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[.]
iv 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 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 to accomplish my doctoral thesis Secondly, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Pham Thi Nhuan for her patience and valuable support for me through the process of doing the thesis Without her help, the study would not have been completed My third sincere thanks is given to Dr Pham Hung, the president of Development Systems Center – Vietnam National University for designing the doctoral program coorganized with California Miramar University Thanks to the program, I had many opportunities 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 their considerable encouragement which helps me to recover all of difficulties during the process of learning and doing the thesis v Table of Contents Page Dedication .iv Acknowledgements v Table of Contents vi List of Tables x Abstract xi Chapter I: Introduction Introduction of the system of universities in the Northern region Real situation of the system of universities and colleges Quality as a big concern Real situation of taught contents in universities and colleges in Vietnam Teaching method 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 vi 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 vii 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 viii 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 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Appendices Demographic characteristics of lecturers in the survey p 63 Table 4.2: Order of sources creating job satisfaction p 64 Table 4.2: Order of sources creating job satisfaction (cont.) p 66 Table 4.3: Levels of commitment to the organization p 68 Table 4.4: Relations between job satisfaction and gender p 73 Table 4.5: Relations between job satisfaction and marital status p 74 Table 4.6: Relations between job satisfaction and title p 76 Table 4.7: Relations between job satisfaction and administrative work p 77 Table 4.8: Relation between continuous commitment p 79 organization and marital status with x Table 4.9: Relation between continuous commitment to the p 80 organization Table 4.10: and title Relation between staying commitment to the organization and p 82 administrative Table 4.11: duty Connection between job satisfaction and high commitment p 83 to the organization Abstract xi As mentioned in many previous researches, employees’ behavior and attitudes toward their organization have many considerable impacts on their performance and the organization’s results This is the reason why there are a lot of studies conducted at the aim of researching the employees’ perspective, especially their job satisfaction and commitment to their organization Also in the same flow of the trend, the author carried out the research on the purpose of understanding more about lecturers’ satisfaction with their 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 the universities and colleges in Vietnam, especially in the Northern area, as well as in their staffs’ life As a result, leaders of the schools should understand staffs in terms of their job satisfaction and commitment to the organization The research will provide some useful information about the evaluation of lecturers’ satisfaction and commitment to help the universities and colleges strengthen staffs’ commitment and improve the organizational 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, emotional and normative ones Moreover, the findings show the relationship among these above factors and demographic variables such as age, gender, marital status, working time, academic titles, administrative task holding Based on these results, the study suggests some solutions for the universities and colleges to enhance lecturers’ job satisfaction and commitment as well as some recommendations for further researches xii In the now tendency in Vietnam, the research has added information to the various researches studying the same topic as well as help organizations know how to improve employees’ commitment and their own performance CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Attitudes related to work and organizational behaviors have considerable impact on many stages of organizations Relationship between employees and their organizations has 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 remain with 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 ... flow of the trend, the author carried out the research on the purpose of understanding more about lecturers? ?? satisfaction with their job and their commitment to the Northern universities and colleges. .. 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... 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,