| Factors Affecting the Organizational Commitment of Technical Knowledge Workers: Generation X, Baby Boomers, and Beyond |
| | Finegold, David | U. of Southern California | dfinegold@ceo.usc.edu | (213)740-9814 |
| | Mohrman, Susan Albers | U. of Southern California | mohrman@ceo.usc.edu | 213-740-9814 |
| | Spreitzer, Gretchen M. | U. of Southern California | gspreitzer@sba.usc.edu | 213-740-9419 |
| | Gaining the commitment of knowledge workers will be one of the central management challenges in the new millennium. We address an important gap in the literature on commitment: how predictors of affective and continuance commitment for technical knowledge workers vary across age groups or career stages. Our results suggest that technical skill development and pay for individual performance are important for younger or mid career employees. Work/non-work balance is important for mid career workers. Career advancement is important for mid or later career employees. Job security is important to older employees. A climate for innovation and risk, and pay for organizational performance are important across career stages. Implications for career stages and generational differences between Generation X, baby boomers and others are discussed. |
| | Keywords: Organizational Commitment,; Career Stages,; Knowledge Workers |
| The Impact of Power Distance on the Relationship Between Participation and Organizational Commitment in Argentina, Mexico, and the United States |
| | Gómez, Carolina B. | U. of Houston | cgomez@uh.edu | (713)-743-4677 |
| | Kirkman, Bradley L. | U. of North Carolina, Greensboro | brad_kirkman@uncg.edu | (336)-334-3096 |
| | Shapiro, Debra L. | U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | shapirod@unc.edu | (919)-962-3224 |
| | This study investigated the extent to which peoples' level of participation in decision making affects their organizational commitment in Argentina, Mexico, and the United States. Specifically, the study examined the extent to which this relationship is moderated by power distance. We found that: (1) consistent with Hofstede's (1980) observations, the U.S. respondents had significantly lower power distance than employees from Argentina and Mexico, but contrary to Hofstede's observations, there were no significant power-distance differences between Argentina and Mexico (suggesting that a "crossvergence" of cultural values may have occurred); (2) although in all three countries higher levels of employee participation, or "voice," in management's decision making was significantly associated with higher levels of organizational commitment, the effect of lower levels of employee voice was different in the three countries: in the U.S., more so than in Mexico or Argentina, lower levels of employee voice was associated with lower levels of organizational commitment (this being what we refer to as a "country-by-participation/voice interaction-effect"); (3) the latter interaction effect was no longer significant when the interaction between participation and power-distance was added to the regression equation, thus leading us to conclude that power distance - not country - moderates the relationship between participation/voice and organizational commitment. Implications for managers and researchers related to both the crossvergence of values and the application of participative management techniques are discussed. |
| | Keywords: Power distance; Participation; Commitment |
| The Effects of Psychological Contract Strength and Violation on Organizational Commitment and Organizational Justice |
| | Liao-Troth, Matthew A. | DePaul U. | mliaotro@condor.depaul.edu | (312) 362-5221 |
| | The psychological contract of workers has been a subject of interest, especially in the recent literature, in both the academic and practitioner worlds of organizations. While this attention has developed quite widely across subjects, and several typologies of contracts have been developed, there are many parts of this construct that are not well understood. An area that can use further exploration is the the outcomes of the psychological contract. What is the effect of having a strong psychological contract in terms of fulfillment or violation? Two specific organizational behavior constructs are addressed: organizational commitment and organizational justice. A field study of hospital workers was conducted to assess the relationship between these constructs. Relationships were found between the psychological contract and its fulfillment or violation with organizational commitment and organizational justice. Specifically, relations were found between: transactional psychological contracts and both distributive justice and continuance commitment; benefits psychological contracts and continuance commitment; good faith and fair dealings psychological contracts and distributive, interactional, and procedural justice as well as affective commitment; and intrinsic job characteristics psychological contracts and distributive, interactional, and procedural justice. |
| | Keywords: Psychological contract; Commitment; Justice |
| An Exploration of Leader-Member Exchange and Percieved Organizational Support as Predictors of Organizational Commitment: A Field Study |
| | Schaninger, Jr., William S. | Auburn U. | schaning@business.auburn.edu | (334)-844-6549 |
| | Self, Dennis R. | Auburn U. | dself@business.auburn.edu | (334)-844-6539 |
| | The relationship among Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), Perceived Organizational Support (POS), and Organizational Commitment (OC), using Meyer and Allen’s three-component commitment construct, is explored. The a priori hypotheses were designed to identify whether or not leader-member exchange and perceived organizational support predict organizational commitment. Separate sub-hypotheses were specified to identify specific dimensions of organizational commitment that were believed to be related differently to leader-member exchange and perceived organizational support. Data were collected from professional support staff for a Fortune 500 company located in the Southeast. The results showed that perceived organizational support was a much stronger predictor of organizational commitment than leader-member exchange. Further, while perceived organizational support was positively correlated with affective commitment, interestingly, perceived organizational support had a higher positive correlation with normative commitment, and a positive correlation with continuance commitment. The implications of the results are discussed. |
| | Keywords: Organizational Commitment; Leader-Member Exchange; Hierarchical Regression |