The study examined how lecturer competence and campus organizational culture influence organizational commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), two factors strongly associated with higher education performance. The findings are significant for Indonesia’s private higher education sector, where many universities continue to struggle with low research productivity and uneven implementation of the “tri dharma” mandate of teaching, research, and community service.
Researchers found that institutional culture had the strongest influence across nearly all measured variables, including lecturer loyalty, collaborative behavior, and overall performance outcomes.
Research Productivity Remains the Weakest Area
The study was conducted across 13 accredited private universities in Serang City and Serang Regency, Banten Province. Researchers surveyed 319 permanent lecturers selected from a population of 1,569 academic staff members.
Participating institutions included Universitas Primagraha, Universitas Serang Raya, Universitas Muhammadiyah Banten, Universitas Bina Bangsa, and several health and business colleges.
One of the clearest findings was the continuing weakness in lecturer research output. Published research activities received the lowest average score among all lecturer performance indicators, at only 2.42 on a five-point scale.
Teaching performance, by contrast, scored between 3.10 and 3.14, indicating moderate effectiveness.
The data suggest that many lecturers remain heavily focused on classroom teaching while struggling to maintain strong research publication and community service activities.
Professional competence among lecturers also scored relatively low, with an average score of 2.24. Innovation within organizational culture was similarly weak, receiving a score of 2.60.
According to the researchers, these numbers indicate that many private universities still lack a research-oriented institutional environment capable of supporting long-term academic productivity.
Campus Culture Shapes Lecturer Loyalty and Behavior
The research found that organizational culture contributed 41.31 percent to organizational commitment, significantly higher than the 31.65 percent contribution from lecturer competence.
This means institutional values, leadership patterns, collaborative norms, and workplace atmosphere have a stronger influence on lecturer loyalty than technical skills alone.
Organizational culture also contributed 40.98 percent to Organizational Citizenship Behavior, compared with 29.02 percent from competence.
OCB refers to voluntary actions that go beyond formal job responsibilities, including helping colleagues, supporting institutional initiatives, mentoring students outside official schedules, and participating in campus improvement programs.
Researchers found that supportive institutional cultures encourage lecturers to contribute more actively to their universities.
“Organizational culture emerged as the dominant predictor across all structural pathways,” the authors wrote in the study published by the International Journal of Sustainability in Research.
The study also showed that organizational commitment and OCB jointly explained 80.91 percent of lecturer performance variation, indicating that workplace psychology and institutional culture strongly shape academic outcomes.
Commitment Has the Strongest Direct Impact on Performance
Among all variables studied, organizational commitment had the largest overall effect on lecturer performance, contributing 47.89 percent.
OCB contributed an additional 33.02 percent.
The findings suggest that lecturers who feel emotionally connected to their institutions are more likely to invest effort in teaching preparation, academic research, and community engagement.
Lecturers with strong organizational commitment also tend to demonstrate more collaborative and proactive behavior.
The researchers noted that positive institutional culture creates conditions where lecturers feel recognized, valued, and supported. In turn, this environment encourages stronger participation in university activities beyond formal teaching obligations.
The study connects these findings to broader organizational behavior theories developed by scholars such as Edgar Schein and John Meyer, whose frameworks emphasize the importance of shared values and psychological attachment in workplace performance.
Indonesian Private Universities Face Structural Challenges
Although lecturer commitment and collaborative behavior were relatively strong predictors of performance, researchers emphasized that institutional barriers still limit academic productivity.
Heavy teaching workloads, limited research funding, weak publication infrastructure, and bureaucratic obstacles continue to hinder lecturer research performance in many private universities.
The study found that innovation-oriented culture remains underdeveloped, particularly in areas supporting scientific publication and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Researchers argued that competence development programs alone are insufficient without simultaneous cultural reform.
The authors recommended that universities strengthen research incentives, simplify administrative procedures, improve institutional support systems, and develop participatory leadership models.
They also encouraged universities to establish recognition programs for research achievements and community service projects.
“Competence development should be systematically integrated with cultural reinforcement,” the researchers stated.
Survey Conducted Across 13 Universities in Banten
The research used a cross-sectional survey conducted between January and March 2025. Data were collected using structured questionnaires based on a five-point Likert scale.
Researchers analyzed relationships among lecturer competence, organizational culture, organizational commitment, OCB, and lecturer performance using path analysis.
The study focused on permanent lecturers from private universities holding at least “Good” institutional accreditation status from Indonesia’s National Accreditation Board for Higher Education.
The integrated research model was designed to measure both direct and indirect relationships between institutional culture and academic performance outcomes.
Why the Findings Matter
The findings arrive at a time when Indonesia continues to push for improvements in higher education quality and international research competitiveness.
Private universities play a major role in Indonesia’s education system, but many institutions still struggle to meet national performance indicators in research publication and community engagement.
The study suggests that improving lecturer competence alone may not solve the problem unless universities also transform institutional culture.
For policymakers, the research highlights the importance of organizational reform alongside human resource development.
For university leaders, the findings provide evidence that supportive and innovation-oriented campus environments can significantly improve lecturer productivity and institutional performance.
Author Profiles
Achmad Rozi is a researcher in higher education management and organizational behavior affiliated with Universitas Pasundan and Universitas Primagraha.
Iman Sudirman specializes in organizational management, leadership, and institutional development.
Horas Djulius focuses on organizational performance, higher education governance, and human resource development.
Source
Article title: “The Influence Of Competence And Organizational Culture On Organizational Commitment And Organizational Citizenship Behavior And Their Implications On Lecturer Performance”
Journal: International Journal of Sustainability in Research (IJSR), Vol. 4 No. 3 Tahun 2026
0 Komentar