Perception of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions in a post-merger South African tertiary institution

Abstract

A merger can be considered both a phenomenological and signifcant life event for an organisation and its employees, and how people cope with and respond to a merger has a direct impact on the institutional performance in the short to medium term. It is within this context that post-merger perceptions of a tertiary institution were investigated. A predictive model (determined the “best” of 15 predefned models) of turnover intentions was developed for employees of a South African tertiary institution (having undergone its own recent merging process). A systematic model-building process was carried out incorporating various techniques, among others structural equation modelling and step-wise linear regression. The fnal predictive model explained 47% of the variance in turnover intentions. Contrary to expectations, commitment does not correlate more strongly than satisfaction does with turnover intentions.