| Linking Commitment to Work Behaviors: Commitment to a Strategy |
| | Weissbein, Daniel Adam | Michigan State U. | weissbei@pilot.msu.edu | (517)353-9166 |
| | Plamondon, Kevin Edward | Michigan State U. | plamond3@pilot.msu.edu | (517)355-2171 |
| | Ford, J. Kevin | Michigan State U. | fordjk@pilot.msu.edu | (517)353-5006 |
| | Scheu, Christine Renee | Michigan State U. | cscheu@pilot.msu.edu | (517)355-2171 |
| | The literature on commitment has yielded mixed results when trying to predict performance. Organizational commitment, while related to satisfaction, turnover, and absenteeism, has not consistently related to performance. However, when more specific foci of commitment are examined significant relationships with performance have been found. The purpose of this paper was to bridge the gap between these two bodies of research. This study measured both organizational commitment and a mid-level focus of commitment -commitment to a strategy. Strategy commitment measures the extent to which employees espouse an organizational strategy, such as customer service orientation or for this study, commitment to community policing. We examined two outcome variables -job satisfaction and strategy behaviors, to see if the two foci of commitment were differentially related to these outcomes. Finally, we assessed the impact of three potential antecedents -management support, job experience, and job context. Data were collected from 467 police officers across fourteen departments. Results of path analysis suggested that strategy and organizational commitment were distinct. The two variables related to different outcomes and were not interchangeable with one another. Organizational commitment was related to job satisfaction, while strategy commitment was related to the performance of strategy related behaviors. Strategy commitment also mediated the effects of management support and organizational commitment on behavior and partially mediated the effects of job experience. In addition, management support had a direct effect on organizational commitment, and job context was directly related to behavior. |
| | Keywords: Commitment |
| Dispositional affectivity and explanatory style as predictors of work attitudes, behavior, and performance |
| | Gardner, William L. | U. of Mississippi | gardner@bus.olemiss.edu | (601)232-7555 |
| | Rozell, Elizabeth J. | Southwest Missouri State U. | ejr150f@mail.smsu.edu | (417)836-5082 |
| | Barnes, James H. | U. of Mississippi | barnes@bus.olemiss.edu | (601)232-7497 |
| | This study explored the extent to which the constructs of dispositional affectivity (positive and negative affect) and explanatory style (optimism versus pessimism) are interrelated and account for variance in the work attitudes of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intent to leave the organization, self-reported job performance, and the self-reported work behaviors of absenteeism and tardiness. Using a sample of 205 salaried and hourly employees of two manufacturing firms, a structured equations analysis was performed to explore the relationships among these variables. The results revealed a uni-directional relationship between explanatory style and dispositional affectivity. Dispositional affectivity was found to be an important moderating variable between explanatory style and organizational commitment. The structural equations model then causally linked organizational commitment to turnover, absenteeism, and job satisfaction. Managerial implications and recommendations for attributional training are advanced. |
| | Keywords: Dispositional affectivity; Explanatory style; Work attitudes |
| The Impact of Race on an Employee's Level of Organizational Commitment: An Examination of the Moderating Effect of Perceived Job Alternatives. |
| | Martin, Craig A. | U. of Memphis | camartin12@hotmail.com | (901) 678-2478 |
| | Taylor, Robert R. | U. of Memphis | rrtaylor@memphis.edu | (901) 678-4551 |
| | Racial diversity in the workforce of the United States has expanded significantly in the past ten to fifteen years. Academic research, however,
has not been quick to analyze the increasing diversity appearing in United States companies. Scant attention has been given to
the relationship between organizational commitment and the racial composition of a workforce. Lankau and Scandura (1996) utilized a sample
of over 500 nurses to examine the impact of race on organizational commitment. Their results indicated that black nurses were more
committed to their employing organizations than white nurses. The present study supports the research completed by Lankau and Scandura
and proposes that black and white employees do exhibit different levels or organizational commitment. However, the present study proposes
that a moderating variable, perceived job alternatives, is responsible for this difference in organizational commitment between white and black
employees. Based on relationships supported in previous literature, this study proposes that the reason black employees exhibit less job
satisfaction but higher organizational commitment than their white counterparts is due to black employees' lack of perceived job
alternatives. A sample in excess of two-hundred employees representing a variety of job positions and titles from a large, mid-south
community completed surveys for this study. The results of the study showed that black employees exhibit significantly lower job
satisfaction levels and significantly higher organizational commitment levels than their white counterparts, but that the black employees'
significantly lower perceived job alternatives are, at least, partly responsible for this relationship. |
| | Keywords: Organizational Commitment; Perceived Job Alternatives; Race |
| Exploring the Employee-Customer Link: How Work Group Emotional Fronts Impact Customers |
| | Pugh, Steven Douglas | San Diego State U. | dpugh@sunstroke.sdsu.edu | (619) 594-0214 |
| | The service climate literature has demonstrated links between employee attitudes and customer attitudes, but knowledge of the mechanisms underlying this linkage is less well developed. The present study is designed to replicate and extend climate research by examining how group affective tone (George, 1990) and emotional fronts, or the characteristic level of emotions displayed by the front-line employees of an organization, influence customer affect and customer attitudes. This study also examines consistency or homogeneity in customer affective and attitudinal responses as a conceptually meaningful dependent variable influenced by group emotional fronts. Data were collected from 191 employees and 220 customers in 39 branches of a retail bank. Tests at the branch level of analysis revealed that employee judgments of service quality and job satisfaction were related to, respectively, customer judgements of service quality and overall satisfaction. Consistent levels of affect were found within bank branches, but the relationship between group affective tone and the emotional fronts displayed by employees was not supported. Group emotional fronts were related to the mean positive and negative affective states experienced by branch customers. As predicted, a positive relationship was also found between a group emotional front and the consistency of customer affective states. Specifically, in bank branches with higher levels of mean positive emotional displays, there was greater consistency in customer negative affect. These findings are consistent with prior research suggesting that displayed emotions may be used to influence customer affect. |
| | Keywords: Emotion; Customers; Climate |
| Negative push, positive pull: Differentiated work commitment in a turbulent career environment |
| | McAulay, Brian J. | Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic | bmcaulay@sherman.edu | 864-578-8770 |
| | Zeitz, Gerald | Temple U. | v5143e@vm.temple.edu | 610-664-0839 |
| | The relationship between job insecurity and work commitment has been isolated to examinations of (affective) organizational commitment. This study extends this analysis by evaluating the effect of job insecurity on the various components of organizational commitment, and on a multiple component model of professional commitment. Job insecurity provides a "push" component to work commitment by being negatively related to affective, normative and continuance organizational commitment. In contrast, professional commitment is largely unrelated to levels of job insecurity; instead, professional commitment is driven by the "pull" factor of perceived occupational professionalization. |
| | Keywords: Commitment; Professions; Job Insecurity |