Determinants of Job Satisfaction Among Academics at A Selected Institution of Higher Learning in The Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

Many studies have considered job satisfaction and its antecedents in the profit making sector. These studies have provided a number of factors that influence job satisfaction including autonomy, compensation, growth opportunities, leadership styles, task variety and so on. There are numerous factors that have been discovered to positively influence job satisfaction. Interest in job satisfaction arises from the fact that productivity and other favourable organisational outcomes such as service delivery and quality of outputs have been found to associate with job satisfaction. This study followed a quantitative approach based on a Likert questionnaire to collect data on the antecedents of employee job satisfaction within a Higher Education Institution (HEI) in South Africa. It was established that antecedents of job satisfaction in the HEI resembled closely those established in the literature. It is recommended that HEI should consider factors such as remuneration, task variety, work autonomy, good workplace relations and leadership styles to foster employee motivation. Keywords: Job Satisfaction, Higher Education Institutions, Human Capital, Productivit