Author(s): Nteboheng Mefi Patricia and Samson Nambei Asoba
In South Africa, stagnant economic growth and high unemployment rates have called for solutions from all key national institutions, including institutions of higher learning, to provide solutions. This call must be considered within the transformation discourse that arose in South Africa after the fall of the apartheid regime in 1994 and the need to equalize educational opportunities, reduce poverty and improve lives through education. All this underscores the need for a vibrant motivated, satisfied and dedicated workforce. To explain and understand the phenomena of job-satisfaction several theories have been suggested by Maslow, Vroom, Adams, McGregor, Herzberg, Alderfer’s and other authors, however theories on employee job satisfaction varies with time and place, the old theory needs to be either modified, or replaced with a new model. The study attempt to synthesize the theories of job satisfaction in the Higher Education Institution in Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. The study adopted a desktop that was designed primarily as a descriptive study to source literatures on motivation, job satisfaction, and theories. Theories are neither right nor wrong rather it depends on the context where it is applied. Theories need to be restructured according to the new areas of research in human psychology. The evidence established from this study suggest theories of job satisfaction have to be tested against these emerging factors of positive psychology and their impact on human behaviour at individual, group and organizational levels in other Higher Education institutions in South Africa.