Professionalism, rewards, job satisfaction and organizational commitment amongst accounting professionals in Uganda

Abstract

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which the constructs of professionalism (Hall, 1968), rewards (Bartol, 1979) and job satisfaction (Stamps and Piedmonte, 1986; Hampton and Hampton, 2004) can be used as valid predictors of organizational commitment (Porter et al., 1974) in an emerging economy context. Design/methodology/approach-Using pre-existing scales for these constructs, the authors collected data from 277 ICPAU licensees' and carried out a factor analysis to examine their validity. Given the relevance of the organizational-professional conflict (OPC) debate to performance in public and private sector organizations, the authors use ANOVA to assess whether there are significant differences between CPAs in the private and public sectors. We also develop a structural equation model to assess the extent to which organizational commitment can be explained by professionalism, rewards and job satisfaction. Findings-The findings show that the four scales can be used as valid measures in an emerging market environment, albeit with some modifications. The correlations between the study variables are significant (po0.01) but weak. There are also no significant differences between the scores of private and public sector Certified Public Accountant (CPAs) on professionalism, rewards and organizational commitment. However, there is significantly lower job satisfaction amongst CPAs employed in the public sector. The authors also find that job satisfaction is the best predictor of organizational commitment. Professionalism and rewards are weak predictors of organizational commitment. The fitted model shows that there is a weak fit between organizational commitment and professionalism, rewards and job satisfaction (GFI ¼ 0.86, RMSEA ¼ 0.086). Originality/value-The authors modify the extant measurement scales for use in emerging market conditions and show that with some adjustment, they are robust measures of the study variables. The paper also extends the organizational commitment (OC) debate to emerging market conditions and shows that rewards on their own are not enough to ensure organizational commitment amongst professionals. It is important to improve job satisfaction through more enriching work experience.

Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour in State-owned Banking

“…Markovits et al [46] found the positive relation between satisfaction and commitment on in a research using Greeks as participants. The same result also found in the literatures from Azeem [47], Azeem and Akhtar [48], Irshad & Naz [49], Gunlu et al [50], Sejjaaka & Kaawaase [51], Veličković et al [52]. These researches use participants from Oman, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Uganda, and Serbia.…”

The Effect of Human Resources Practices on Organizational Commitment: A Jordanian Study

“…A bulk of scales was adopted from related works to measure constructs. Organizational commitment was measured by organizational commitment scale developed by Meyer and Allen (1997), training was measured using a scale developed by Yahya and Goh (2002), person-organization fit was measured by a scale developed by Netemeyer et al (1997), and, finally, rewards construct was measured by a scale adopted from Sejjaaka and Kaawaase (2014). The results pointed out that all HR practices examined (training, person-organization fit, and rewards) were significantly and positively associated with organizational commitment.…”

“…All answers of scales were scored using five-point Likert scale, where 1 represents completely agree and 5 ISSN 1941-899X 2015 www.macrothink.org/jmr 226 represents completely disagree. The rewards construct was measured by a scale adopted from Sejjaaka and Kaawaase (2014).…”

“…Sejjaaka and Kaawaase (2014) pointed out that rewards can predict organizational commitment. Additionally, Chew and Chan (2008) confirmed the positive relationship between rewards and organizational commitment.…”

Investigating Organizational Commitment among Medical Doctors, Hospital Nurses and Two Other Professional Jobs: A Systematic Review

“…Many studies have widely discussed the organizational commitment of professional jobs, particularly of accountants (e.g., Lander, Koene, & Linssen, 2013;Singh & Gupta, 2015;Chong & Monroe, 2015;Sejjaaka & Kaawaase, 2014;Olsen, Sverdrup, Nesheim, & Kalleberg, 2016;Welsch & LaVan, 1981;Aranya & Ferris, 1984;Morrow & Wirth;1989;Aranya & Amernic, 1981;Reed, Kratchman, & Strawser, 1994;Ketchand & Strawser, 1998), nurses and hospital employees (e.g., Li, Early, Mahrer, Klaristenfeld, & Gold, 2014;Top, Akdere, & Tarcan, 2015;Fu & Deshpande, 2014;Yang, Liu, Chen, & Pan, 2014;Lisdiyono & Asyhar Assalmani, 2017;Laschinger, Nosko, Wilk, & Finegan, 2014;Nesje, 2015;Sharma & Dhar, 2016;Veličković et al, 2014;Yang, Liu, Huang, & Zhu, 2013;Blau, 1999;Mosadeghrad, Ferlie, & Rosenberg, 2008;Lum, Kervin, Clark, Reid, & Sirola, 1998;Ingersoll, Olsan, Drew-Cates, DeVinney, & Davies, 2002;Kuokkanen, Leino-Kilpi, & Katajisto, 2003;Lu, Lin, Wu, Hsieh, & Chang, 2002), lawyers (e.g., Wallace, 1995a;Lu, Liang, & Li, 2014), and teachers (Nart & Batur, 2014;Bogler & Somech, 2004). However, these studies only discussed the commitment of a particular professional job.…”