The challenges of lecturers in a private tertiary education: dynamics of happiness vs work engagement in workplace.

Abstract

Private education promises to deliver quality specialised education to students who opt to either take the private approach to education, or who are given a second chance to study towards a tertiary education after being turned away from public institutions. There seems to be however a decrease in the level of work engagement among academics in private education which could be linked to the level of dissatisfaction and unhappiness they experience in the workplace. This study aims to investigate the influence of happiness of lecturers on their level of work performance at private tertiary institutions within the South African context. In order to conduct this study, the researcher focused on two branches of a private tertiary institution called the Future Leaders Academy (FLA). The hypothesis of the study is: “The levels of happiness amongst lecturers at the Future Leaders Academy is directly proportional to the level of academic performance in the workplace”. The theoretical framework for the proposed study favours The Social Cognitive Theory of Self- regulation (SRT) which was developed by Albert Bandura in 1991 and the Job Characteristics model (JCM) which was established by Hackman and Oldham in 1976. . In the present study, the research methodology is based on quantitative design (instrument scores). The study has provided much insight on private tertiary education in South Africa and the behavior of academics. The researcher has proven that a significant relationship between happiness and the levels of work engagement amongst academics does exist.