This chapter sums up and provides the conclusion and suggestions of this study based on the research and findings. Furthermore, implications and suggestions for further research are presented respectively.
Conclusions
The purpose of this study was to explore the mediating effect of organizational commitment on perceived person-organization fit and job satisfaction in The Gambia public sector.
This study pursued to find out about the public sector of The Gambia, which is a major employer in the country thus the need to study different aspects of how to better improve employee productivity as well as putting the right people in their right places for organizational development.
Hypothesis one (1) of this study was tested to find out about whether person-organization Fit have a positive relationship with job satisfaction. The results of this study shows that perceived Person-Organization Fit have a positive correlation with employee job satisfaction. This shows that the more employees in the public sectors of The Gambia perceived themselves as fit in their organizations, the more they are most likely to be satisfied with their jobs. This study proves already existing literatures that supports the positive relationships between person-organization Fit and job satisfaction.
The second hypothesis of this study which states that, person-organization fit has a positive relationship with job satisfaction is found to be positive by the results of this study.
This shows that employees become more committed to their organizations if they feel that they are the right fit in their organizations. Their level of commitment will increase with their levels of fit. This may suggest that organizations in The Gambia should place right employees in their right places to increase their levels of commitment.
The findings of this study supports the assumptions of the research supporting hypothesis three (3) which states that, organizational commitment is positively correlated to job satisfaction. This finding shows that when employees are committed in their
organizations, it directly translates to their satisfaction with their jobs as proved by the findings of this study.
The findings of this study indicates that the relationship between organizational commitment and perceived person-organization fit was positive. Furthermore, the relationship
47 between organizational commitment and job satisfaction was positive. This shows that organizational commitment has a mediating effect on perceived person-organization Fit and job satisfaction.
Implications
This research contributes to a body of knowledge in the study of human resources by adding onto the literature of perceived person-organization Fit (P-O F), organizational commitment and job satisfaction in The Gambia public sector. At the time of compiling this research, The Gambia has only one public university with many constrains, there are no PhD programs in the field of human resources yet offered by the university thus there are still not much research done on many social sciences related studies. The research findings can always be a reference point for academics as well as practitioners in the public domain
There are some practical implications in this study. The results of the study have proven to support the research hypothesises. Firstly, it shows that when employees are perceived to fit well in their organizations, they become more satisfied with their jobs.
Secondly, when employees perceived that they fit in their organizations, they become more committed to their organizations.
Thirdly, this study found out that when employees becomes more committed in their organizations, they in turn become satisfied with their organizations.
Lastly, it has been proven that, organizational commitment mediates the relationship between the commitment of employees and their satisfaction with their job.
The results of this study is based on the research findings from this study and the study population in question is employees in The Gambia public sector. Organizations can try and make sense of the research findings and relate it to their job context and see how best to improve the level of employee fit and how to improve efficiency and productivity in their organizations.
The wellbeing of employees can take cared of as it directly translates to higher level of organizational commitment and employee job satisfaction. This study presents a body of evidence from the results of the research findings. The aim of this study was to find out about the mediating effect of organizational commitment on perceived person-organization Fit and job satisfaction in The Gambia public sector. This study results brings to the attentions that organizations should take the plight of employees seriously as it will directly reflect to the betterment of the organizations.
1. Organizations should put the right employees in the organizations as it will improve their satisfaction.
48 2. Organizations should know that employees who are perceived to be compatible with their
organizations should are more commitment in their organizations.
3. Committed employees are more satisfied with their job.
Recommendations
This study suggests that researchers in the field of social sciences or more specifically to the study of human resource development (HRD) should take advantage of empirical findings and in the same way take the trend of improvements in science and technology by adapting new approaches to better the working environment of employees and companies.
Based on the researcher’s experience and findings from this study, the following recommendations are suggested.
Firstly, the research population for this study is the public sector of The Gambia, which is very large for a specific research result, a thorough study can be done specifically to a certain part of The Gambia public sector. Moreover, a comparative study of the different sectors of The Gambia public can be done to find out about the relationship between and among the study variables, which can be done for any public sectors of the world. A comparative of the public, private and non-profit organizations can be done to comprehensively evaluate the relationship between the study variables of organizational commitment, perceived person-organization Fit to job satisfaction.
Secondly, the researcher suggest that a different meditating variable can be used to excessively study the relationship between this study variable. In this study, the mediating variable is organizational commitment, based on previous studies, perceived person-organization fit can be used to mediate the relationship between person-organizational commitment and job satisfaction.
Thirdly, given the large number of public sector workers in The Gambia, a larger population pool can be considered for future as this study was only able to collect a sample size of 327 public sector employees. Depending on the environment or research population, the researcher can consider the size of the population to be studied.
Fourthly, this study adapts quantitative research approach, this study suggests that a mixed research approach may be used by future researchers. Different data collection methods can be effectively used. Being it hard copies, online data distribution or mixed methods can be considered by the future researcher. Interview, qualitative or observations can be adopted for further studies but most importantly, the approach should reflect to the research purpose as well as the research population.
49
Finally, the recommendations given are based on the experiences of this researcher, bear in mind that the context and population of further studies maybe different thus those points should be taken into considerations for the next research step.
Limitations
Although this study tries to meet all the research challenges, there were still some shortcomings. Firstly, the items of the study may not have covered all the context of the variables. Secondly, this study adopts quantitative research approach. An already established research questionnaire and scale was used. A blend of research methods could be a way to thoroughly find out about the research topic. The use of interviews and observations were not adapted for this study. In the context of The Gambia diverse research methods can be used to study this topic. Thirdly, this study focused exclusively on public sector workers in The Gambia, which limits the generalizability of the results. Fourthly, the data collection approach.
Hardcopy and online (internet using google survey) were the two data collection methods used.
Challenges in the data collections includes: 1. the internet connectivity at the time of compiling this report is very expensive thus respondents might not want to use their limited resources to help. 2: the internet connectivity in The Gambia is gradually improving but the speedy is still slow. Fifthly, the data collection approach. The research had correspondents in The Gambia whom he uses as focal persons. The focal person’s role includes 1: printing the questionnaires and distributing to the research population i.e. public sector employees in The Gambia. 2.
collecting finished responses 3. decoding the data and forwarding them to the researcher.
Lastly, not all statistical methods were utilized in the data analyses
.
This chapter draws a conclusion based on the findings of this research. This finding adds to empirical studies done on the study variables. The study population maybe different but the results are similar to previous findings. This can be a knowledge source for both public sectors workers, managers, and students in the field of social science especially in the study of human resources. Finally, further research can be done to study more about this study variable to expand on the subject matter.50
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