Demographic Factors Influencing Organizational Commitment free essay sample

Organizational Behavior, BUS 5450 September 16, 2012 Organizational Commitment ii Abstract A great deal of research has gone into determining which types of employees are more committed to their employers. The objective of this paper is to assess the demographic factors that influence organizational commitment and work habits. Specifically, this paper will focus on organizational and occupational commitment within the context of employee education. Based on the literature reviewed, the primary theme of this proposal is that education level and employee training programs are significant indicators of organizational commitment.Second, this review will provide a general overview of previous research methods and data collection within this area of research and conclude with a possible model and method for future research and analysis. Organizational Commitment 1 Demographic Factors Influencing Organizational Commitment A Review of the Literature Organizational commitment is generally defined as the level of commitment an employee has to an organization, as well as how closely the employee identifies with the organizations values and goals. The 2011 study on organizational commitment by Ismail Bakan, Tuba Buyukbese and Bureu Ershan was a quantitative study of the relationship between an employee’s education and their organizational commitment. Using data complied from employee questionnaires; the study was taken from employees in a textile company located in Turkey. The Bakan et al. (2011) study measured variables by utilizing Meyer and Allen’s 1990 three-component model of organizational commitment, which consisted of affective, continuance and normative commitment, measured the study variables. Affective commitment refers to the emotional attachment and willingness of an employee to remain with the company. Continuance commitment is measured in the employees perceived cost as it relates to leaving the organization, and normative commitment is the employees’ perceived obligation to remain with the company. Analysis was conducted using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) method. Organizational Commitment 2 The Bakan et al. (2011) study clearly demonstrated that employees with higher levels of education we more committed to the organization.Moreover, it showed graduating levels of organizational commitment for employees with vocational and university level educations when compared to high school, secondary school and primary school educated respondents. Limiting factors of the study were acknowledged to be gathering data from just one organization. Additionally, respondents that had a high school level education didn’t report higher organizational commitment than respondents with lower education levels. In 2010, researcher Adman Iqbal completed an assessment of demographic factors and organizational commitment within the Pakistani knitwear industry.Mr. Igbal’s study was based on age, level of education and organizational tenure. For contextual purposes, only information specific to level of education will be discussed from this study. Consistent with the Bakan et al. (2011) study, this study utilized a Meyer and Allen’s three-component model of organizational commitment as well as Mowday, Porter, and Steers three characteristics of commitment, which are defined as: †¢ A belief and acceptance of the values and goals of an organization, †¢ a strong willingness to put in effort for the organization, and †¢ The desire to remain with the organizationOrganizational Commitment 3 This study produced limited results in the way of comparing employee education and organizational commitment. The author implies that there is a significant negative relationship between the educational level and the organizational commitment. Specifically, that employees with higher education have career expectations that are not being met with their current employer, or that the employer views the employees level of higher education as unnecessary for their current role within the knitwear industry.The author surmised that his study was taken from a small cross section of the Pakistani workforce and that future research in this area should occur across a broad range of occupational workforces. He went on to acknowledge that the textile industry in Pakistan was significantly influenced by the national and global politics at varying times. Since Pakistan has experienced the demise of two governments since the turn of the new millennium, the author suggests that national instability influences employee commitment, and thus overrides the demographic factors that are used to model the research itself.I found the results of this study to be inconclusive with respect to providing usable data to discern the impact of education on organizational commitment. For example, supervisor level employees had significantly less university education than their managers, yet they were more inclined to speak about Organizational Commitment 4 their employer in a positive manner to those outside of the company. Furthermore, there were only marginal statistical differences between managers, supervisors and workers that thought the company provided them with no gain.A 2005 study completed by Elzbieta Sikorska-Simmons examined predictors of organizational commitment with assisted living staff. Dr. Sikorska-Simmons conducted data from 317 employees at 61 facilities. The purpose of the study was â€Å"to identify a set of variables that predict organizational commitment. † Independent variables included job satisfaction, organizational culture and employee characteristics such as age, gender and education, marital status, religiosity, and organizational tenure.The results of this study concluded that education level was the only key sociodemographic indicator of an employee’s commitment to an organization. Dr. Sikorska-Simmons findings indicated that other sociodemographic characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, religiosity, and organizational tenure played a rather insignificant role in determining organizational commitment. Organizational Commitment 5 What’s most interesting about this study is that education was the third most significant predictor of organizational commitment, which followed job satisfaction (second) and organizational commitment (first).The author surmised that more educated employees were in positions to actively participate in the decision making process. Therefore, their organizational commitment was higher than employees with diminished involvement in decision making processes. The common theme in all of the research literature that has been reviewed and summarized is the method by which the data was collected. All of the aforementioned studies utilized a demographic and organizational commitment questionnaire that reported age, compa ny tenure, education, as well as level of education and position within the organization. In reviewing the research already conducted in this area, I believe that expanding the research factors to include multiple occupational areas and companies will yield a more comprehensive study of organizational commitment. Additionally, I would focus specifically on senior management positions in order to delineate if compensation is directly correlated to organizational commitment. Organizational Commitment 6 A possible method and design for this research would be utilizing both a written questionnaire and phone interview with a cross section of employees.I would anticipate that employee responses to the same questions will be substantially different than those that respond using the written questionnaire. In some instances, I would give the employee the choice of completing the written questionnaire or conducting the phone interview. Additionally, I would limit some respondents to answering the written questionnaire at their place of work or answering the written questionnai re at their home, and then mailing the completed questionnaire to an independent third party address. In all instances, the employee would be made aware that completed questionnaires would be held in strict confidence.