Organizational commitment, supervisory commitment, and employee outcomes in the Chinese context: proximal hypothesis or global hypothesis?

Abstract

Abstract This study examines the relationship between organizational commitment and supervisory commitment (commitment to supervisor) in terms of their effects on employee outcomes in the Chinese context. Based on the principle of compatibility, we hypothesized that organizational commitment and supervisory commitment served as logical mediators (global hypothesis and proximal hypothesis) for predicting organization‐relevant and leader‐relevant outcomes respectively. Moreover, because of the impact of personalism in Chinese culture, we predicted that supervisory commitment also significantly influenced organization‐relevant outcomes, in addition to its effect on leader‐relevant outcomes. Two separate questionnaires were administered to 538 subordinates and their supervisors in Taiwanese companies. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical block regression analysis shows that the principle of compatibility and personalism can explain the proposed relationship in this study. Implications and research directions are discussed in light of Chinese culture for future investigation into organizational commitment and supervisory commitment. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.