Faculty job satisfaction, organizational commitment and intention to stay: implications for brain drain

The objective of this article was to assess Ethiopian university teachers’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and intention to stay, determine the relationships among these job attitudes of the faculty and uncover their implications for brain drain. Data for this study was collected using self-administered questionnaire from 1102 university teachers in Ethiopia. The results showed that overall the teachers were not satisfied with their job, not committed to their institution and showed slightly above average intention to stay. Correlation analysis revealed that there was a positive and significant relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment and between organizational commitment and intention to stay. The correlation between job satisfaction and intention to stay was also found to be positive but moderate. The teachers’ dissatisfaction with their job, lack of commitment to their institutions and marginal intention to stay together imply that they are more prone to turnover that culminates in brain drain. The study recommended that relevant incentive schemes should be put in place to enhance the teachers’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and intention to stay and tackle faculty turnover and brain drain with all the negative repercussions both at institutional and national level.