Quality of Work Life, Job Satisfaction and Happiness among Academics at a University of Technology in South Africa

Abstract

Higher education institutions are competing globally to attract and retain accomplished academics to contribute to an institution’s performance. However, the efficiency of a higher education institution might depend on how it manages one of its most important assets contributing to the human capital of the institution, the academics. Therefore, an academic’s quality of work life, job satisfaction and happiness should be considered and evaluated on a continuous basis to holistically ascertain an institution’s effectiveness. This study examines the relationships between QWL, job satisfaction and happiness among academics at a university in South Africa. A quantitative research approach was followed entrenching a post-positivist research paradigm, sampling 300 academic employees at the applicable university. The Quality of Work Life Scale, the Brief Job Satisfaction Measure II, and the Subjective Happiness Scale were applied in this study and demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity. The results revealed significant positive relationships and positive significant predictive relationships between the constructs. A generic academic workload policy should be followed by all faculties at the university to ensure that workloads are equitable and flexible.