Work-Related Variables as Correlates of Institutional Commitment of Secondary School Teachers in Cross River State, Nigeria

Institutional commitment is a sort of bond between the teachers and the school they are working for and the strength of the bond depends on various work-related variables. This study therefore, was aimed at finding out the association of work-related variables, namely; staff development, working conditions and motivation with institutional commitment of teachers in secondary schools. The components of institutional commitment considered in this study were affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. The study area was Cross River State of Nigeria. Four hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted a correlation design and stratified random sampling technique was used to select 400 teachers that constituted the sample of the study from a population of 9,764 teachers. The instrument for data collection was a 5-point Likert type questionnaire and consisted of 33 items. The data collected were analyzed using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation and multiple regression statistics. The results of the study revealed a significant positive correlation between staff development and affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. Similarly, motivation significantly related to affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. There was no significant relationship between working conditions and each component of institutional commitment of teachers. This finding indicated that working condition was not associated with teachers’ commitment in secondary schools. Staff development, working conditions and motivation jointly and significantly predicted institutional commitment of teachers with motivation being the most potent contributor to the prediction. Premised on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that the government should greatly improve the working conditions of teachers in order to enhance their commitment. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3s1p31