The Organizational Commitment of Chief Housing Officers

Abstract

The purposes of this study was to (1) examine the extent that locus of control influences the organizational commitment of Chief Housing Officers and (2) review background factors such as gender, salary range, and institutional type Chief Housing Officers and any relationships related to level of locus of control and organizational commitment. The role of Chief Housing Officers requires a wide array of skills, which include a multitude of daily job stressors. How a Chief Housing Officer manages these stressors has an impact on the success, and longevity of his or her career within the role. When organizational commitment is high, longevity is more likely and some particular level of success will be obtained. The level of locus of control a person has is related to their level of organizational commitment. Specifically, if an individual has a high sense of internal locus of control then the individual will experience a higher level of organizational commitment. Existing research examines the high attrition rates among workers in the student affairs field and the relation to level of organizational commitment. However, at the time of this study, there has been limited research that determines if such a relationship exists for Chief Housing Officers. In addition, there has been no specific research study that has examined the effects of locus of control on Chief Housing Officers' organizational commitment.

Eat glass and walk on fire, while managing a pandemic: Narratives of African American women who serve as senior housing officers.

“…African American women and other staff from other minoritized backgrounds are better represented among entry-level positions with 34% of residence hall managers identifying as non-White (Association of College and University Housing Officers-International, 2019) but advancement to senior leadership position is often unattainable. Less than a decade ago, only 10.3% of senior housing officers identified as non-White (Erwin & Marina, 2013). By 2019, this percentage had increased to approximately 25% but still did not align with the increasing diversity of residential students, as almost half of all first-time, full-time college students This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”

“…Colleagues often fail to acknowledge their leadership position and dismiss their contributions (Lewis-Flenaugh & Myrick, 2022). Likely due to feeling silenced and invisible in their divisions and at the institution (Myrick, 2020), African American senior housing officers report lower levels of personal alignment with their organization (Erwin & Marina, 2013). They look for community with other Black professionals at the institution (Broom, 2022) and utilize complex coping strategies to manage the discrimination they encounter (Broom, 2022).…”

“…But residence life staff also report challenges due to the long hours, stressful work environments, and emotionally draining responsibilities (Vaughn, 2013). While residence life positions are common steppingstones to senior leadership in student affairs (Biddix, 2011), women in senior housing officer positions report fewer advancement opportunities (Erwin & Marina, 2013).…”

Relating job satisfaction and organisational commitment: The moderating and mediating roles of positive individual strengths

“…Locus of control has consistently been related to employees' organisational commitment (Rank & Puapradit, 2017). According to Erwin (2011), a person with a strong internal locus of control will subsequently have a high level of commitment. Chhabra (2013) showed that the locus of control moderated the relationship between job satisfaction and organisational commitment.…”