Institutional support and recognition led to less happier and committed academicians. Previous empirical findings justified that intentions to leave an organization has been due to issues in commitment and job performance. The study observes 130 academicians in five Malaysian public higher learning institutions in a cross-sectional data collection collected through an online survey portal of surveymonkey.com. The results showed impact of academic development and organizational climate induced stronger organizational commitment and consequently reduced turnover intention. On the other hand, academic development and academic tasks and organizational happiness promoted higher organizational commitment and subsequently enhance job performance. Finally, limitations of the study, implication to theory, practice and future studies are suggested.