ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

This thesis set Ollt to explore alld examille the antecedents and consequences of organizational commitment in public sector employees of Pakistan. III achieving /his goal, a few measures of the conSln/cls hypothesized /0 be the antecedents and cOl/sequences of organizatiollol commitment were developed alld validated. A silldy was conducted to examine the generalizability of Meyer and Allen's (199/) three-componenl model of organizatiollal commitmellf besides several other stlidies aimed at examining the dimensionality, in/emal consistency. alld validity relaled issues. Results all the Urdu tralls/ation of the measures indicated 'he bOlh rlie versions do /lot difftr significantly in remls of concept alld meaning lind assess the sallie COllstrllet ill both the languages. Results related to dimenSionality of the threecomponellt organizational commitment models indicated that the model is partially generalizable in our context. llIlemal consistellcy levels of Affective alld Caminuance COl1llllitmelll Scales were satisfactory; however, NOnllOtive Commitment Scale exhibited relatively low inte/'llal consistellcy reliability. The findings 011 the dimellsionality of the Colltinl/allce Commitmellt Scale did 1I0t support the existellce of two separate dimensions, i.e., Colltilluallce CommiImelll-Persollal Sacrifice and Continuallce Commitment-Lack of Alternatives, thereby indicating that both feelings of personal sacrifice and perceptions of available alternatives c01lStifllte continuance commitment alld that it should be treated as a IlIlitGlY cOllstruct. The results of Confinnafory Factor Analysis (CFA) indicated 'hat de!Jpite substalltial correlariol/, affective alld 1I0rmatlve COlIl/mtment should be distinguishable. The results of the srudy conducted to examine the collvergent validity between Affective Commitment Scale and Organizational Commitment Questio1lnaire revealed that both the measures are very similar and measure the same COIIStnICt. CFA of the combined ~'et of Affective Commifmenl Scale alld Organizatiollal Commilmellt Questionnaire revealed that Organizational Commitment Questionnaire items loaded with Affective Commitment Scale items on a single factor. This finding also supports previous theoretical alld empirical evaluation of both the Affective Commitment Scale alld Organizational Commitment Questionllaire (For example, Allell & Meyer, 1990: Cohen. 1996: Dunham, On/be, & Castel/ada, 1994; Hackett, Bycio. & Hausdoli. 1994; Meyer & Allell, 1984; Randall, Fedor, & Longenecker, 1990). Cross- cultural comparison 011 the meal! levels of Affective, Contilluance , alld Normative Commitment Scales between 0111' sample and those reported in other cllltftral cOlllexts revealed that Pakiswlli and Chinese employees were higher on affective and normative commitment as compared 10 Calladian and south Korean employees who scored high 011 contilluallce commitmelll. Models developed each ill alltecedents alld consequellCes variables were tested through LISREL. The results of the study conducted to examine these models revealed that intrinsic work vailies and illlel'l/al work motivation are the strongest alltecedents of affective alld continuance V1l commitmellt. However, these variables did 1I0t show a statistically significant relationship with normative commitment. Thus, the model inco/porating illlrillsic work values and i/ltemal work motivation and organizational COlllmitment dimensions (affective alld continuance) appeared to be the best filling model of antecedellls. Similarly, the best fitting model of cOl/seqllences demonstrated lhat organizational citizellship behavior and procedural justice were the important variables alld showed significant impact on affective and normative comlllilmelll. The study also showed that besides being influenced t'wough affective and lIormative COllllllitment, procedural justice also has a direct impact on organizational citizenship behavior. The results of the study conducted to replicate the best fitting LlSREL models revealed that the tested models for alltecedelllS and consequences do not fully replicate the data, however, taken into account the lack of prior theOlY and research 011 which these models could be based Oil, these may be conSidered adequate. The results of investigations to examine differences across gender 011 antecedents and consequences revealed that overall, men and women do IIOt differ sigllljicanlly 011 these variables. However, male employees exhibited high scores on turnover intentions as compared to theirfemale counterparts who were significantly higher all normative commitment, job satisfactioll, alld internal work mOfivation. 17,e overall findillgs of Ihis thesis provide a framework for explorillg dimellsiollality, alltecedellls, and consequellCes of orgallizatiollal commi(melll. Finally, theoretical alld methodological implicatiolls. limitatiolls, and directiollsfor future research are discussed in detail.