Causes and consequences of academics’ emotions in private higher education institutions: implications for policy and practice through the lens of affective events theory

Abstract

This study aims at testing a few tenets of affective events theory (AET) from a predictive perspective in the context of Malaysian private higher education sector. Specifically, we examined the impact of workload and autonomy on academics’ job satisfaction through interpersonal conflict and affective states. Additionally, the impact of affective states on job satisfaction via job performance was considered. We gathered data from 325 academics and analyzed them through partial least squares methodology. Our findings corroborated AET tenets considerably. The importance of the joint consideration of workload and autonomy in positively contributing to job satisfaction was highlighted. In addition, positive affect was identified as a stronger predictor of job satisfaction (as an attitude) and job performance (as an affect-driven behavior), comparing with negative affect. Specifically, positive affect was the strongest construct in increasing academics’ job satisfaction in our theoretical model. The findings indicated policy relevance at both the macro and institutional levels and had managerial and practical implications for future research direction in human resource management in the private higher education sector.