The Relationships Between Job Satisfaction and Affective Commitment in the Context of Presidential Transitions in ABHE Accredited Institution

Academic presidential transitions have increased in recent years. The average tenure for a college president in 2012 was seven years, down from eight and a half years in 2006. A presidential transition introduces radical change in the academic institution. Such radical change affects the organizational perception, and thus organizational behavior, within the employees. This study explored the institutional response to presidential transition and examined the existence of a relationship between employee job satisfaction and employee affective commitment. Job satisfaction is a variable that is measured for general organizational perception, an antecedent and determinant of organizational commitment. Affective commitment is a variable that is measured for organizational commitment, an antecedent of organizational retention. The stratified random sample for this research study was obtained from faith-based, non-profit academic institutions accredited with The Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE). Three institutions participated in the research study. The sample population for the study was n = 73; the sample size for the study was n = 26. The participants responded to an online survey consisting of demographic questions, the Survey of Perceived Organizational Support (SPOS) items, and the Three-Component Model Employee Commitment Survey (TCM ECS). The data analysis consisted of descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and the Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient (r). The cross-tabulation evidenced that positional majority was congruent with institutional majority throughout all eight items on the SPOS and all eight items on the TCM ECS ACS. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) failed to show a statistical significance between organizational position (staff, faculty, administrators) and job satisfaction, F (2, 23) = 1.034, p = .372 > alpha = .05, and affective commitment, F (2, 22) = 1.050, p = .367 > alpha = .05. The ANOVA test concluded that the organizational perception of the radical change of presidential transition was perceived and felt the same across the institution. The Pearson coefficient identified a strong, positive relationship between job satisfaction and affective commitment. During seasons of organizational change, organizational retention efforts indicate a need for steps to address the job satisfaction of employees.