Do organizational and job-related factors relate to organizational commitment? : a mixed method study of the associations
Year: 2011
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Finnish summary: Ovatko organisaation ja työn piirteet yhteydessä organisaatioon sitoutumiseen?Monimenetelmällinen tutkimus ilmiöiden välisistä yhteyksistäThe purpose of this study was to examine organizational commitment (OC) and organizational and job-related factors as antecedents of it.The study was based on a research project "Organizational Culture and Well-being" (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006) during which various data were collected and utilized in four separate studies as follows: interview data were gathered from a public health care district (HCD) (n = 16) and an ICT company (n = 15) for Study I, cross-sectional data were collected from a cartonboard mill, the ICT company and HCD, (n = 1252) for Studies II-III, and longitudinal data were gathered from the HCD in 2003-2005 (n = 409) for Study IV.The interview-based findings indicated that OC was regarded as an obscure construct, characterized by an employee's responsibility and defined as age-related work involvement.In addition, employees' commitment was perceived to be dependent on structural and cultural factors, a climate of uncertainty and obscurity, humanistic HR practices and non-organizational factors.The main cross-sectional results revealed, firstly, that employees who perceived organizational culture as highly rule-oriented were less affectively and normatively committed than those who assessed the culture as human-oriented or referred to task-oriented leadership culture.Secondly, the older employees in the HCD experienced stronger affective and normative commitment than their younger colleagues in the condition of higher work-to-family conflict.Thirdly, in a situation where job insecurity was high, the younger employees in the HCD proved to be more protected than the older ones form the negative effect of job insecurity on affective and normative commitment, whereas in the mill normative commitment decreased more among the younger than older employees when job insecurity was perceived as high.The longitudinal findings showed that OC functioned as a stronger precursor of work characteristics than vice versa.Thus, the more affectively and normatively committed the employees were in 2003, the less job insecurity and work-to-family conflict they experienced, the better job control they reported, and the more humanistic they regarded the organizational culture in 2005.In addition, employees, who assessed their organizational culture as humanistic in 2003, expressed higher affective and normative commitment in 2005.In sum, organizations should foster employees' OC by, for instance, emphasizing a humanistic organizational culture.In the future, greater attention should be paid to possible age-related differences in defining of OC and its antecedents.
Author: Mervi Ruokolainen
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1935309306