A Study on the Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction of Academic Staff in Higher Education Institution

Job satisfaction of academic staff in Higher Education Institute (HEI) is important because it influences their motivation and performance that are so very influential in delivering quality education services. This research aims to explore the factors that affect job satisfaction of academic staff on the basis of a study in a HEI in the Sultanate of Oman. In the process of exploring the factors, first a wide range of the literature were reviewed to identify the most common factors that affect job satisfaction of academic staff. It was followed by interviews of selected six academic staff members in a College in the HEI in Oman. The literature review and the interview data analysis revealed six factors that would affect job satisfaction of academics: Remuneration and development, Management support, Students, Colleagues, Workload, and Status of job. A quantitative questionnaire survey was then conducted in the same university to study the influence of the six factors on job satisfaction of academic staff. From the analysis of the survey data it was found that all the six factors were positively associated with job satisfaction. Among them the work load was most strongly associated with job satisfaction followed by the perception about colleagues, status of job, management support, and remuneration and development. The perception about students was found to be relatively weakly associated with job satisfaction.