The relation between employee organizational and professional development activities

A model is presented showing hypothesized common and parallel antecedents of employee organizational development activity (ODA) versus professional development activity (PDA). A common antecedent is expected to affect both ODA and PDA, while a parallel antecedent is expected to affect its corresponding work referent. This model was tested using a sample of 197 medical technologists over a four year time period. Prior ODA and PDA were controlled for before testing hypotheses. Results showed that the common antecedent of learning motivation was a robust indicator of both ODA and PDA. Looking at parallel antecedents, job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment had a positive impact on ODA, while occupational satisfaction and affective occupational commitment had a positive impact on PDA. ODA had a negative impact on subsequent intent to leave organization, but PDA did not have a similar impact on intent to leave profession. Study limitations, issues around operationalizing ODA and PDA, and future research directions are discussed.     

Turnover of highly educated R&D professionals: The role of pre‐entry cognitive style,work values and career orientation

Retention of key R&D experts has been recognized as a critical managerial challenge for many technology‐based companies. In this study, we propose that turnover of highly educated professional workers is meaningfully related to individual characteristics such as cognitive style, work values and career orientation. We tested the hypotheses using data collected from a sample of 132 R&D professionals with PhD degrees in engineering or natural science in a Korean electronics firm. The time‐dependent risk of turnover was estimated by survival analysis using a proportional hazards regression model. The results showed that over the 7‐year period after their organizational entry, R&D professionals with high levels of intrinsic values and cosmopolitan orientation were more likely to leave the organization than were their counterparts with low levels of intrinsic values and cosmopolitan orientation. The hazard function showed that the positive effect of intrinsic work values on turnover was particularly salient in the third and fourth year of R&D professionals' organizational tenure. We found that the positive effect of cosmopolitan orientation on turnover increased over time, introducing a greater risk of turnover with increasing tenure. The present findings have practical implications for the retention of highly educated R&D professionals in a corporate setting.     

The relationship between career growth and organizational commitment

This research examines the relationship between employees' career growth and organizational commitment. Career growth was conceptualized by four factors: career goal progress, professional ability development, promotion speed and remuneration growth, while organizational commitment was conceptualized using Meyer and Allen's (1997) three component model. Survey data, collected from 961 employees in 10 cities in the People's Republic of China, showed that the four dimensions of career growth were positively related to affective commitment, and that three of the facets were positively related to continuance and normative commitment. Only three of eighteen two-way interactions among the career growth factors affected organizational commitment, suggesting that the career growth factors influence commitment in an additive rather than a multiplicative manner.Results focus on how career growth can be used to manage organizational commitment.     

The moderating effects of employee tenure on the relation between organizational commitment and job performance: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis investigated the correlation between attitudinal commitment and job performance for 3,630 employees obtained from 27 independent studies across various levels of employee tenure. Controlling for employee age and other nuisance variables, the authors found that tenure had a very strong nonlinear moderating effect on the commitment-performance correlation, with correlations tending to decrease exponentially with increasing tenure. These findings do not appear to be the result of differences across studies in terms of the type of performance measure (supervisory vs. self), type of tenure (job vs. organizational), or commitment measure (Organizational Commitment Questionnaire [L. W. Porter, R. M. Steers, R. T. Mowday, & P. V. Boulian, 19741 vs. other). The implications and future research directions of these results are discussed.     

The police stress survey: reliability and relation to job satisfaction and organizational commitment

The 1981 Police Stress Survey of Spielberger, Westbury, Grier, and Greenfield was administered to 99 metropolitan and suburban police officers. Internal consistency reliabilities were in the .90s for both the total scale and two subscales which measure administrative/organizational and physical/psychological stressors. The administrative/organizational, but not the physical/psychological, subscale was significantly related to measures of job satisfaction and organizational commitment.     

The incremental validity of organizational commitment,organizational trust,and organizational identification

Organizational commitment (OC), organizational trust (OT), and organizational identification (OI) are three types of psychological attachment to an organization. Each of these three variables captures an organization-targeted attitude toward an employment relationship, but it is unclear whether they have incremental validity over each other. To address this question, this study examined the incremental validity of each variable in predicting job involvement, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and non-self-report measures of task performance and citizenship behavior. It also examined whether perceived organizational support and psychological contract breach, two other organization-targeted attitudinal variables, were related to OC, OT, and OI when the latter were considered jointly. Meta-analytical evidence suggests that OC, OT, and OI have incremental validity over and above one another in their relationships with some, but not all, of the above correlates. This highlights the need for future research to distinguish these three types of psychological attachment to an organization.     

The moderating influence of procedural fairness on the relationship between work-life conflict and organizational commitment

To help employees better manage work-life conflict, organizations have introduced various initiatives, which have met with mixed results. The present studies examined the utility of a procedurally based approach to understanding employees' reactions to work-life conflict. The authors examined whether the fairness of procedures used by organizational authorities to plan and implement decisions moderates the (inverse) relationship between work-life conflict and employees' organizational commitment. Three studies using different methodologies showed support for the moderating role played by procedural fairness. That is, the tendency for greater work-life conflict to lead to lower commitment was significantly less pronounced when procedural fairness was high rather than low. Theoretical contributions to the work-life conflict and organizational justice literatures are discussed, as are practical implications.     

The role of the supervisor in career and organizational commitment

Supervisors are increasingly required to support employees in their learning and career development. This study investigated relationships between supervisor support activities and their subordinates' career and organizational commitment. Findings suggested that employees who saw their supervisors as giving them trust and the authority to do the job were more committed to their organization, as were those who perceived their supervisors to engage in feedback and goal-setting. This suggested the potential organizational benefits of performance feedback from managers and the importance of supervisors developing the confidence and skills to delegate effectively and have trust in their subordinates. No relationships were found between supervisor support and career identity, career resilience or career planning. The relationship between perceptions of overall supervisor support and organizational commitment was moderated by employee gender. The findings suggested a positive linear relationship between support and commitment for women, but the association between support and commitment was less straightforward in the male sample.     

A comparison of linear and nonlinear relations between organizational commitment and work outcomes

The authors compared linear and nonlinear relations between affective and continuance commitment and 3 commonly studied work outcomes (turnover cognitions, absenteeism, and job performance), observed in 3 separate research settings. Using a linear model, they replicated the common observation in the literature that affective commitment is more strongly related to work outcomes than continuance commitment. Introducing a higher order continuance commitment term into the same equations, however, they found that the linear model seriously understated the magnitude of continuance commitment's effect on all 3 criterion measures. These findings are consistent with recent developments that identify different motivational mindsets associated with affective and continuance commitment (J. P. Meyer, T. E. Becker, & C. Vandenberghe, 2004).     

Preliminary relation between followers' locus of control and organizational citizenship behaviors

This study estimated the relationship between followers' locus of control and organizational citizenship behaviors for a sample of 375 government employees, whose M age was 46 yr. 53% were women; 42% earned bachelor's degrees. Analyses showed a significant positive correlation of .35 between followers' locus of control and their organizational behaviors. More complex models and research designs are necessary to generalize.     

Ambition as a motivational basis of organizational and professional commitment: preliminary analysis of a proposed career advancement ambition scale

This study proposes that the ambition to advance in one's career may serve as a motivational basis of organizational and professional commitment. In support of this notion, preliminary evidence of the reliability and construct validity of a proposed Career Advancement Ambition Scale is presented, and exploratory analyses of a secondary data set show that the scale and original scales of organizational and professional commitment can predict turnover intentions. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.     

The impact of emotional dissonance on organizational commitment and intention to turnover.

In the workplace, emotional dissonance is the conflict between experienced emotions and emotions expressed to conform to display rules. This study is an empirical examination of the impact of emotional dissonance on organizational criteria and its moderation by self-monitoring and social support. Emotional dissonance was theorized to stimulate turnover intentions, either solely through job dissatisfaction or through both job dissatisfaction and reduced organizational commitment. Job dissatisfaction was found to be the sole mediator. Emotional dissonance resulted in job dissatisfaction, which, in turn, stimulated withdrawal intentions. Self-monitoring and social support exerted moderator effects, albeit in opposing directions. Emotional dissonance aroused feelings of job dissatisfaction and reduced organizational commitment among high self-monitors. In contrast, social support lessened the negative impact of emotional dissonance on organizational commitment.     

Linking employees' justice perceptions to organizational commitment and intention to leave: The mediating role of perceived organizational support

Building on the social exchange perspective and organizational support theory, this study examined the relationships among employees' justice perceptions, perceived organizational support (POS), organizational commitment and intention to leave. A hypothesized model was developed and tested using hierarchical regression analyses on a sample of 514 practising solicitors in Hong Kong. The results showed that both procedural and distributive justice contributed to the development of POS, and POS mediated their effects on organizational commitment and intention to leave. As expected, organizational commitment was negatively related to intention to leave. Additional analyses revealed that these relationships held for both partners and non‐partners in law firms.     

Person–organization (culture) fit and employee commitment under conditions of organizational change: A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study examines how person–organization fit, operationalized as congruence between perceived and preferred organizational culture, relates to employees’ affective commitment and intention to stay with an organization during the early stages of a strategic organizational change. Employees in a large energy company completed surveys before (N = 687) and after (N = 627) the change. We measured perceptions and preferences with regard to four components of organizational culture (human relations, open systems, internal process, and rational goal) derived from the Competing Values Model (Quinn, 1988), as well as affective commitment to the organization and intention to stay. Using polynomial regression and response surface analyses, we found that both perceived culture and culture fit related positively with the criterion variables within and across time. The strongest evidence for relations involving fit was obtained for those components of culture specifically targeted for change. Implications for future research and the management of organizational change are discussed.     

The relation between pointing and language development: A meta-analysis

The use of the pointing gesture is one of the first ways to communicate with the world. This gesture emerges before the second year of life and it is assumed to be the first form of intentional communication. This meta-analysis examined the concurrent and longitudinal relation between pointing and the emergence of language. Twenty-five studies were included into the meta-analysis, including 734 children. The role of several moderators was examined: pointing modality, pointing motive, age at which the pointing was measured, the assessment method of the pointing gesture and language development, the modality of language, SES, and country. The results showed both a concurrent (r = .52) and a longitudinal (r = .35) relation between pointing and language development. The relation between pointing and language development became stronger with age, and was found for pointing with a declarative and general motive, but not for pointing with an imperative motive. It is concluded that the pointing gesture is a key joint-attention behavior involved in the acquisition of language.     

The unfolding effects of organizational commitment and anticipated job satisfaction on voluntary employee turnover

An evolving discontent with existing theories of voluntary turnover led to the postulation of an unfolding model for the effects of organizational commitment and anticipated job satisfaction on voluntary employee turnover. In particular, existing theory and research on voluntary turnover were judged to apply validly to only a very small number of organizational situations. That is, their ecological validities appear weak. As a result, the proposed model seeks to describe more of the organization's reality and to apply to more situations than do current theories. Thus, the proposed model seeks to increase ecological validity. Four decision paths are detailed and asserted to capture more of the evolutionary (hence the term unfolding) confluence of personal, situational, and accidental forces on the decision to leave an organization than current models. Research implications are discussed.We thank Bob Baron, Lee Beach, and Rick Mowday for their helpful comments on carlier drafts of this article.     

The impact of role stress on workers' behaviour through job satisfaction and organizational commitment

Dysfunctions in role performance have been associated with a large number of consequences, almost always negative, which affect the well-being of workers and the functioning of organizations. An individual's experience of receiving incompatible or conflicting requests (role conflict) and/or the lack of enough information to carry out his/her job (role ambiguity) are causes of role stress. According to previous theory, role ambiguity and conflict decrease workers' performance and are positively related to the probability of workers leaving the organization. Job satisfaction refers to a positive evaluation of a job, while organizational commitment refers to an employee's attachment to the organization. The affective dimensions of organizational commitment and job satisfaction are considered to be important predictors of turnover intention, absenteeism, and job performance. In the literature, role conflict and ambiguity have been proposed as determining factors of workers' job satisfaction and their commitment towards the organization. The role of job satisfaction and organizational commitment were analysed as variables that should mediate between role ambiguity and conflict and employees' behaviour. The hypotheses were confirmed by means of path analysis carried out with data obtained from a sample of Spanish blue-collar workers employed by a bus company and a water supply company. Role stressors were negatively related to affective commitment mediated through job satisfaction. Affective commitment to the organization exerted a positive influence on performance and reduces the withdrawal behaviour analysed— intention to leave and absenteeism—although the strongest predictor of intention to leave was, in this study, job satisfaction.     

Protean and boundaryless career attitudes and organizational commitment: The effects of perceived supervisor support

Despite the traditional sentiment that protean and boundaryless career attitudes indicate a decline in organizational commitment, little empirical evidence is available. The present study examined the relation of protean and boundaryless career attitudes to organizational commitment and whether the perceived supervisor support moderated these relationships. The results based on data from 380 employees demonstrate that organizational mobility preference is negatively related to all three dimensions of organizational commitment. Self-directed career management is positively related to affective and normative commitment and negatively related to continuance commitment, while values-driven career orientation is negatively related to normative commitment. Moreover, there is no significant evidence provided for a moderating effect of perceived supervisor support on the relationships between protean and boundaryless career attitudes and organizational commitment. Perceived supervisor support has only a main effect on affective and normative commitment.