Job Satisfaction and Its Influence on Faculty Retention and Turnover in a Private University in Liberia

Introduction

Faculty job satisfaction, retention and turnover are important issues for most faculty members worldwide. Job satisfaction is essential to organizational leaders as it relates to job performance and turnover and has resulted to a serious problem of managing educational institutions in the 21^st century (Hussain & Ghulani, 2017). Retention of quality faculty is one of the highest challenges faced by institutions of higher learning as quality faculty look for appropriate jobs that satisfy their needs. Faculty turnover causes major problems in universities, and university administrators encounter two separate costs related to turnover: recruitment and selection and decrease in organizational performance. Faculty turnover is a key issue in institutions of higher education as it is costly, difficult to manage, and affects institutional performance (Guha & Chakrabarti, 2016). The costs of voluntary faculty turnover are under worldwide investigation, and the result of most research studies is that institutions of higher education should avoid the expenses of voluntary faculty turnover (Cho et al., 2017). When faculty members leave, universities incur financial losses (Frederiksen, 2017). Important components of education are satisfied, creative, and productive faculty (De Sousa Sabbagha et al., 2018).

The ability of university administrators to hire and retain quality faculty has positive influence on the quality standard of education provided by the universities (Delina & Samuel, 2019). Faculty members are mostly considered as the key employees of institutions of higher learning, and students’ learning is considered the primary outcome of their programs (Amhalhal et al., 2015).

Job dissatisfaction can result in issues on employee retention, decreased productivity, and basically failure of the organization. The leadership style of university administrators could provide opportunities for a successful and effective work environment (Simpson, 2014).

Liberia is struggling with many challenges after the civil unrest (1990-2005) and is yet to recover from the war ((Dalieh, 2017). Challenges encountered have included destruction of infrastructure, faculty brain drain, professional inexperience, unemployment, poverty, insecurity, and lack of socioeconomic development (Liberia’s Ministry of Education Annual Report, 2015; The Heritage Foundation, 2017). Inadequate budgeting assignment is considered a threat to academic achievement in Liberia (Liberia’s Ministry of Education Annual Report, 2015).

The Liberian education system is emerging from a 14-year of lengthy and brutally ruining civil war (Dalieh, 2017). The long period impacts from the civil war coupled with the 2015 school closure caused by the Ebola Viral Disease (EVD) outbreak, continue to have negative effect on the fragile education system of the country (Schulman, 2017). Liberia lags behind most other African countries in almost all education measures. For example, the Elementary School Net Enrollment Rate, the percentage of prime age students attending primary grades is only 44 percent (Werner, 2017). After 14 years of civil unrest, which ended in ruining much of the country’s trained workforce that left the country for better and safe environment causing brain drain, Liberia is presently at the stage of rebuilding its educational system (Dalieh, 2017). USAID in agreement with other donor agencies, work with the Ministry of Education (MOE) to find solution to the educational challenges connected to access, quality of instruction, and better governance of the education system (Dalieh, 2017). Retention of competent and talented faculty is important in any institution of higher learning; it is even more critical in a country such as Liberia where there have been and currently are multiple obstacles for post-secondary education.