This paper looks at integrating importance into the much researched link of job satisfaction and commitment. The reason behind the proposed integration is the contention that the importance an individual attaches to the different facets of the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) is not equal. The traditional methods used in most job satisfaction and organizational commitment researches do not incorporate this aspect into their measurement. The proposed model borrows the idea from the service quality research and attempts to apply the gap and also the weighted model to compare, using this instrument, if the explanatory power is greater. The implications are that the managers have to look into the needs of the individual employees if they want to keep them satisfied. As for researchers, the proposed measurement is an alternative that can be explored, in their future researches.

The globalization of business activities, explosion of information technology, erosion of corporate hierarchies, and others pose serious challenges to Malaysia's business environment. To sustain its economic growth and competitiveness, the nation's production-based economy will need to shift to a knowledge-based one (Manshor, 2001). In the era of the knowledge-based economy, knowledgeable and highly skilled workers serve to enhance a firm's competitive advantage. In this regard, efforts will have to be made to generate and disseminate knowledge through the country's education and training systems. The institutions of higher learning, particularly public universities, being the forerunners in education and training, have to realign themselves to meet this objective. Over the past few decades, local universities have continued to face the problem of academic staff turnover or "brain drain" (Khoo, 1981). This turnover of academic staff, particularly the creative and productive ones, has not only a detrimental effect on the institution (both in terms of replacement costs and work disruption), but also jeopardizes the nation's aim to achieve its vision of a knowledge-based society. In a recent report, Ibrahim (2004) revealed that between the years of 1998-2000, 70 medical lecturers left Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) to join the private sectors, other institutions and other Government agencies. It was also reported that the number of medical lecturers leaving Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) were 45 each in the last three years.