Lv ths assessment of the job satisfaction and commitment to organizations of lecturers from the northern universitiesand colleges

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The doctoral thesis would not have been possible without the assistance and support from many individuals who in one way or another way help me in preparing and completing the researc[.]

The doctoral thesis would not have been possible without the assistance and support frommany individuals who in one way or another way help me in preparing and completingthe research

First and foremost, my deepest gratitude goes to Dr Dominic Mwenja who is President

of California Miramar University for his unforgettable encouragement to me in order toaccomplish my doctoral thesis

Secondly, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Pham Thi Nhuan for her patience andvaluable support for me through the process of doing the thesis Without her help, thestudy would not have been completed

My third sincere thanks is given to Dr Pham Hung, the president of DevelopmentSystems Center – Vietnam National University for designing the doctoral program co-organized with California Miramar University Thanks to the program, I had manyopportunities to access to the advanced knowledge and perfect my life

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family members, especially my wife for theirconsiderable encouragement which helps me to recover all of difficulties during theprocess of learning and doing the thesis

Table of Contents

Page

Dedication iv

Acknowledgements v

Table of Contents vi

List of Tables x

Abstract xi

Chapter I: Introduction 1

Introduction of the system of universities in the Northern region 5

Real situation of the system of universities and colleges 5

Quality as a big concern 6

Real situation of taught contents in universities and colleges in Vietnam 7

Teaching method 8

Research purposes 11

Research questions and hypotheses 12

Theoretical aspects 14

Definition of key terms 15

Scope of Research 16

Limitations of Research 17

Significance of Research 17

Contributions of the research 17

Contributions to reality 18

The organizational structure of Research 18

Chapter II: Review of Literature 20

Job satisfaction 20

Job satisfaction concepts 20

Theories of Job satisfaction 21

Impacts of environmental factors on Job satisfaction 24

Demographic factors affecting job satisfaction 25

Age 26

Gender 27

Marital status 27

Working period 28

Academic titles and degrees 28

Research on job satisfaction 29

Commitment to organization 31

Definition of Organizational commitment 33

Models of organizational commitment 37

Factors affecting organizational commitment 39

Personal characteristics 41

Age and working period 41

Gender 42

Marital status 43

Academic titles and degrees and task management 43

Working experience 43

Job characteristics 44

Conflict of roles 44

Autonomy in work 45

Relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment 45

Conclusion 48

Chapter III: Research Methodology 53

Sampling 53

Data collection 53

Characteristics of the sample 53

Tools 54

Demographic 54

Survey on the satisfaction of lecturers 54

Internal factors 55

External factors 55

Survey of commitment to organization 56

Emotional commitment 56

Continuous long-term commitment 56

Normative commitment 57

Experimental survey 57

Reliability 57

Variables 57

Demographic 57

Age 58

Gender 58

Marital status 58

Working time 58

Academic titles and degrees 58

Administrative tasks 59

Job satisfaction 59

Commitment to organization 59

Data analysis 60

Research questions 60

Chapter IV: Analysis of Findings 62

Sort out data 62

Study results 62

Levels of lecturer’s job satisfaction 62

Lecturers’ levels of commitment to their organization 67

Connection between the lecturer’s job satisfaction and demographics.… ……72

Connection between lecturer commitment and demographics………78

Answering research questions and testing hypotheses …….………81

Conclusion 80

Chapter V: Discussion, conclusions and recommendations 86

Objectives of the research 86

Research questions 86

Discussion 87

Information on demography 87

The job satisfactory levels 88

Satisfy with the job changing 89

Dissatisfied areas of the lecturers 89

Satisfied areas of the lecturers 90

Conflict with Maslow's hierarchy of needs 90

Job title, Administrative tasks and Job satisfaction 91

Levels of commitment to organizations 92

Other concerns 93

Other commitment and job performance 93

The Inconsistent reactions in establishment of emotional commitment 94

Commitment to organizations and Demographic variables 94

Lack of considerable relationship in emotional commitment 95

Commitment and job title 95

Job satisfaction and commitment to organizations 96

Relationship between satisfaction and commitment 96

Practical recommendations 97

Suggestions for further researches 100

Conclusion 102

References 103

Appendix A Survey: Demography 108

Appendix B Survey on the job satisfaction of the lecturers 110

Appendix C Table for evaluation of commitment to an organization 113

LIST OF TABLES

AppendicesTable 4.1: Demographic characteristics of lecturers in the survey

p 63Table 4.2: Order of sources creating job satisfaction

p 64Table 4.2: Order of sources creating job satisfaction (cont.) p 66Table 4.3: Levels of commitment to the organization p 68Table 4.4: Relations between job satisfaction and gender

p 73Table 4.5: Relations between job satisfaction and marital status

p 74Table 4.6: Relations between job satisfaction and title

p 76Table 4.7: Relations between job satisfaction and administrative work

p 77Table 4.8: Relation between continuous commitment with

p 79

Table 4.9: Relation between continuous commitment to the

p 80

Table 4.10: Relation between staying commitment to the organization and

As mentioned in many previous researches, employees’ behavior and attitudes towardtheir organization have many considerable impacts on their performance and theorganization’s results This is the reason why there are a lot of studies conducted at theaim of researching the employees’ perspective, especially their job satisfaction andcommitment to their organization Also in the same flow of the trend, the author carriedout the research on the purpose of understanding more about lecturers’ satisfaction withtheir job and their commitment to the Northern universities and colleges in Vietnam

In the world today, there are some continuous changes in style of management of theuniversities and colleges in Vietnam, especially in the Northern area, as well as in theirstaffs’ life As a result, leaders of the schools should understand staffs in terms of theirjob satisfaction and commitment to the organization The research will provide someuseful information about the evaluation of lecturers’ satisfaction and commitment to helpthe universities and colleges strengthen staffs’ commitment and improve theorganizational performance

The findings of the research were found through surveying two types of factors in terms

of internal and external ones, three kinds of commitment including continuous, emotionaland normative ones Moreover, the findings show the relationship among these abovefactors and demographic variables such as age, gender, marital status, working time,academic titles, administrative task holding Based on these results, the study suggestssome solutions for the universities and colleges to enhance lecturers’ job satisfaction andcommitment as well as some recommendations for further researches

In the now tendency in Vietnam, the research has added information to the variousresearches studying the same topic as well as help organizations know how to improveemployees’ commitment and their own performance.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTIONAttitudes related to work and organizational behaviors have considerable impact

on many stages of organizations Relationship between employees and their organizationshas been studied a lot by researchers such as Argyris, 1957; Mayo, 1987; Meyer & Allen,

1997 Satisfaction of employees and commitment to organization are the topics which have been recently studied in the fields of organizational behavior and education because

of their influences on work attitudes of employees (Testa, 2001)

People leave the organization due to various reasons The experience of job related stress (job stress), the range factors that lead to job related stress (stressors), lack

of commitment in the organization; and job dissatisfaction make employees to quit (Firth,

et al (2007) Employee can be dissatisfied with the organization due to many reasons Personal dissatisfaction itself is a major reason for an employee to leave the firm This dissatisfaction can arise from various factors such as compensation, job security, job autonomy, relationship with the supervisor and other colleagues etc (James & Mathew, 2012)

Employee retention is a process in which the employees are encouraged to remainwith the organization for the maximum period of time Employee retention is beneficial for the organization as well as the employee Employees today are different When they get dissatisfied, they move to other organizations It is the responsibility of the employer

to retain their best employees, if not; the organization will lose the star performers (good employees), (Gurumani, 2010; Vaiman, 2008; Whitt, 2006; Allen, et al., 2010)

The topic about commitment to organization continues receiving a lot of attention from academicians and practicers The reason for this attention is an evidence indicating

that commitment to organization is the factor shows (a) whether individuals actually comply with the requirements of organization; (b) work effectively; or (c) only show that they are less absent, late for work or feel exhausted (Porter, Steers, Mowday, & Boulian, 1974) Commitment to organization is defined and assessed under some ways Allen’s and Meyers’ (1990) suggested 3 factors related to behavior in the formation process of commitment to organization – emotional commitment, continuous commitment, and normative commitment– these factors have received special attentions Emotional

commitment mentions individual awareness, participation and interest when becoming a member of organization (Mowday, Steers & Porter, 1979) Continuous commitment is considered as readiness of individuals to maintain work in organization due to awareness

of loss of investments when quitting job (Becker, 1960) The third factor, normative (regulation-based) commitment, is related to the sense of obligation to stay with

organization (Wiener, 1982)

Human beings always own complicated moods, attitudes and experiences

(Hodson, 1991) Attitudes tend to have impacts on each other and are gathered under the groups (Knoop, 1995) The person who develops a positive attitude toward a work aspect often likes other aspects in work A variable can be used to predict a commitment to organization, which is job satisfaction Job satisfaction is a wide feeling, mentions

attitudes of an individual towards work or criteria of work (Hodson, 1991)

It is defined as a variable about level-measuring attitude in which employees like their work because of many aspects of work (Spector, 1997) Even though some

researchers argue that commitment to organization is the premise to lead to job

satisfaction (Bateman & Strasser, 1984; Culver, Wolfle, & Cross, 1990), other

researchers do not find evidences proving that job satisfaction is a premise or a result of commitment to organization (Cury, Wakefield, Price, & Mueller, 1986; Koslowsky, Caspy, & Lazar, 1991)

A lot of inspectors prove that job satisfaction is often a premise of commitment toorganization (DeCotiis & Summers, 1987; Mathieu, 1988; Mathieu & Hamel, 1989) Porter and colleagues (1974) suggested that job satisfaction represents unstable reaction

to work environment, compared to commitment to organization The research findings of Williams’s and Hazer’s show that there are few evidences proving a relationship betweencommitment and job satisfaction, compared to the reverse direction there seem to be more relationships Therefore, it seems there are some evidences indicating that job satisfaction leads to commitment to organization In this research, some assumptions show that when a person is very satisfied with his job, he starts working consciously and

is more committed to organization

Job satisfaction is the level at which a person enjoys his job very much (Spector, 1997) This is a subjective reaction of each individual for certain working conditions Most of the questions on job satisfaction are based on the two-factor theory of Hezberg, Mausner, and Snyderman (1959) The theory of customers’ satisfaction uses both groups

of internal and external factors (For example, multiple choice questions on satisfaction of Minnesota and Job analysis survey) In the past researches, the two-factor theory has been selected as a basis to evaluate job satisfaction The first group of factors, known as encouragement factors, includes factors such as autonomy, progress, awareness,

responsibility and achievement

The second group of factor is known as hygiene-relevant factors including

working conditions such as salary, job title, policy, encouragement and labor safety (Robbins, 2000) Dessler (1980) mentioned internal bonus values which have stronger influences on commitment to organization than external bonus values This research will study internal encouragement factors or hygiene factors (external factors) which are significant to emotional commitment, continuous commitment and normative (regulation-based) commitment

In the higher educational institutions, teachers play an important role in

development of motivation in students to strive for higher grades Their guidance,

suggestions and involvement in administrative activities help management of educational institutions to reach their goals of accomplishment and having good national and

international standing (Munaf, 2009)

In today’s world, changes become a lifestyle of organizations and members of organizations In the recent training reform and restructuring process, the concerns have focused on the development of ways to improve commitment of lecturers and staff to universities Organizations should understand the levels of job satisfaction, commitment

to organization, especially when changes need releasing Each lecturer is an important part of university They often interact with more students than any other staff in the university Lecturers’ job has differences based on helping, encouraging and teaching students A good university depends not only on good equipment, good governance or size of the dormitory but also on reliable relationships and stability of labor force

(Nguyen Kim Dung, 2002; Sanjaya Mishra, 2007)

In a strongly competitive environment in the field of training of Vietnam,

universities need to improve efficiency in the organization affairs through increasing the level of job satisfaction of lecturers and their commitment to organization This

improvement should be done with the contents (a) expanding the number of universities, (b) narrowing traditional universities, and (c) increasing competition among universities for the quality of lecturers and students (Pham Xuan Thanh, 2010)

Introduction of the system of universities in the Northern region

Now there are 498 universities and colleges in the whole country Among them, the Northern region has over half of the total number of universities and colleges

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, the rapid growth rate of the number

of universities has led to the fact that education quality in many universities is not

guaranteed, and this is a bigger concern than before (MOET, 2011)

Real situation of the system of universities and colleges

According to Higher Education Department, as of 8/2008, there were 369

universities and colleges in the whole country, including 160 universities and 209

colleges with more than 1.6 million students, reached 188 students / thousand people (MOET, 2009)

Looking back, in the period from 1998 to 2004, the whole country has only established 3 universities and 3 private colleges; 25 colleges upgraded to universities; 15 professional secondary schools ungraded to colleges

But in just three years, from 2005 to 2008, the number of universities was

established up to 20 universities, including 1 public university and 19 private universities.Also from 2005 to now, the Ministry of Education and Training has upgraded 28 colleges

to universities, 86 professional secondary schools to colleges The rate of development ofuniversities and colleges are too fast without sufficient resources In the opinion of an inspector of the Ministry of Education and Training, through examining some universitiesand colleges just established, many shortcomings have been found Some universities newly upgraded have lack of lecturers Phu Yen University and Pham Van Dong

University only have 2 lecturers as PhD For non-public universities, the number of lecturers is not only insufficient and weak but also constantly fluctuating (Pham Xuan Thanh, 2010)

The actual number of official lecturers of many universities is lower than data submitted to the Ministry of Education and Training Van Xuan Technology and

Technical College reported that there are 20 PhD and 105 MA; however when checking the payroll, there are only 1 PhD and 6 MA; Phu Xuan University enrolls and trains the major in Finance and Banking while there is only 1 official lecturer having bachelor’s degree; Dong Du Economics And Technology College has 6 lecturers with the bachelor’sdegree specialized in Accounting, but trains 850 college students majored in Accounting, etc… (Pham Xuan Thanh, 2010)

Quality as a big concern

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam, to meet human resource needs for national economic development and learning needs of people, the number of universities and colleges needed would be 386 in 2010, 410 in 2015 and 600

in 2020, including 225 universities and 375 colleges (MOET, 2009)

As of 8/2008, there were 369 universities and colleges in the whole country, including 160 universities and 209 colleges Thus, in the following 15 years, a network of

universities in our country needs to be expanded and enhance training capacity three times as much as it today, to ensure enough learning places for about 4.5 million students (MOET, 2009)

One of the important solutions to improve the quality of training of the newly established universities is to overcome the lack of lecturers, especially highly qualified lecturers Ministry of Education and Training said the Ministry planned that each year colleges appoint 3% of lecturers to participate in doctoral programs, 20% of lecturers for training masters For the higher education system, each year universities appoint 10% of lecturers for training doctors, 15% for training masters (Pham Xuan Thanh, 2010)

To ensure quality, the Ministry of Education and Training will promulgate

regulations on university lecturers to evaluate lecturers, if lecturers are not qualified enough, they are not allowed to teach Starting from this academic year, universities mustannounce training standards, and then announce training materials for each module; before enrolment, universities must disclose training objectives, programs, curriculum and names of lecturers, etc… (Nguyen Thi My Loc, 2010, Nguyen Tram, 2012)

Real situation of taught contents in universities and colleges in Vietnam

According to Tram, (2012), if we take 3 objectives of universities in the world to apply to universities in Vietnam, we will find:

Objective 1: Vietnamese lecturers often teach their students specific knowledge, and knowledge which they accumulated from teaching experiences without focusing on vocational training for students

Objective 2: Vietnamese lecturers are less likely to update professional

knowledge related to actual demands Lessons of lecturers are not sometimes suitable to

the current social situation If students only study in universities and do not have

conditions to interact with the outside world, their ability to adapt to social demands is low because the gap between theory and reality is quite far

Objective 3: University students must have the high level of cultural awareness; specifically they must have special qualifications Because universities of Vietnam believed that qualification education for students is the responsibility of secondary and high schools or belongs to students themselves, they do not focus on training this aspect

Teaching method

Today, lecturers in Vietnamese universities mainly use the traditional teaching method “lecturer reads, students write” Lecturers explain that although this method makes students uninterested, they must convey all contents of textbooks to students in accordance with the learning hours as prescribed by Ministry of Education and Training The current learning and teaching methods mainly follow programs, cope with exams, and after finishing exams, students no longer remain any knowledge in their mind Students complain that when attending university, they feel disillusioned because of the learning form “read, write”; in addition, there are very few workshops and research topics, student do not have a chance to refer to professional journals, and when reviewingfor exams, lecturers still provide a few tens of questions, which is not different from the learning and teaching methods for high school students (Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, 2002, Nguyen Thi My Loc, 2010, Nguyen Tram, 2012)

Now reform of teaching method in universities is only formality Teaching

equipments such as projectors, video and etc… are only supportive means to improve the teaching quality; however more importantly, the awareness of the fact that education

must have creativity and sense of responsibility shown by the reform of learning methodsand programs has not yet focused (Nguyen Tram, 2012)

Method for evaluation and test in universities is also one of the shortcomings Now universities evaluate students through 2 examinations: Mid-term test accounting for 30%-40% of score and final examination accounting for 60%-70%, which is not justified because this method does not promote self-learning and self-study of students According

to comments of lecturers, Ministry of Education and Training should regulate that the final exam only accounts for 30% of score; the remaining 30% is calculated based on research topic and participation in lessons in class of students The evaluation should not

be only based on exams; it also needs to be based on the whole learning process of students (Pham Xuan Thanh, 2010)

According to an annual report of MOET, (2009),the following “awesome” figures are evidences for the shortcomings of Vietnam Education and Training:

- More than 50% of the surveyed students are not really confident in their own learning capacity/ ability

- More than 40% said that they are not capable of self-study;

- Nearly 70% of students said that they are not capable of self-research;

- Nearly 55% of the surveyed students said that they are not really interested in learning

In summary, if universities in Vietnam want to improve the quality, they must focus

on changing the three key issues mentioned above These changes need efforts from many sides: Ministry of Education and Training, universities, lecturers and students Although the implementation is very difficult and takes a long time, universities must do

right now because the State has opened to foreign countries to invest in education and encouraged education institutions to train in accordance with social demands This creates competition in Education – Training; therefore, universities must reform

themselves and improve the quality to build brand and reputation for themselves (NguyenThi My Loc, 2010)

Real situation of human resources in universities and colleges

According an annual report of MOET, (2011), the number of nationwide lecturersincluded 62.000 official lecturers in universities and colleges in 2010 This figure is up about 9% for each year due to the larger training scale of universities The number of increased lecturers is mainly people with the Master’s degree

Specifically, the number of lecturers with PhD degree is 6217, accounting for 10.16 % The number of lecturers with Master’s degree is 22831, accounting for 37.31%, the remaining lecturers have bachelor’s degree This total number of lectures is

responsible for teaching more than 1.7 million students

From 2006 – 2011, Vietnam has recognized 3252 professors and associate

professors including 450 professors and 2802 associate professors In 2008, the

recognition was interrupted It is expected that this work will continue on 11/2009 According to the latest figures of the State Council for Professor Title, every year

Vietnam recognizes 41 professors and 255 associate professors This figure is fewer than the number of the retired – the average number is annually 866 people (including 50 professors and 716 associate professors)

Among the scientific officials working in universities and colleges, 75% are aged over 50

The lack of excellent officials and insufficient officials with teaching experiences and high qualifications in each main field of expertise lead to consequence of the fact thatthere are not enough qualified people to compile textbooks (Pham Xuan Thanh, 2010)

The shortage of excellent human resources also contributes to making many programs in universities not be built in accordance with the regulated structure and knowledge blocks; modules are confused among knowledge blocks; the volume of knowledge does not meet enough minimum requirements for training level or the

minimum core knowledge of majors; names of majors are unsuitable to program

contents A lot of modules have too old names reflecting old and non-updated contents (Pham Xuan Thanh, 2010)

Another “consequence” is the lack of lecturers with doctoral degrees and

instructors for research students Even, some majors only have one or two people who arequalified enough to teach and participate in the Thesis Examination Board

Therefore, understanding premises for commitment to organization helps and supports better decision-making in financial decisions in order to support lecturers to pursue doctoral programs (Pham Xuan Thanh, 2010)

Research purposesJob satisfaction and organizational commitment are multidimensional phenomena and complex constructs (Khalil & Kuchinke, 2011; Swanson and Holton 2008) A

research made enrichment with literature on theories, models, and applications on related outcomes that attempt to explain satisfaction and commitment (Cummings and Worley 2009)

work-The connections between job satisfaction and organizational commitment have been the subject of a great deal of attention in recent years This effort has enhanced our understanding of the determinants of these two important employee attitudes, but some important inconsistencies remain despite the cumulative results of this effort Some authors find that job satisfaction generates commitment Others find the reverse Some authors find both and others find neither (Bruce, 2006).

Although the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational

commitment is well researched in the Western context, very little is known about these correlations internationally (Khalil & Kuchinke, 2011) This research provides evidence

to understanding organizational commitment and job satisfaction in a non-Western context

The purpose of this study is to (a) assess the construct validity and applicability ofjob satisfaction and organizational commitment in the Vietnamese universities and college context, (b) measure the correlation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and (c) test the effect of different demographic such as age, gender,

marriage status, working time, academic titles, and participation in management activities

or non-participation in management activities variables on commitment and satisfaction

in the universities and college

Research questions and hypothesesThis research will answer the following questions:

RQ1: Is there any significant relationship between job satisfaction measured by internal

factors and emotional commitment in Vietnamese universities and college?

H1: There is existing relationship between job satisfaction measured by internal factors

and emotional commitment in Vietnamese universities and college

RQ2: Is there any significant relationship between job satisfaction measured by internal

factors and continuous commitment in Vietnamese universities and college?

H2: There is existing relationship between job satisfaction measured by internal factors

and continuous commitment in Vietnamese universities and college

RQ3: Is there any significant relationship between job satisfaction measured by internal

factors and normative commitment in Vietnamese universities and college?

H3: There is existing relationship between job satisfaction measured by internal factors

and normative commitment in Vietnamese universities and college

RQ4: Is there any significant relationship between job satisfaction measured by external

factors and emotional commitment in Vietnamese universities and college?

H4: There is existing relationship between job satisfaction measured by external factors

and emotional commitment in Vietnamese universities and college

RQ5: Is there any significant relationship between job satisfaction measured by external

factors and continuous commitment in Vietnamese universities and college?

H5: There is existing relationship between job satisfaction measured by external factors

and continuous commitment in Vietnamese universities and college

RQ6: Is there any significant relationship between job satisfaction measured by external

factors and normative commitment in Vietnamese universities and college?

H6: There is existing relationship between job satisfaction measured by external factors

and normative commitment in Vietnamese universities and college

The research also examine other kinds of relationships (1) the relationship

between job satisfaction of lecturers in Vientamese colleges and universities and the demographic variables: (a) age; (b) gender; (c) marriage status; (d) working time; (e) academic level ranking; (f) administrative management work and (2) the relationship between organizational commitment of lecturers in Vietnamese colleges and universities and the demographic variables: (a) age; (b) gender; (c) marriage status; (d) working time; (e) academic titles; (f) administrative task

Theoretical aspectsThe cause - result model of Williams’ and Hazer’s (1986) on prerequisite factors for commitment to organization is used to study in this research William and Hazer proved that the main focus is on factors creating premises for continuous commitment to organization These factors belong to in the groups such as personal characteristics, working experiences, job characteristics, organizational factors and role-relevant factors (Bateman & Straaser, 1984; Mathieu & Zajac, 1990)

However, William & Hazer found that initial mechanism for these factors to have impacts on commitment is the exchange process That is “through the process of

evaluating investment costs and benefits, personal needs and satisfied desires, this result affects characteristics and environment” (Williams & Hazer) They said that commitment

of organizations is also made based on these factors The model of William and Hazer

showed that satisfaction of customers is defined as a factor having impacts on

commitment to organization; and other individuals, other organizational characteristics have indirect influences on commitment The research findings of William and Hazer proved that there are very few evidences on the causal relationship between commitment

to organization and job satisfaction However, the opposite relationship seems more accurate These researchers concluded that job satisfaction should be considered as a causal factor for commitment to organization

Definition of key terms

Commitment to organization: Commitment is a sort of bond between an

employee and the organization he is working for (Buchanan, 1974) Commitment to organization is the attitude reflecting perception and attaches the achievements associatedwith the organization (Moorhead & Griffin, 1995) It is the level at which workers find that they need to stick to an organization and objectives of the organization, and maintain long-term relationships with this organization (Blau & Boal, 1987)

Emotional (Affective) commitment: Becker (1960) found that long-term

commitment is based on conception of cost This is the conception which is related to behavior of commitment and describes contributions of employees to their organization

or they bet on their organization For example, work tenure, promotion opportunities and work relationships These investments cannot be brought to the new organization where they work; therefore, these factors reduce the attractiveness of career opportunities The commitment is based on the causal relationship or exchange between individuals and organization The commitment to organization is based on demands of desire to stay withorganization

Continuous commitment: commitment under regulations and standards is “all the

prescriptive pressures are to meet the objectives and concerns of the organization”

(Wiener, 1982) Moreover, normative commitment is the obligation in which individuals have sense of obligation that they must continue working in their organization because they should do like that (Allen & Meyer, 1990)

Normative commitment: Normative commitment often refers to a belief that a

person is obliged to organization after they join the organization Employees with

normative commitment frequently try their best to work because they feel that they should do it (Allen & Meyer, 1990)

Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction is the emotional reactions to their current

working conditions (Kalleberg, 1977) Simply, job satisfaction is the level which one person loves his job (Spector, 1997)

Two-factor theory: in 1959, Herzberg and colleagues conducted a research on relevant factors related to negative or positive feelings The two-factor theory tries to explain the reason why job satisfaction is affected by internal and external factors

job-External factors include salary, personnel policies, job safety and working conditions Meanwhile, internal factors mention responsibility, achievements, progress and identifiedfactor

Scope of the researchSome complicated variables of the research include prerequisite factors,

relationship, and chain of results of commitment to organization This research only focuses on studying job satisfaction as a mainly prerequisite factor for commitment to organization

With the analysis samples and previous researches, this research will concentrate

on evaluating lecturers of universities and colleges in the Northern region in terms of job satisfaction

Limitations of the researchThere are the major limitations in this research including:

First, authenticity of the research depends on the fact that whether lecturers are ready to answer about their feelings or not

Second, lecturers respond to the surveys as a matter of perception Feedbacks of members are affected by their personal characteristics, and they tend to give answers which have the nature of social ambition

Significance of the researchContributions of the research

While seeking relevant theories, some researches related to the topic of job satisfaction and organizational commitment has been found (for instance, Bateman & Strasser, 1984; Chung, 2001; Mathieu & Zajac, 1990, Ralton, 2006, Yu-Ching Huang,

2004; Munaf, 2009; Harvey and Haines, 2005; Clay-Warner et al., 2005; Lund, 2003 and

Bruce, 2006) Although commitment to organization has been studied by some groups of researchers, only several researches mentioned the matter of commitment between lecturers and organization (Weiner & Gechman, 1977; Munaf, 2009; Yu-Ching Huang, 2004; Lund, 2003 and Bruce, 2006) and between workers and organization (Allen & Meyer, 1990; Meyer, Allen, and Gechman, 1990; Welsh & Lavan, 1981) There have been few researches that prove the relationship between satisfaction and commitment of lecturers in universities and colleges (such as: Munaf, 2009 and Yu-Ching Huang, 2004)

This research partially contributes to the theory mentioning the factors such as emotional commitment, normative commitment and continuous commitment in Vietnamese

universities and colleges

Contributions to reality

The research findings provide information about job satisfaction of lecturers as well as their commitment to organization for leaders of Vietnamese universities and colleges The factors creating job satisfaction and explaining the rate of job changes or other organizational behaviors will contribute to ideas of leaders in redesigning and reorganizing the workplace

The research findings can help Vietnamese universities and colleges to make administrative decisions, for example, which lecturers continue to participate in doctoral programs, what personnel policies are

The organizational structure of the researchThis thesis is divided into chapters:

Chapter 1: General introduction of Research

Chapter 2: Review and evaluation about theories This chapter provides the theoretical background for the research This chapter is divided into three main parts together with emphasis on job satisfaction, commitment to organization, and relationship between job satisfaction and commitment to organization

Chapter 3: describes the research design, including description of investigation models, tools used to collect data

Chapter 4: analyzes the research findings Statistically analyze collected data and

research findings in various formats

Chapter 5: discusses the research findings found in the research At the same time it offers some suggestions based on research findings, and including the part of solutions to the found problems

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

Job satisfactionJob satisfaction concept

Study conducted by Singh and Loncar (2010) revealed that pay satisfaction and job satisfaction affects turnover intention Job satisfaction mentions positive or negative attitudes towards current job (Robbins, 2000) Job satisfaction is defined as the overall emotional orientation in a part of individuals to the role of the job which they are doing (Kalleberg, 1977) Job satisfaction is also defined as the level at which rewards are received due to meeting requirements (Poster, 1961) According to another simple

definition, job satisfaction is the level at which a person love his job very much (Spector, 1997) Employees will make a good relationship with their supervisor if they are

satisfied Job satisfaction refers to individual’s satisfaction with the challenge and

meaning ascribed to their current jobs (Ariani, 2012)

There are two schools mentioning concepts and definitions of the level of job satisfaction The first trend is to consider job satisfaction at the macro or global level, in which a survey is designed to evaluate the overall feelings of work Although job

satisfaction is considered as a general phenomenon, the problem which should be

emphasized here is evaluation of job satisfaction (Jayanratne, 1993) The simple survey question is “In general, do you feel satisfied with your job?”

The second trend emphasizes on a lot of aspects of job satisfaction in which the survey instrument will measure the different aspects of each job It is obvious that job satisfaction is the level at which an individual is satisfied with all the aspects of their job (Jayaratne, 1993) The whole job satisfaction is the combination of many aspects which

are assessed on job In general, those assessed aspects include satisfaction with payment, supervision in work, work safety, work overload and working conditions

Job satisfaction becomes important because of three reasons: First, according to the viewpoint of humanity, employees should be treated with fairness and respect Job satisfaction reflects good treatment Second, according to the practical viewpoint, job satisfaction of employees will create positive behaviors for operations of organization, etc… Finally, job satisfaction can be shown in the process of implementing enterprises’ functions

Theories of Job satisfaction

The theories of needs and encouragement: Needs of human help to orient

encouragement All incentives arise when needs of human have not been met yet The theory of needs of Maslow (1943) created the basis for experimental researches on behaviors and attitudes of human Model of the research has been adapted in many other researches such as: Barrett (1993); Chan’s (1993); Olomolaiye and Ogunlana (1988a); Asad & Andrew, (2005); Kaliprasad, (2006); The lowest level in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is material needs, the next levels is safety needs, emotional exchange needs, respected and loved needs and self-expression needs In general, the needs at the low level should be met before the needs at the higher level arise

However, the researchers have not found much support in Maslow’s theory for the research Employees still like the pattern of “bread and butter” as a safe pattern and are made higher payment with the immaterial things such as the variety of work

The expectancy theory: In 1964, the expectancy theory of Vroom suggested that

job satisfaction of an individual originates from the difference between what employees

expect and what they obtain The obtained things can include material or immaterial rewards There are three variables in the difference of Vroom’s theory: attractiveness of potential output, belief in efforts to lead to good performance, and expectations of good performance to lead to output achievements (Robbins, 2000) When mentioning the evaluation method of job satisfaction, it is necessary to recognize what people want, whatpeople think they should obtain and what they expect to obtain Therefore, job

satisfaction of human is determined through the general difference between “what an individual gets and his desires, what the obtained value is and needs, what the obtained value is and expectations” (Jayaratne, 1993)

The two-factor theory: In a research on “motivation” in 1959, Herberg and

colleagues studied job satisfaction and needs of human Model of the research has been adopted in many other researches such as: Barrett (1993); Chan, (1993); Yu-Ching, (2004); Asad & Andrew, (2005); Kaliprasad, (2006); Abdullah and Ramay (2012)

A series of needs is identified under the human instinct: building factors to prevent damage from environment and factors to adapt to environment in order to meet basic biological needs (Herberg, 1964) The factor introducing the behaviors which do not offercustomer’s satisfaction can be found in the working environment

External factors or hygiene factors related to dissatisfaction include: salary, job position, safety, relationship among individuals, supervision, working conditions, policy and administration Another group of factors is the group related to the ability of

individuals in order to gain and through psychological and physical development

experiences Motivation for growth demands occurs in work Internal factors or

motivation related to development include achievements, recognition to achievements, responsibility and development

These theories are usually utilized in the researches on job satisfaction of

employees and prediction of employees’ performance Job satisfaction is the subjective reaction of an individual for his job In addition, job satisfaction is the perception of individuals in which each employee assesses the working experiences in the personal context and environmental factors Because job satisfaction is relevant to personal

characteristics, evaluation is very difficult (Asad & Andrew, 2005; Kaliprasad, 2006; Abdullah and Ramay, 2012)

Another point of the JD-R model is similar with the two-factors theory of

Herzberg, et al., (1959) that the psychosocial work characteristics can be categorized into two groups: job resources and job demands (Demerouti, et al., 2001; Schaufeli & Bakker,2004) Job resources refer to the physical, psychological, social, or organizational aspects

of a job that (1) may reduce job demands and the associated physiological and

psychological costs, (2) are functional in achieving work goals, and (3) stimulate personalgrowth, learning, and development Hence, job resources may foster extrinsic motivation

at work because they are necessary to deal with job demands and to achieve work goals

In addition, by satisfying the basic psychological needs of autonomy, belongingness and competence, job resources are also intrinsically motivating for employees (Van den Broeck, et al., 2008)

As triggers of the motivational process, job resources are assumed to increase work engagement which, in turn, is associated with positive outcomes such as, for

example, organizational commitment (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004)

Bruce (2006) adopts a definition of job satisfaction that focuses on employees’ satisfaction with career opportunities, the levels of achievement and satisfaction with the levels of influence they have over their jobs This approach focuses on intrinsic elements

of job satisfaction to generate an overall measure of job satisfaction

Impacts of environmental factors on Job satisfaction

Work environment relates to the atmosphere in which an individual works in an organization Individuals join organizations because of their needs and desires; and they expect an environment where their can nourish and also their needs get satisfied (Steers, 1977)

Based on the theories of Maslow (1943), and Herzberg and colleagues (1959), many researchers try to offer characteristics of the working environment related to job satisfaction for the higher levels of needs including loved needs and self-expression needs(Barrett, 1993; Chan, 1993; Yu-Ching, 2004; Asad & Andrew, 2005; Kaliprasad, 2006; Abdullah and Ramay, 2012 Turner and Lawrence (1965) found six characteristics

of work to meet needs at the high level These characteristics consist of variety,

autonomy, compulsory interaction, optional interaction, compulsory knowledge and skills, and responsibility

Meanwhile, Hackman and Lawler (1971) suggested the factors such as variety, autonomy, job awareness, feedback, working with others, and cooperation opportunities

In a survey of job analysis, Hackman and Oldham (1975) classified five main factors of the working environment which decide the completion of high demands Factors related to psychology in work including: variety of skills, job identification, workmeanings, autonomy and feedback Variety of skills mentions the level at which job

requires the diversity of activities when implementing tasks, which is related to using a range of skills and knowledge of workers; and job identification is the level at which job requires the comprehensive completion and implementation from the beginning to endingwith the output which can be measured (Hackman & Oldman)

Meaning of job is the level at which job has a significant impact on life or job of other people regardless of in the organization or in the external environment (Hackman &Oldham) The autonomy is associated with the psychological condition of responsibility for the outputs of the job Moreover, feedback from work and from supervisors or

colleagues is also connected to the psychological condition Other variables related to jobsatisfaction are stress, individual relationships and working conditions

Yu-Ching, (2004) measured environmental factors by security, administration, workers, supervision, working conditions, benefits programs, role conflict Abdullah and Ramay, (2012) and Kirmizi & Deniz, (2009) measured environmental factors by relationships between peers and with management, and social activities

co-Demographic factors affecting job satisfaction

In an effort to identify factors having influence on job satisfaction, a considerable attention is focused on individual characteristics (Reiner, 1998) Variables on

demographic factors which are often considered include: age, gender, marriage status, and working period in organization

Barrett (1993) found that middle level professionals have a higher desire for monetary bonuses, compared with higher level professionals Chan’s (1993) findings alsosuggested that senior professionals place greater importance on project size, power,

achievement and control As professionals develop their careers, they look to derive intrinsic rewards from their work, illustrating that motivational factors vary with age and experience.

Age

A lot of researches on impacts of age on job satisfaction have been reported In general, older employees tend to be more satisfied in their work than young people However, some arguments are released for the trend that older employees are often more satisfied in their work than young people First, prestige and confidence gradually

increase with age, so older employees seem to have higher job satisfaction (Bedeian, Ferris, & Kacmar, 1992) Second, older employees want to reduce their expectations for job through their working experiences while younger employees tend to have higher expectations Along with the perception of gap between current working conditions and shorter ideal working conditions, older people often have more positive attitudes towards job (Oswald & Warr, 1996)

Some researches show that job satisfaction is linearly related to age (Boker, 1994;Quinn & Staines, 1979; Weaver, 1980), while other reports suggest that this relationship

is under U-Shape, which tends to reduce in the early years of work and increase very quickly when employees are going to retire (Oswald & Warr, 1996; Warr, 1992) The two processes of expectations can explain the U – shaped relationship between job satisfaction and age First, young employees often feel satisfied with their job because of the high unemployment, and they feel satisfied with the job which is more prestigious than their friends’ job Second, when employees have more experiences, they have information about job characteristics compared to the expectations of previous jobs

(Oswald & Warr) Therefore, it can be concluded that age can be a predictive factor for job satisfaction

Gender

The findings found in the researches on the relationship between gender and job satisfaction in different jobs bring a lot of disputes There is not any conclusion related to the level of job satisfaction between male and female (Brief & Oliver, 1976; Brief, Role,

& Aldag, 1977; D’Arcy, Syrotuik) However, the researchers of psychologists show that female employees tend to be less satisfied with their job than their male colleagues in terms of salary, promotion, opportunity and respect of their expertise (Black & Holden, 1998) The researches in the public and private sectors for employees having different occupations and different position show that female is less satisfied with their job than male in terms of salary and satisfaction with the material environment (Reyhan, 1998) The research for teachers shows that female teachers are often more satisfied with their expertise than male teachers (Ma & MacMillan, 1999) A research found that satisfaction

of male teachers is often related to supervision, autonomy and job position while

satisfaction of female teachers is often related to factors such as complication, cleanness and income (Miller, 1980)

In conclusion, gender must not be the factor having direct impacts on job

satisfaction The difference about the level of job satisfaction seems to depend on types

of job and job characteristics

Marital status

A numerous number of researches show that married employees are frequently more satisfied with their job than single employees However, some researchers suggest

that there is not obvious difference in job satisfaction related to married status or

unmarried status Similar to gender, the relationship between marriage status and job satisfaction is not applied to different occupations or similar occupations at the same place Marriage status seems directly unrelated to the determination of job satisfaction And differences seem to be caused by circumstances or other social factors

Working period

In general, the influences of working period are considered to have a high

relationship to age The positive relationship was found between job tenure and job satisfaction (Hunt & Saul, 1975) Similar to the U-shaped relationship found in the research on relationship between age and job satisfaction, a research found that

employees having little experience often have the high level of job satisfaction, and then this level of job satisfaction gradually reduces until they have worked for about 16 years After this time, job satisfaction will gradually increase (Burke, 1989) The reason for this

is the fact that new employees can find high challenges of job and are motivated to work harder in order to find opportunities for promotion When working experience increases, they start to feel stable in their organization and feel that there are very few challenges or

no challenges or no opportunities for career promotion in their job They become

undoubtful about finding job-perfecting opportunities in their career The levels of job satisfaction will gradually reduce until they are going to retire

Academic titles and degrees

The attitude of lecturers towards job changes when they “go through the academictitles and degrees and their careers making different kinds of needs” (Baldwin, 1990) Changes of academic titles and degrees bring different expectations, changes of

responsibility, job reputation and salary Tack and Patitu (1992) found that job title is a factor which helps to satisfy lecturers For example, the title of professor shows the higher satisfaction than the title of assistant professor Promotion opportunities in

academic titles and degrees change concentration, concerns and objectives and therefore have influence on their positive attitude toward job

Research on job satisfaction

Research on job satisfaction can be divided into three groups (Reiner, 1998) In the first group, job satisfaction is considered as a dependent factor while the purpose is tofind out the factors that have impacts on job satisfaction The issues considered here include characteristics of each individual, perception of working environment, and job characteristics (Liacqua & Schumacher, 1995)

In the second group, research on job satisfaction considers job satisfaction as an intermediary factor related to characteristics in the working environment and the quit rate

of employees (Cammann, Fichman, Jenkins and Klesh, 1983) Job satisfaction is also considered as an intermediary factor used to check the relationship among job

characteristics and working environment and commitment of an individual in

organization For example, when evaluating the impacts of individual characteristics and organizational characteristics on commitment to organization, the results show that all thefactors proposed can indirectly affect commitment to organization through job

satisfaction (Williams & Hazer, 1986)

In the third group, research on job satisfaction considers job satisfaction as an independent variable in order to determine the influence on dependent Variables The researchers suggest that job satisfaction is related to the performance of the company as

the quit rate of employees, stress at work, absence and job performance The lecturers with high job satisfaction are often creative and motivated to form and maintain a

favorable environment for learning (Liacqua & Schumacher, 1995)

Ariani, (2012) build the model in which the relationship between individual satisfaction including work satisfaction and career satisfaction and organizational

commitment are tested Patrick, (2012) tested the relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment In the research, he has measured organizational commitment by three factors as: affective commitment (emotional attachment),

continuance commitment (cost-based), and normative commitment (obligation)

Traditionally, a common scale is used to assess job satisfaction and job

dissatisfaction The highest point is to measure the completely satisfied level with the work while the lowest point is to measure the completely dissatisfied level with the work.However, using a common scale to evaluate job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction has some challenges Truell, Price and Joyner (1998) suggested a proposal that by exploiting different aspects of job satisfaction, the reasons related to low job satisfaction were foundand so it could support for improvement of job satisfaction

Some researchers have shown satisfaction with job of lectures Hill (1987) found

5 aspects of job satisfaction in a group of lecturers: job, supervision, colleagues, salary, promotion opportunities The level of job satisfaction, promotion ability and colleagues issufficient for explaining each individual’s commitment to school (Hill, 1987) A lot of researches on job satisfaction have been applied the two-factor theory of Hezberg (1959).Hezberg and colleagues suggested that job satisfaction is identified by internal factors In the educational environment, external factors are relevant to the direct link between

teachers and their repetitive tasks every day These factors are related to academic, challenges on skills and abilities, perception of work meanings, academic abilities of students, financial support for researches, ability of a person to have a positive influence

on others, positive feedback and identified ability of learning, promotion opportunities (Liacqua & Schumacher)

External factors consist of bases of work or surrounding environment, including: administrative management policies in the company, supervision, salary, benefits,

relationship among individuals, working conditions, job title, and job safety (Herzberg, 1964) If followers do not feel committed to their organization and are not satisfied with their work situation, they may hold their supervisor responsible for that (Ariani, 2012)

Positive relations between peers and with management affect an employee’s commitment to the organization An employee’s commitment towards the organization is affected by the nature of relations between colleagues It has been noticed that conflictingrelationships exist between peers; and between employees’ and the management, which threaten organizational commitment Organizations need to promote social activities, so that friendly relations can improve between the employees; and in turn, their commitmenttowards the organization excels (Kirmizi & Deniz, 2009)

The next theories will assess the previous researches and influences of job

satisfaction on commitment to organization

Commitment to organizationEmployee turnover is a common phenomenon which many organizations arefacing today Organizations invest immensely in recruiting and developing theiremployees (James & Mathew, 2012) Recently, a lot of work has been done, over the