Teacher Commitment and Job Satisfaction: Which Comes First?.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the causal relationship between teacher commitment to the school organization and job satisfaction in a model of teacher commitment using longitudinal career ladder data. Two focal measures (commitment and satisfaction) and demographic predictors from 854 teachers were analyzed for this study. Cross-lagged correlation/regression analyses were used to determine the causal ordering of teacher commitment and job satisfaction in time-lagged situations. Data analyses clearly support the hypothesis that commitment is different from satisfaction and that satisfaction has greater causal predominance over commitment, with more predictive power than commitment. The findings indicate that satisfaction is a determinant of commitment. A practical implication of this study is that school administrators need to work on creating teacher job satisfaction before the teacher develops a sense of commitment toward the organization. Forty-three referances and four data tables are included. (AMH) ********0 ****** **** *********** ************ ***** ********** ****** ** ***** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ** ***** **** ************ ***** ***** ******* ***** ******** ************* ***** TEACHER COMMITMENT AND JOB SATISFACTION: WHICH COMES FIRST?