INFLUENCE OF CAREER MENTORING PRACTICES ON EMPLOYEE JOB SATISFACTION OF ACADEMIC STAFF IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA
Abstract
Mentoring is a strong career development and empowerment tool for both the mentor and mentee in an organisation. It is a helpful relationship based upon mutual trust and respect. As a mentor, you should help your mentee to believe in themselves and boost their confidence. This paper assessed the influence of career mentoring practices on employee job satisfaction of academic staff in public universities in Kenya. Social Cognitive Career Theory was employed to guide the research paper. Explanatory research design was employed as a blueprint to guide the study. The study population was 30 public universities in Kenya with target population of 8698 university academic staff. The study took 4.3% of target population as the sample size of the study representing 367 academic staff. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data analysis involved both descriptive statistics by use of means and standard deviations and regression analysis. Career mentorship practices as a career development practice is a significant but weak predictor of employee job satisfaction. Majority of the academic staff were disagreeing with statements on career mentorship practices and employee job satisfaction implying that career mentorship in the public university is relatively weak. Also, referring to regression model results, the study concluded that career mentorship practices is significant but weak career development practice influencing employee job satisfaction. There were inadequate mentorship opportunities given the load of work the professors carried thus a review of this critical factor may be necessary for enhanced employee job satisfaction. From the findings, the study recommended for the creation of academic staff mentorship programmes in the university. Young university academic staff need to be assigned a specific experienced university staff to mentor them focusing on psychological, professional career, educational needs and work commitment. This can be achieved through periodic academic staff departmental and faculty mentorship programmes.
Keywords: Career mentoring practices, employee job satisfaction, academic staff, public universities, Kenya
CITATION: Ayodo, I. A., Gregory S. Namusonge, G. S., & Mbithi, S. M. (2021). Influence of career mentoring practices on employee job satisfaction of academic staff in public universities in Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 8 (1), 845 – 862.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v8i1.1954
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