. According to the report, nearly 4 percent of the faculty members leave the institutes

in private sector. The report further alarm that this turn over rate among the teachers in PHEIs or

IPTS will increase further to nearly 9 percent. The reason for the increase of this turn over rate

was reported by mentioning the satisfaction factors surveyed in this study. The findings of this

report further suggested that among many factors training opportunity, high standards expectation

(high teaching loads), compensation and working conditions were the major factors to quite the

institutions in IPTS.

There is a lack of studies that investigate whether predictors of intent to leave in Malaysia are

different from such factors in other regions or countries. In fact, quite a few studies have been

conducted among Malaysian workforce in knowledge based sector and intent to leave to asses

how job satisfaction as a single independent variable influence intent to leave (Samad, 2006;

Pearson & Chong, 1997). However, these studies mainly investigated job satisfaction by looking

primarily into a single job satisfaction construct; not many have considered different facets of job

satisfaction (Boles et al., 2003). To accurately measure job satisfaction, a number of characteristics

of the job may need to be evaluated if one hopes to obtain a broad measure of employee beliefs

and attitudes about the job (Churchill et al., 1974). Therefore this study is significant to the body

of knowledge that relates different facets of job satisfaction and intent to leave study in Malaysian

private higher education institutes (PHEIs), which is undergoing enormous structural changes and

reform (Ministry of Higher Education, 2008).

These 2020 reform initiatives have created a very challenging and to some extent turbulent

practice environment for teaching or academic staff in this sector that is bound to impact on their

work satisfaction and teaching freedom. Measuring work satisfaction of these teaching staffs is

therefore important in assessing whether they are making a successful transition to this new

environment, as well as being an essential part of the process of ensuring high quality education

and learning at tertiary level. Dissatisfied providers not only create unstable organizations and

give poorer quality, less efficient services (George & Jones, 1996), there is also evidence of a

positive correlation between services providers’ such as employees’ satisfaction and customer

satisfaction (Taber & Alliger, 1995), and compliance (Weisman & Nathanson, 1985). Low work

satisfaction may also have cost implications in the form of high absenteeism and turnover, low

morale and lower productivity (Mullins, 1999). Work satisfaction is also cited as an important

determinant of where and for whom employees intended to practice (Tag & Gilbert, 1995), as well

as their intention to quit their profession, thus making it an important goal for the recruitment and

retention of employees (Shaan, 1998; US Department of Education, 1997).

Despite the importance of lecturer’s work satisfaction from a Higher Education Institutions

(HEIs) outcomes perspective and its importance, as a management goal and policy indicator, the

prevalence and predictors of career satisfaction among private sector Universities/Colleges in

Malaysia have not been comprehensively studied as mentioned earlier in this section. In contrast,

several studies emanating predominantly from the US have shown how employees satisfaction is

related to intent to leave (National Higher Education Research Institute of Malaysia, 2004; Haas et

al., 2000; McMurray, Linzer & Konrad, 2000), to practice structures (Barr, 1995), and to the

various management and cost control strategies employed by administrators and founders (Hadley,

Mitchell & Sulmasy, 1999). Consistent with the lack of empirical studies findings in Malaysian

education sector and the HEIs lecturer’s satisfaction, a new study would likely contribute to the

practical as well as theoretical significance of the relationship between job satisfaction and the

Faculty’s intention to leave in Malaysian higher education sector.

Consistent with overall discussion so far, therefore this study seeks to answer following

questions in a relatively new research setting and hopes to achieve some specific objectives. The

following section discusses research questions and the objective of the study.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Consistent with the discussion so far, this study seeks to answer the following questions on

teaching professionals’ job satisfaction:

1. What is the level (score) of reported job satisfaction and intention to leave among the

participating lecturer’s in PHEIs?

1. Is there any significant relationship between the six facets of job satisfaction and lecturer’s

intention to leave in PHEIs?

1. Which factors(s) of job satisfaction influence the lecturer’s intention to leave in PHEIs?

1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Are lecturers in Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) satisfied with their jobs?

According to Locke (1976), job satisfaction generally implies a positive evaluation of work and a

positive effect deriving from it, that is, it is a “positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal

of one’s job or job experiences” (as cited in Boles et al., 2003, p. 312). Utilizing survey data from

the PHEIs in Malaysia, this research analyzes the nature and scope of job satisfaction, with the

objective of identifying its relationship to faculty’ intention to leave the current job or Institute.

The following objectives of the study are:

1. To examine the level of reported job satisfaction and intention to leave among the

participating lecturers in PHEIs.

1. To investigate the association or relationship between job satisfaction and lecturer’s intention

to leave in PHEIs.

1. To examine the influence of the six facets of job satisfaction on lecturer’s intention to leave in

PHEIs .

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

To my understanding and knowledge, this study is unique in that it looks at the private higher

education sector in a developing economy in Asia Pacific region. However, the scope of this study

is limited to Malaysian private HEIs. Private higher education institutes (PHEIs) in Kuala Lumpur

area is the major focus in this study and questionnaires are distributed to the full time lecturers of

the randomly selected Colleges/Universities. While the finding of this research may be limited to

the HEIs in private sector, it is reasonable to expect that some form of generalization of the study’s

findings are possible since HEIs in Malaysia professional complies with the Malaysian standards

and code of conducts of teaching in private sector and hence the findings to some extent may

reflect the teaching profession’s experience all over Malaysia.

See I wrote to “some extent” you can explain to Mr Gazali, this is reseach and we can still be

carefull making our statement of generalization.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research study tests and investigates empirical evidence of the relationship between

different facets of job satisfaction and intention to leave, if any. The study further validates the

relationship that perceptions of work have significant bearings on how people respond to their

work environment, and in this case to their intention to leave.

From the practical point of view, this study is of significance in the private higher education

institutes (PHEIs) as it attempts to provide an insight to the management or policy makers in the

HEIs to adopt strategies to facilitate faculty members or lecturers to maintain their relationship not

only with their profession but also with the institute and hence to overcome high turn over and

reduce further shortage of qualified faculty members/lecturers in the country either nowadays or in

the future.

1.7 THESIS OUTLINE

Figure 1.1. Outline of the thesis

Figure 1.1 illustrates the structure of this research based on the content of the individual

chapters. The arrows in Figure 1.1 indicate how the chapters are linked to each other. In chapter

one, the background of the study is discussed to understand the purpose of the study. A brief

review of the literature on job satisfaction will be discussed with the understanding of how

perceived job satisfaction is related to intention to leave. The chapter identifies two important

variables of the study that is job satisfaction as independent variable and the intention to leave of

employees as dependent variable. In this chapter research statement, questions, objectives, scope

and significance of the study are clearly discussed.

In chapter two, literature on job satisfaction is reviewed in relation to the various aspects of

organization characteristics to find that how these factors related to job satisfaction and intention

to leave. A summary of the previous findings is also presented in this chapter.

In chapter three, based on literature review, the research model and a theoretical framework

are developed and research hypotheses are discussed. The conceptualization and operationalisation

of the concept and methodological issues are further elucidated in detail. Research approach,

research strategy, and research design to sampling, measurement and data analysis are discussed in

detail. The next chapter i.e. chapter four contains the major empirical part of the study that covers

data collection, data recording, data presentation and data analysis. This chapter is devoted to the

analysis, discussion and interpretation of the empirical findings that result in answering the

research problem and test the hypothesis, and presentation of the hypotheses results to answer

research questions.

Finally chapter five provides a summary of the most important empirical and theoretical

findings. Evaluation, revision and interpretation of the empirical findings are also discussed in this

section. Implications for practitioners and policy makers and for future research are provided on

the basis of the findings as well as the limitations of the present research.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter aims to provide evidence of the selected literature review on intention to leave

and job satisfaction among employees to help in the development of a theoretical framework for

this research. In this chapter, a relevant literature reviews is conducted in a systematic manner to

unfold the disciplines of job satisfaction and empirical studies of job satisfaction in a working

environment related to leaving intentions.

Dependent variable discussed first followed by six factes of job satisfaction as IV

2.1 INTENT TO LEAVE

According to researchers such as Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) and Igbaria and Greenhaus

(1992), intentions are, the most immediate determinants of actual behavior. They are also of

practical value from a research perspective, as once people have actually implemented the

behavior to quit, there is little likelihood of gaining access to them to understand their prior

situation. The validity of studying intentions in the workplace can also be drawn from Sagar’s

(1994) longitudinal study of salespeople, in which intention to quit was found to differentiate

effectively between leavers and non-leavers. However, while it is reasonable to argue that

intentions are an accurate indicator of subsequent behavior, little is known what determines such

intentions.

Numerous researchers have attempted to answer the question of what determines people’s

intention to quit by investigating possible antecedents of employees’ intentions to quit (Kalliath &

Beck, 2001; Kramer, McGraw, & Schuler, 1997). While actual quitting behavior is the primary

focus of interest to employers and researchers, intention to quit is argued to be a strong substitute

indicator for such behavior. In his study, Moore (2002) found that lack of job satisfaction are

among the factors that contribute to people’s intention to quit their jobs; however, it is important

both from the Higher Education Institute’s manager’s and the individual’s perspective to

understand which factors job satisfaction are related to intention to quit in teaching profession.

A recent survey based report in Malaysian context has been done by the National Higher

Education Research (2004), found that in private higher education institutes, the rate of actual

leave in institutes in Malaysia is nearly 4 percent. However the study further investigates the

factors influencing the intention to leave in Malaysian private higher education sector (IPTS). This

study found that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction factors such pay, working conditions, teaching

workloads, training opportunities for faculty members were the key motivator or de-motivator

factor for either stay in the institutes or leave the institutes. Therefore, it is clear that teacher’s

intention to leave is related to job satisfaction (Robbins, 2005).

2.2 JOB SATISFACTION

Recent studies carried out in a number of countries have drawn attention to then degree of job

satisfaction among teachers or lecturers in both school and university/college levels and have

shown that teachers’ work “growth” (Morris et al 2003; Hargreaves, 1994) mirrors societal trends

toward overwork (Naylor, 2001). Imposed and centralized system accountability, lack of

professional autonomy, relentlessly imposed changes, constant media criticism, reduced resources,

and moderate pay all relate to low teacher satisfaction in many developed countries around the

world (Van den Berg, 2002; Dinham & Scott, 1998b, 2000a; Scott et al., 2001; Scott et al., 2003;

Vandenberghe & Huberman, 1999).

Trends include job satisfaction, reduced ability to meet students’ needs, significant incidences

of psychological disorders leading to increased absenteeism, and high level of claims for stress-

related disability

The effects of these trends include declining job satisfaction, reduced ability to meet students’

needs, significant incidences of psychological disorders leading to increased absenteeism, and

high level of claims for stress-related disability (Troman & Woods, 2000). Most importantly,

though, teacher dissatisfaction appears to be a main factor in teachers leaving the profession in

many countries (Huberman, 1993; Woods et al., 1997). Thus, research into teacher satisfaction is

becoming more and more important given not only that a growing number of teachers leave the

profession but also that dissatisfaction is associated with decreased productivity (Tshannen-Moran

et al., 1998).

In terms of definitions, there is no generally agreed upon definition of teacher job satisfaction

or of what constitutes teacher satisfaction although there might be some international trends such

as, the notion that teachers are most satisfied by matters intrinsic to the role of teaching: student

achievement, helping students, positive relationships with students and others, self growth and so

on (van den Berg, 2002; Dinham & Scott, 2002). In generally, though, it is argued that context

seems to be the most powerful predictor of overall satisfaction (Dinham & Scott, 1999, 2000a, b).

As Cherniss (1995, p. 166), points out: “People can make their lives better or worse but what they

think, how they feel and what they do are strongly shaped by the social contexts in which they

live”.

2.2.1 Job Satisfaction from Measurability Perspective

Boles et al., (2003) defined job satisfaction as the result of the worker’s appraisal of the degree

to which the work environment fulfills the individual’s need. This definition clearly indicates that

the worker’s evaluation of work task, work environment, freedom in work, opportunities provided

and the benefits are provides are few of the most important needs a worker may perceive toward

job satisfaction.

Many studies investigating job satisfaction have looked primarily into a single job satisfaction

construct. Not many have considered different facets of job satisfaction (Boles et al., 2003). To

accurately measure “job satisfaction”, a number of characteristics of the job may need to be

evaluated if one hopes to obtain a broad measure of employee beliefs and attitudes about the job

(Churchill et al., 1974). These characteristics or facets may not be of equal importance to every

individual. For example, an employee may indicate that he is very satisfied with his supervisor,

salary and company policies, but is dissatisfied with other aspects of work, such as the actual work

itself. Organizational research indicates that employees develop attitudes toward such job facets as

work variety, pay, promotion, co-workers, company policies, and supervisors (Johnson & Johnson,

2000; Taber & Alliger, 1995).

One of the most comprehensive and widely used measures for job satisfaction is presented by

Wood, Chonko, and Hunt (1986) and Purani & Sahadev (2007). In this study job satisfaction is

characterized as a multidimensional and it has six major facets namely i) satisfaction with

supervisor, ii) satisfaction with variety, iii) satisfaction with closure, iv) satisfaction with

compensation, v) satisfaction with co-workers, and vi) satisfaction with management and Human

Resource (HR) policies.

In this section definitions of six facets of job satisfaction is presented, however a separate

section in chapter three section 3.1.1 is discussed these factors with intention to leave

Satisfaction with Supervisor

According to Wood et al., (1986), this facet of the job satisfaction determines the level of job

satisfaction on the basis of employees’ perception on how much are they satisfied with the

information or guidelines provided to them by their supervisors to carry out their job.

Satisfaction with Variety

Satisfaction with variety is another dimension of job satisfaction, whereby employees perceive

the level of satisfaction by having variety of tasks such as challenging but not routine. This also

helps them to perceive that there are a lot of opportunities available for them to grow in the

organization. Furthermore this dimension also measures the employee perception of job

satisfaction through the level of perceived freedom in job.

Satisfaction with Closure

Satisfaction with closure is the dimension of perceives job satisfaction, which determines how

an employee perceives his/her job as a source of opportunity that provides him/her enough

opportunity to complete the work from start to finish it.

Satisfaction with Compensation

Compensation is one of the most extrinsic indicators of job satisfaction. This dimension

determines the level of job satisfaction of employees by knowing how much they are satisfied

with the pay or compensation or any other security their jobs have provided to them. Churchill et

al., (1974) consider compensation as one among the dimensions of job satisfaction among sales

people. Satisfaction with the compensation plan would therefore inevitably influence an

employee’s inclination to leave. However, the extent to which an employee who is satisfied with

the compensation package will stay back would also depend on his/her overall assessment of

various factors like the compensation package in other organization in relation to the work load

and the possibility of getting better compensation packages.

Satisfaction with Co-workers

Satisfaction with co-workers is the dimension of perceived job satisfaction, which determines

how an employee perceives his/her job accomplishment by the support or the presence of his/her

co-worker’s attitude and behavior such as selfishness, friendly or supportive (Purani & Sahadev,

2007).

Satisfaction with Management and HR Policies

A major dimension of job satisfaction that emerged from Purani and Sahadev’s research (2007)

provided a factor of job satisfaction, which relate to the overall satisfaction with the human

resources policies and strategies of the organization. This is often verbalized in terms of such

statements like “This company always acts for the well being of its personnel” or “I am satisfied

with the overall working conditions”. This is a reflection of the trust in the organization’s

inclination in favor of its employees. Purani and Sahadev (2007) and US Department of Education

study’s (1997) argued that while issues like supervisory behavior and compensation form part of

the micro issues regarding an employee’s engagement with the organization, the overall policies

and strategies regarding the personnel is associated with a macro perspective with regard to the

person’s evaluation of the organization. For instance, even if a particular supervisor is fair and

empathetic, if the overall policies of the organization with regard to personnel are not up to the

satisfaction level of the employee need, he/she may be inclined to quit.

In this study these dimensions or facets of the job satisfaction are under investigation as

independent variables because they represent a comprehensive measure of job satisfaction at

workplace. Furthermore, these facets are related closely to the working conditions lecturers’

experience.

2.3 INTENT TO LEAVE AND JOB SATISFACTION IN EDUCATION SECTOR

Malaysia is currently facing a serious and critical shortage of qualified and well-trained faculty

members/lecturers in order to meet the rapidly growing education requirements (National Higher

Education Research Institute of Malaysia, 2004; Lee & Mitchell, 1994). Buckley, Schneider and

Shang (2004) categorizes factors behind the intention to leave and intention to migration i.e.

attrition. These categories are teacher factors, institution factors and community factors. Salaries,

benefits and course preparation are in teacher factors. Institution factors include working

conditions, availability of resources and responsibility while community factors related to

government policy about institution, budget, authority and regulations. Job satisfaction of faculty

members can be interconnected with rewards for excellence, nature of the job, opportunities for

promotion and growth (Lumsden, 1998). If above factors do not fulfill according to faculty

members perception, either this perception maintain professionalism or nor, then it open the

window of intention to leave and even intention to migration elsewhere.

Turnover intention included intention to leave and intention to migration the intention of an

employee for looking forward the available alternative jobs in other place or other job or in other

country. It can be measured by examining the interest of an employee in current job, current

availability of alternative jobs and availability of alternative jobs in near future (Pasewark &

Strawser, 1996). Khatri et al., (2001) take job satisfaction with three perspectives i.e. satisfaction

with salary/pay, supervision and type of work. Moreover, this study also shows that negative

relationship between proposed three perspectives of job satisfaction with employee turnover

intentions. Similarly, the recent study by National Higher Education Research Institute of

Malaysia (2004), also confirmed that in Malaysian private sector institutes, teachers intent to leave

is negatively related to better offer in other IPTS or IPTA, working conditions, training

opportunities and teaching work load. The report also documented that due to these factors the

turn over rate at present is 4 percent which is going to be increased in the future by 7 to 9 percent.

Another recent study by Morris et al (2003) in Malaysian context also reveals that compensation is

a key factor for motivation of teachers in higher education institutes in Malaysia.

The relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intentions is also investigate by Koh

and Goh in 1995 and classified job satisfaction in eight major classes. These are working

conditions, colleague’s behaviour, salary, management, organization’s reputation, nature of work,

amount of work and career growth. DeVaney and Chen (2003) also introduced demographic

factors like age, gender, race and education in the field of faculty member’s attitude. However,

these factors are not strongly correlated with job satisfaction. It has been noticed that employees of

educational institutions prefer working environment, which allow them to use their all-mental

skills (Robbins, 1991). Young and less experienced faculty members leave their profession within

first five years at an alarming rate of 40% (US Department of Education, 1993). This situation

creates anxiety in old faculty members, which later also change their intention to leave their

profession because they are not at the position to leave their profession.

A considerable step taken by Mobley (1977) when he introduced a concept that turnover

(intention to leave & intention to migration) was a complete process. The decision of leave or

migration from the academic institution is the final action which comes forward after a series of

steps that leads to the intention to leave or intention to migration. Each individual analyze his self-

expectation chart before making a decision of leaving or migration. George & Jones (1996) sort

out self-expectation chart in three categories value attainment (how an individual evaluate relative

standards and its values), life satisfaction (the extent to which an individual satisfy with his life)

and positive feelings of an individual with his experiences. Mobley (1977) proposed that turnover

related to main four dimensions from where we understand the proposed turnover process given

by Mobley. These four dimensions are job satisfaction-dissatisfaction, utility of alternative internal

work, utility of external work and values of off-work activities.

Zembylas and Papanastasiou (2004), describe job satisfaction is a behavioral cycle. The

relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intentions is a complicated process. In normal

routine, a person is likely to leave his organization when he is dissatisfied. The measurement of

dissatisfaction depends upon available conditions and varies from country to country even

organization to organization.

Organizational commitment indicates the employee’s attitude of belongingness towards his/her

organization (Robbins, 2005), and therefore, it always remains the major concern in research

bodies to describe the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intentions of an

employee. Naylor (2001) study explores the negative relationship between commitment and

turnover intentions. Numerous scholars like (Khatri, 2001), Davies (1994) and Tett & Meyer

(1993), gave organizational commitment as an important predictor of turnover intentions. The

wikipedia general definition of organizational commitment is ‘the psychological attachment and

association to the organization’. Organizational commitment with reference to an employee can be

divided in three dimensions. According to Moore (2002), first one is the emotional commitment of

an employee to organization. Second one is the continuance commitment of an individual and last

one is normative commitment, which deals the individual behavior with the feelings of

responsibilities to the organization.

When issue of intention to leave is discussed among teaching professions in education sector

in developing country, then an issue of teacher’s intent to leave the country is also a corresponding

issue. A miniature literature review is available on the intention of migration of academic

professionals. The surge of academic professionals from all over the world has been exaggerated

by the globalization of higher education. Mostly academic professional’s migration takes place

from developing countries to developed countries. The factors behind these intentions identify by

Ong, Chang and Evans (1992). A big percentage of academic professionals move from poor to

rich countries and the chief motive of this migration is to increase their income (Ong, Chang &

Evans, 1992). Salary discrepancy is the basic reason of academic professional’s migration but this

is not the only reason because some migrations have also been seen for growth and career

development.

However, there is no accepted standard to measure the employee turnover intentions rate that

why people choose to leave the job (Lee & Mitcher, 1994). Employee turnover function consists

of different psychological states (Mobley, 1977; Tett & Meyer, 1993) and availability of

alternative jobs (Norton & Kelly, 1997), which finally turnaround the scenario of job satisfaction

to intention to leave and intention to migration. The relationship between intention to leave and

intention to migration with tenure is very complicated. But it may be the most important factor of

turnover of the employee (Mobley, 1977).

It may be advantageous for an individual but it is a considerable loss especially for the

economy of fastest developing countries like Malaysia. Another aspect of shortage of qualified

faculty members is the scholarship scheme for professionals given by the Malaysia Government

especially Ministry of Education. It is a good initiative for making standards of high education in

universities but the harsh and true side of this picture is that the most of them do not even able to

complete the course/program and come back with the completion of the program.

2.4 SUMMARY

The second chapter of the study has reviewed the relevant literature of job satisfaction to build

an in-depth understanding for the theoretical implication of the concept of job satisfaction, which

is considered as one of the greatest concerns of the modern business to sustain their workforce.

This chapter has also reviewed the literature of job satisfaction from various researches setting to

review and understand the ongoing research in the field of job satisfaction with relation to

employee’s attitude to intent to leave, especially among university lecturers.

This chapter also helps to develop the understanding of the subject area and the issues relevant

to job satisfaction and its relationship to employee’s intention to leave framework for the next

chapter (chapter 3).

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0 INTRODUCTION

The main purpose of this research is to examine the perceived level of job satisfaction and its

relationship to intention to leave among faculty members/lecturers. This chapter contains the

following sections relating to methodology: (i) theoretical framework and hypotheses

development, (ii) research design, (iii) instrumentation, (iv) reliability testing (v) analysis of data,

and vi) chapter summary.

3.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT

After careful consideration of the research questions and objectives of this study, and review

of relevant literature in chapter two, the theoretical framework and research model is developed,

and hypotheses are formulated to identify and test the relationship between the various variables

identified (see Figure 3.1). Based on the literature review presented earlier, certain investigative

relationships among the study variables are accomplished.

Figure 3.1. Research model

The six factors constituted as variable job satisfaction, which is an independent variable, and

which is associated to one dependent variable intention to leave for lecturers.

3.1.1 Hypothesis Development

Many research studies in working environment confirmed that employee’s intention to leave

has been negatively associated or related to job satisfaction (Brown, & Peterson, 1994; Jenkins,

1993). Various studies on academic staff’s job satisfaction provided insight that why teachers are

inclined to leave the job (Zembylas & Papanastasiou, 2003; Norton & Kelly, 1997).

As indicated earlier, there are six main facets of job satisfaction proposed to have an influence

on intention to leave. These facets are i) satisfaction with supervisor, ii) satisfaction with variety,

iii) satisfaction with closure, iv) satisfaction with compensation, v) satisfaction with co-workers

and vi) satisfaction with management and HR policies. The following will explain how each facet

of job satisfaction is related to intention to leave to develop the hypotheses for this study.


Pearson and Chong (1997) also examined the impact of job contents or the job variety and job

information provided by supervisors to perform the employee’s job on organization commitment

and job satisfaction among Malaysian Information Technology (IT) Managers in large private

sector. They found that job information provided by supervisors is stronger predictor to

employee’s job satisfaction and therefore argued that intrinsic factors such as job information

provided by supervisors and the contents or the variety of job (perceived career development and

opportunities by performing a particular job) also influence employee’s job satisfaction.

Kohli (1989) argued that the behavior and attitude of the supervisor was one of the main

components of job satisfaction. In a recent study of Purani and Sahadev (2007), several sales

persons stated very explicitly their positive (negative) feelings about the supervisor as an

important dimension of their satisfaction with the job. An employee can be assumed to be very

sensitive about the quality of supervision. At low levels of satisfaction with the supervision, a

lecturer can be expected to be much more inclined to leave. According to Vroom's theory of

motivation (1964) employees believe that effort will lead to performance and performance will

lead to rewards. Rewards may be either positive or negative. The more positive the reward the

more likely the employee will be highly motivated. Conversely, the more negative the reward the

less likely the employee will be motivated and may feel to leave the organization for better

compensation and reward.

Similarly, according to Adams’s Theory (1965), if employees perceive inequity, they would

feel less motivated and may intend to leave. Hence the following hypothesis is offered.

H1: Satisfaction with supervisor will be negatively related to intention to leave among lecturers.

Satisfaction with Variety

This dimension is associated with the perceived satisfaction with the extent to which the

employee is able to apply him/herself skills and gets opportunities to grow while performing a

job/task. The opportunities dimension through task variety used by Churchill et al., (1974) comes

close to this construct. But this construct is also related to the extent to which the employee feels

that his skills are adequately utilized and are given opportunities to grow. While this aspect of job

satisfaction is bound to critically affect the intention to leave, the effect of lecturer’s experience to

intend to quit cannot be ruled out (Behrman & Perreault, 1984).

Thus, at high levels of satisfaction with job variety, freedom, and career opportunity available

through the tasks performed, a lecturer would be stronger in their resolve to stay in the

organization (Dinham & Scott, 2000; Evans, 1998, 2001; Purani & Sahadev, 2007). At lower

levels of satisfaction with this attribute, an employee would be the first to leave if they may have a

good idea about better opportunities available through the job variety. Thus the following

hypothesis is offered.

H2: Satisfaction with variety will be negatively related to intention to leave among lecturers.


Wood et al., (1986) explained satisfaction with closure, as one of the dimensions of perceives

job satisfaction, which determines how an employee perceives his/her job as a source of

opportunity that provides him/her enough opportunity to complete the work from start to finish.

Reasons for academic staff’s dissatisfaction have been well documented in the literature. Among

the many reasons lack of flexibility in scheduling and freedom at work to perform task effectively

is also one of the major reason for academic dissatisfaction (Cherniss,1995).

Dinham, and Scott, (1997) found that information available to perform employees job, for

example scheduling, proper documentation, resources such as overhead projectors, case studies,

multimedia and other information/guidelines and so on is important to ensure that they have

enough opportunity to complete effectively their tasks from beginning to the end is negatively

associated with employee’s intention to leave. Therefore the following hypothesis is offered:

H3: Satisfaction with closure will be negatively related to intention to leave among lecturers.


Lower compensation is one of the factors of job dissatisfaction can cause employees to leave

and to find the better job that could provide higher compensation (Scott, 2000a, b, 2002; Scott et

al., 2001; Churchill et al., 1974). Satisfaction with the compensation plan would therefore

inevitably influence a lecturer’s inclination to leave (Scott et al., 2001; US Department of

Education, 1997).

However, the extent to which an employee who is satisfied with the compensation package

will stay back would also depend on her/his overall assessment of various factors like the

compensation package in other organization in relation to the work load, the possibility of getting

better compensation packages and etc. Hence, a lecturer’s perceived level of higher levels of

satisfaction with compensation package will influence his/her strength of reluctance to quit will be

much more lesser than that of his/her counterpart, who are dissatisfied with the current

compensation package in the academic institute (US Department of Education, 1997). Hence the

following hypothesis is offered.

H4: Satisfaction with compensation will be negatively related to intention to leave among

lecturers.


Similarly satisfaction with co-workers is another dimension of perceived job satisfaction,

which determines how an employee perceives his/her job accomplishment by the support or the

presence of his/her co-worker’s attitude and behavior such as selfishness, friendly or supportive.

Purani and Sahadev (2007) found a negative correlation between employee’s satisfaction with co-

workers and intention to leave. Lee and Mitchell (1994) indicate that though approaches to the

study of turnover differ, most include the possibility that turnover is motivated by the disaffection

of the individual with some aspect of the work environment including the job, co-workers, or

organization.

A number of studies conducted in a variety of settings support a relationship between

organizational trust and intention to leave (Cunningham & MacGregor, 2000). It seems that when

trust exists within an organization, then motivational and decision-making processes result in felt

support, attachment and a willingness to stay (Tan & Tan, 2000). Earlier studies have generally

used managers, supervisors or the organization itself as their trust referent. To date there has been

a marked lack of attention given to the exploration of co-worker trust and intent to leave. Co-

worker trust may be associated with lowered intention to leave for similar reasons as

organizational trust motivates people to stay. The increased collaboration, connection, and

effective communication stemming from trust in co-workers would most likely lead to positive

social networks, feelings of support, greater attachment and socio-emotional satisfaction. These

outcomes could conceivably be manifested in lowered intention. Hence the following hypothesis

is offered.

H5: Satisfaction with co-workers will be negatively related to intention to leave among lecturers.

Satisfaction with Management and HR Policies

Norton and Kelly (1997) argued that poor management and policies may also lead to job

burnout and stress and ultimately lecturer’s intent to leave. A recent study by Purani and Sahadev

(2007) found a major dimension of job satisfaction that emerged from their depth interviews with

sales persons, was the overall satisfaction with the Human Resources policies and strategies of the

organization.

They argued that it is often verbalized in terms of such statements like “This company always

acts for the well being of its personnel” or the “I am satisfied with the overall working

conditions”. This is a reflection of the trust in the organization’s inclination in favor of its

employees (Purani & Sahadev, 2007).

Purani and Sahadev (2007) further explained that the informed employees tend to scrutinize

the strategy of their present organization in terms of its present strategies, policies and programs.

Elements of the domain that emerged included “The extent to which the management is fair in its

policies towards personnel”, “A clear path for the employee’s advancement”, “Confidence in the

leadership”, “The provision for training”, etc. While issues like supervisory behavior and

compensation form part of the micro issues regarding an employee’s engagement with the

organization, the overall policies and strategies regarding the personnel is associated with a macro

perspective with regard to a sales person’s evaluation of the organization. Hence the following

hypothesis is offered.

H6: Satisfaction with HR and management policies will be negatively related to intention to leave

among lecturers.

In addition to the preceding hypotheses, this study also seeks to examine which facets of job

satisfaction will have the most influence on intent to leave. Because evidence on this is

unavailable, it is hypothesized that each facet will contribute equally to variance in intent to leave.

Therefore the following hypothesis is offered.

H7: Six factors of job satisfaction are negatively influencing the lecturer’s intention to leave.

Next, a discussion on how the research was actually carried out is presented.

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

To achieve the research objective, a cross-sectional survey of lecturers in selected colleges and

universities operating in Kuala Lumpur was carried out. The data collection phase started in

second week of July and completed on 28th July 2009.

3.2.1 Population, Sampling and Data Collection Procedure

The population of this study comprises lecturers of the private colleges and universities, which

offered so many varieties degree level programs and those programs are registered with Ministry

of Higher Education (MOHE). There were sixty (60) private higher education institutes in

Malaysia in 2002, out of this, twenty two (22) private higher education institutes (PHEIs) are

operating in Kuala Lumpur (National Higher Education Research Institute of Malaysia, 2004).

The overall strength of the teaching staffs in all PHEIs by 2002 was nearly 15,000 (National

Higher Education Research Institute of Malaysia, 2004). However the actual numbers of the

faculty members in the institutes in Kaula Lumpur is not available in the research report presented

by National Higher Education Research Institute of Malaysia. However, an estimated figure can

be calculated by using average method to reach a cut point as total population of the faculty

members in Kaula Lumpur based institutes is 2500. Therefore by adopting a random sampling

method provided by (Sekaran, 2002, p. 295), 335 faculty members should be the desirable sample

for this study. Therefore 500 questionnaires were self-administrated to 22 PHEIs in Kuala Lumpur.

Each institute was sent out 25-survey questionnaire. Data collection process lasted around four

weeks, from the first week of July 2009 to the end of July 2009. A total of 152 questionnaire

found completed, were returned resulting in an overall 30 percent response rate.

3.2.2 Questionnaire Design

As mentioned earlier, data were collected via questionnaires. The survey questionnaire is

developed in English. To allow more ease to respondents an introductory letter was attached with

the questionnaire (see Appendix A). The letter introduced the researcher and the purpose of

research and also ensures the anonymity of the respondent’s personal information will be treated

as completely private and confidential.

The survey questionnaire is composed of three sections (see Appendix A). Section one is to

collect and capture the perceived level of job satisfaction, where as section two is used for

measuring the intention to leave. Section three is used to collect the demographic information of

lecturers.

The languages of the original questionnaire are changed, so that it could be adopted for the

education sector. For example, the original statement of “Organization’s management has a clear

path for employee’s advancement.” was changed to “College/University management has a clear

path for lecturer’s advancement.” See Appendix B for the survey questionnaire.

The following section discusses the operationalization of variables used in this study.

3.3 INSTRUMENTATION

This study involves two important variables. The independent variables pertain to job

satisfaction while the dependent variable intention to leave. Each of how the variable was

measured in this study is discussed as follows.

3.3.1 Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is defined as the worker’s appraisal of the degree to which the work

environment fulfills the individual’s need (Locke, 1976). To measure job satisfaction, the original

instrument developed by Wood et al., (1986) and Purani and Sahadev (2007) was used. Six facets

of job satisfaction were asked. They are satisfaction with supervisor (4 items), satisfaction with

variety (5 items), satisfaction with closure (2 items), satisfaction with compensation (5 items),

satisfaction with co-workers (4 items) and satisfaction with the management and HR policies (4

items). The measures of the job satisfaction are the original work of Wood et al., (1986) and also

adopted from the work of Purani & Sahadev (2007). These items were rated on a five–point

Likert type scales ranging from ‘1’ “strongly disagree” to ‘5’ “strongly disagree.” The items of

respective factors of job satisfaction are computed as average summated score for the data analysis

purpose.

3.3.2 Intention to Leave

Intention to leave is defined as an employee’s plan of intention to quit the present job and look

forward to find another job in the near future (Purani & Sahadev, 2007; Weisberg, 1994). To

measure the intention to leave of lecturer a three item construct adopted by the work of Jenkis

(1993) and Kransz et al. (1995) is used. These items were rated on a five–point Likert type scales

ranging from ‘1’ “strongly disagree” to ‘5’ “strongly disagree.” Respondents were to indicate their

level of agreement or disagreement on items such as, “In the last few months, I have seriously

thought about looking for a new job,”, “Presently, I am actively searching for other job” and “I

intend to leave the organization in the near future.” The items of respective factors of intention to

leave are computed as average summated score for the data analysis purpose.

3.3.3 Demographic Information

In addition to the above questions, respondents were also asked to provide their personal

information such as age, gender, education profile, ethnicity, marital status, and income and length

of working experience. These items were generally measured on a categorical scale.

Table 3.1 summarizes the instruments used for the present study.

Table 3.1 Instruments of Variables

|Variables |Items |

|Job satisfaction | |

|- Satisfaction with supervisor |I am satisfied with the information I receive from my superior

about my job |

| |performance. |

| |I receive enough information from m supervisor about my job

performance. |

| |I receive enough feedback from my supervisor on how well I am doing.

|

| |There is enough opportunity in my job to find out how I am doing.

|

|- Satisfaction with variety |I am satisfied with the variety of activities my job offers.

|

| |I am satisfied with the freedom I have to do what I want on my job.

|

| |I am satisfied with the opportunity my job provides me to interact with

others |

| |There is enough variety in my job. |

| |I have enough freedom to do what I want in my faculty related job.

|

| |My job has enough opportunity for independent thought and action.

|

|- Satisfaction with closure |I am satisfied with the opportunity my job gives me to

complete tasks from |

| |beginning to end. |

| |My job has enough opportunity to complete the work I start.

|

|- Satisfaction with compensation |Overall I am satisfied with the college/University’s

compensation package. |

| |I am satisfied with the medical benefits. |

| |I received with the security my job provides me. |

| |I am satisfied with the retirement benefits. |

| |I am satisfied with the holiday (vacation) eligibilities. |

|- Satisfaction with co-workers |My fellow workers are not selfish.

|

| |My fellow workers are pleasant. |

| |The people I work with are very friendly. |

| |The people I work with help each other out when someone falls behind

or gets in a |

| |tight spot. |

|- Satisfaction with management and HR |College/university’s management has a clear path for

lecturer’s advancement. |

|policies |Decisions are made keeping in mind the good of the lecturers.

|

| |Management is extremely fair in personal policies. |

| |Physical working conditions are supportive in attaining quality of

teaching and |

| |research. |

|Intent to leave |In the last few months, I have seriously thought about looking for a

new job. |

| |Presently, I am actively searching for other job. |

| |I intend to leave the college/university in the near future. |

|Respondent’s background |What is your sex? |

| |What is your ethnic origin |

| |What is your marital status? |

| |How old are you? |

| |What is the highest level of your education? |

| |How long have you been working in the teaching (lecturing position)?

Approximately |

| |________ years? |

| |What is your job title? |

This is the justification of using reliability test I hope you can understand this sentence so, why

your suervisor cannot?

3.4 RELIABILITY TESTING

Reliability of measure is an indication of the stability and consistency with which the

instrument measures the concept and helps to assess the “goodness” of a measure (Sekaran, 2005).

Furthermore, the reliability of measure will indicate the extent to which it is without bias (error

free) and hence ensures consistent measurement across time and across the various items in the

instrument. To measure the reliability of the instruments used, Cronbach’s alpha is employed.

According to Sekaran (2005), if the Cronbach’s alpha is less than 0.6, this means that the

instrument used has a low reliability (and thus opens for some errors). If the alpha value is within

0.7, the instrument is acceptable for further analysis.

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS

After collection of the data from field survey, the statistical package for the social sciences

(SPSS) 13.0 for Windows is employed to help with the data analysis. Data analysis in the study

includes descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. The following

section describes these analyses in detail for the study.

3.5.1 Descriptive Analyses

Descriptive analyses include frequencies, mean, and standard deviations, which are computed

for all variables to obtain a general profile of the distribution of responses. In particular,

frequencies, mean, and standard deviations are calculated to identify the characteristics of the

sample for the study. By calculating mean and standard deviation of each facet of job satisfaction

and intention to leave, objective 1 (one) of this study would be achieved.

3.5.2 Correlation Analysis

For this study, Pearson correlation analysis is used to inspect whether job satisfaction and

intention to leave have significant relationship to each other. The scale suggested by Hair et al.,

(2003) is used to describe the intensity of relationships between the dependent and the

independent variables of the study as shown in Table 4.2. This analysis is used to test the

relationship between facets of job satisfaction and intent to leave. By testing hypotheses one

through six, using correlation analysis would help to achieve the objective number 2 (two) of this

study.

Table 3.2

Pearson’s r Indices of Correlation

|Pearson’s r |Indication |

|Between ± 0.80 to ± 1.00 |High correlation

|

|Between ± 0.60 to ± 0.79 |Moderately high correlation

|

|Between ± 0.40 to ± 0.59 |Moderate correlation

|

|Between ± 0.20 to ± 0.39 |Low correlation

|

|Between ± 0.01 to ± 0.19 |Negligible correlation

|

Correlation coefficient is computed to investigate the strength of association among the

variables. This analysis is used to test the hypothesis one through six. The level of significance is

set at .05 or less.

3.5.3 Multiple Regression Analysis

Regression analysis is used to describe the relationship between the dependent variable

(intention to leave) and the six factors of independent variables (job satisfaction). The multiple

regression models estimate the relationship between the multiple predictor variables and the

dependent variable. Since all the constructs/variables are measured in metric scale, therefore,

regression analysis is appropriate, where six factors of job satisfaction are regressed on single

dependent variable intention to leave to investigate the relationship and effects between the two or

more variables. This analysis is used to test the hypothesis seven of this study to achieve the

objective three (3) of this study.

3.6 SUMMARY

This chapter has described the development of the research model for this study. The research

methodology and the research design have been explained following, the hypothesis generation.

Different statistical tests, such as, descriptive (mean and standard deviations), Pearson correlation,

and multiple regression analysis are used to examine the relationship hypothesized.

CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH FINDINGS

4.0 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the discussion on how the survey was carried out was discussed. Here, the

results of the survey based on the data collected will be presented. Toward this end, this chapter

presents some background information of the respondents first before it goes on to present some

descriptive results of the variables involved. Then, the chapter presented the results of the

hypotheses testing.

4.1 BACKGROUND OF RESPONDENTS

Table 4.1 presents the respondents’ background. The profile of the participating

respondents’ demographic characteristics is presented in Table 4.1. Out of 152 respondents, 78

(51.3%) were female and 74 (48.7%) were male teaching staffs. This finding indicates that female

and male academic staffs in the private higher of educational sectors have been provided equal

employment opportunity. The distribution of ages of the participating academic staffs ranged

between 24 to 43 years. The majority of the academic/teaching staff’s age distribution of about 84

(55.3%) were 24 years to 28 years old. While 39 (25.7%) of the academic staffs aged between 29

years to 33 years. While 25 (16.4%) academic staffs aged between 34 years to 38 years of age. A

small number 4 (2.6%) of the respondent’s indicates their age between 39 to 43 years. The overall

age distribution of the academic staff indicates that in private higher education institutes, mostly

lecturers are young, this finding further suggests that young male and females are keen to join the

academic position in Malaysia.

As far as the academic qualification of the participating teachers is concerned, out of 152,

79 (52.0%) hold the degree, while 68 (44.7%) have their Master degree. There are few faculty

members 3.3 percent, also had only a Diploma qualification, The findings of the ethnic origin of

academic staffs indicates that in the private Higher Education Institutes, the majority 113 (74.3%)

of teaching/academic staff are Malays and this confirms the fact that Malays people likelihood

more interesting working in teaching sector compare to the other races.

The majority of the respondents 78 (51.3%) were single, while 68 (44.7%) were married. The

rest are reported as divorced. Out of 152 respondents, 65 (42.8%) of them have been working in

the institute between few months and 2 years, while 19.7% between 3 and 4 years, and 17.8%

between 5 and 6 years. Only a small number of them have been working more than 9 years

(7.2%). As far as the respondent’s job title is concerned, it is revealed that majority 86 (56.6%)

was lecturer, while 52 (34.2%) were junior lecturer. However quite few were working as senior

lectures (9.2%)

Table 4.1 Respondents' Background (n = 152)

| |Frequency |Percentage |

|Gender | | |

|Male |74 |48.7 |

|Female |78 |51.3 |

| | | |

|Marital status | | |

|Single |78 |51.3 |

|Married |68 |44.7 |

|Divorced |6 |3.9 |

| | | |

|Ethnic Origin | | |

| Malay |113 |74.3 |

| Chinese |27 |17.8 |

| Indian |6 |3.9 |

| Others |6 |3.9 |

| | | |

|Working experience (in years) | | |

| 0 Year to < 3 Years |65 |42.8 |

| 3 Years to < 5 Years |30 |19.7 |

| 5 Years to < 7 Years |27 |17.8 |

| 7 Years to < 9 Years |19 |12.5 |

| More Than 9 Years |11 |7.2 |

| | | |

|Level of education | | |

|Diploma |5 |3.3 |

|Bachelor |79 |52.0 |

|Master |68 |44.7 |

| | | |

|Job Title | | |

|Junior Lecturer |52 |34.2 |

|Lecturer |86 |56.6 |

|Senior Lecturer |14 |9.2 |

| | | |

|Age | | |

| 24 Years to < 29 Years Old |84 |55.3 |




| | | |

4.2 RELIABILITY ANALYSIS

Reliability of measure is an indication of the stability and consistency with which the

instrument measures the concept and helps to assess the “goodness” of a measure (Sekaran, 2005).

To measure the reliability of the instruments used, Cronbach’s alpha is employed. According to

Sekaran (2005), if the Cronbach’s alpha is less than .6, this means that the instrument used has a

low reliability (and thus opens for some errors). If the alpha value is within .7, the instrument has

acceptable.

The internal consistency reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha) for the scales used in this

study are all well above the level of 0.7, acceptable for the analysis purpose (Sekaran, 2005). In

Table 4.2, alpha scores of all variables with completed response of 152 lecturers are given.

Why not three items what is the problem plz do ask your supervisor even one item can also used

as valid variable for measuring the concept if we use factor analysis and if factor yield one item in

one factor (Hair et al, 2003)

Table 4.2 Reliability Coefficients of the Constructs (n = 152)

|Constructs |No. of Items |Cronbach’s Alpha |

|Satisfaction with supervisor |4 |.730 |

|Satisfaction with job variety |6 |.716 |

|Satisfaction with closure |2 |.617 |

|Satisfaction with compensation |5 |.852 |

|Satisfaction with co-workers |4 |.763 |

|Satisfaction with HR/management policies |4 |.909

|

|Intention to leave |3 |.826 |

In the present study reliability analyses were run on seven main measures, i.e. satisfaction with

supervisor, satisfaction with job variety, satisfaction with co-workers, satisfaction with closure,

satisfaction with HR polices and intention to leave. Table 4.2 highlights the reliability coefficients

of the measures. As can be seen from table, the measures are all reliable given the high value of

Cronbach’s alphas, which allow for further data analysis.

I have used the valid instrument/questionnaire and the questionnaire items are already valid and

reliable even for satisfaction with closure having 2 items in it is also valid (wood et al, 1986). Who

told that all dimensions must have 5 items/questions can you ask him to speak with me on this

matter.

4.3 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF MAIN VARIABLES

Table 4.3 highlights descriptive statistics of the main variables of the present study, i.e.

satisfaction with supervisor, satisfaction with job variety, satisfaction with closure, satisfaction

with compensation, satisfaction with co-workers, satisfaction with HR/Management policies and

intention to leave.

As can be seen from the table, the respondents generally perceived that they were moderately

satisfied with their supervisor (mean = 3.58, SD = .56), job variety (mean = 3.97, SD = .47), the

level of closure (mean = 3.90, SD = .58), compensation (mean = 3.01, SD = .80), their co-workers

(mean = 3.92, SD = .58), and the HEIs’s management/HR policies (mean = 3.39, SD = .75).

With respect to intention to leave, the lecturers in the study generally are not inclined towards

leaving the academic institution for higher education (mean = 2.75, SD = 1.14).

Table 4.3 Descriptive Statistics of Variables (n = 152)

|Items1 |Mean |Standard Deviation (SD) |

|Satisfaction with supervisor |3.58 |.56 |

|Satisfaction with job variety |3.97 |.47 |

|Satisfaction with closure |3.90 |.58 |

|Satisfaction with compensation |3.01 |.80 |

|Satisfaction with co-workers |3.92 |.58 |

|Satisfaction with HR/MGT policies |3.39 |.75 |

|Overall satisfaction |3.63 |0.62 |

|Intention to leave |2.75 |1.14 |

Note. 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = disagree nor agree, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree.

This is a presentation style , so one must be logical when comment that this is not good, why

not? I think this is good way to present data while using scale . Further you can tell that lower SD

value (between 1 and 3) indicates that the respondents are consistent in responding questions, this

also shows that your questionnaire is valid and reliable)

In the following section, each variable are examined in greater details as to what means in

relation to the mean value found earlier.


As indicated earlier, four items were used to measure lecturer’s perceived satisfaction with

supervisor and that on average the respondents are satisfied with their supervisors in the institute.

Table 4.4 highlights the descriptive statistics for each item. Out of the four items, getting feedback

from the supervisors on how well the performance is being offered (mean = 3.69, SD = .730)

followed by receiving enough information from supervisors shows the second highest mean value

of 3.66 (SD = .652), followed by, satisfied with the information about job performance (mean =

3.49, SD =. 763), and enough opportunity for lecturer’s to find how they are doing their jobs

(mean 3.48, SD = .861). In general, the respondents appear to have moderate satisfaction with

their supervisor with respect to the feedback they receive about their academic job performance.

Table 4.4 Descriptive Results of satisfaction with supervisor (n=152)

|Items |Mean |SD |

|I am satisfied with the information I receive from my superior about my job |3.69

|.730 |

|performance | | |

|I receive enough information from my supervisor about my job performance. |3.66

|.652 |

|I receive enough feedback from my supervisor on how well I am doing. |3.49

|.763 |

|There is enough opportunity in my job to find out how I am doing. |3.48 |.861

|

|Total Mean (Supervisor) |3.58 |.56 |

Satisfaction with Job Variety

As indicated earlier, six items were used to measure lecturer’s perceived satisfaction with job

variety and that on average the respondents are reasonably highly satisfied with job variety in their

respective institutes. Table 4.5 highlights the descriptive statistics for each item. Out of the six

items, the opportunity to interact with people shows the highest level of satisfaction (mean = 4.34,

SD =. 624), followed by freedom to do work (mean = 4.16, SD = .624). Satisfaction with the

availability of the independence thought and action (mean = 3.99, SD = .488). Satisfaction with

the freedom in academic/faculty related tasks (mean = 3.88, SD = .754); job variety and the

activities, mean = 3.87, SD = .778). However, lecturers perceived the lowest level of satisfaction

in the variety of activities (mean = 3.61, SD =.807)

Yes to achieve the objective one of this study we need to calculate mean valaue , ask your

supervisor to read objective one , two and three plz.

Table 4.5 Descriptive results of Satisfaction with Job Variety (n = 152)

|Items |Mean |SD |

|I am satisfied with the variety of activities my job offers. |3.61 |.807

|

|I am satisfied with the freedom I have to do what I want on my job. |4.16 |.624

|

|I am satisfied with the opportunity my job provides me to interact with others. |4.34

|.853 |

|There is enough variety in my job. |3.87 |.778 |

|I have enough freedom to what I want in my faculty related job. |3.88 |.754

|

|My job has enough opportunity for independent thought and action. |3.99 |.488

|

|Total Mean (Job variety) |3.98 |.467 |


As indicated earlier, two items were used to measure lecturers perceived level of satisfaction

with closure. And that on average the respondents are overall somewhat satisfied with closure

(mean = 3.90, SD =. 583). Table 4.6 indicates that the academic institutions in private sector have

provided enough opportunities and procedures to support lecturer’s tasks to complete from start to

end effectively.

Table 4.6 Descriptive Results of Satisfaction with Closure (n = 152)

|Items |Mean |SD |

|I am satisfied with the opportunity my job gives me to complete tasks from begin. |3.93

|.576 |

|My job has enough opportunity to complete the work I starting to end. |3.88

|.780 |

|Total Mean (Closure) |3.90 |.583 |


As indicated earlier, five items were used to measure satisfaction with compensation. On

average the respondents had neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with compensation (mean = 3.01, SD

= .80). Table 4.7 highlights the descriptive statistics for each item. Out of the five items, the

satisfaction with security receives the highest mean value (mean = 3.326, SD = .785), followed by

satisfaction with the overall compensation package (mean = 3.355, SD =. 847), holidays and

vacation (mean = 3.313, SD = .799), medical facilities and benefits (mean = 3.307, SD = .861).

However, retirement benefits receive the lowest mean value (mean = 3.355, SD =. 847).

Table 4.7 Descriptive Results of Satisfaction with Compensation (n = 152)

|Items |Mean |SD |

|Overall I am satisfied with the College’s/university’s compensation package. |3.22 |

1.139 |

|I am satisfied with the medical benefits. |2.85 |1.090 |

|I received with the security my job provides me. |3.30 |.860

|

|I am satisfied with the retirement benefits. |2.66 |1.049 |

|I am satisfied with the holiday (vacation) eligibilities. |3.01 |.880

|

|Total Mean (Compensation) |3.01 |.80 |


As indicated earlier, four items were used to measure satisfaction with co-workers. On average

the respondents reported to have moderate level of satisfaction with co-workers (mean = 3.92, SD

= .58). Table 4.8 highlights the descriptive statistics for each item. Out of the four items, the

respondents had somewhat strong feeling that their co-workers are very friendly (mean =4.16,

SD= .870) and will help each other out when someone falls behind (mean = 3.94, SD = .673).

Table 4.8 Descriptive Results of Satisfaction with Co-Workers (n= 153)

|Items |Mean |SD |

|My fellow workers are not selfish. |3.81 |.761 |

|My fellow workers are pleasant. |3.94 |.673 |

|The people I work with are very friendly. |4.16 |.870

|

|The people I work with help each other out when someone falls behind or gets |3.76

|.725 |

|in a tight spot. | | |

|Total Mean (Co-workers) |3.92 |0.58 |

Satisfaction with HR/Management Polices

As indicated earlier, four items were used to measure satisfaction with HR/management

policies. On average the respondents reported to have modest level of satisfaction with

HR/management policies (mean = 3.39, SD = .75). Table 4.9 highlights the descriptive statistics

for each item. If one looks at the table, the respondents generally felt that the academic

institutions, they are working in facilitates them their career development and has generally an

acceptable working conditions.

Table 4.9 Descriptive Results of Satisfaction with HR/Management Policies (n = 152)

|Items |Mean |SD |

|College’s/University’s management has a clear path for lecturers’ advancement. |3.35 |

1.02 |

|Decisions are made keeping in mind the good of the lecturers. |3.49 |.86

|

|Management is extremely fair in personal policies. |3.38 |.89

|

|Physical working conditions are supportive in attaining quality of teaching and |3.34

|.99 |

|research. | | |

|Total Mean |3.39 |.75 |

Intention to Leave

As indicated earlier, intention to leave is reflected in the way the respondents relate their

behavior to job satisfaction. As indicated earlier, three items were used to measure the lecturer’s

intention to leave. Table 4.10 highlights the descriptive statistics for each item. Out of the three

items, the intention to leave the academic institution by seriously thinking of leaving in the last

few months receive the highest mean value (mean = 2.89, SD =1.43), followed by the intention to

leave the college/university in the near future receive the second highest mean value (mean =

2.282, SD= 1.15), The overall mean for intention to leave (Mean = 2.75, SD = 1.14) suggests that

lecturers in this study are not generally inclined towards leaving their institutions.

Table 4.10 Descriptive Results of Intention to Leave (n = 152)

|Items |Mean |SD |

|In the last few months, I have seriously thought about looking for a new job. |2.89 |

1.434 |

|Presently, I am actively searching for other job. |2.53 |1.366

|

|I intend to leave the college/university in the near future. |2.82 |1.157

|

|Total Mean |2.75 |1.14 |

4.4 CORRELATION MATRIX

This study examines the nature of the relationship that exists between independent and

dependent variables. To determine the relationships amongst the variables, Pearson correlations

were adopted. As a result, a correlation matrix is presented in Table 4.11 below.

As can be seen from Table 4.11, all independent variables show a negative and significant

relationship to intention to leave except satisfaction with co-workers. This means that the less

satisfied lecturers are with their supervisor, job variety, closure, compensation and HRM policies

the higher their tendency to leave the organization. However, satisfaction with co-workers does

not seem to have any bearing on whether they decide to leave the organization or not.

You use average summated mean score of each variables tell your supervisor like that. This mean

each dimensions of job satisfaction and intention to leave items were average summated in this

study.Ask hime to read section 3.3.1 and 3.3.2

Table 4.11 Correlations Matrix (n = 152)

|Satisfaction with … |1 |2 |3 |4 |5 |6 |7 |

|Supervisor (1) |1 | | | | | | |

|Job variety (2) |.469** |1 | | | | | |

|Closure (3) |.509** |.698** |1 | | | | |

|Compensation (4) |.287** |.468** |.307** |1 | | |

|

|Co-workers (5) |.228** |.319** |.291** |.156 |1 | |

|

|HRM/management (6) |.250** |.464** |.358** |.802** |.292** |1

| |

|Intention to leave (7) |-.417** |-.547** |-.462** |-.300** |-.043 |-.254**

|1 |

**Correlation is significant at p ( 0.01

*Correlation is significant at p ( 0.05

4.5 HYPOTHESES TESTING

As mentioned earlier, there are seven hypotheses formulated for the present study. To test the

first six hypotheses, correlation test was used, and for this, Table 4.11 that displays the correlation

matrix is referred to. Out of seven hypotheses, only six are supported. The results reveal a

significant and negative relationship between intention to leave and (a) satisfaction with

supervisor (r = -.417, p = .000), (b) job variety (r = -.547, p = .000), (c) closure (r = -.462, p

= .000), (d) compensation (r = -.300, p = .000) and (e) satisfaction with HRM polices (r = -.254, p

= .002). Hypothesis 5 was rejected because there is no significant relationship between satisfaction

with co-workers and to intention to leave (r = -.043, p =.136).

4.6 MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS

H7: Six factors of job satisfaction are negatively influencing the lecturer’s intention to leave.

To test hypothesis seven, multiple regression was used employing the enter method. The idea

here is to estimate the variance explained in academic staff/lecturer’s intention to leave by six

dimensions of job satisfaction. Six components of job satisfaction i.e. satisfaction with supervisor,

job variety, closure, compensation, co-workers and HRM/management polices were included in

the regression model using a default enter method, to calculate the effects of variance caused on

the intention to leave (dependent variable). The results are shown in Table 4.12 below.

r-squared tells you how much of the variability observed in your data is accounted for by the

model. The adjusted r-squared modifies r-squared by taking into account the number of covariates

or predictors you include in your model. See the link below for details.

Source(s):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coefficient…

Table 4.12 Overall Influences of Job Satisfaction on Intention to Leave

|R |R square |Adjusted R square |Std. error of the estimates |F |

Sig. |

|.635 |.404 |.379 |.89886 |16.36 |.000 |

The results from Table 4.12 indicate that the multiple regression coefficients (R) of the six

independent variables of job satisfaction in the intention to leave model is .635 and the adjusted R

square is .379. The value of F is 16.63 at (p =.000). This means that 37.9 percent of the variance in

intention to leave has been significantly explained by the six factors of job satisfaction. Thus the

results in this study support the hypothesis that lecturers’ job satisfaction has significant bearing

on their intention to leave. However in the regression analysis beta values of each independent

variable signify the significant contribution and influence on the intention to leave was addressed

and the results are shown in Table 4.13 below.

Table 4.13 Influence of Each Job Satisfaction Variables on Intention to Leave

|Variables |Std. error |Std. Beta |t |Sig. |

|Satisfaction with supervisor |.155 |-.207 |-2.700 |.008

|

|Satisfaction with job variety |.239 |-.437 |-4.448 |.000

|

|Satisfaction with closure |.186 |-.116 |-1.223 |.223 |

|Satisfaction with compensation |.161 |-.026 |-.232 |.817

|

|Satisfaction with co-workers |.138 |.274 |3.886 |.000

|

|Satisfaction with HR/mgmt policies |.173 |-.021 |-.184 |.854

|

From the result presented in Table 4.13, satisfaction with co-workers job variety appeared to

be the strongest explanatory variable to predict intention to leave followed by satisfaction with co-

workers and satisfaction with supervisor However satisfaction with closure, compensation and

satisfaction with HRM/management policies did not able to predict significantly on intention to

leave among lecturers.

4.7 SUMMARY

This chapter has discussed the results and analysis part of the study. The findings of the study

reveal that all seven hypotheses tested were supported. Specifically, it is revealed that lecturer’s

intention to leave in private higher education institutions is negatively associated with their

perceived level of six job satisfaction dimensions or factors. These factors are satisfaction with

supervisor, satisfaction with job variety, satisfaction with closure, satisfaction with compensation

and satisfaction with college/university’s management and HR policies. The correlation statistics

suggests that satisfaction with co-worker is not significantly associated with lecturer’s intention to

leave. However, regression analysis for testing hypothesis seven indicates that three of the job

satisfaction factors explain significantly the variance in lecturer’s intention to leave. These three

variables are satisfaction with job variety satisfaction with co-workers and satisfaction with

supervisor. A summary of the hypotheses testing result is shown in Table 4.14.

Table 4.14 Summary of Hypotheses Testing Results

| |Hypotheses |Result |

|H1: |Satisfaction with supervisor will be negatively related to intention to leave among |

Supported |

| |lecturers. | |

|H2: |Satisfaction with variety will be negatively related to intention to leave among |

Supported |

| |lecturers. | |

|H3: |Satisfaction with closure will be negatively related to intention to leave among |

Supported |

| |lecturers. | |

|H4: |Satisfaction with compensation will be negatively related to intention to leave among|

Supported |

| |lecturers. | |

|H5: |Satisfaction with co-workers will be negatively related to intention to leave among |

Rejected |

| |lecturers. | |

|H6: |Satisfaction with HR and management policies will be negatively related to intention |

Supported |

| |to leave among lecturers. | |

|H7: |Six factors of job satisfaction are influencing the lecturer’s intention to leave. |Partially

supported |

Hypthesis 5 is rejected you can see from the correlation analysis -.043 is not significant, don’t

confused with the regression and correlation analysis. Regression analysis is used to see the effect

of IV on DV in the model.

In the following chapter, discussion on the findings is addressed.

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

5.0 INTRODUCTION

In this final chapter, all research objectives and the discussion of the findings are summarized.

The results of correlation, regression analysis, pertaining to each of the seven research hypotheses

that were tested in previous chapter are examined to provide detailed explanation based on the

analysis of the research data. Finally administrative and managerial implications, limitations of the

study and directions for further future research are presented.

5.1 KEY FINDINGS – LEVEL OF JOB SATISFACTION AND INTENTION TO LEAVE

(Objective one)

The prime objective of this study was to examine the level (score) of lecturer’s perceived job

satisfaction and their intention to leave. It is found that the mean scores of all six independent

variables of job satisfaction reported at 3.63 on a five-point scale. This indicates that lecturer’s

satisfaction with the six facets of job satisfaction is at moderate level on a five-point scale. The

moderate level of perceived job satisfaction is an indication that the lecturers in private higher of

education institutions (PHEIs) in the study are not completely satisfied with all the facets of their

job and the organization they are working for. This is because of the just an average level

(3.63/5.00) of the mean score of the overall satisfaction perceived by the lecturers.

With regard to intention to leave, the mean value of 2.75 on a five- point scale indicates that

the lecturers may have a strong intention to neither stay with the their institutes nor leave it.

However these finding further suggests that it is highly likely that some academic staffs in their

respective institutes would intend to leave in the future, because of their perceived lower level of

job satisfaction (Oshagbemi, 1997).

5.2 DISCUSSION FROM THE HYPOTHESES RESULTS AND FINDINGS

This section emphasizes the key findings of the hypotheses testing done in this research. Based

on the findings, discussion and comments are offered for the managerial and business implications

in the next section. The findings from the hypotheses one through six and the hypothesis seven,

allowed to achieve the objectives two and three of this study respectively.

5.2.1 Relationships between Job Satisfaction and Intention to Leave

Analysis of the data resulted from the Pearson correlation analysis indicates that intention to

leave as it would be expected, significantly and negatively correlated with perceived satisfaction

with supervisor, job variety, closure, compensation and satisfaction with HRM polices. However

satisfaction with co-workers is not significantly correlated with intention to leave. The results of

the correlation analysis further suggest that intention to leave is low if perceived satisfaction with

supervisor, job variety, closure, compensation and better HR polices are perceived at higher level

in the private institutes of higher learning.

You can see from this explanation that Why, how, when and what is answered.

From the findings of hypotheses one (1) through four (4) and hypothesis six (6) there was a

significant and negative relationship between the lecturer’s intention to leave and the five factors

of job satisfaction. However correlation statistics reveals that, despite the relationship reported

between five of the six factors of job satisfaction and the lecturer’s intention to leave, only

satisfaction with job variety, closure and supervisor seemed to be strongly associated with the

lecturer’s intention to leave with relatively large coefficient values.

Satisfaction with supervisor and intention to leave

The findings of a negative relationship between job satisfactions factor such as supervisor and

intention to leave was consistent with the previous studies (Eggins, 1994; Davies, 1994). Similarly

the result between job variety and career advancement prospects with intention to leave (Shaan,

1998; Norton & Kelly, 1997), poor policy of HR management with intention to leave and

supervisor’s role (Lumsden, 1998) also show consistent result with previous studies done in

educational sector.

The result further suggests that academic staffs perceived higher level of satisfaction with their

supervisor’s feedback and guidance to do the tasks would certainly help shaping positive attitude

and behavior among lecturers and will reduce their intention to leave the academic institutions or

from academic jobs. Similarly if the jobs of lecturers are perceived as rich and have many

opportunities for their career development while doing the teaching jobs, this will also help

reducing lecturers’ intend to quit (Zembylas & Papanastasiou, 2003).

Satisfaction with compensation and intention to leave

Satisfaction with compensation is also very crucial issues. A competitive salary and benefits in

a highly demanding teaching profession in higher education sector is key indicator of perceived

satisfaction. Therefore, providing high salaries and benefits to lecturers in private higher education

institutes, definitely would prevent them to looking for new jobs in other private or public

institutions/college or universities where salaries and benefits are comparatively better (National

Higher Education Research Institute of Malaysia, 2004; Zembylas & Papanastasiou, 2003; Shaan,

1998; USA Department of Education, 1997).

Satisfaction with HR policies and intention to leave

Human resource and management polices towards academic staff’s jobs and their career

development is also one of the key dimensions of job satisfaction, which is also found negatively

associated with intention to leave in this study. This indicates that if better HR management

polices are experienced, lecturer’s attitude towards leaving the teaching job or the academic

institutes could be minimized (National Higher Education Research Institute of Malaysia, 2004;

Shaan, 1997).

Satisfaction with Closure and intention to leave

Similarly satisfaction with closure is also found to be negatively and significantly associated

with lecturer’s intention to leave. This means that academic or teaching staff are given important

information available to perform their job, for example time-table of the classes, proper course

allocation, OHP/multimedia allocation for the classes and other information/guidelines, to ensure

they have enough opportunity to complete effectively their teaching or research activities. This

finding is also consistent with some previous studies that showed that lack of consistency and

flexibility in resource allocation for teaching staff has been influenced intention to leave (Davies,

1994; Norton & Kelly, 1997).

Satisfaction with Co-workers and intention to leave

However, unlike other studies (Cowin, 2002; Purani & Sahadev; 2007), the present study did

not find a significant negative relationship between satisfaction with co-workers and intention to

leave.

5.2.2 Effect of Job satisfaction on Intention to leave (Objective three)

A multiple regression analysis revealed that satisfaction with job variety has the strongest

influence on intent to leave the academic institutions, followed by dissatisfaction with supervisor.

Job variety in this study deals with the issues relating to faculty members or academic staff’s

perceived independence, freedom, multi tasking roles provided in their jobs. According to Norton

and Kelly (1997) faculty members are rather more motivated, if they would have been give more

opportunity for career growth and advancement. For this, they may compromise with the

relatively low compensation, if they have more opportunity and freedom to do their teaching, and

research activities and roles. While job variety was shown to impact lecturers’ decision to leave,

lecturers do require more flexibility, freedom, challenging tasks and environment, which could

help and support their academic jobs. Therefore, enhancing job related commitment through

offering opportunity for growth and learning by completing academic responsibilities is essential

in reducing turnover rates at private academic institutions.

In addition to satisfaction with job variety, satisfaction with supervisor and satisfaction with

co-workers were also found to influence intent to leave the academic institution and the job.

Norton and Kelly (1997) and Shaan (1998) argued that supervisory role in academic play a crucial

role in shaping faculty members/lecturers commitment and motivation. The relationship between

academic supervisor (most often a head of department/faculty/school of studies) with his/her

colleague for fair and effective communication is essential for not only a performance feedback

but also required for maintaining a firm coordination for higher achievements for individual as

well as for the institutes. Academic leaderships and policy makers should address issues related to

develop strategies for communication, coordination and feedback for the faculty members, as they

seem to be evenly important to lecturers with intent to leave the institute and teaching profession

(Eggins, 1994).

In conclusion, this study further confirms the theoretical understanding of the job satisfaction

and its relationship to intention to leave in Malaysian Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in private

sector. Satisfaction with supervisor, job variety, closure, HR/Management policies and

compensation were significantly and negatively correlated to intention to leave. Satisfaction with

job variety, satisfaction with co-workers and satisfaction with supervisor appeared to affect

negatively and significantly lecturer’s decision to leave the educational institutes.

5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The major limitation is related to the sample size of the study. Due to the lower response rate

of only 30 percent, this study could gathered the data from the 152 lecturers from 22 private

higher education institutes (PHEIs) in Kuala Lumpur Because of the lower sample, a care must

therefore be taken when generalizing the results of this study to the entire private higher education

Institutes (PHEIs) in Malaysia (which includes all 60 institutes in Malaysia with over 14000

faculty members).

5.4 RECOMMENDATION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTE’S ADMINISTARTION

Consistent with the findings of the study, the following are recommendations and suggestions

are made to managers/policy makers to ensure that they would be able to motivate lecturer’s to

reduce turnover rate, and increase the commitment and creativity for teaching/academic staff in

the higher education institutes.

Recommendation are based on findings only you can read and explain to supervisor.

Leadership/Supervisor’ Roles

When it comes to academic leadership, it is the institute’s leadership and supervisor’s role for

lecturer’s satisfaction. This study finding suggests that the level of supervisor’s feedback and their

leadership role is perceived at a very modest level and thus need attention. The intention of leave

is behavior or feeling and has always been influenced by the leader or supervisors’ role. Therefore,

a suggestion in this case is given to head of department/head of schools or people incharge of any

faculty and faulty member’s roles to encourage supervisors and lecturer’s relationship for better

and effective workplace through provide supervisors’ training on motivational and highly

leadership strategies and teamwork effectiveness. This transformational leadership style would

certainly help supervisors for maintaining not only the positive relationship among lecturers, but

also enable them to get optimum support from their lecturers.

Academic Staffs’ Job Richness

The study findings indicate that job variety is also negatively associated to lecturer’s intention to

leave. The perceived level of higher job variety in terms of options such as job enlargement, job

enrichment, should be considered. Dean/HODs/HOSs of the faculty or academic department are

key decision makers in the academic institutes. They can make- teaching or academic work more

interesting by using ‘job enlargement’ for lecturers, by increasing the number and variety of

activities performed. In deed ‘job enrichment’ in terms of motivating academic staff to write

research papers, involve in consulting projects or even deliver corporate. These are few of the

many examples of an infinite number of methods to increase motivation of lecturers in academic

institutions in higher learning. The solution to motivating lecturers’ is to know what motivates

them and designing a motivation program based on those needs to minimize their intention to

leave.

HR/Management Polices Implementation

Human Resource Management policies towards academic staffs in the private higher of

education sector must improve and replaceable it accordingly to minimize behavior the lecturer’s

intention to leave. The short –terms policies are crucial strategic, which help to achieve

organizational long-term objectives to achieve organization’s competitive advantage such as low

turnover rate. Fairness in performance appraisals, build up career’s development through

periodically of trainings, development of flexible teaching environment, and encourage for

research activities are among few of the policies must be developed in the higher education

institutes. These ideas should be aligned to overall objective of the institution’s goals. The

outcome of these policies will ensure highly motivated and satisfied teaching work force, would

more likely to stay in the current job rather to intend to leave.

5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Based on literature review on job satisfaction and intention to leave, a proposed research

model was developed for this study, whir six facets of job satisfaction were used as independent

variables, while intention to leave was used as dependent variable. However there are many other

variables such as lecturers’ demographic factors, which may also influence the relationship

between these two variables, but were not included in the model. This is certainly one of the

limitations of the study and may open the door for the future research in this area. In addition,

other situational variables which may influence the lecturer’s intention to leave such as stress, job

burnout, and family issues may be able to further our understanding of the lecturers’ intention to

leave.

Future studies will hopefully increase the understanding of the job satisfaction and

intention to leave constructs as they relate to educational sector. Therefore the followings are

suggested:

1. A longitudinal research design may be most appropriate for the studying the influnce of six

facets of job satisfaction on lecturer’s intent to leave. Obtaining and studying data over time would

more likely produce conclusions based on probable causation rather than association. Since job

satisfaction is a perception, it is highly likely that this attitude and perception is subject to change,

and therefore some controllable variables such as lecturer’s age, gender, income level, education,

working experience and so forth, need to be identified. These variables may affect lecturer’s level

of perceived job satisfaction, and the development of appropriate research design may statistically

confirm how these variables may moderate the impact of job satisfaction and intention to leave

relationship.

This is just a suggestion based on our brief literature review which see migration and leave

together so we can improve pour research model in the future by using another variable as

migration of lecturers to other country.

2. Another much related concept to intention to leave the current job/organization is migration

factor or leaving the country for securing better position in overseas. Therefore a study in the

future must use a migration construct as dependent variable to examine how job satisfaction may

affect lecturer’s migration attitude.

To understand mediating and moderating effect in the model

3. A much sophisticated and extended research model is needed to develop and to add more

variables to not just examine direct relationship among variables but also the possible mediation

and moderation effect of variables such as lecturer’s personal characteristics such as income level,

location of work, location of institution either urban or rural area and the like. This would

certainly help researchers to understand and identify mediating and moderating variables and their

relationship in the model and their effect within the relationship among important variables in the

proposed research model.

4. An expanded study must include larger sample of lecturers in higher of education institutions

(HEIs) in Malaysian in both public and private sector for greater generalisability of the findings

and implications.

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APPENDIX “A”

Letter and Survey Questionnaire

Letter to Respondents

Date: 10 July 2009

Dear Respondent:

I, Muzaha, am currently undergoing a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management at

Universiti Utara Malaysia. In partial fulfillment of the degree, I am required to conduct a research.

Toward this, I intend to conduct a study on academic staff’s job satsifaction and their intention to

leave in Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) in Kuala Lumpur.

I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected to participate in my study. I hope that

you could complete the questionnaire attached and answer all the questions as honestly and

objectively as possible. Rest assured that all your responses will be treated as confidential and you

will remain anonymous.

Once you have completed the questionnaire, please return it to the person in charge, and for

this I again thank you.

If you are interested to know the results of the study or about the study itself, please do not

hesitate to contact me at the following address, or email me at:,[email protected] or call me at:

012-3396970 I wish to thank you again for your highly cooperation and participation.

Have a good day.

Yours sincerely,

-----------------------------------

Muzaha Asrain Mustapha

Cybernetics International College of Technology

Kompleks Maluri, Jalan Jejaka

Taman Maluri, 55100 Kuala Lumpur

Survey Questionnaire

SECTION A

Listed below are questions pertaining to your opinions about your work you are doing now. Please

circle the correct response that reflects your honest and objective opinion on each of the statement

below using the following scale in which 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither disagree

nor agree, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree.

| | |Strongly |Disagree |Neutral |Agree |

Strongly Agree |

| | |disagree | | | | |

|1. |I am satisfied with the information I receive from my |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |superior about my job performance | | | | |

|

|2. |I receive enough information from my supervisor about |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |my job performance. | | | | | |

|3. |I receive enough feedback from my supervisor on how |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |well I am doing. | | | | | |

|4. |There is enough opportunity in my job to find out how |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |I am doing. | | | | | |

|5. |I am satisfied with the variety of activities my job |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |offers. | | | | | |

|6. |I am satisfied with the freedom I have to do what I |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |want on my job. | | | | | |

|7. |I am satisfied with the opportunity my job provides me|1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |to interact with others. | | | | | |

|8. |There is enough variety in my job. |1 |2 |3 |4 |5

|

|9. |I have enough freedom to what I want in my faculty |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |related job | | | | | |

|10. |My job has enough opportunity for independent thought |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |and action. | | | | | |

|11. |I am satisfied with the opportunity my job gives me to|1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |complete tasks from begin. | | | | |

|

|12. |My job has enough opportunity to complete the work I |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |starting to end. | | | | | |

|13. |Overall I am satisfied with the College/university’s | | | | |

|

| |compensation package. |1 |2 |3 |4 |5

|

|14. |I am satisfied with the medical benefits. |1 |2 |3 |4 |5

|

|15. |I received with the security my job provides me. |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

|16. |I am satisfied with the retirement benefits. |1 |2 |3 |4 |5

|

|17. |I am satisfied with the holiday (vacation) |1 |2 |3 |4 |5

|

| |eligibilities. | | | | | |

|18. |My fellow workers are not selfish. |1 |2 |3 |4 |5

|

|19. |My fellow workers are pleasant. |1 |2 |3 |4 |5

|

|20. |The people I work with are very friendly. |1 |2 |3 |4 |

5 |

|21. |The people I work with help each other out when |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |someone falls behind or gets in a tight spot. | | | | |

|

|22. |College/University l management has a clear path for |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |lecturers’ advancement. | | | | | |

|23. |Decisions are made keeping in mind the good of the |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |lecturers. | | | | | |

|24. |Management is extremely fair in personal policies. |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

|25. |Physical working conditions are supportive in |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |attaining quality of teaching and research | | | | |

|

SECTION B

This section asks your plan for the future. Please circle the correct response that reflects your

honest and objective opinion on each of the statement below using the following scale in which 1

= strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither disagree nor agree, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree.

| | |Strongly |Disagree |Neutral |Agree |

Strongly Agree |

| | |disagree | | | | |

|1. |In the last few months, I have seriously thought about |1 |2 |3 |4

|5 |

| |looking for a new job. | | | | | |

|2. |Presently, I am actively searching for other job. |1 |2 |3 |4 |

5 |

|3. |I intend to leave the college/university in the near |1 |2 |3 |4 |

5 |

| |future. | | | | | |

SECTION C

This section asks about your personal information. Please tick ( in the appropriate box, or fill in

the space provided.

1. What is your sex? ( Male ( Female

2. What is your ethnic origin? ( Malay ( Chinese

( Indian ( Others, please indicate __________

3. What is your marital status? ( Single ( Married

← Separated/Divorced

4. How old are you? ________ years old

5. What is the highest level of your education?

← Diploma

← Bachelor’s degree

← Master’s degree

← Others, please indicate, __________

6. How long have you been working in the teaching (lecturing position)? Approximately

________ years .

7. What is your job title?

___________________________

THANK YOU FOR COMPLETING THIS QUESTIONNAIRE

-----------------------

CHAPTER FIVE

RESEARCH IMPLICATONS & DISCUSSION

CHAPTER FOUR

EMPRICAL FINDINGS & ANALYSIS

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

Research Model & Hypotheses

Research design and strategy

Sampling

Operationalization of concept

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Job satisfaction

Jab satisfaction and Intention to leave

Previous findings

Summary

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

Background

Problem

Questions and Objectives

DV

Intention to leave for lecturers

Job Satisfaction Factors

1. Satisfaction with Supervisor

2. Satisfaction with variety

3. Satisfaction with closure

4. Satisfaction with compensation

5. Satisfaction with co-workers

6. Satisfaction with management & HR polices

IV

job satisfaction and intention to leave among lect

Business

kepuasan terhadapkepelbagaian

objektif kajian adalah

kepuasan dengan kawan

dalam model ini

berdasarkan hasil kajian

lokasi kuala lumpur

dalam bidang ini juga

ipts dimalaysia terutama