PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT OF PART-TIME ACADEMIC STAFF IN INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN NAIROBI AND MOMBASA CITIES IN KENYA

Abstract

Past studies provide evidence to show that organizational commitment has been a topic of increasing public and professional concern, both inside and outside Human Resource Management domains. The expansion of university education in Kenya coupled with reduced direct government funding for higher education has left the local public universities with little choices but to resort to use of part-time academics. The objective of the study was to find out whether personal characteristics affect organizational commitment of part-time academic staff in HEIs in Kenya. The quantitative study design by use of survey was used for the study. The sampling frame was developed through capture-recature method. The sampling technique used was muti-stage consisting of sevral stages of stratified and simple random sampling and time-location sampling. Data was collected using questionnaires from 227 parttime academic staff from selected HEIs in Nairobi and Mombasa cities in Kenya, with a response rate of 85%; and also using interviews with 12 academic heads of departments representing 63% response rate. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The relationship between variables was analysed using Spearman’s Rho correlation analysis while the test of factors predicting independent variable was done through stepwise regression analysis. The results show that age is a negative predictor of affective commitment while sibling status and ages of children are positive predictors of the same, ages of children is a predictor of all the 3 dimensions of commitment. The study recommndents that education managers in HEIs should make deliberate attempts to develop and implement explicit policies relating to the management of part-time academic staff. It also recommends that line managers and human resource managers should focus more on age and family responsibilities among many other previously used criteria in the recruitment of part-time academic faculty.