Work and Commitment Among Young Professionals: A Study of Male and Female Dentists

Abstract

This research examines gender differences in personal characteristics, work experiences, work attitudes, and professional commitment for a group of young (age < 45) dentists. While males and females had similar work attitudes, they differed in work experience -males worked more hours, saw more patients, and earned higher incomes. Males had higher scores on affective and behavioral professional commitment measures than did females, but the gender difference was significant only for behavioral commitment. For both females and males, affective professional commitment was related positively to job satisfaction, office cohesion, having young children, and negatively related to stress. The relationship between owning the practice and affective professional commitment was greater for men than women, whereas the relationship between the proportion of office staff who are close friends and affective professional commitment was greater for women than men. For males, behavioral commitment was related positively to being married, being a specialist, working more hours, having higher income and belonging to the professional association. For females, behavioral commitment was related positively to job involvement, office cohesion, and the number of days worked each week. Results suggest that affiliation is related more closely to professional commitment among females, while practice control and productivity are related more closely to professional commitment among males.

The dimensionality of professional commitment

“…This was contrary to expectations (Colarelli & Bishop, 1990;Kaldenberg, Becker, & Zvonkovic, 1995). Further studies are required before any recommendations can be made regarding the importance of personal characteristics in understanding professional commitment.…”

Consequence of Gender and Job Characteristics with Normative Commitment

“…On the other hand, Women have less opportunities with other organizations and overcome more barriers to get where they are, thus they are more likely to be committed to their organizations. Nevertheless, there are studies that report greater organizational commitment by men, even after controlling for job-related factors (Kaldenberg et al, 1995).…”

“…On personal characteristics, some earlier research has suggested those women and especially those who work part time and married women with children will have lower levels of commitment to their work than men. One set of studies reports greater organizational commitment by men (Arana et al, 1986;Baird et al, 1998;DoddMcCue and Wright, 1996;Kaldenberg et al, 1995). However, in some of these studies, the bivariate results lose their significance once job-related factors are entered as controls (Arana et al, 1986;Dodd-McCue and Wright, 1996).…”

“…On the other hand, Women have less opportunities with other organizations and overcome more barriers to get where they are, thus they are more likely to be committed to their organizations. Nevertheless, there are studies that report greater organizational commitment by men, even after controlling for job-related factors (Kaldenberg et al, 1995).Another set of studies, including a meta-analysis (Matthieu and Zajec, 1990), reports greater commitment by women, a finding consistent with several subsequent individual studies (Marsden et al, 1993;Wahn, 1998). A third set of studies (Bielby and Bielby, 1989;Bruning and Snyder, 1983;Fry and Greenfeld, 1980), including another meta-analysis (Aven et al, 1993), report no sex differences in organizational commitment especially after controlling for job related variables, again with supportive evidence from individual studies conducted subsequently (Ngo and Tsang, 1998;Korabik and Rosen, 1995;Siguaw and Honeycutt, 1995).…”

Organizational Commitment of Para-Medical Staff with reference to Marital Status

“…In the view of Chughtai & Zafar (2006), marital status has emerged as a consistent predictor of organizational commitment. Kalenberg et al (1995), in their study of dentists, found that marriage is related to commitment. However, this relationship was only significant for behavioral commitment among males.…”