Abstract

Abstract The search for factors that contribute to working mothers’ job commitment and satisfaction in organizations is an ongoing one in view of the fact that they are crucial to working mothers’ well-being. This study extended the frontiers of this search by investigating the contribution of organizational support and work-family on working mothers’ job commitment and satisfaction in public universities in South-West, Nigeria. The study employed a survey research design of an ex-post-facto type. The target population of the study consisted of all working mothers in the thirteen (13) public universities in South-West, Nigeria from which a sample of 1,456 working mothers that participated in the study were selected through multi-stage stratified random sampling technique. Four validated instruments were used to obtain responses from the participants.  Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics; Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Canonical Analysis while the significance level was fixed at 0.05 level. The results indicated a significant joint contribution of organisational support and workfamily conflict on working mothers’ job commitment and satisfaction (Rc = .383, F = 47.706; p <.05; Rc = .171, F = 21.773; p <.05). It was found that 53.4% of the variance in working mothers’ job commitment and satisfaction was accounted for by organisational support and work-family conflict.  There were significant positive relationships between working mothers’ job commitment and organizational support (r = .110, P < .05); job satisfaction and organizational support (r = .222, P < .05) and significant negative relationships between job satisfaction and work-family conflict (r = -.147, P < .05) and job commitment and work-family conflict (r = -.106, P < .05).  Conclusively, it was asserted that these findings could be due to the nature of women existence and their unique gender roles which leave them no room than to desire for an appreciable level of support from management to reduce work-family conflict before they could be committed and satisfied.  It was recommended that university management should endeavour to provide child care facilities in every unit of the university, implement flexible starting and closing time for nursing mothers  and extension of maternity leave to 16 weeks in order to enhance their commitment and satisfaction.