Employee Satisfaction and Commitment towards their Organisation

Commitment towards organisations continues to receive much attention from academicians and practicalists. A reason for this level of attention is the evidence showing that the commitment towards their organisations will determine whether individuals truly act according to the requirements set forth by the organisations such as effective work or lack of absenteeism, quitting job, late for work or lethargy (Porter, Steers, Mowday, & Boulian, 1974). Commitment towards the organisations is defined and evaluated based on different methods. Allen’s and Meyers’ (1990) pointed out three factors affecting the behaviour relating to the commitment towards the organisational behaviour, being commitment based on sentiment, long-term commitment and commitment based on specific standards. Commitment based on sentiment discusses about the active and willing involvement of individuals in the organisations (Mowday, Steers & Porter, 1979). Long-term commitment reflects the willingness of individuals to keep working for the organisations because of the lost investment if quitting these jobs. (Becker, 1960). The last factor, commitment based on specific standards relates to the obligation to stick with the organisations (Wiener, 1982).

 

Human beings always have complicated attitudes and experience (Hodson, 1991). Attitudes tend to affect one another and are grouped into different categories (Knoop, 1995). An individual who develops a positive attitude towards an aspect of the job will also tend to enjoy other aspects of the jobs. A variable which can be used to forecast the commitment towards the organisations is employees’ satisfaction. Job satisfaction is a broad concept, relating to an individual’s attitude towards his job or several aspects of the jobs (Hodson, 1991). It is defined as a variable of attitude measuring the level of satisfaction that the employees have regarding different aspects of the jobs (Spector, 1997).

 

Although some researchers argue that the commitment is the first step leading job satisfaction (Bateman & Strasser, 1984; Culver, Wolfle, & Cross, 1990), many others find no evidences (Cury, Wakefield, Price, & Mueller, 1986; Koslowsky, Caspy, & Lazar, 1991). Many researchers theorises that the job satisfaction leads to commitment to the organisations (DeCotiis & Summers, 1987; Mathieu, 1988; Mathieu & Hamel, 1989). Porter and colleagues (1974) suggested that job satisfaction represents the unstable reaction towards to working environment in comparison to the commitment towards the organisations. Research by Williams’s and Hazer’s shows little evidence proving the connections between commitment and job satisfaction. However, the theory that job satisfaction leading to commitment is more probable. There seems to be some evidences proving that job satisfaction does result in commitment towards the organisations. In this research, there are several hypotheses that an individual who is very satisfied with his job will start to work harder and display increasing level of commitment towards his organisation.

 

Job satisfaction is the level of which a person really likes his job (Spector, 1997). This is an subjective reaction of each individual towards certain working conditions. Most of the questions regarding job satisfaction are based on two-factor theory by Hezberg, Mausner, and Snyderman (1959). The theory agrees that customers’ satisfaction is due to both internal and external factors (e.g Minnesota’s Multiple Choice Questions regarding satisfaction and Job analytic investigation). In the recent research, the two-factor theory is regarded as the cornerstone to determine the job satisfaction. The first group of factors, also known as encouraging factors, includes factors such as self-control, progress, cognitive skills, responsibilities and achievements. The second group of factors, also known as factors relating to……., includes factors such as salaries, positions, policies, encouragement and work safety (Robbins, 2000). Dessler (1980) argues that internal rewarding factors will have a greater impact on the commitment towards organisations compared to external rewarding factors. This research will study on the internal-rewarding encouragement factors or external-rewarding factors which have significant impacts on commitment based on sentiment, long-term commitment and commitment based on specific standards.

 

In today’s world, change has become an integral part of the organisations as well as their members. During the recent education’s reform and restructure, the focus is on developing different methods to improve the teachers’ commitment towards schools at which they are working. Organisations should understand the level of job satisfaction, commitment towards the organisations, especially when change is needed. Each teacher is a valuable asset to the schools. They interact with students more than any other members in the schools. The teachers’ task at hand is to support, encourage and teach their students. The reputation of a school will thus not only depend on the availability of modern teaching equipment, good management or large dormitories, but on the trust and stability of its workforce.