Individual correlates of organizational commitment and intention to leave the organization

Abstract

Purpose -The goals of the present study are three-fold. First of all, the paper aims to test the three-component model (emotional, continuance and normative components) of organizational commitment in the Lithuanian population. The second goal is to analyze the relationships among individual factors (age, gender, personality traits) and organizational commitment. Finally, the paper aims to test the hypothesis if there was a relationship between organizational commitment and intention to leave the organization in the Lithuanian sample. Design/methodology/approach -The participants of the study were 105 employees working in various Lithuanian organizations (41 men and 64 women). The average age was 34.9 (SD ¼ 11.6). The subjects completed the questionnaire that included responses to three-dimensional measure of organizational commitment, self-reported measure of temperament, as well as questions about demographic information. Following Meyer et al., intention to leave the organization was assessed with three questions: first, how frequently the employee thinks about leaving his or her current employer; second, how likely it is that employee will search for a job in another organization; and third, how likely it is that an individual will actually leave the organization within the next year. The regression analysis was used to predict the relationships between individual factors and organizational commitment. Findings -The results of the investigation revealed that the three-component measure of organizational commitment is valid in Lithuanian sample. Contrary to expectations, it was found that there was no significant relationship between personality traits and organizational commitment, but there was a significant relationship between organizational commitment and intension to leave the organization. It was also found that there was a significant relationship among organizational commitment, age, and the level of education.Research limitations/implications -The design of the study does not allow making causal statements. In addition, the sample is quite small and may not be representative, so one should be careful to make generalizations to other populations. Third, since all measures used are self-reports, common method variance is a problem, as well as social desirability effects. Practical implications -Organizational commitment is an important research topic of human resource management, having both practical and theoretical implications. Managers could benefit from understanding the predictors of committed manpower because they can initiate the interventions when the problem exists. Originality/value -The research contributes to organizational commitment literature by providing empirical findings and theoretical interpretations regarding the role of individual factors in explaining interrelationships among different forms of organizational commitment and employee behaviour.

Evaluation of Organizational Commitment Models and their components in Asian Cities

“…However, Meyer et al (1993) found that both affective and normative commitments are higher in older employees and those with longer tenure, but made no difference to continuance commitment. Recent research contradicted this with Bashir & Ismail Ramay (2008) finding that age and organization tenure have no effect on organizational commitment and Labatmediene et al (2007) finding that age is positively correlated with continuance commitment but not with other components. Because of the different findings, the second hypothesis considered demographics.…”

“…The results supported the three-factor model by Meyer & Allen (1991) by showing that the two sub-scales were correlated and therefore made no significant difference to the four-component model. More recently, Tayyab (2007) and Labatmediene, Endriulaitiene & Gustainiene (2007) conducted similar confirmatory tests, with both studies showing that the four-component model did not improve Meyer & Allen's (1991) three-component model.…”

“…Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the appropriateness of different organizational commitment models to the data collected in this research. CFA is a necessary statistical method for confirming a pre-defined model (Labatmediene et al, 2007;Wang, 2004). Pearson product moment correlation is used for testing association of demographics variables and components of organizational commitment.…”

Turnover intentions in Jordanian Universities: The role of leadership behaviour, organizational commitment and organizational culture

“…Turnover is always costly to organizations given the large investment made in the selection, training and development of personnel. In addition, Labatmediene et al (2007) stated that committed employees is less likely to leave the organization than less committed employees. The three-factor model (emotional, continuance, and normative) is more descriptive than the one factor model (emotional, continuance or normative) of organizational commitment.…”

“…Mobley (1977) stated that turnover intention is perceived as a cognitive process of thinking, planning and wanting to quit the job at hand. However, turnover intention is the final cognitive step in a withdrawal cognitions sequence and intermediates between evaluations related to decision-making about leaving the organization shortly (Chiu and Francesco, 2003;Kuean et al, 2010;Labatmediene et al, 2007). Mobley et al (1978) and Tett and Meyer (1993) suggested that turnover intention is about the likelihood an individual perceives making up their mind whether to stay or quit the organization and their intention to search for a new job.…”