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International Journal of Education and Pedagogy
eISSN: 2682-8464 | Vol. 5, No. 2, 112-125, 2023
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International Journal of Education and Pedagogy (IJEAP)
eISSN: 2682-8464 | Vol. 5 No. 2 [June 2023]
Journal website: http://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ijeap
FACTORS INFLUENCING JOB SATISFACTION OF
EMPLOYEES IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION
INSTITUTIONS IN MALAYSIA
Nor Nazeranah Omar Din1*, Nurhafizah Zainal2 and Sujatha Balakrishna3
1 2 3 Faculty of Business, Hospitality and Humanities, Nilai University, Nilai, MALAYSIA
*Corresponding author: nornazeranah@nilai.edu.my
Article Information:
Article history:
Received date
: 11 June 2023
Revised date
: 19 June 2023
Accepted date
: 24 June 2023
Published date
: 30 June 2023
To cite this document:
Omar Din, N. N., Zainal, N., &
Balakrishna, S. (2023). FACTORS
INFLUENCING JOB
SATISFACTION OF EMPLOYEES
IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION
INSTITUTIONS IN MALAYSIA.
International Journal of Education and
Pedagogy, 5(2), 112-125.
Abstract: During the Covid-19 pandemic, the education
sector is one of the industries that faces great challenges
in transforming the lecture mode from physical
education to virtual teaching and learning process.
Thus, there were many factors that influenced the job
satisfaction of employees in the higher education sector.
Hence, this research is conducted to measure the factors
that influence job satisfaction among employees in
higher education institutions (HEI) by the education
sector in Malaysia during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Specifically, Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory, which
illustrated hygiene factors (monetary incentives, work
environment, and job security) and motivator factors
(non-monetary incentives, workload, and promotion
opportunities) was adopted. The research also examines
job satisfaction relationship between these factors. The
sample for this research was chosen from different
categories of Higher Education Institution (HEI) that
are mostly found in Malaysia such as Public University,
Private University, Foreign University (Branch
Campus), Community College and
Polytechnic/Vocational. The were about 292
respondents for this research which holds the
designation as academic or non-academic staff with
various education levels and working experience from
different categories of the Higher Education Institution
(HEI). The questionnaire was distributed to the
respondents. This research presents the reliability result
of data collected via Cronbach’ s Alpha analysis and
testing the hypotheses by using SPSS analytical
software. The findings indicate that the hypotheses are
found supported by having positive significant
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1. Introduction
According to Selesho & Naile (2014), the high employees’ turnover rate in higher education
sector has become a great concern among the institutions in terms of providing sufficient
education services, enhancing quality of teaching delivery and giving rise to doubt, distrust and
demotivation for new joiner and existing staff. A consequential effect is on the job satisfaction
and potential influence on the employees within the industry. However, institution is striving
to retain talented workforce by offering attractive incentives, proper working environment,
supportive human resources policies as well as promotional opportunities that could optimize
job satisfaction among academic and non-academic staff. In 2015, Park J. and Figueroa found
the ‘job satisfaction and employees in higher education sector is more crucial than the
requirement to recruit employees with professional skills and knowledge in specific fields.
Manogharan, Thivaharan, & Rahman (2018) conducted a study studied on academic staff
turnover rate in private higher education sector in Malaysia and found that in between year
2010 and 2011 the turnover rate reached 30%. This statistical figure has been a big hit to the
industry. However, the situation continues and challenges the existing higher education
institutions (HEI) especially those operating in small scales in terms of providing financial
support, cost of recruiting new academic staff to meet the staff and student ratio standard
requirements set by Malaysian Quality Accreditation (MQA) which could lead to low job
satisfaction of employees.
There was a survey conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education in year 2020 about the
academic staff level of enjoyment in teaching during the pandemic which required academician
to perform online teaching and the result shown that 50% of academic staffs facing decrease
of enjoyment in their teaching throughout the year due to the concern on salary deduction, job
security, workload, and pressure by work from home (TheChronicleOfHigherEducation,
2020). Meanwhile, another article also shared the same point of view that about 35% of HEI
are facing employee’s turnover and more than 55% of the HEI facing challenges where
academic staff begin to think about earlier retirement. On the other hand, about 70% of overall
academic staff experienced stress in working for the past year due to the heavy workload
(Umpierrez, 2021). This challenges the global higher education sector to optimize employees’
job satisfaction to remain the same could put the sector under great pressure.
relationship with job satisfaction for employees in the
Higher Education Sector within Malaysia.
Keywords: HEI (Higher Education Institution), Job
satisfaction, Hygiene factors, Motivators factors,
employee retention, Pandemic.
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2.1 Problem Statement
According to the existing literature reviews, there are many studies conducted to explore the
potential factors that influencing employees job performance and satisfaction in different
sectors especially in retailing or manufacturing which used to have high turnover rate.
There’s a saying that human resources tend to be the most important asset of an organization,
and this reflects to all businesses in recruiting talented workforce that obtained professional
skills and knowledge. In like manner, company also striving in retain talented workforce
through various monetary or non-monetary incentives to ensure employees job satisfaction is
high and willing to build long term relationship with the company.
Although, the technology that changes rapidly within the business industry plays a significant
role in pushing the business to achieve continuous quality improvement (CQI) that could lead
better business performance. However, with a skilful workforce who able to adapt and utilize
the technology resources also become as one of the priorities of the company. Apart from
incentives and technology mentioned above, other potential factors such as working
environment, job security, employee’s workload, promotion opportunities are considered as
potential factors which could influence employees job satisfaction.
Recently, work from home and work remote has become a trend within the organization as the
solutions to keep a business operating even during the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic while
this brings great challenges for both employees and employers in terms of optimizing job
satisfaction. For instance, the education sector is also one of the industries that faces great
challenges in transforming the lecture mode from physical education to virtual teaching and
learning process. By focusing during the pandemic, the whole market activities were growing
at a very slow pace as the industry was under great pressure to survive either in terms of
maintaining business performance or managing employee retention under such circumstances
and the same goes for the education industry for facing unexpected academic staff turnover
rate.
According to Mahadi, Woo, Baskaran, & Yaakop (2020) found Malaysia having up to 13% of
employee voluntary turnover in 2010, which is higher than the global average rate. After that,
another research focuses on the study regarding academic staff turnover in private higher
education institutions in Malaysia where the statistics remain almost the same with only slightly
increase as 13.2% in 2013 (Mahadi N. W., 2020). Based on the statistical data revealed
Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) illustrated the labour productivity in Malaysia for the
past few years from 2017 with 3.8 has declined tremendously to -8.4 in 2020 due to the
pandemic (MEF, 2021). On the other hand, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM)
revealed the overall labour productivity for the first quarter of 2021 has rebounded to 0.4%
while the total working hours continued to decline by 0.9% and the labour productivity in the
service sector was -2.6% which is still considered as low productivity (DOSM, Labour
Productivity of First Quarter 2021, 2021).
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2.1 Literature Review
2.1.1 Herzberg Two Factors Theory
In the 1970s’, there already having existing studies on Herzberg’s Two Factor theory that
developed by Frederick Herzberg to measure employees job satisfaction and this theory is
widely use to help an organization by indicating both motivators factors (achievement,
recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth) and hygiene factors
(company policy and administration, supervision, working condition, interpersonal relations,
status, job security, salary and personal life) that could provide an insight for employers in
making decision on motivating employees to enhance employees’ job enrichment which have
direct relationship towards job satisfaction (Noell, 1976).
2.1.2 Monetary Incentives
Sitepu, Sitepu, Ompusunggu, & Sitepu and Fu, Nie, Chen, & Nie (2021) found salary, wages
and welfare significantly influenced job satisfaction of employees while Afriani & Ritonga
(2021) found merit pay system implemented in a Higher Education Institution (HEI) have a
positive relationship to influence the job satisfaction of academic staff.
2.1.3 Work Environment
Choi, Lee, & Chun and Gopinath (2021) and supported organization communication between
internal stakeholders such as coworker, management, department, or even external stakeholder
are significantly influenced the atmosphere and preferable of a working environment while
Abdi & Paul (2021) enhance on the working hours, safety protection and total amount of
employees working overtime are considered under working environment which positively
influence employees job satisfaction towards any of the organization either in general, public
sector or specifically towards HEI.
2.1.4 Job Security
Samat, et al. (2020) further enhances the organization's focus on providing equal learning
opportunities for employees as it could secure employees for career development or gaining
promotion which enables employees to work longer at the organization.
2.1.5 Non-Monetary Incentives
Norbu & Wetprasit (2020) and Abbas, Ashiq, & Noreen (2021) also found non-monetary
incentives such as recognition, praise, certificates, employees’ psychological empowerment,
career development and growth also play a significant role in optimizing employees' job
satisfaction through the design of an appropriate appraisal system.
2.1.6 Workload
According to Liu & Lo (2017) indicated the workload can be considered as one of the
significant variables that an organization should investigate while measuring employees' job
demands and job satisfaction as the excessive working load may lead to employees’ burnout
and increase the emotional exhaustion level of employees at the same time. In addition,
workload also significantly influences employees' job satisfaction through terms and conditions
where employers can offer employees reasonable returns that are compatible with their
workload (Fahlevi, Mahdani, & Sofyan, 2021).
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2.1.7 Promotion Opportunities
A human resource department in an organization takes the responsibilities to design different
human resources policies and promotional terms and conditions are one of the important
policies that concern both existing employees who work under the company or potential
candidates that might join the company. Based on Razak, Sarpan, & Ramlan (2018) defined
promotion is not only the selection or placement process as well as a motivation for employees
to enhance their self-development and growth progress within the workplace as the promotion
opportunities offered by an organization are considered to significantly influence employees’
job satisfaction and performance.
2.2 Research Framework
Figure 2.2 shows the theoretical framework used for this study. The framework is based on
Herzberg's Two Factor Theory, which categorizes into hygiene factors (monetary incentives,
work environment, and job security) and motivator factors (non-monetary incentives,
workload, and promotion opportunities) as the independent variable. Meanwhile, the
dependent variable for this study is job satisfaction.
Figure 2.2: Theoretical Framework of Herzberg’s Two Factors Theory
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2.3 Research Hypothesis
There are six hypotheses developed for this study. The hypotheses are as follow:
H1: There is a positive significant relationship between monetary incentives and job
satisfaction.
H2: There is a positive significant relationship between work environment and job
satisfaction.
H3: There is a positive significant relationship between job security and job satisfaction.
H4: There is a positive significant relationship between non-monetary incentives and job
satisfaction.
H5: There is a negative significant relationship between workload and job satisfaction.
H6: There is a positive significant relationship between promotion opportunities and job
satisfaction.
3. Method
This study used pragmatic research philosophy by using quantitative research methods to test
each research question developed and analyse the result via analytical software. Hence, this
study will focus only on the quantitative research methods which allow the researcher to
approach nationwide respondents effectively and to ensure the data collection of this study are
valid to key in the analytical software and analyse accordingly in numerical format.
Researchers will go for primary data collection methods by distributing questionnaires for
potential respondents to fill up accordingly. The questionnaire is expected to be distributed
online to approach a wider population effectively at the lowest cost. Meanwhile, through the
online questionnaire it also enables researcher to export, filter, and clean the statistical data
systematically.
3.1 Materials
3.1.1 Samples
There are 208 of Higher Education Institution (HEI) that are found in Malaysia consist of
Public University, Private University, Foreign University (Branch Campus), Community
College and Polytechnic/Vocational were chosen as the sample for this study. The whole
population size for this study will be 1,000 which holds the designation as academic or non-
academic staff with various education levels and working experience. According to the Taro
Yamane Table, the suggested sample size for this study is 285. The researcher was able to
collect 292 valid data in return to ensure the data reliability is sufficient to reflect the overall
sample size estimated with 95% confidence level. A simple random sampling technique under
probability sampling was used in choosing the respondents.
3.1.2 Site
In this study, the geographical frame is within the Higher Education Institution (HEI) that is
located nationwide in Malaysia. Thus, this study is opened to collect data from private
university and colleges in the higher education institutions located in Malaysia.
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3.1.3 Procedures
A questionnaire used to collect the data. The questionnaire consists of 2 sections. Section A
includes the general demographic information such as gender, age, designation (academic or
non-academic staff), education level, working experiences and the category of HEI currently
working at. Section B includes the respondent’s opinion towards factor that may influence job
satisfaction which covers the monetary incentives, job security, non-monetary incentives,
workload, promotion opportunities in HEI, Malaysia. There are a total of 30 questions listed in
the questionnaire. A cover note is included before distributing the questionnaires to respondents
to guarantee the confidentiality of respondents for research goals. The privacy of every
participant and their right to remain anonymous will always be respected.
3.2 Measurement
Questionnaires, using a 5-point Likert Scale was used to measure the factor that may influence
job satisfaction of academic or non-academic staff in HEI, Malaysia. The 5-point Likert scale
are ranging from 1 denoting highly dissatisfied and 5 denoting highly satisfied. The
questionnaires to measure the independent variables for the hygiene factors are adopted from
monetary incentives (Bardolet, Sellens, & Royo, 2018), (Ramli, 2018), work environment
(Ramli, 2019), (Davidescu, Apostu, Paul, & Casuneanu, 2020), and job security (Ashton,
2017), (Altinay, et al., 2019). The questionnaires to measure the motivators factors are adopted
from non-monetary incentives (Norbu & Wetprasit, 2020), workload (LCSW, Walters, &
Jones, 2019) and promotion opportunities (Gul, Akbar, & Jan, 2012), (Xie & Yang, 2020). The
questionnaires to measure the dependent variables are adopted from job satisfaction (Chinyio,
Suresh, & Salisu, 2018), (Toropova, Myrberg, & Johansson, 2020). Respondents are requested
to put a tick under each statement.
3.3 Data Analysis
In this study, researcher focus on conducting frequency analysis, Cronbach’s Alpha analysis,
and Pearson Correlation Coefficient Analysis by using SPSS analytical software.
3.3.1 Frequency Analysis
Bryman & Cramer (2005) identify the purpose of frequency analysis is to summarize the data
which is categorized as nominal variable by computing the overall percentage of each different
item under the variable to ensure the results that are presented in tabular, graph or chart format
which is easier for the audience to understand. Meanwhile, Lutabingwa & Auriacombe (2007)
supported the same point of view by indicating frequency analysis is commonly found in papers
which allows researcher to list how frequent each variable occurs repeatedly in the study.
Therefore, this study will be using frequency analysis for the demographic variables to measure
the overall percentage of respondents’ characteristics that participated in this study in terms of
gender, age range, designation, education level, working experience as well as the category of
Higher Education Institution (HEI) that the respondent currently works for.
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3.3.2 Cronbach’s Alpha Analysis
Table 3.3.1: Internal Consistency of Cronbach's Alpha
Retrieved from: (Glen, 2014)
Table 3.3.2 illustrates the range of internal consistency where 0.7 and above will be acceptable
and more than that until 0.9 is considered excellent, but if below than 0.7 will consider weak
internal consistency. Cronbach’s Alpha plays a significant role in helping researchers to
measure the items tested in questionnaire (Tavakol & Dennick, 2011). Hence, this study will
be using Cronbach’s Alpha analysis to measure the intercorrelation of items for each variable
obtained in questionnaire that is going to be tested.
3.3.3 Pearson Correlation Coefficient Analysis
Table 3.3.2: Interpretation for Pearson Correlation Coefficient
Retrieved from: (Schober, Boer, & Schwarte, 2018)
Table 3.3.3 illustrated a different range for size of correlation where if the r value (correlation
coefficient) found to be lower than 0.1 it will be considered as negligible correlation while if
between 0.9 to 1.0 it can be taken as high correlation. According to Samuels (2014) further
elaborate where researcher shall also investigate the p-value apart from r value as p value is
another statistic finding under Pearson correlation coefficient analysis based on the sample size.
Pearson analysis is used to examine the relationship between independent variables and
dependent variable (Kumar & Chong, 2018) and (Liu, Mu, Chen, Li, & Guo, 2020). Hence,
this study will run the Pearson correlation coefficient analysis to determine the relationship
between each variable that is going to be tested in this study such as the independent variables
where hygiene factors (monetary incentives, work environment, job security) and motivator
factors (non-monetary incentives, workload, promotion opportunities) while job satisfaction as
the dependent variable.
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4. Results and Discussion
4.1 Frequency Analysis
Table 4.1 below shown the frequency analysis of respondents’ demographic background.
There were 292 responses able to be obtained. Therefore, the response rate in this study was
100%. Out of 292 respondents, 51.70% were male and 48.30% were female. Majority of the
respondents are from 30-39 years old category consist of the academic and non-academic
staffs. The academic staff who responded were 30.8 % mainly as a full-time lecturer meanwhile
from the non-academic designation were 12 % from the entry and executive level. Majority of
them are doctoral or Phd holder with the range of 2 to 4 years of working experiences serving
the private university and colleges in the higher education institutions in Malaysia. Based on
the respondents’ demographic background where most of them are in the middle age, job
satisfaction is assumed to be important to their life.
Table 4.1: Frequency Analysis of Respondents’ Demographic
Demographic
Category
Frequency
Percentage
Gender
Male
151
51.70%
Female
141
48.30%
Age
20 - 29 years old
50
17.10%
30 - 39 years old
122
41.80%
40 - 49 years old
75
25.70%
50 – 59 years old
21
7.20%
Above 60 years old
24
8.20%
Designation (Academic
Staff)
Part Time Lecturer
14
4.80%
Full Time Lecturer
90
30.80%
Senior Lecturer
25
8.60%
Assistant Professor / Associate Professor
55
18.80%
Professor
7
2.40%
Designation (Non -
Academic Staff)
Entry Level / Executive
35
12%
Senior Executive
32
11%
Assistant Manager
17
5.80%
Managerial Level
11
3.80%
Senior Managerial Level
6
2.10%
Education Level
Foundation or Diploma
0
0%
Bachelor’s Degree
39
13.40%
Master’s degree
100
34.20%
Doctoral / PhD
153
52.40%
Working Experience
≤ 1 year
33
11.30%
2 – 4 years
115
39.40%
5 – 7 years
100
34.20%
8 – 10 years
35
12%
≥ 10 years
9
3.10%
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Higher Education
Institution (HEI) Category
Public University / College
97
33.20%
Community College
34
11.60%
Polytechnic / Vocational
21
7.20%
Private University / College
99
33.90%
Foreign University (Branch Campus)
41
14%
4.2 Cronbach Alpha Reliability Statistics
Table 4.2: Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Statistics
Measurement
Cronbach's Alpha
N of Items
Monetary Incentives
.878
4
Work Environment
.839
4
Job Security
.844
4
Non-Monetary Incentives
.817
4
Workload
.871
4
Promotion Opportunities
.753
4
Job Satisfaction
.796
4
According to the reliability statistics illustrated in the table 4.2, the Cronbach’s Alpha for
monetary incentives dimension is 0.878, for work environment is 0.839, for job security is
0.844. All these dimensions are considered coefficient as they are above the acceptable range.
The Cronbach’s Alpha for non-monetary incentives is 0.844 and for workload dimension is
0.871 which is above 0.7 of the acceptable range. Range between 0.8 to 0.9 is considered as
good coefficient, which means the 4 items tested in the questionnaire are reliable.
Meanwhile the Cronbach’s Alpha for promotion opportunities dimension is 0.753 which is
above 0.7 of the acceptable range. Range between 0.7 to 0.8 is considered as acceptable
coefficient, which means the 4 items tested in the questionnaire are reliable.
The Cronbach’s Alpha for job satisfaction dimension is considered coefficient with 0.796
which is above 0.7 of the acceptable range. Range between 0.7 to 0.8 is considered as
acceptable coefficient, which means the 5 items tested in the questionnaire are reliable.
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4.3 Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient Analysis
Table 4.3: Pearson's Correlation Coefficients
MI
WE
JS
NM
W
PO
S
MI
Pearson Correlation
1
.792**
.844**
.654**
.818**
.159**
.714**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
.000
.000
.000
.007
.000
N
292
292
292
292
292
292
292
WE
Pearson Correlation
.792**
1
.709**
.827**
.735**
.185**
.646**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
.000
.000
.000
.002
.000
N
292
292
292
292
292
292
292
JS
Pearson Correlation
.844**
.709**
1
.742**
.888**
.229**
.729**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
.000
.000
.000
.000
.000
N
292
292
292
292
292
292
292
NM
Pearson Correlation
.654**
.827**
.742**
1
.766**
.241**
.717**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
.000
.000
.000
.000
.000
N
292
292
292
292
292
292
292
W
Pearson Correlation
.818**
.735**
.888**
.766**
1
.221**
-.779**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
.000
.000
.000
.000
.000
N
292
292
292
292
292
292
292
PO
Pearson Correlation
.159**
.185**
.229**
.241**
.221**
1
.245**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.007
.002
.000
.000
.000
.000
N
292
292
292
292
292
292
292
S
Pearson Correlation
.714**
.646**
.729**
.717**
.779**
.245**
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
.000
.000
.000
.000
.000
N
292
292
292
292
292
292
292
According to Pearson’s Correlation Coefficients as illustrated in table 4.3, it shows that all
the variables are positively correlated to each other. Schober, Boer, & Schwarte (2018)
indicated the r value that below 0.1 is considered as negligible correlation while if between 0.9
to 1.0 can be taken as high correlation in this study.
Based on table 4.3, all the factors are significantly contributed to employee’s job satisfaction.
The highest contributor to employee’s job satisfaction is job security (r-value .729, p < 0.05)
followed by non-monetary incentive (r-value .717, p<0.05), monetary incentives (r-value .714,
p<0.05), and work environment (r-value .646, p<0.05). Meanwhile, promotion opportunities
considered as weak contributor to the employee’s job satisfaction (r-value .245, p < 0.05). On
the other hand, workload is negatively correlated with employee’s job satisfaction (r-value
-.779, p<0.05). The plausible reason behind this finding could be the heavy workload that
often led to dissatisfaction among employees as they lose their work-life balance.
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5. Conclusion
From this study, all the six (6) hypotheses and research questions designed reflecting to
monetary incentives, work environment, and job security under hygiene factors whereas non-
monetary incentives, workload, and promotion opportunities under motivator factors are found
supported by having positive significant relationship with the job satisfaction as dependent
variable for employees in the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) within Malaysia.
Table 5.1: Hypotheses Study
Hypotheses
Significance
Result
Summary
H1: There is a positive significant relationship between monetary
and job satisfaction.
r-value = .714
p value = 0 < 0.05
Supported
H2: There is a positive significant relationship between work
environment and job satisfaction.
r-value = .646
p value = 0 < 0.05
Supported
H3: There is a positive significant relationship between job security
and job satisfaction.
r-value = .729
p value = 0.00 < 0.05
Supported
H4: There is a positive significant relationship between non-
monetary incentives and job satisfaction.
r-value = .717
p value = < 0.05)
Supported
H5: There is a negative significant relationship between workload
and job satisfaction.
r-value = -.779
p value = 0 < 0.05
Supported
H6: There is a positive significant relationship between promotion
opportunities and job satisfaction.
r-value = .245
p value = 0 < 0.05
Supported
5.1 Limitations and Future Research
In this study, the researcher only focuses on the employee’s job satisfaction among Higher
Education Institution (HEI) in Malaysia hence the perceptions, finding results and suggestions
only applicable based on the Malaysia practice, thus further study may explore further to HEI
in other regions which could make the comparison in filling up the region research gap.
Meanwhile, this study only conducts quantitative research methods, and the results were
analyzed and presented in statistical data. Therefore, further study may either go for qualitative
research methods or even triangulation research methodology to explore other findings which
are lacking from this study. On the other hand, this study only uses six (6) dimensions under
hygiene and motivator factors based on Herzberg’s Two Factors Theory where future
research is encouraged to apply other theories that can be used to test different dimensions
apart from monetary incentives, work environment, job security, non-monetary incentives,
workload, and promotion opportunities.
6. Acknowledgement
The authors greatly appreciate those involved in the study specifically to the respondents of
this study.
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