Determinants of Organizational Commitment: an investigation of the Higher Secondary School Teachers in Pakistan
Posted by admin in Middle School Article, tags: Economic Survey, Empty Jug, Intermediate Level, Organizational Psychology, Other Developed Countries1. Introduction
The concept of Organizational Commitment (OC) has gained considerable attention in organizational psychology in past 20 (to 30) years (Gautam et al., 2001). This research study looks at the bases of Organizational Commitment and tries to find out the impact of Compensation, Supervisor Support, and Training & Development on Organizational Commitment in a Pakistani Setting.
Over the years we have seen, a solid boost in the research of Organizational Commitment as a workplace construct. There have been a lot of studies in the West, other developed countries and also in a few developing countries, but very little research has been done in the East, especially Muslim countries, and Pakistan is no exception. Thus this study tries to be a grain in the almost empty jug of research, in the hope that some day it will be filled up.
Pakistan has previously neglected investment in human capital and thus fosters a persistently high population, deceleration of growth and overruling poverty (Pakistan Economic Survey, 2005-06). Because of this, the standard of education has remained poor, and the level of Organizational Commitment in teachers is very low. Continuous empirical research has shown that low Organizational Commitment results in unfavorable outcomes such as, low performance and low productivity, while high Organizational Commitment is believed to be related with favorable outcomes such as improved performance, reduced absenteeism, and decreased turnover (Angle & Perry, 1981; Balfour & Wechsler, 1996; Benson, 2006; Gautam et al. 2001; Karatepe & Kilic, 2007; Loke, 2001). We have chosen Higher Secondary School (Intermediate level) teachers as our sample to investigate the determinants of OC in teachers in Pakistan.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Organizational Commitment
Commitment to work has been at the heart of the studies and has long been a matter of great curiosity to organizational researchers as evidenced by the proliferation of concepts (Job Involvement etc.) designed to operationalize the construct (e.g. Gautam et al., 2001, 2004; Mayer & Schoorman, 1998; Morrow, 1983; Swailes, 2002). Among the five forms of work Commitment as identified by Morrow (1983), (i.e. Commitment focused on Value, Commitment focused on Career, Commitment focused on Job, Commitment focused on Organization, and Commitment focused on Union) Organizational Commitment is most useful for the Organizations. The concept of OC is considered as useful because it helps in predicting employees’ behavior and in drawing up a blueprint of an organization (e.g. Toa et al., 1998). Knudsen et al., (2003) noted that the importance of Organizational Commitment has resulted in a large research literature that has attempted to identify various sources of Commitment.
Commitment within an organization is a complex issue which is demonstrated by the plethora of definitions that have been used throughout the literature for many years (Culverson, 2002). Morrow (1983) observed that the review of Work Commitment concept used in organizational research indicates that many researchers have elected to formulate their definition and measure of Work Commitment rather than rely on an existing approach to Commitment. Meyer et al., (1990) argue that several distinct views of Commitment have evolved and become well established over the years, making it unlikely any one approach will dominate and be unanimously accepted as the correct definition of Commitment. Thus, there is a lack of universally accepted definition for Organizational Commitment. Unfortunately, the growth in Commitment related concepts has not been accompanied by a careful segmentation of Commitment’s theoretical domain in terms of intended meaning of each concept or the concepts’ relationship among each other. The result has been the formation of over 25 Commitment related concepts and measures (Morrow, 1983). More recent work has refined the Organizational Commitment construct, recognizing that a multidimensional approach to its study is more fruitful (Mayer & Schoorman, 1998).
Organizational Commitment, according to Eisenberg, et al., (1983), has been defined in a variety of ways. Most theorists, however, include one or more of the following three attitudinal elements as an integral part of their definition: (1) a strong belief in and acceptance of the organizations goals and values; (2) a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization, and (3) a strong desire to maintain membership in the organization. Gautam et al., (2005) suggested that each of the components of Organizational Commitment ties the employee to their organization but the nature of the ‘psychological-bonding’ is different. Affective Commitment (AC) ties people through their emotional attachment, involvement, and identification with the organization. Continuance Commitment (CC) depends on employees’ awareness of the costs of leaving the organization. Normative Commitment (NC) rests on employees’ obligatory feelings towards coworkers or management. Culverson, (2002) noted that the cumulative strength of an individual’s connectedness to an organization has been termed Commitment, a construct that parallels member attraction at the group level of analysis. Swailes, (2002) suggests Commitment has been viewed as having an affective, normative, continuous or behavioral basis stemming from attitudinal, obligatory, socioeconomic and behavioral ties respectively. An individual’s Commitment can migrate between these basis over time in response to events at work and non work events. ”. Meyer et al., (1990) put it this way “employees with strong Affective Commitment remain with the organization because they want to, whereas those with strong Continuance Commitment remain because they need to.
Morrow, (1983) is of the belief that individuals who regard their jobs as central aspect of life would be unlikely to devalue the importance of their careers. Work Commitment notions therefore appear to embody both unique and redundant components. In order to articulate these differences, similar forms of Work Commitment have been grouped according to their major focus (i.e., personal values, career, job, organization, and union).
In a widely accepted paradigm in organization theory, organizations and their members are seen in an exchange relationship. Each party makes certain demands on the other while providing something in return (Angel & Perry, 1981). Meyer et al., (2004) believed that Commitment to an organization (as it is typically conceptualized) binds an individual to stay and to comply with minimum requirements for employment. Although not required by the terms of the Commitment, speaking positively about the organization to outsiders or helping to socialize newcomers would also be of benefit to the organization. Depending on the nature and strength of their Commitment, employees can freely choose whether to expand its implications to include these or other beneficial behaviors. The likelihood of their making such choices should increase with the strength of their Affective Commitment and, to a lesser extent, their Normative Commitment. The tendency for employees to voluntarily expand the implications of their Commitment should be unrelated, or even negatively related, to the strength of their Continuance Commitment.
2.2 Compensation
In Organizational literature Compensation is often referred to interchangeably by the word Pay. Pay is defined as the money and its equivalents which organizations give to employees for service (Iverson & Deery, 1997). From Dockël, (2003) Compensation is any thing given to the employees, which is of value to the employees, in exchange of the effort the employees exert for the betterment of the organization. Compensation includes Financial Rewards and Benefit Packages. Financial Rewards are extrinsic monetary rewards that organizations pay to their staff for services delivered by them. These Financial Rewards include: Base Salary, Cash Recognition, Incentives, Flexible Pay, Stock Options/Initial Price Offerings (IPOs) and Hot Skills Premiums. Benefit Packages are the indirect Financial Rewards employees receive for their labor. They consist of Time-off, Perquisites, Benefit Processes and Benefit Levels. According to Balfour & Wechsler (1996), Pay is an important determinant of exchange-based Commitment because it defines, in monetary terms, the implicit contract that the employee will make efforts on behalf of the organization in return for fair and equitable compensation. When individuals are satisfied about Pay, they are more likely to regard the organization as having met the terms of the contract and their feelings of attachment to the organization may be increased. Conversely, when they are dissatisfied, they may regard the contract as having been violated and their feelings of attachment may be lessened. Organizational Commitment is usually conceived as distinct from attachment based on satisfaction from instrumental rewards. This accounts for the emphasis in the indicators of Commitment of notions such as “being proud” of the organization or “sharing the same values”. However such distinctions may be less clear-cut in practice than in principle. People may be influenced in their perception of the general qualities of the organization by the rewards they personally obtain from it. In particular the relative Pay they receive may lead to a more general image of the organization as a good or bad employer (Gallie et al., 2001).
Gautam et al. (2001) found that Pay was negatively related with Affective Commitment and Normative Commitment while it was found to have an insignificant positive relationship with Continuous Commitment. Balfour & Wechsler (1996) in their study found Pay Satisfaction to be positively related with Exchange Commitment. Mayer & Schoorman (1998) found that Retirement Benefits were positively related with Value Commitment and strongly related with Continuous Commitment. Another study by Coberly (2004) found that Rewards were a significant predictor of Satisfaction, which in turn was a significant predictor of Commitment. However, Intrinsic Rewards had both a direct and indirect effect on Commitment. According to the results of the study conducted by Dockël (2003), Compensation has a strong and significant relation to Organizational Commitment. Ahuja et al., (2007), also found that Fairness of Rewards was significantly related to Organizational Commitment. The findings of a research study by Iverson & Deery’s (1997) also comply with this; they found a positive but low correlation between Pay and Organizational Commitment. In their in depth study, analyzing the impact of Satisfaction with HR Practices on OC, Kinnie et al., (2005) found that ‘Rewards and Recognition’ was among the variables which were associated with Organizational Commitment. Another study by Khatri & Fern, (2001) found Organizational Commitment to have a strong positive relationship with Pay Satisfaction.
Above literature establishes that Organizational Commitment is affected by Compensation. Hence the current study will try to find out relationship between Compensation and Organizational Commitment in Pakistan.
H1: Organizational Commitment is positively related with Compensation
H0: Organizational Commitment is not positively related with Compensation
2.3 Training & Development
Training basically is the process that enhances an individual’s knowledge, skills and/or attitude in order to make him/are able to effectively perform his/her current responsibilities, while development is the same process with the future in mind. According to Iverson & Deery (1997) Career Development is the degree of opportunity to develop skills and knowledge. Mondy & Noe (2005) define development as learning that goes beyond today’s job and has a more long-term focus, while training is the set of activities designed to provide learners with the knowledge and skill needed for their present job.
Despite advances in technology and major shifts in the economy in the last century, people remain an organization’s most valuable resource. They predicted that in near future job market would become an employees’ market (VersantWorks, n.d). Rowold (2007) observed that in an increasingly changing world, organizations rely on training to update employees’ knowledge, skills, and abilities. Training & Development is the heart of a continuous effort designed to improve employee competency and organizational performance (Mondy & Noe, 2005). And according to Al-Emadi & Marquardt (2007) organizations should identify and satisfy the different training needs of its workforce. Strategies should be developed to ensure that all employees continuously learn and grow throughout their careers. However, the affect of Training on Commitment has received less attention than it deserves. There has only been some studies conducted that provide some evidence to suggest that organizations can influence employees’ Commitment through their training practices (Ahmad & Bakar, 2003).
Al-Emadi & Marquardt, (2007) noticed that emphasizing and implementing powerful Training and Development programs are becoming more critical in order to accomplish organizational objectives. However, there is a paucity of evidence that training has any influence at all on attitudes and behavior on the job. To date, most training and organizational development programs are proclaimed excellent without careful scientific evaluation (Ivancevich & McMahon, 1976).
Training employees can result in numerous positive outcomes for the organizations for example, Job Performance, Increased worker productivity, Carry-Over Job Satisfaction, and Perceived Job Security (e.g. Bartel, 1995; Ivancevich & McMahon, 1976). Furthermore Benson, (2006), states that employees who participate in On-the-Job Training (OJT) and gain specific skills are more committed and less likely to intend to leave the firm. Employees who reflect positively on training benefits and expect benefits from their participation in training are likely to be more committed to the organization (Al-Emadi & Marquardt, 2007). According to the study conducted by Iverson and Deery (1997), Organizational Commitment is increased when employees have an opportunity to develop skills and knowledge. In this research Career Development had a strong indirect relationship (via Job Satisfaction) with Organizational Commitment.
Participation in training activities helps employees network, improve their Job Performance and make progress towards their Personal Development (i.e. personal benefits of training) and it leads to identifying career objectives, reaching career objectives and creating opportunity to pursue new career paths (i.e. career benefits of training) (Al-Emadi & Marquardt, 2007). Rowold (2007) found that if Training met the employees’ expectations, was seen as useful by the employees, than it will have a strong relationship with Commitment. Ahmad & Bakar, (2003) found in their research that the Availability of Training, Support for Training… Training Environment (and) Perceived Benefits of Training were all significantly correlated with Affective Commitment, Normative Commitment and overall Organizational Commitment. The Training Environment and Perceived Benefits were also significantly related with Continuance Commitment. However, the Availability of Training and Support for Training were not significantly correlated with Continuance Commitment. The results of the hypotheses testing of the study conducted by Al-Emadi & Marquardt (2007) demonstrated that a comfortable and pleasant work environment represented by personal benefits and career benefits of Employee Training, influence the development of employees’ Attachment (i.e. Affective, Continuance or Normative) to the organization. (Dockël, 2003) found a weak to moderate relation between Organization Commitment and Training & Development.
As can be clearly seen, the research findings regarding the relationship of Training & Development is, rather mixed. Thus this study looks at the relationship between Training & Development and Organizational Commitment and tries to work towards a clearer picture.
H2: Organizational Commitment is positively related with Training & Development
H0: Organizational Commitment is not positively related with Training & Development
2.4 Supervisor Support
Supervisory Support is defined as the degree of consideration expressed by immediate supervisor for subordinates (Iverson & Deery, 2005).
The concept of Leadership has attracted an extensive body of literature, ranging from fiction and biographies to how-to manuals and scientific investigation (Truckenbrodt, 2000). Studies have been carried out to determine how Leadership Behaviors can be used to influence employees for better organizational outcome (Loke, 2001). Balfour & Wechsler (1996) saw the role of Supervision in creating a supportive and productive social environment as a vital determinant of both Commitment and its direct outcomes. When employees believe that supervisors care about their well-being and trust them to do their work well, they will be more likely to desire to remain with the organization and to make extra efforts on behalf of the organization.
Supervisor Support provides individuals with the chance to make a difference on the job, try out new skills, exercise discretion and receive feedback on their performance (Dockël, 2003). An employee’s Satisfaction with his or her Supervisor can be an important factor associated with that person’s Commitment to the organization (Jernigan & Beggs, 2005). For most employees, the supervisor represents and symbolizes the organization. For them, part of the exchange relationship is based on the expectation that the job will provide more than monetary rewards. Supervision that provides adequate support and work facilitation should strengthen exchange Commitment by honoring the tacit understanding that time and effort contributed to the work of the organization is appreciated (Balfour & Wechsler, 1996). It is essential, therefore, that supervisors understand the significance of building a positive relationship with their respective subordinates. The supervisor should clearly state the goals, mission, and vision of the organization and, most important, the role each of the subordinates contributes to the business operations. An organizational culture that provides such awareness instills a sense of belonging and a positive feeling of identification with the organization, thus enhancing the subordinate’s Commitment to the organization (Truckenbrodt, 2000). Thomas et al., (2005) put forward that as agents of the organization, supervisors are entrusted to do all they can to ensure that the psychological climate in the workgroup remains healthy. So, one responsibility that a supervisor has, as an agent of the organization, is to ensure that employees are committed to the organization.
Cohen (1992) found a positive correlation between Leadership Consideration and Organizational Commitment. According to Dockël, (2003) the relation between Supervisor Support and affective Commitment is strongly significant. Another study found that Supervisory Behavior had a significant positive relation with Attachment another component of Organizational Commitment (Tao et al. 1998). They argued that Supervisory Behavior was a significant predictor of Attachment. It was based on personal relationships; perhaps personal relationships in the workplace establish the basis of employee’s affect toward their companies. Gautam et al. (2001) found that Leadership Support was negatively related with Affective Commitment while it was found to have an insignificant positive relationship with Continuous Commitment, but the study found a significant positive relationship between Leadership Support and Normative Commitment.
In a detailed study of impact of impact of Supervisor Support on Organizational Commitment, Soulen (2003) found that Perceived Supervisor Support correlates positively with Affective Commitment. Balfour & Wechsler (1996) found that Supervisory Quality was positively associated with Identification Commitment, and with Exchange Commitment. In his study of Organizational Commitment and Employees’ Perception of Supervisors’ relations-oriented or task-oriented Leadership Behaviors, Brown (2003), found that Relations-oriented Leadership Behaviors explained more of the variance in Affective Commitment than the variance in Normative Commitment. The variance that Task-oriented Leadership Behaviors explained in the two types of Organizational Commitment was…weaker. Iverson & Deery, (1997) found a moderate positive relationship between Supervisor Support and Organizational Commitment.
In light of the aforementioned findings we conclude that a relationship between Supervisor Support and Organizational Commitment exists. Hence the study tries to find the relationship between OC and Supervisor Support.
H3: Organizational Commitment is positively related with Supervisor Support
H0: Organizational Commitment is not positively related with Supervisor Support
3. Theoretical Framework
Based on the above literature review a theoretical framework (shown in exhibit 1) was developed to provide a ground for the research. The focus of the theoretical framework is to comprehend the relationship between Organizational Commitment and its determinants i.e. Compensation, T&D, Supervisor Support, in Pakistani Environment. The variables selected for inclusion in the research were considered important after reviewing earlier literature on Organizational Commitment.
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4. Research Methods
4.1 Sample
A total of 130 questionnaires were distributed in public sector college teachers, in colleges of Islamabad/Rawaplindi and cities near and around Islamabad/Rawaplindi including Texila, Wah, Abottabad, Murree, and Kamra. Out of 130 questionnaires 109 questionnaires were returned, hence response rate is 83.84%. Out of these 109 returned questionnaires 95 were considered to be usable, some returned questionnaires were filled incorrectly or had too many neutral or unanswered questions.
4.2 Procedure
As mentioned above a survey methodology was used in this empirical research. The data collected through the survey was then analyzed to testify or nullify the hypothesis of the study.
The respondents were requested to fill up a questionnaire that asked questions about work life of the teachers, and their Organizational Commitment. College principals and vice principals were requested to help in data collection and to ensure that proper answers were given to the questionnaires and also to clarify any concerns or problems faced by the teachers in understanding the questionnaire. Almost all the responsible people were helpful in this regard. The confidentiality of the data was also assured to all respondents.
4.3 Questionnaire
The concept of Commitment has had a lot of unclearness, and there exists a disagreement about the reasons of Commitment, what Commitment actually is, and how to measure it. The following citation from Swailes (2002) suggests the reason for unclearness, and confusion:
“At least two reasons why Commitment has resisted attempts to produce a clearer understanding of its nomological network can be offered. First, Commitment may be more than a set of uni-dimensional constructs, and it may be more fruitful to think of Commitment as constituting a series of dimensions that embody the reasons for Commitment, the foci to which Commitment is directed and a description of what Commitment actually is. Given that this would necessarily involve several dimensions, the measurement of Commitment and in particular the categorization of individual’s profile of Commitment would become highly complex. The second reason is that, even if Commitment has a simple structure, then it is suggested here that it has been misconceived by researchers who became preoccupied with its causes and its outcomes, and who have neglected the basic question,’ what is Commitment?’ Although Commitment has many definitions, it is arguable that there has been some slippage between its definitions and the way it is operationalized.”
Swailes (2002) identified the three major tools that are used for measuring Organizational Commitment namely, ACS by Allen & Meyer, the OCQ by Mowday et al. and BOCS by Cook and Wall. However, Swailes (2002) recommends OCQ over the other two tools based on the following argument:
“OCQ is qualitatively different from the Effective, Normative and Continuous scales through its use of three sub-scales to measure Identification, Effort and desire to stay, the items measuring identification are comparable to those in ACS, but OCQ differs through its embodiment of favorable attitudes towards both a desire to stay and job-related effort, which reflects features that might associate with commitment, or at least have associated with commitment in the early 1970s. Thus, OCQ can be recommended for portraying a more rounded picture of ‘what is commitment’ than the ACS that followed it…I believe that by combining identification with some of the behavioral intensions that can result from identification, the full OCQ is a better representation of commitment…The BOCS is comparable to the OCQ in having three sub-scales assessing identification, willingness to give effort (involvement) and with the exception of one OCQ item, all the items contained in popular scales measure beliefs and or attitudes.”
Thus in this research OCQ was used as the scale to measure Organizational Commitment The OCQ is designed to measure three aspects of commitment: intention (a definite desire to maintain organizational membership), motivation (a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization), and values (a strong belief in and acceptance of the organization’s goals and values). We have deliberately not distinguished between the forms of commitment in this research. As Swailes, (2002) explains, few researchers intentionally don’t discriminate between the forms of commitment in their research…He further suggests, the investigators have written too much upon the forms of commitment that link employees to the organization in contrast to what that linkage leads to or achieves.
The questionnaire used in this research was adopted from Dockël (2003), who used the same questionnaire to complete to complete his Doctoral thesis. However, as this research focused on only three determinants so only three independent variables scales were used in the questionnaire, also the demographic data was change according to the Pakistani setting. The Cronbach Alpha Coefficient for the questionnaire was found to be 0.690. Thus the questionnaire used is reliable. Detailed information about the questionnaire can be found the in the thesis by Dockël (2003).
5. Findings
5.1 Sample Characteristics
Male respondents, in this survey, were more than female respondents (56.8% and 43.2% respectively). However, this still contradicts with normal male- female ratio in Pakistan. Normally, in other sectors the male-female gap is more than what we have found. The gender gap is so immense in Pakistan, let alone other sectors, the ratio of women sitting in Parliament is only 33%. However, in Pakistan, Medical field and Teaching are considered honorable and relevant professions for women. Thus the number of women in teaching sector is satisfactory as compared to other sectors. This fact is clearly visible in our data.
78.9% of the respondents were teachers only, while 21.1% also participated in management of the institutes. The data showed that the majority of respondents were blow 40 years of age (72%). However the age of the respondents ranged from 22 to 68. More than half of the respondents told that they had a Masters degree with 18 years of education, while 83% percent reported that they had earned a Bachelors Degree (16 years of education). This is also not common in Pakistan, but as we focused on teachers thus the sample was more literate than employees of other sectors in Pakistan. Over 67% of the teachers had tenure of less than 10 years. 30.5% of the respondents were single, while 66.3% reported that they were married. Table 1, shows the sample demographics, in detail.
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5.2 Correlational Analysis
In order to acquire a feel for the data and to find out the inter-correlation between the variables a Correlational Analysis was done, using SPSS 12.0 for Windows. The Correlational Analysis showed that all the independent variables have significant impact on Organizational Commitment. Also, as no correlation has exceeded 0.611, hence all the variables used were distinct and different concepts and there is no doubt on the validity of the measures.
The Correlational Analysis shows (See Table 2) that Organizational Commitment was strongly related with Compensation (r = 0.611, p = 0.01). This finding replicates earlier researches. For instance, Mayer & Schoorman (1998) found that Retirement Benefits were positively related with Value Commitment (r = 0.14, p = 0.05) and strongly related with Continuous Commitment (r = 0.49, p = 0.01). According to the results of the research by Dockël (2003), Compensation has a strong, significant relation to Organizational Commitment as a whole (r = 0.377, p = 0.01), Affective Commitment (r = 0.401, p = 0.01) and Normative Commitment(r = 0.364, p = 0.01). Ahuja et al., (2007), found that Fairness of Rewards had a significant positive relationship with Organizational Commitment (r = 0.60, p = 0.01). Also, Balfour & Wechsler (1996) in their study found Pay Satisfaction to have a significant positive relationship with Identification Commitment (r = 0.31, p = 0.05), Exchange Commitment (r = 0.42, p = 0.05), and Affective Commitment (r = 0.33, p = 0.05).
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The Correlation between Training & Development, as shown in Table 2, was found to be 0.386 (significant at the 0.01 level). This was the weakest of all the relations, however, still highly significant. This finding also replicates earlier findings by many researchers. Dockël (2003), found a highly significant relationship between Training & Development and Organizational Commitment (r = 0.370, p = 0.01). In 2003, Ahmad & Bakar studied the relation between Organizational Commitment and Training in great detail. In this research they found that Availability of Training had a strong impact on Organizational Commitment (r = 0.252, p = 0.01), Support for Training was found to be highly positively correlated with OC (r = 0.66, p = 0.01), Training Environment was also found to have a significant relationship with Organizational Commitment (r = 0.517, p = 0.01), while Benefits of Training was also a strong predictor of Organizational Commitment (r = 0.441, p = 0.01). Iverson & Deery, (1997) found that Career Development had a strong positive but indirect (via Job Satisfaction) relationship with Organizational Commitment (r = 0.33, p = 0.01).
The final relation studied in this research was between OC and Supervisor Support, which also was found to be highly significant (r = 0.43, p = 0.01). This finding is also consistent with earlier researches. Gautam et al. (2001) found that Leadership Support had a strong positive relationships with Affective Commitment (r = .26, p = 0.01), Continuous Commitment (p = 0.23, p = 0.01), and Normative Commitment (r = 0.28, p = 0.01). Balfour & Wechsler (1996) found that Supervisory Quality was strongly positively associated with Identification Commitment (r = 0.41, p = 0.05), with Exchange Commitment (0.53, p<0.05), and with Affective Commitment (r = 0.55, p = 0.05). In a detailed study on impact of Supervisor Support on organizational commitment, Soulen (2003) found that Perceived Supervisor Support correlates positively with Affective Commitment (r = 0.42, p > 0.01).
5.3 Regression Analysis
To test the hypothesis proposed in the study, multiple step regression analysis was done, using SPSS 12.0 for Windows. The results of the Regression Analysis are shown in the table 3.
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It can be seen in Model Summary table, that the variables that entered into the regression model had a combined correlation of R = 0.690 with the dependent variable Organizational Commitment. The value of R Square, 0.485, shows that the variables explained 48.5% of the variance in Organizational Commitment. The ANOVA table above shows, the F value of 28.560 was significant at 0.0001 level. Thus, all of hypothesises proposed in the article were substantiated. It can also be seen in Standardized Coefficients column that Compensation had the highest number in the Beta as 0.427, significant at 0.0001 level, explaining the most of variance in OC. However, Supervisor Support was also significant at 0.01 level and had Beta value of 0.265, which makes it the second most important determinant of Organizational Commitment.
6. Discussion & Implications
6.1 Discussion
Of the three hypothesis tested in this research, all were found to be true. Results show that Compensation had the strongest relationship with Organizational Commitment, while the other two variables were also strong predictors of OC. Thus if Organizational Commitment is to be increased Compensation, T&D, and Supervisor Support are to be increased. The descriptive analysis of the data shows that the scores of all the variables in the research were low.
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The maximum mean of Organizational Commitment was 3.89, the mean was found to be 3.1 with a standard deviation of .48. This shows that the majority of the respondents were not committed to the organizations, and average employees were neither committed to the institutes nor dis-committed to the institute. This reason of this can be seen in the low scores of other variables which were found to be explaining significant variance in Organizational Commitment in this study. Also note that means of both Compensation and Training & Development were below 3.0 showing the low level of Pay Satisfaction, and the Training & Development provided by the institutes to the teachers. However, Compensation was found to be more influential than T&D, in explaining the variance in OC. The reason underling this may be the fact that employees in Pakistan do not normally expect the organizations to provide Training & Development opportunities. Thus T&D was the least influential of the three independent variables. Supervisor Support, however, had the highest mean (3.15) and maximum value of 4.67, which also explains the culture of Pakistan, people in Pakistan do tend to be supportive to their colleagues. However, the mean value was still low.
6.2 Implications
The results of the study indicate that the variables selected significantly augment Organizational Commitment. Compensation was the most influential of the independent variables. Thus the institutes should increase the pay level of the teachers significantly; the other two variables should also be given considerable importance as increasing pay only is not sufficient to keep the employees committed. The results also indicate that the means of all variables were low thus the organization should focus their attention to improve this situation. As an immediate action, the supervisor support can be increased, which does not require much investment. This will improve the situation to a great extent; however, improvements in organization policy about other two variables should also follow shortly. Although most employees do not expect the organization to provide T&D opportunities, still the organizations should provide it to them and if required increase employee awareness about the importance of T&D. Glance, Hogg, & Huberman (1997) state that an organization’s decision whether or not to train its workers affects the overall economy, even if the firm does not factor the economy into its decision. And in the case of teacher training this fact is even stronger. They further state that if all firms within an industry fail to train their workers, the whole economy suffers. Hence, training workers is a type of public good, (which in this case is more easily understood).
This will be in turn beneficial to the organization itself, as the teachers will be better able to teach the students after going through training, and more satisfied if the organization implements a good development program. Improving the standard of education system of the institute and giving the institute a better name.
Due to limitation of time the study focused on only three variables, also the sample of this research was mainly from Islamabad/Rawalpindi, and some parts of Punjab. It is recommended that further study be done in teaching sector, including other important variables, such as Job characteristics and family-work and work- family conflict. Also further research can focus on Pakistan as whole, or try to replicate this research in other parts of Pakistan and try to find any considerable differences between different areas of Pakistan.
Acknowledgement
Here we would like thank our prestigious teacher Mr. Sajid Bashir, for his untiring efforts and his able guidance that enabled us complete this peace of work. Without his guidance and support we would never have thought of being able to do this work.