An investigation Into the impact of student unrests on the University of Pretoria’s organisational climate and academic staff members’ work satisfaction from the perspective of the Self-Determination Theory (SDT)

Abstract

When a university fee increase was announced at the end of 2015, students from across the country started protesting against the increase. At the end of 2016, they again embarked on protests after the fee increase announcement. As a result of the protests, some research was conducted on the protests and the impact of this on students and universities, but another important role player, namely staff at the academic institutions, was not considered. This research set out to determine the impact of these student protests on the University of Pretoria’s work climate and the motivation and job satisfaction of academic staff members from the perspective of the Self-Determination Theory. Using convenience sampling, staff members from the Hatfield campus were afforded the opportunity to complete a questionnaire which consisted of questionnaires covering the variables above. Two temporal psycho-organisational profiles were determined for job satisfaction and motivation for 2015/2016 and 2020. The responses were analysed and indicated that the protests had a slight impact on the job satisfaction and motivation of staff members.