Affective Commitment and Employee Life Satisfaction: A Review on Gambian Public Institutions

Banna Sawaneh & Sama Jawneh

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Abstract

Employee satisfaction on the job is a recipe for organisational affective commitment. No organisation can properly function without a satisfied workforce. With the introduction of contemporary human resource management practices, it is important for the conditions of workers to be improved. However, it seems efforts are still lagging at the Gambian public/civil service to improve conditions of workers, to be emotionally attached to their work or institution, leading to institutional citizenship. The paper assessed the effects of affective commitment on employee life satisfaction, with a focus on Gambian public institutions. Staff attrition has been a major concern in public institutions in The Gambia, which is affecting their performance as compared to the private sector. As this trajectory continues, the performance of the Gambian public institutions will continue to dwindle which may affect generations to come. The objective was to uncover the root cause of high attrition rate in the Gambian public service and to proffer recommendations. Results from both literature review and focus group discussions indicated strong correlations between employee commitment to the organisation and work satisfaction. Also, the findings revealed a narrow gap in terms of salary scale which, to a large extent, affects employee satisfaction and commitment to work. This assertion was supported by equity theory, which states that employees' performance increases and they (employees) commit themselves to an organisation when they are fairly compensated. The study concluded that poor remuneration of public/civil servants in The Gambia resulted in high attrition rate. Contemporary best human resources management practices such as mentoring, secondment and appraisal were found to be ineffective in the Gambian civil service.

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