Organizational Commitment and Academic Satisfaction as Predictors of Academic Performance of Mechanical Technology Education Students and Lecturers in South-Eastern Universities, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to determine organizational commitment and students’ academic satisfaction as predictors of academic performance of mechanical technology education students and lecturers (MTESLs) in Southeast Nigeria. Three research questions were answered while three null hypotheses formulated were tested at .05 level of significance. The study adopted correlational research design. The population for the study was made up of 81 mechanical technology education students (MTESs) and 34 mechanical technology education lecturers (MTELs) from five universities in Southeast Nigeria. The Organizational Commitment Scale and the Academic Major Satisfaction Scale were adapted and administered to the respondents, while academic performance of the students was measured using the average scores from two mechanical technology education courses. The instruments for data collection were face validated by three experts in the Department of Industrial Technical Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Cronbach alpha reliability technique was used to determine the internal consistency of the instruments. A reliability coefficient value of 0.90 was obtained for Organizational Commitment Scale and 0.92 for Academic Major Satisfaction Scale. A reliability coefficient of 0.94 was obtained as the overall reliability coefficient value. The statistics used to analyze the data for the study were Pearson Correlations and Regression analyses. The findings of the study revealed that: (i) a moderate and positive correlation exists between organizational commitment of lecturers and academic performance of MTESs (ii)organizational commitment of lecturers was a significant predictor of academic performance of students, (iii)students’ academic satisfaction was also a significant predictor of their academic performance. It was then recommended among others that Universities should try to improve the organizational commitment of lecturers through rewards and benefit schemes. Workshops and intervention programme should be organized for MTESs by the university administration or department on how they can improve their performance and satisfaction.