Abstract:
South Africa is experiencing high turnover rates among academics in higher education institutions. Establishing the
antecedents that retain and attract academics in the field of Tourism and other related disciplines is crucial in
attracting and retaining these academics. The study sought to investigate the impact of job satisfaction and selected
demographic variables on turnover intentions among academic staff members. In the study, a cross-sectional
quantitative research design was adopted. Data was collected from a population of 102 local and international
academics. SPSS 23 used for data analysis. Pearson’s correlation was conducted to establish the cause-and effect
relationship between the independent and dependent variables in the study. Results indicated that there was a
significant positive relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intentions. In this respect, it was evident that
although the academics were satisfied with their jobs they still had intentions to leave their jobs. On the other hand
it was noted that there was a statistically significant negative relationship between job level and turnover intentions.
In this vein, junior staff members were noted to have high levels of turnover intentions. The main implications
established in the study were that higher education institutions should use several human resource interventions
such as employee engagement and work-life balance to ensure that they retain academics.
