ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1635607
This article is part of the Research TopicReimagining Higher Education: Responding Proactively to 21st Century Global ShiftsView all 6 articles
Organizational Culture and Academic Staff Satisfaction in Somaliland Higher Education: Evidence from Structural Equation Modeling
Provisionally accepted
- 1Amoud University, Borama, Somalia
- 2Haramaya University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia
- 3Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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This study examines the influence of organizational culture (OC) on academic staff job satisfaction (JS) within higher education institutions (HEIs) in Somaliland. Using data from 266 academic staff and guided by the Competing Values Framework (CVF), four culture types-Collaborate (Clan), Create (Adhocracy), Compete (Market), and Control (Hierarchy)-were assessed alongside three dimensions of job satisfaction: General (GJS), Intrinsic (IJS), and Extrinsic (EJS). Descriptive results showed that Control (M = 3.66, SD = 0.66) and Collaborate (M = 3.62, SD = 0.75) cultures were most prevalent, while IJS (M = 3.64, SD = 0.52) was the highest reported satisfaction facet and EJS (M = 3.32, SD = 0.74) the lowest. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) revealed that Collaborate culture significantly predicted all three satisfaction dimensions (β = .50 to .74, p < .05), while Create and Compete cultures positively influenced IJS and EJS but not GJS. Control culture enhanced GJS (β = .32, p < .05) and IJS (β = .46, p < .05), but negatively and nonsignificantly affected EJS (β = -0.30, p ≥ .05). These findings suggest that while collaborative, innovative, and structured environments foster job satisfaction in various forms, their impact varies across satisfaction domains. The study underscores the crucial psychological tension between the institutional need for structural stability and the academic staff's inherent need for professional autonomy and recognition. Ultimately, this research highlights the importance of aligning organizational culture with faculty needs to improve retention, motivation, and institutional effectiveness in the unique post-conflict higher education context of Somaliland.
Keywords: Organizational Culture, Job Satisfaction, higher education, Structural Equation Modeling, Somaliland
Received: 26 May 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cumar, Kidaneb, Negassa and Dinsa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mukhtaar Cumar, Amoud University, Borama, Somalia
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