Antecedents of organizational commitment and the mediating role of job satisfaction

TLDR

The study investigates how nurses’ perceptions of hospital and ward cultures relate to their job satisfaction and commitment. Nurses in seven hospitals completed a questionnaire on culture, leadership, demographics, and job satisfaction, and regression analysis examined how these factors predict job satisfaction and commitment. Ward culture was a stronger predictor of commitment than hospital culture, and controlling for job satisfaction did not diminish the influence of any predictor, suggesting managers should target subcultures to boost commitment.

Abstract

Investigates the relationships between employees’ perceptions of organisational culture and subculture, and job satisfaction and commitment. Questionnaires containing the above measures were distributed to nurses employed in seven large hospitals and a total of 251 responses were obtained. Measures of leadership style and employee demographics were also included in the questionnaire. Regression analysis was used to investigate the extent to which nurses’ job satisfaction and commitment to their wards are predicted by their perceptions of the hospitals’ cultures (or organisational culture), the cultures of their wards (or organisation subculture), the leadership styles of their ward managers, and several demographic characteristics including age, experience, education and job tenure. It was found that ward culture was more predictive of commitment than was hospital culture. Also, statistically controlling for job satisfaction did not substantially reduce the influence on commitment of any of the independent variables included in this study. The results suggest that managers may need to focus more on organizational subcultures in generating greater commitment among employees.