The impact of organizational incentives on the loyalty of studying abroad teachers in Hainan, China: The mediating role of organizational commitment

Competition in higher education is essentially a competition for talent, particularly manifested in the competition among high-level university teachers. Therefore, enhancing teachers' loyalty to their profession and universities, controlling talent turnover, and establishing a responsible and well-structured teaching staff are fundamental to the sustainable development of universities. This study, based on the motivation-hygiene theory, utilized convenience sampling to conduct a questionnaire survey on internationally studying teachers from 21 universities in Hainan Province, China. A total of 667 valid questionnaires were collected, and a structural equation model was employed to investigate the influence of organizational incentives in Hainan's universities on the loyalty of international teaching staff; as well as the mediating effect of organizational commitment of international teachers between organizational incentives and loyalty. The research results show that both organizational incentives and organizational commitment can positively predict teachers' loyalty, and organizational incentives can positively predict organizational commitment. Organizational commitment plays a partial mediating role between organizational incentives and teachers' loyalty. Based on this, this study suggests that university administrators should establish a reasonable incentive mechanism and cultivate the organizational commitment of overseas-study teachers, in order to comprehensively enhance the loyalty of overseas-study teachers and ensure the stability of the teaching staff.