Organizational commitment is determinant of many organization behaviors including, but not limited to, absenteeism, turnover, and job withdrawal intentions. Committed staff will be more productive and more loyal. Professional interest and job satisfaction are believed to have positive effect on organizational commitment. A random sample of four hundred twenty-three academic staff is taken from three Universities to assess the professional interest, job satisfaction and affective commitment of the universities’ academic staffs. The result showed the professors are found to have high professional interest and have high intrinsic job satisfaction. However, the academic staffs are found to have very low extrinsic job satisfaction. There is no sufficient evidence if the academic staff has affective commitment. Moreover, intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction are found to be predictors of affective organizational commitments. Both intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction mediated the effect of professional interest on affective commitment. Hence, it is concluded that academic staffs of Ethiopian higher education Institutions have high professional interest, though they are not satisfied with the maintenance factors.
Professional Interest, Intrinsic Job Satisfaction, Extrinsic Job Satisfaction, Affective Organization Commitment Ethiopian Higher Education Institutions
