Determinants of Job Satisfaction in Higher Education Sector: Empirical Insights from Malaysia

Abstract

Job satisfaction is one of the most important topics in the field of management and it has received a noteworthy attention from both scholars as well as business practitioners. This is because employee job satisfaction is the main predictor of organizational success and long term performance. This paper examines the impact of four factors namely employee engagement, employee motivation, work environment, and organizational learning on job satisfaction in higher education sector. The data were collected using a survey instrument from 242 employees of public universities in northern area of Malaysia. The collected data was analysed using SPSS and structural equation modelling. Overall, the findings indicated that employee engagement has significant positive effect on job satisfaction. It was also found that employee motivation has significant positive effect on job satisfaction. Moreover, this study revealed that work environment and organizational learning have significant positive effects on job satisfaction. These results provide useful insights for the management in higher educational institutions and suggest that the selected human resource factors are very important for improving job satisfaction.