In the past when the schools were in the hands of missionaries, all the teachers and lecturers at all levels in Uganda were equally committed to their work. Teachers and lecturers were in class full time and there was good teacher/lecturer - student relationship. Lecturers were given enough salary and other benefits which they depended on throughout the month and even the surplus could be used to build good houses, buy land and vehicles. Lecturers in Uganda at that time were the smartest and most respected people. Many young people who got a chance of going to school aimed at being teachers and lecturers.
But when the Ugandan government took over these institutions after independence things started taking a different direction. The lecturers who were highly respected started working under very difficult conditions with very low salaries, no houses to stay in, lacked money to pay school fees of their own children, no money to buy cheapest clothes to put on and even buy enough food for their families. These conditions made it impossible for the lecturers to make a living. These conditions caused and are still causing low morale among lecturers.
According to Baruku (1983), the peak of teacher attribution in Uganda was in the mid 1970s. Agard (1975) and Kamuhanda (1976) indicate that attrition of graduate teachers was 10.7% between 1972-75 and 37.8% in 1975/76. Teacher attrition in the country has continued in the 1980s and is now a nationwide problem. Some of the reasons for this include low status of the teaching profession in Ugandan Society, little chances of promotion in the teaching profession, general working conditions are not as attractive as those offered in other jobs in the public service and other non governmental organizations that require people of similar educational standards, and low pay in the teaching profession as compared to other jobs in the public service. For example lecturers in the institutions of higher learning earn $24 a month as compared to $400 earned by a sweeper/cleaner in the Revenue Authority over the same period.
As a result of this, lecturers have resorted to private coaching of students to make ends meet. This has brought with it its own problems. Setting, supervising and marking of examinations almost became impossible in many institutions of higher learning.
In the period between 1988 - 1992 mainly male lecturers in Makerere University deserted the institution and went to Mbale University where they were paid more money (Sekitoleko, 1992). In the 1970s, through the 1980s to early 1990s many male lecturers and teachers left the country and went to Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, South Africa, only to mention a few, looking for greener pastures: Odurkane (1986) had recorded an alarming student - lecturer ratio of 121:1 in the institutions of higher learning. This ratio grew worse with the exodus of lecturers and climbed up to 500:1.
On the occasion when the Minister of Education was naming new permanent secretaries for education (Uganda Times, 1979), Prof. Ssenteza Kajubi said with grief that; many lecturers had deserted their institutions and hoped that Ugandans who went for greener pastures would come back and strengthen their colleagues.
Although some lecturers and teachers left the country, some persisted and remained working under harsh conditions. These harsh conditions were reflected in the delay of their meager salaries, no houses to stay in and many teachers and lecturers had to walk long distances. Many male teachers became frustrated and resorted to doing other things. Malpractice like male lecturers rigging of examination to female students increased greatly in the institutions of higher learning and the lecturers' moral ethics also went down.
Strikes on the other hand became the order of the day. In Makerere University in the years 1989, 1990 and 1994, the Academic staff went on strike demanding a living wage. Similar strikes took place at the Institute of Teacher Education over the years 1991, 1993 and 1994.
Despite all the above problems, some lecturers especially the women have remained committed to their work. They go to teach in time, give course works and mark examinations in time. It is on these grounds that the researcher has taken the initiative to investigate whether it is true that female lecturers are more committed to their work and organization than their male counterparts while they all operate in similar conditions.
To any conscientious observer it is conspicuous that women in higher institutions of learning in Uganda stick to their jobs much more than their male counterparts who generally tend to quit teaching and go for greener pastures within or outside Uganda. The fact that there is a minimal or rather negligible exodus of the female lecturers into better paying jobs is an indicator of their unvacillating faithfulness to their profession. But since both the male and female lecturers operate within more or less similar circumstances characterized by almost the same problems, one wonders why women are less disposed to abandoning their teaching jobs in Uganda than the male ones.
A further index of the female lecturers' generally unswerving loyalty to their work is that they have not generally been made to falter by the gender-based discriminatory practice of promotions. Thus, although they are really promoted (through direct appointment or election) to high positions of responsibility (headship, deanship directorship, senior lectureship, and professorship to mention only a few), the women educators have remained at the steering wheels of their careers, so to say, year in and year out.
Why female lecturers are apparently committed to their career is the subject or to be more specific the problem that the present research wishes to investigate. If their seeming devotion to the teaching profession is, indeed true across the board, there must be certain factors (hidden or openly recognizable) that account for the commitment. It is those conditions or factors (social, economic, religious, political, educational, cultural and the like) that this research project intends to unearth and establish in no uncertain terms. To put what I have said differently, this study's aim is to bring in focus the nature and determining factors of the women lecturers' organizational commitment.
The proposed topic or study is worthy of a probe inasmuch as almost no research has been done directly about Ugandan women lecturers in relation to their commitment to the higher educational organizations at which they are employed. As expected the scanty and scattered available material, which is relevant to the present study, superficially deals with the above topic, leaving much to be desired.
In nearly every way therefore the subject of the study is virgin territory. The successful completion of this project will thus provide much-needed information on the women lecturers' inclination to cling onto their jobs in spite of the unfavourable and demanding circumstances amidst which they work.
The study is intended to achieve the following objectives:
(a) To find out whether personal variables influence organizational commitment of female academic staff in higher institutions of learning in Uganda.
(b) To find out whether job satisfaction and Protestant work ethics could influence organizational commitment of females, at the tertiary level of the teaching service.
(c) To find out whether situation variables will influence the organizational commitment of females in the higher echelons of the teaching service.
(d) To find out whether role variables of professionalism and volume of work could influence organizational commitment among the female academic staff in the higher institutions of learning.
(e) And to assess levels of organizational commitment among the female and male lecturers in general in Uganda's higher educational institutions and suggest programs that could improve organizational commitment and hence reduce turnover and brain drain.
Ideally, this research is supposed to be based on data elicited from all the female lecturers, by means of an exhaustive questionnaire in all of Uganda's higher institutions of learning which cover all the Universities, the Institute of Teacher Education Kyambogo, all the National Teachers' Colleges, all the National Colleges of Business Studies, and all the Polytechnics. As these institutions are scattered all over Uganda and given limited time and financial resources, it would be impracticable to get necessary information from all of them. For that reason and in order to conduct easily manageable and well done research, the scope will be limited to only four institutions, viz., Makerere University, the Institute of Teacher Education Kyambogo, Kabale and Kaliro National Teachers' Colleges.
Chronologically, the scope will be further delimited by investigating the problem of the study in terms of the period running from 1975 to 1993. The time-span has been selected because it is when at least a good number of Ugandan females started teaching in the nation's tertiary institutions of learning. The above four institutions were chosen on regional level, that is, the first two from the Central region, the third from the Western region, and the fourth from the Eastern one.
The Northern region was not considered because it still suffers from pockets of insecurity resulting from the recently concluded civil war in the area. Of all the Universities in the country Makerere University was chosen partly because it was the oldest institution in that category and partly because it is the University with the biggest population of female lecturers. It is therefore the ideal representative of institutions in that division. Special consideration has been given to the Institute of Teacher Education Kyambogo because it is the only institution of its nature in the whole country. The remaining two institutions, namely Kabale and Kaliro NTCs, have simply been chosen to represent a large number of institutions in their bracket which are widespread in Uganda.
For purposes of this research, the researcher has adopted Acker's (1984) definition of gender. Gender is defined as a set of meanings, beliefs, attitudes, roles, traits and expectations which society ascribes to femininity or masculinity. Thus the definition excludes the biological or sex differences arising from physiological or hormonal differences.
Organizational Commitment
A number of definitions and explanations of organizational commitment have been given. Of the many definitions, I have adopted the following one because of its great relevance to the present study. Mowday, Porter and Steers (1982) defined organizational commitment as a strong belief in an organisation's goals and values, a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of an organisation and a strong desire to remain a member of the organization. This definition of the concept organizational commitment emphasizes attachment to the employing organization, including its goals and values.
According to this study, job satisfaction refers to the degree to which a person reports satisfaction with the intrinsic features of the job (Warr, Cook and Wall, 1979).
This concerns the attitude people have towards work especially hard work that is the belief that personal worth results from self-sacrificing work and personal achievement (Blood 1969).
Higher Institution of Learning
In the case of Uganda, these include the Universities, the Institute of Teacher Education Kyambogo, National Teachers' Colleges, Colleges of Commerce, and National Colleges of Business Studies and Polytechnics.
