The puzzle of measuring job satisfaction among academic staff under remote working arrangements in higher education institutions in Tanzania: A systematic review of limitations and why understanding must come before measurement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51867/AQSSR.3.4.26Keywords:
Academic Staff, Higher Education Institutions, Job Satisfaction, Remote Work, Measurement, Construct Validity, TanzaniaAbstract
Understanding how remote work influences job satisfaction creates a prior measurement problem: researchers cannot measure confidently what they have not first understood clearly. In higher education institutions (HEIs), remote academic work can include online teaching, virtual student supervision, digital academic administration, platform-mediated communication, shifting work-home boundaries, and dependence on digital infrastructure that differs across institutions and locations. If these realities are poorly understood, established instruments may produce precise scores for an incomplete construct, and HEIs may then design flexibility, workload, monitoring, support, or performance practices around evidence that does not fully represent the work. Guided by the Job Characteristics Model (JCM) and Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study systematically reviewed 30 studies published between 2022 and 2025 using structured search, screening, inclusion and exclusion, and thematic synthesis procedures across Google Scholar, Scopus, AJOL, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Emerald Insight, and Taylor & Francis. The review found heavy reliance on self-reported surveys, incomplete adaptation of traditional scales to digitally mediated academic work, weak capture of changing work experiences, and important contextual differences between developed and developing HEIs. The review concludes that understanding must precede measurement: researchers should first identify how remote work changes academic work and job satisfaction, then operationalize those dimensions, validate them in context, and only then use the resulting evidence to guide institutional policy and practice.
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