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CORRELATES OF PERSONAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS ON ORGANISATIONAL COMMITMENT OF WORKERS OF PRIVATE SECTORS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background to the Study

Organizational commitment (OC) has been in existence for many years and had been identified as a central construct in understanding the relationship between the employee and the employer (Allen & Meyer 1996). Definitions of the construct indicate its significance in binding the individual both to the organization and to courses of action which are relevant to the target of the commitment (Meyer & Herscovitch, 2001). With regard to the former, analyses consistently indicate significant correlations between OC and job satisfaction as well as emotional intelligent, motivation coupled with highly esteemed personnel that will reflect the banner of the organisation (Randall 1990). With regard to the latter, further relationships have been identified between components of OC and a range of discretionary and extra-role positive behaviours of employees (Meyer & Herscovitch, 2001).     As used here, organizational commitment is a psychological state that categorizes the employees’ relationship with the organization or as viewed to be the aggregate internalized normative demands to perform in a manner which meets organizational objectives and interests, it is understood as a commitment to the entire organization.

However, three components of commitment have been identified, each of which ties the employee to their organization but the nature of the "psychological-bonding" is different. Affective commitment (AC) ties people through their emotional attachment, involvement, and identification with the organization. Continuance commitment (CC) depends on employees' awareness of the costs of leaving the organization. Normative commitment (NC) rests on employees' obligatory feelings towards co-workers or management. Each component might have different antecedents and, while all lead to a reduced intention to leave the organization, result in different outcomes for employees' discretionary extra-role behaviour (Gautam, van Dick & Wagner, 2001).

Researchers believed that Nigerian workers are not committed to their organizations (Olugbile, 1996). Others believed that they are committed to organizational goals but it is the organizations that do not show commitment to the plight of the workers (Alarape & Akinlabi,2000). They believed that organizational commitment reflects one side of the reciprocal relationship between the employer and the employee and as such each party has to play its role. Organizations need committed workers in order to face the world wide economic competition. Indeed, some researchers found that organizational commitment is a function of several variables such as job satisfaction, motivation, participative decision making, organizational support, financial reward, communication, promotion prospect and leadership style (Alarape & Akinlabi, 2000; Brown,2003; Salami & Omole, 2005).

The management of people at work is an integral part of the management process. To understand the critical importance of people in the organization is to recognize that the human element and the organization are synonymous. The thought of organizational commitment is an important point in management. The thought is one of basic values on which organizing depend upon, and the staff is evaluated regarding to commitment criteria (Angle, & Perry, 1983.).

Organizational commitment is an attitude towards employee’s loyalty to organization and a consistent process in which people’s cooperation with organizational decisions depicts their attention to organization and its success. The concept of organizational commitment has attracted considerable attention over recent years and has become a central objective of human resource management. Commitment can be described as attachment and loyalty which individual can display at a variety of levels: their job, profession, department, boss or organization. More specifically, organizational commitment has been defined by Mowdray,(1992 as consisting of three components: an identification with the goals and values of the organization, a desire to belong to the organization and a willingness to display effort on behalf of the organization.

The term commitment can be defined in various ways. For example, O’Reilly, (2006) focus on the psychological bond that ties the employee to the organization. Motivation is a basic psychological process. Managers and management researchers have long believed that organizational goals are unattainable without the enduring commitment of members of the organization. Motivation is a human psychological characteristic that contributes to a person’s degree of commitment. Stoke in Adeyemo,(1999) goes on to say that there are basic assumptions of motivation practices by managers which must be understood. First, motivation is commonly assumed to be a good thing but one cannot feel very good about oneself if one is not motivated. Is one of the several factors that stimulate effectiveness to be released by an employee such as human ability, resources and conditions under which one performs are also important. Furthermore, researchers alike assume that motivation is in short supply and in need of periodic replenishment. Fourth, motivation is a tool which managers can use in the organizations. If managers know what drives the people working for them they can tailor job assignment and rewards to what makes these people “tick”. Motivation can also be conceived of as whatever takes to encourage workers to perform by fulfilling or appealing to their needs. According to Olajide (2000), it is goal-directed and therefore cannot be outside the goals of any organization whether public, private or non-profit. Luthans (1998) asserts that motivation is the process that arouses, energizes, directs and sustains behavior and performance. That is, it is the process of stimulating people to action and to achieve a desired task. Motivation is a human psychological characteristic that contributes to a person’s degree of commitment (Stoke, 1999).

Work motivation is a process used to encourage and inspire workers to perform their jobs thoroughly and well. It is done by owners, managers and other employees of a company, complimenting and encouraging employees. It is also accomplished through employee reviews where strong points of employee’s performance and personalities are pointed out. Job motivation begins with selecting the right employees for the company and delegating the best duties suited for each individual. The purpose of job motivation is to boost employee morale by encouraging and influencing them in a positive way. When employees’ morale is high, they perform their job duties more efficiently. Job motivation gives employees initiative to want to perform well. It also keeps employees interested in their job. Part of job motivation is making the employees feel valuable to the company. When employees feel like they are an important commodity to the company, productivity increases.

The term emotional intelligence was not introduced as a research mainstream until the 1990s. The concept of emotional intelligence has emerged as a growing research topic among organizational and business research. In general, emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and in others (Goleman, 1995).Emotional intelligence is claimed to influence various work behaviors, such as teamwork, development of talent, innovation, quality of service, customer loyalty and employee commitment (Zeidner, Matthew, & Roberts, 2004). Emotionally competent staffs are an important asset to the private industry, because they likely possess skills and abilities to create rapport with private members and build relationships with them and also their co-workers (Ashkanass & Daus, 2005; Goleman 1995). Emotionally intelligent people may be more aware of their own feelings as well as the feelings of others, including co-workers and may be able to identify and manage them according to the theories of emotional intelligence. Understanding and managing one’s own and others emotions are likely to influence job attitudes and behavioral choices in the workplace (Rozell, Pettijoh, & Parker 2004). In literature, emotional intelligence is considered very important for success in the world of work (Bellamy & Bellamy,2003; Adeyemo &Aremu, 2005,2007; Aremu &Lawal, 2009; Adeyemo (2009).

It has been discovered that all categories of employee needs satisfaction which is now known to be the most psychological factor that enhances organizational commitment. Satisfaction has also been examined under various demographics of gender, age, race, education and work experience. Most studies on job satisfaction have been designed towards the person-environment fit prototype. Job satisfaction has been found to be an important area of research because one of the top reasons individuals gives for leaving a job is dissatisfaction. Locke and Lathan(1976) give a comprehensive definition of job satisfaction as pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or experience. Job satisfaction is a result of employee’s perception of how well their job provides those things that are viewed as important. According to Mitchell and Lasan, (1987), it is generally recognized in the organizational behavior field that job satisfaction is the most important and frequently studied attitude. It is so important that its absence often leads to lethargy and reduced organizational commitment (Levinson, 1997, Moser, 1997).

Self efficacy is an important component of Bandura’s (1986). Social cognitive theory suggests that an individual’s behavior, environment and cognitive factors (outcome expectations and self efficacy) are all highly interrelated. Bandura (1978) defined self-efficacy as a judgment of one’s ability to execute a particular behavior pattern. Wood and Bandura (1989) expanded on this definition by suggesting that self-efficacy beliefs form a central role in the regulatory process through which an individual’s motivation and performance attainments are governed. Self efficacy judgments also determine how much effort people will spend on a task and how long they will persist with it. People with strong self efficacy beliefs exert greater efforts or even quit (Bandura & Schunk 1981; Brown & Inouyne, 1978; Schunk, 1981 and Weinberg 1979). However, organizational commitment as believing and accepting to the goals and values of organization, possessing and showing desire to be part of the organization by a committed employee.

1.2   Statement of the Problem

An adage once said that it is impossible to please man and in view of the above statement, satisfaction to personnel in an organisation will be a less positive reflection to the employees. This study intends to find ways to improve how workers feel about their jobs so that these workers would become more committed to their organization. Organizational commitment predicts work variables such as turnover, organizational citizenship behavior and job performance. Some of the factors such as role stress, empowerment, job insecurity and employability and distribution of leadership have been shown to be connected to a worker’s sense of organizational commitment.

In one word, every lack in each of the variables hampered the effectiveness of the organizational commitment, when the general roles to a successful implementation to such needs, there is tends to be a pitfall to such events. It has been observed that weak job motivation, low morale to intelligence and poor satisfaction to organizational commitment will brings absolutely negative effects to such organisation with a decreased turnover rate and turnover intention which is affecting organizational efficiency and effectiveness negatively. (Lum, 1998 & Becker, 1996; Cohen and Hudacek, 1998), jointly suggested that employees who exhibit high organizational commitment are happier at their work, spend less time away from their jobs and are less likely to leave the organization. Organizational commitment can be contrasted with other work related attitudes such as job satisfaction, job motivation, job efficacy and emotional intelligence which serve as the only ingredient for maximal performance in an organisation.

1.3    Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to determine the correlates of personal- psychological factors on organizational commitment of workers in private sectors in Ibadan North local government area of Oyo state.  This research work is being carried out in order to accomplish the following specific objects. These include:

1·  To investigate the relationship that exists among the independent variables (job motivation, emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, job efficacy, gender, marital status and job status) and the dependent variable (organisational commitment) of workers in private sectors in Ibadan North local government area, Oyo state.

2·  To determine the combined contributions of the independent variables (job motivation, emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, job efficacy, gender, marital status and job status) and the dependent variable (organisational commitment) of workers in private sectors in Ibadan North local government area, Oyo state.

3·  To investigate the relative contributions (job motivation, emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, job efficacy, gender, marital status and job status) and the dependent variable (organisational commitment) of workers in private sectors in Ibadan North local government area, Oyo state.

1.4     Significance of the Study

This study is significant in that its findings will contribute to the existing body of literature and organizational psychology, policy makers in the private industries, personnel psychologists and counseling psychologists will find the findings of the study very useful to their organization. The founding of the study will serve as a major catalyst in awakening the consciousness of the role of job motivation, emotional intelligence, job satisfaction and efficacy as factors that enhance the organizational commitment of workers in the organization and in driving human behavior towards a productive behavior. The outcome of this study will also enable workers to appraise their emotion and their efficacy in order to discover their strengths and weaknesses vis-à-vis their job performance. It will not be fair on the part of management of any company not to introduce motivational factors that will enhance workers organizational commitment in order to achieve the goals of the organization. This study is relevant to the management of private sectors in Ibadan as well as other organizations which have as one of their organizational goals increased organizational commitment. The findings of this study will help the society to understand the place of each of these personal psychological factors on organizational commitment and this understanding will motivate them to contribute their own quota to workers in private sectors. The study is unique due to the programmatic shift from the status quo, no similar study have been reported among workers in organization.

1.5    Scope of the Study

This research work covers the selected group of workers of private sectors in Ibadan. The study broadly covered the personal psychological factors on organizational commitment.

1.6     Operational Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined operationally as used in this study.

Emotional intelligent (E.I):  Emotional intelligence (E.I) is a set of competencies which direct and control workers in private sectors feelings towards work and significant people at work place.

Work Motivation:  This is defined as the desires of private workers to excel in their work or Motivation is the state of being encouraged to action through an internal willing act.

Organizational Commitment: Organization commitment can be defined as attachment of employees to the organization or is the aggregate internalized normative demands to perform in a manner which meets organizational objectives and interests.

Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction is a broad awareness that focuses on the pleasurable and positive emotional state resulting from the           approval of one’s job experience or the joy derived from carrying out an expected action.

Job Efficacy (work self-efficacy): Is defined as an assessment of workers’ confidence in managing workplace experiences while contributing to the productivity of the organisation.

Teachers in Private Sector: This are sets of employees in an organisation whereby the staff is not in direct control of the government agencies.