Institutional staff policies implementation and employee job satisfaction in Uganda: A mediating effect of work environment

This study focused on establishing the intervening effect of work environment in the relationship between institutional staff policies' implementation and employee job satisfaction among administrative staff in universities in Uganda. The study was undertaken because most private universities could not afford to pay their staff a living wage and meet their staff's welfare needs, resulting in the challenge of managing dissatisfied administrative staff. The study involved purposive and simple random sampling approaches. The study adopted a descriptive approach to generate data from the targeted population of 495 and a sample size of 215. The study also used a cross-sectional survey to obtain responses, and this generated a response rate of 100% for both the unit of analysis and unit of inquiry. Both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were employed to analyze the data. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Amos statistical software. The unstandardized bootstrapping results show that the total effect of institutional staff policies' implementation on employee job satisfaction of selected universities in East and Northern Uganda was significant (B = 0.786, p < 0.01). Upon the inclusion of the mediating variable (work environment) in the model, the impact of institutional staff policies' implementation on employee job satisfaction remained significant (B = 0.366, p < 0.01), though it reduced in magnitude from 0.786 to 0.366. This suggests that the relationship between institutional staff policies' implementation and employee job satisfaction is mediated by work environment. The findings reveal a partial mediation (B = 0.366, p < 0.01), implying that the effect of institutional staff policies' implementation on employee job satisfaction is partially transmitted by work environment. This suggests the critical need for a conducive work environment for staff. Thus, the study recommends that universities prioritize improving the work environment and ensure that employees are provided with a decent working context. Key words: Institutional staff policies, job satisfaction, work environment, Universities.