Marben Manzano | Michelle Acuavera
Discipline: Human Resources Management
Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment among Municipal Employees in the Philippines: Insights for Resilient Local Government Units (LGUs) In the rapidly evolving context of local governance in the Philippines, where municipal employees stand as pillars of public service, comprehending how job satisfaction correlates with organizational commitment is vital for nurturing resilient and effective Local Government Units (LGUs). While each of the factors mentioned above has been extensively studied, there remains a large gap in our understanding of how they are constructed and interact with each other within LGUs, especially at the municipal level, such as Sta. Cruz, Zambales — where public accountability heightens the call for engaged, contented teams to work toward sustainable community evolution. The focus of this study is to explore the connection between job satisfaction and organizational commitment among municipal employees at the Local Government Unit (LGU) Sta. Cruz, Zambales. Using a descriptive correlational research design, it used a quantitative survey questionnaire as the main instrument, which was administered through a total population sampling of 190 regular permanent employees to attain comprehensive and representative insights. According to the study, the average LGU-Sta. Average Cruz employees are female, 38 years old, married, college graduates, and 28-year organization veterans. The physical work environment, compensation and benefits, training and development, leadership style, as well as rewards and recognition got the highest rating of very satisfied in LGU – Sta Cruz based on the respondents' answers. Their AKI is also strong with respect to their affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization. The other fillers/variables with significant difference depend on their groups and are physical work environment, compensation and benefits, training and development and rewards and recognition, as well as affective commitment to the organization (affective commitment) in accordance with gender as well civil service. Further, the results indicate a significant difference in rewards and recognition and normative commitment based on gender; continuance commitment based on age; and compensation andbenefits when grouped according to years in service. There exists an extremely significant relationship between the perception of LGU – Sta Cruz employees with regard to their job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The recommendations provided maintain or even enhance the high employee job satisfaction in LGU-Sta. Cruz: execution of a.) team-based seminars promoting candid discussions about creative problem solving, b. Specific retention underscoring the concrete financial and career losses of leaving the company; c.) targeted praise emphasizing loyalty as integral to mission success, dovetailing with employees’ moral obligation and belonging. Finally, LGU - Sta. Age-optimized development programs, to remedy the generation gap by increasing engagement across demographics.