Job satisfaction and characteristics among staff of public higher educational institutions in Ghana

Abstract The role of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in preparing human resource for local, national and global sustainable development is paramount. Such role can be adequately performed by competent staff who are satisfied with their jobs. This study determined the extent of the relationship between job satisfaction and characteristics in public HEIs in Ghana. The study employed the cross-sectional survey design. Factor analysis and canonical correlation analysis were applied to the data collected from three categories of staff from four public universities constituting a sample size of 452. Results show that social status, recognition, remuneration and conducive work environment informed their job satisfaction. For the dimensions of job characteristics, the most important was the variety of tasks performed on the job, followed by the feedback employees received from the job outcomes. The other three dimensions were task significance, autonomy and task identity. A positive canonical correlation existed between the first canonical pair of functions, suggesting a significant relationship between the two sets of solutions. There was a possible negative relationship between remuneration and a combination of task significance and task identity. The recommendations involved leadership providing adequate information on activities, motivation packages, feedback and conducive workplace environment to the staff.


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
This study sought to determine the pattern of relationship between job satisfaction factors and job characteristics among staff of public higher educational institutions in Ghana.The output of this research indicates that there is a possible positive relationship between job satisfaction factors and job characteristics factors.It further suggested a possible negative relationship between remuneration and a set of task significance and task identity.The findings are not conclusive and therefore, call for further research.

Introduction
Education is a critical tool for the transformation of the individual and the society.Higher Educational Institutions play a significant role in re-orienting the curricula for sustainable development which aims at preparing a holistic and value-oriented individual for useful living within the society.Every well-meaning government has sustainable development as the primary goal, which involves wealth creation, increased economic growth, maximum social well-being, and healthy environment both for the present and future generation.Sustainable development is enhanced by education through the Institutions of Higher Learning.Thus, higher education institutions (HEIs) are required to equip learners with the right understanding and knowledge, skills and attitudes to promote sustainable development.A strong system of higher education is a significant contributor to the country's ability to compete in the global marketplace and is critical to national economic strength, social well-being, and position as a world leader.
Public HEIs in creating and cultivating knowledge for building a modern world, are required to compete successfully in the global economy by producing people with knowledgeable, highly skilled workforce and positive attitude.In Ghana, the main public HEIs are universities and technical universities.These public HEIs are complex social organisations with several interactive functions.The confounding effects of the human factor in such social organisations are of prominence.Demand for academic and non-academic employees in higher education has been increasing and may be expected to continue to increase.The work of the staff of higher learning institutions is influenced by global trends such as massification, accountability, managerial controls and degenerating financial support (P.G. Altbach & Chait, 2001cited in Ssesanga & Garrett, 2005).This calls for rapid change in the workplace and the necessity to manage the tensions within their profession.
Issues of job satisfaction are promoted among the staff at various levels in every institution in order to have a positive impact on employees as well as the institution.Satisfaction is something abstract and cannot be measured precisely.Nonetheless, it can occur when people do things to the best of their abilities.P. Altbach (2003) notes that with this era of massive higher education enrolment, the conditions of academic work have deteriorated in developing countries including Ghana.
According to Rashid and Rashid (2011), satisfaction has been extensively studied in the social sciences due to its importance to the physical and mental well-being of employees.Machado-Taylor et al. (2010) pointed out that job satisfaction and motivation among academic and nonacademic staff play an important role in contributing to positive outcomes in the quality of the institution, students learning and manpower for the job market.HEIs are professional service organisations that contribute services through the activities of the organisations' members.Therefore, the relationship between job satisfaction among employees and employee organisational commitment is present and significant (Daneshfard & Ekvaniyan, 2012).
The concept of job satisfaction began as far back as 1911 when Taylor indicated that rewards such as the earnings of the job, promotion, appreciation, incentive payments and opportunities for progress could lead to increased job satisfaction (Aslan, 2001).The performance of academic staff as lecturers, counsellors and researchers determines much of student satisfaction and has an impact on student learning, thereby resulting in HEIs contribution to society.Thus, the satisfaction and motivation of staff are important.Oversimplified and naive explanations of job satisfaction abound in all sectors of the workforce.Most typical is the mistaken belief that pay incentives alone creates effective levels of motivation and overall job satisfaction.Previous research indicates that dissatisfaction stems from inadequate and non-competitive salaries while lack of job satisfaction is due to non-monetary reasons.There are intrinsic factors related to personal growth and advancement and extrinsic factors associated with security in the work environment.However, there is also ample and somewhat obvious evidence that job satisfaction relates to employee motivation (Parsons & Broadbridge, 2006).Robbins and Judge (2013) suggested that to adequately measure the job characteristics that affect job satisfaction, managers need to identify the key elements in a job such as supervision, the nature of the work, promotion opportunities, relations with co-workers and current pay.This implies that to understand the relationship between job satisfaction and employee performance, it is essential to examine how employees feel about their job.Faturochman (1997) also defined job characteristics as the relationship between job characteristics and an individual's response to work.Ilgen and Hollenbeck (1991) defined a job as a set of task elements grouped under one job title, designed to be performed by an individual or a group of people.Questions such as what does or should the worker do, what knowledge, skill and abilities do it require to perform this job, what is the outcome expected from the person performing the job, and how does this job fit in with other jobs in the organisation and what is the contribution of this job towards the organisational goals, arise in considering the work to be done.
Job satisfaction is a gauge in determining the success of an organisation.If an organisation can provide job satisfaction to its employees, it does not only improve the image of the organisation, but also increase the motivation and productivity of its employees.Before organisations can satisfy their customers, they should ensure their employees are satisfied first so that employees can provide quality services toward customer satisfaction.
Various researchers have indicated that research should be carried out on satisfaction among academics given the current rapid growth in the educational system (Bentley et al., 2013;Bozeman & Gaughan, 2011;Lacy and Sheehan, 1997).Studies done on academic staff have only taken into account the general job satisfaction factors that contribute to dissatisfaction and satisfaction.Some studies either measured job satisfaction in only one category, i.e. academic or non academic (Khalid et al., 2012;Salau et al., 2014;Seng & Wai, 2015;Yapa et al., 2014).They have also attempted to identify the influential factor of job satisfaction, confining their research to the examination of socio-economic and demographic characteristics such as age, education, length of service and marital status in various industries.Little research, however, has been done to explore the combination of job characteristics and job satisfaction in HEIs.Furthermore, a considerable amount of research on how employee job satisfaction and job satisfaction have not been fully explored in HEI with previous studies mainly performed in the Western context.More empirical evidence is required to analyse the relationship between job satisfaction and job characteristics in a non-Western context.
This study seeks to commutatively look at the relationship between job satisfaction and job characteristics factors, and examine how variations in job satisfaction factors relate to variations in job characteristics factors using canonical correlation analysis.It also seeks to bring to the fore the subset(s) of job satisfaction factors that are associated with subset(s) of job characteristics among the staff of HEIs in Ghana.That is why it is vital to determine the job satisfaction factors of staff of HEIs alongside their job characteristics to establish the shared relationship among these factors.The general objective of this study is to determine the relationship patterns between job satisfaction factors and job characteristics among the staff of public HEIs in Ghana.
The specific objectives of the study are to: (a) determine the latent factors contributing to the job satisfaction of staff of public HEIs in Ghana; (b) examine the job characteristics of the staff of public HEIs in Ghana; (c) assess the pattern of relationship between job satisfaction factors and job characteristics of the staff of public HEIs in Ghana.
The study is significant as the findings would help the management and human resources of HEIs in Ghana with information on factors contributing to job satisfaction and the characteristics of their staff.It would also help them in decision-making and job design for various levels of staff in HEIs.It also seeks to contribute to the literature by suggesting which subset of job characteristics variables are associated with which job satisfaction variables in the Ghanaian context of HEIs.
This paper is structured into six sections.Following the introduction is the second section which focuses on the literature review on job satisfaction and characteristics with Herzberg's two-factor theory of motivation and job characteristics model reviewed.The third section describes the methodology which involves the methods employed, statistical analysis of canonical correlation analysis and factor analysis are reviewed.The fourth section presents the results based on the set specific objectives.The fifth section deals with the discussions while the sixth deals with the conclusion and recommendations.

Literature review
This section deals with the concepts of job and job satisfaction, theoretical underpinnings and empirical studies.

Concepts
Job as a concept in this study is the work performed by staff in a public HEI irrespective of the person's rank, age, gender or level of experience from which they are remunerated at the end of the month.This can be either academic or non-academic in the context of HEIs.The academic staff normally are engaged in either lecturing, research or community service while that of the non-academic entails administrative and technical duties including conservancy, security and many more.
Job satisfaction as a concept has been largely researched by various researchers in various fields but hardly has there been a single definition of the concept.This, therefore, has birthed numerous perspectives about the concept since many factors can contribute to one being satisfied with his or her work.Some researchers have tried to define job satisfaction as the emotional feeling or reaction that an individual has towards his or her job which can be either positive or negative in this regard (Robbins, 2005;Spector, 2012).Job satisfaction is the general attitude an employee has towards a job (Ostroff, 1992) and a sense of fulfilment, gratification, and satisfaction from working in an occupation (Collie et al., 2012).There are three types of job satisfaction namely: intrinsic, extrinsic, and general satisfaction (Hirschfeld, 2000;Kacel et al., 2005).Intrinsic satisfaction refers to how people feel about the nature of the job tasks themselves.Here personal factors that focus on individual attributes and characteristics are the essence of intrinsic satisfaction (Dalal, 2013;Dirani, 2009;Spector, 2012).).Creativity, achievement, variety, social service, activity, responsibility, social status, security, moral values, independence and authority are the factors to address in terms of intrinsic satisfaction.
Extrinsic satisfaction refers to how people feel about aspects of the work condition that are external to the job tasks or the work itself.This is usually influenced by environmental factors that are associated with the work itself or the work environment (Dalal, 2013;Dirani, 2009;Spector, 2012).The factors considered to evaluate extrinsic satisfaction are advancement, organisational policies and practices, supervision of human relations, compensation, supervision, and recognition.
General satisfaction includes all the above-mentioned factors in both intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction in addition to working conditions and co-workers (Feinstein & Vondrasek, 2001).

Theoretical underpinnings
The study was guided by Herzberg's two-factor theory of motivation and the job characteristics model.The two-factor motivation theory, otherwise known as Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory or dual-factor theory, argues that there are separate sets of mutually exclusive factors in the workplace that either cause job satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Alshmemri et al., 2017;Herzberg, 1982Herzberg, , 1991;;Nickerson, 2021).Generally, these factors encouraging job satisfaction relate to self-growth and self-actualization.To Herzberg, motivators ensure job satisfaction while a lack of hygiene factors spawns job satisfaction.These motivators (satisfiers) include performance and achievement, recognition, job status, responsibility, opportunities for advancement, personal growth and the work itself.The hygiene factors (dissatisfiers) also include remuneration, the physical workspace, working conditions, relationship with colleagues and supervisors, quality of supervisor and the institutional policies and regulations.Improving the motivators and hygiene factors helps to increase job satisfaction and decrease job satisfaction respectively.Job characteristics theory describes the relationship between job characteristics and individual responses to work (Hackman & Oldham, 1976).The theory specifies the task condition in which individuals are predicted to prosper in their work It indicates that job design influences motivation, job performance, and job satisfaction.It has been used as a framework for management to identify how certain job characteristics affect the outcome of jobs.It also investigates the various factors that make a specific job satisfying for the employee and organization.The theory identifies five core job dimensions that prompt three psychological states which have an effect on five workrelated outcomes.The theory deals with the job characteristics model which specifies the conditions under which employees are motivated intrinsically to accomplish their duties efficiently (Luenendonk, 2019).
The job characteristics model (JCM) developed by Hackman and Oldham (1976) indicates that the job itself should be designed to possess fundamental characteristics needed to create conditions for high work motivation, satisfaction and performance.This model was developed in 1976 from previous works of Herzberg (1966), Hulin and Blood (1968) and Hackman and Lawler (1971).The models state that to obtain highly motivated workers in an institution, jobs designed or created should motivate workers by its nature or composition.They further indicated that a job should have three dimensions namely; core job characteristics, critical psychological states and work outcomes.The core job characteristics define the task variety, task identity and task significance, autonomy and feedback components of the job.The psychological state defines the meaningfulness of the job, responsibility for the outcome and knowledge of results.The work outcomes define employee performance, turnover and satisfaction of a worker (Boonzaier et al., 2001;Ghosh et al., 2015).
The five core job characteristics are defined as follows: (a) Task Identity-the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work, that is doing a job from beginning to end with a visible outcome; (b) Task Significance-the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people, whether immediate organization or in the external environment; (c) Task Variety-the degree to which a job requires a variety of different activities in carrying out the work, which involves the use of a number of different skills and talents of the employee; (d) Autonomy-the degree to which the job provides substantial freedom, independence and discretion to the employee scheduling the work and determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out; (e) Feedback-the degree to which carrying out the work activities required by the job results in the employee obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance.
In summary, the JCM asserts that a job is meaningful to a worker to the extent that it requires a variety of skills, involves the full completion of an identifiable piece of work, which has significance for the lives of other people; it fosters feelings of personal responsibility to the degree that it provides the worker autonomy in selecting the methods for carrying out the work; furnishes the worker knowledge on which to judge the effects of his or her efforts with adequate feedback.Lok and Crawford (2004) emphasize that both organizational performance and effectiveness are influenced by organisational satisfaction and job satisfaction.There are various factors which influence job satisfaction, namely, organizational climate (Mosadegh & Yarmohammadian, 2006;Schyns et al., 2009); empowerment (Lok & Crawford, 2004); autonomy, recognition, communication, working conditions degree of professionalism, interpersonal relationships, working for a reputable agency, supervisory support, positive affectivity, job security, workplace flexibility, working within a team environment (Mosadegh & Yarmohammadian, 2006).Many researchers agree that satisfied university staff can contribute to organizational effectiveness, and motivation of staff can trigger better results in student performance, the development of strong organizational culture, a better image of the institution and even higher numbers of talented students and faculty members (Siddique et al., 2011;Webb, 2009).Toker (2011) observes that satisfaction with compensation, supervision, salary, and fringe benefits are evaluated lowest by academics.Satisfaction with social status, social service and ability utilization is evaluated highest.He also noticed that there is a statistically significant relationship between job satisfaction and academic titles, age and the years spent in the higher education institution.Higher rank, elderly staff and longer working staff are more satisfied with their job.Instead, teamwork was positively associated with satisfaction while interpersonal work stress had a negative link.Volkwein and Parmley (2000) found similar results in a study comparing administrative satisfaction in public and private universities.The fact that teamwork, which could be similar to Herzberg's relationship with co-workers, is positively associated with satisfaction partly disconfirms Herzberg's duality theory.A study by Santhapparj and Alam (2005) on job satisfaction among academic staff in private Universities in Malaysia shows that pay, promotion, fringe benefit, working conditions and others were significant determinants of job satisfaction.Anjum et al. (2014) investigated the relationship between job characteristics and job satisfaction among banking employees.In his study of 100 banking employees from different banks, he revealed task identity to be an affirmative and strong predictor of job satisfaction.The study also highlighted that job characteristics and both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation influence the job satisfaction of an employee.A good number of previous empirical studies reveal that the job characteristics model has a substantial influence on job satisfaction (Ali et al., 2014).Aloysius (2011) confirmed a well-built constructive correlation between objective job characteristics and job satisfaction among school teachers in the Colombo district when their growth need was high.

Empirical studies
There are studies on the correlation between job satisfaction and job characteristics.Other studies have examined the relationships between job satisfaction/job characteristics and other variables such as organisational performance, motivation, job engagement, turnover and organizational commitment.These studies made use of both descriptive and inferential analysis like means, frequency distributions, regression analysis, and structural equation modelling (Kellison & James, 2011, Olorunsola, 2011;Park & Searcy, 2012).However, no study has been sighted on the relationship between job satisfaction factors and job characteristics factors.This study sought to contribute to the literature by exploring the set of job satisfaction factors associated with the set of dimensions of job characteristics using canonical correlation analysis.

Materials and methods
The study was based on a quantitative approach.A cross-sectional survey design was adopted to identify the factors that contribute to staff (academic and non-academic) job satisfaction and characteristics in public HEIs in Ghana.At the time of data collection in 2018, there were 20 public HEIs (10 universities and 10 technical universities) in Ghana.The study selected two institutions each within universities and technical universities.In other words, four public HEIs were conveniently selected from the Ashanti and Central regions.One of each type of public university was purposively selected from the regions.These were the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and Kumasi Technical University (KTU) from the Ashanti Region and the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and Cape Coast Technical University (CCTU) from the Central Region.Stratified random sampling technique was adopted in the selection of samples in the selected HEIs.The staff of the tertiary institutions were grouped in three strata based on their designation (junior staff, senior staff and senior members) and members of staff were randomly selected from each stratum.
Due to the difficulty of getting the updated number of the various categories of staff from the four selected HEIs at the time of data collection, a sampling frame of 500 members of staff was targeted.This number goes beyond the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) upper limit of population size of 1,000,000 which corresponds to sample size of 384.This is based on the fact that the larger the study sample size, the smaller the margin of error.
Consequently, 500 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the respondents using a stratified random sampling technique in the four institutions with the help of four field assistants.Data collection took four months (March-June, 2018).The instrument was developed based on existing literature relating to job satisfaction and characteristics.It was adopted from various job satisfaction questionnaire pool used by various researchers in different fields to suit the HEI setting.These include the Minnesota Satisfaction Survey (MSQ), the job descriptive index questionnaire, job diagnostics survey (Hackman & Oldham, 1975), and Morgeson and Humphrey (2006).The questionnaire had three sections: the background characteristics of respondents, job satisfaction and job characteristics.The job satisfaction aspect comprised 42 items while the job characteristics comprised 31 items with each item being rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale; 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).Members of staff were asked to indicate their level of agreement to statements on job satisfaction and characteristics.Staff were asked to indicate their level of agreement to statements on job satisfaction and characteristics.A high score on the scale is indicative of an agreement to the statements on job satisfaction and characteristics and vice versa.A total of 452 valid questionnaires remained after data cleaning, thereby representing 90.4 percent response rate.
The data analysis used descriptive and inferential statistical approaches.For objectives, one and two, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted using the principal component extraction method and the varimax rotation with Kaiser Normalization.Inspection of the scree plots (Figures 1 and 2), parallel analysis and eigenvalues-greater-than-one criterion were used in the extraction of plausible and interpretable factors from the EFA solution.Again, the Kaiser Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy (KMO >0.7) and Barteltt's test of sphericity value (p < 0.01) were used to examine if factor analysis is appropriate to use (Field, 2013;Kaiser & Rice, 1974).A cut-off point of 0.4 was used for the extraction of factors from the rotated factor loadings with others removed.Correlation analysis and Canonical correlation analysis would also be conducted using the extracted factors to determine the pattern of relationship between the set of job satisfaction and the set job characteristics to address the third specific objective.IBM SPSS version 25 was used to analyze the data.

Results
The results are presented in line with the specific objectives of the study.However, the results begin with the presentation of the demographic characteristics of the respondents in order to put the study into context.

Demographic characteristics of respondents
The demographic characteristics of the respondents are presented in Table 1.The respondents who participated in the survey consisted of 64.8% and 35.2% male and female respectively.This might be a true reflection of the gender balance in the job market where males dominate, especially in the HEIs.Of the 452 respondents, 199 (44.0%) were from University D, 133 (29.4%) were from University C, 68 (15.0%) were from University B and 52 (11.5%) were from University A.  The majority (67.7%) of the respondents had worked for more than three years in their respective institutions, with 140 (31.0%)working for 10 years and above.This result reflects a good representation since they had enough experience on the job.Around 49.8% of the respondents were senior staff with the remaining almost evenly distributed among junior staff and senior members.The highest percentage (36.9%) of the respondents were bachelor's degree holders, followed by Master's degree holders.Professional certificate holders recorded the least percentage (3.8%).

Factors contributing to job satisfaction among staff of public HEIs
The exploratory factor analysis revealed that four latent factors contribute to the job satisfaction of staff of public HEIs in Ghana.These factors were social status (items 1 to 10), recognition (items 11 to 18), remuneration (items 19 to 26) and conducive environment (items 27 to 36) as presented in Table 2.These factors exhibited a relatively strong internal consistency ranging from 0.81 to 0.78.

The job characteristics of the staff of public HEIs
The jobs performed by the staff of public HEIs in Ghana were characterised by five dimensions namely; task variety (items 1 to 10), feedback (items 11 to 16), task significance (items 17 to 21), autonomy (items 22 to 26) and task identity (items 27 to 29) as illustrated in Table 3.Four dimensions exhibited a relatively strong internal consistency while one dimension (i.e.task variety) had a relatively low internal consistency.

The pattern of relationship between job satisfaction and job characteristics factors
Correlation analysis was performed on job satisfaction and job characteristics factors.The intercorrelation matrix shows that that there was a significant positive correlation between job satisfaction and job characteristics (r = 0.632) as presented in Table 4. Generally, there were significant positive relationships among job satisfaction factors and dimensions of job characteristics.
With a cut-off correlation of 0.4, the factors in the job satisfaction set that were correlated with the first canonical variate were all the factors of job satisfaction identified in the study.Also, all the job characteristics factors correlated with the first canonical variate.The first pair of canonical variates indicated that conducive working environment (−0.82), remuneration (−0.73), social status (−0.78) and recognition (−0.81) were associated with jobs designed to include a variety of tasks and skills (−0.78), significance (−0.53), autonomy (−0.67), identity (−0.56) and feedback (−0.91).The second canonical variate in the job satisfaction set was composed of remuneration and the corresponding canonical variate from the job characteristics set composed of negative task significance and negative task identity.Taken as a pair, these variates suggested that remuneration (0.64) was associated with a combination of less task significance (−0.67) and task identity on the job (−0.57).
The third canonical variate in the job satisfaction set composed of a combination of conducive working environment and negative recognition while the job characteristics set was task variety.The pair of variates suggested that task variety (0.56) was related with a combination of conducive           working environment (0.49) and low recognition at the work place (−0.42).The findings implied a possible positive relationship between the set of job satisfaction factors and job characteristics factors; a negative relationship between remuneration and a combination of task significance and task identity; and a combination of conducive working environment and recognition related with task variety.

Discussion
The first finding of the study indicated that the most influential factor that contributes to the job satisfaction of the staff of public HEIs in Ghana is social status followed by recognition, the remuneration received and a conducive working environment.Thus, both motivators (social status and recognition) and hygiene factors (remuneration and conducive working environment) contributed to the job satisfaction of the respondents.This finding is, therefore, congruent with Herzberg's theory, which states that employees need both motivators and hygiene factors to engender job satisfaction.It is also consistent with that of Toker (2011), Schyns et al. (2009), Mosadegh and Yarmohammadian (2006), and Santhapparj and Alam (2005) who found that compensation, salary, fringe benefits, social status, organizational climate, recognition and communication are significant determinants of job satisfaction.
Secondly, the study found out that the jobs undertaken by staff of public HEIs were characterized by first their variety (task/job variety), followed by the feedback received from the job and on the job, the significance of the job; the autonomy given to staff and lastly, the task identity of any particular work executed.This finding affirms Hackman and Oldham's (1976), which has been cited by several researchers on job performance, job analysis and job design.The implication is that a job designed to encompass the five dimensions breeds motivation leading to high motivation and performance on the job; in this context quality graduates with the requisite skills for the job market.
Thirdly, the study revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between job satisfaction and job characteristics indicating that jobs designed well to incorporate the job characteristics dimension tends to engender job satisfaction.For instance, a conducive working environment would most likely lead to constructive feedback on the job and from the job among colleagues and vice versa.As indicated by Hackman and Oldham (1976), a job designed to have the five core job characteristics in nature tends to motivate workers leading to job satisfaction.Research works of Anjum et al. (2014) and Ali et al. (2014) affirm this relationship in their research indicating that task identity is a strong predictor of job satisfaction while job characteristics are influenced by both motivators and hygiene factors.This study's finding of a positive correlation between job satisfaction and job characteristics is congruent with Aloysius (2011) finding of a constructive correlation between job characteristics and job satisfaction among school teachers in the Colombo district.
Fourthly, the study has contributed to literature by suggesting a possible negative relationship between remuneration and a combination of task significance and task identity.This implies that the more a job is highly remunerated, the less job significance and less likely the job would be completed.Every job in HEI is equally important and has a significant impact in the educational value chain.Though, this phenomenon could be possible in the public sector, where whether or not targets are achieved or employees are fully remunerated.For instance, a teacher who does not cover the topics scheduled for the month is paid his/her salary at the end of the month whether he/she completed the topics or not.However, this situation might not be applicable to all public institutions and therefore, the need for further research to validate this finding.

Conclusion and recommendations
This study has provided evidence of the latent factors contributing to job satisfaction and job characteristics among the staff of four public HEIs in Ghana.It also assessed the pattern of relationship between the set of factors.Results from the study indicate that four factors contribute to the job satisfaction of staff whereas their job has five dimensions that characterise it.
Firstly, the factors that influence the job satisfaction among the staff of public HEIs in Ghana were social status, recognition, remuneration and a conducive working environment.Secondly, the five dimensions that characterised the job of staff of public HEIs were the variety of skills and different tasks; the feedback obtained from the work outcome; the relevance of the task performed to the overall vision of the institutions; the freedom in the choice of methods and the periods to act and the visibility of bringing a started job to an end.
Thirdly, there is a strong positive relationship between job satisfaction and job characteristics.The provision of the job characteristics at the workplace leads to high job performance and motivation leading to job satisfaction.Remuneration relates negatively to the relevance of tasks performed at the workplace and its wholeness whereas a conducive working environment relates positively to the different tasks performed in the execution of one's job.These relationships imply that when the job place is cordial and stress-free, employees tend to exhibit all their skills and talents on the job, thereby increasing productivity and job performance.
The recommendations emerging from the findings are: (a) Management, directors, deans, heads of departments and all those in leadership positions should make it clear to their subordinates the importance of various activities that they engage them in and the risk involved if not executed as expected.
(b) Motivation packages in the form of allowances, fringe benefits and bonuses due staff should be readily made available to them to enhance their job satisfaction.
(c) Leadership in the planning of job that requires various skills and activities should provide feedback from employers to employees to enhance productivity.
(d) The leadership including Management, Deans and Directors should make the workplace conducive to enhance productivity and job performance.

Limitations and direction for future studies
The findings of this study should be interpreted with caution by considering the following issues.Firstly, the population in this study encompassed public servants in four selected HEIs in Ghana, thereby limiting the generalizability of the results to a wider staff population of HEIs.It would be interesting to replicate this study involving private and more public HEIs.Further research can also be done other public institutions.Secondly, a qualitative approach could be included to deal with the limitations of the quantitative approach.Thirdly, a longitudinal research design could be applied to conduct a further study to confirm the the relationship between job satisfaction factors and dimensions of job characteristics.Despite these limitations, the study has provided evidence of a possible relationship between job satisfaction factors and job characteristics factors.