Abstract
The study examined some demographic (gender, age, length of service,
educational qualification and marital status) and organisational (level of job
tension and perceived job characteristics) antecedents of commitment among
employees of fourteen SMEs in Imo State of Nigeria. A total of 174
participants, comprising of 117 females and 57 males, aged between 18 – 40
years with a mean age of 24.99 years and SD of 4.56 were administered with
three instruments: Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn and Snoek’s (1964) Job-related
Tension Inventory; Hackman and Oldman’s (1975) Job Characteristics Scale
and Meyer, Allen and Smith’s (1993) three dimensional Organisational
Commitment Questionnaire adapted by Gbadamosi (2006). A One-Way
MANOVA was used to analyse data collected. Results indicated that,
employees did not significantly differ in their levels of job tension on the three
dimensions of organisational commitment (F = 3.357, P> 0.05; F = 0.292, P >
0.05; F = 0.200, P > 0.05). Also, employe
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Previous and more recent studies show that high levels of organisational
commitment (OC) is a catalyst to decreased turnover, increases in
productivity, performance, retention and job satisfaction (Steers, 1977; Angle
& Perry, 1981; Mowday, Porter & Steers 1982; Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Meyer,
Allen & Smith, 1993; Abdullah, Shuib, Muhammad, Khalid, Nor & Jauhar,
2007). As a result, several researchers have increasingly tried to identify
antecedents that determine employee commitment. This is because for
researchers to alter commitment, they have to understand its antecedents.
One area where commitment studies have been relatively spares is in the
Small and Medium Scale Enterprises sectors. In the last two decades,
government and non-governmental agencies have given a lot of emphasis on
the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria (Sansui,
2003). Various programs and facilities have and are still being provided to
increase the performance of SMEs. The activities of government in this area,
within the last nine years of democratic experience, have offered SMEs viable
opportunities for growth. In further response to these efforts, investors are
springing up in this sector, with Nigeria experiencing more and more
investments in SME (Ukaegbu, 2005).
However, it should be recognised that dependence on these efforts alone have
not guaranteed the success of Nigerian SMEs. SME employee’s attitude and
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psychological attachment towards their organisations’ goals are among recent
factors that have been identified that could contribute to the growth or
decline of their organisation (Abdullah, Shuib, Muhammad, Khalid, Nor &
Jauhar, 2007).
Usually, SMEs are used as stepping-stones by unskilled or semi-skilled
employees to gain experience or additional experience before moving on to
bigger and better firms. These unskilled and semi-skilled employees, most
times, form the fulcrum of growth in SMEs. As a result, SMEs suffer due to the
loss of human assets, who become skilled on the job and could have
contributed better to improve the firms’ productivity in the long run.
The dire need to retain and encourage commitment of employees in this
sector is therefore imminent; as such efforts would not only improve the
growth of Nigerian SMEs but would ensure that the target for which
government has placed so much emphasis on SME is achieved. One way to
achieve this is by identifying the factors that determine the organisational
commitment of SME employees. For ease of discussion, the antecedents of
employees’ organisational commitment focused on in this study would be
divided into two broad categories: demographic characteristics and
organisational characteristics.
Amongst some identified demographic characteristics that could predict
employee commitment are; age, educational level, gender, job grade-level, job
tenure, family life cycle status (made up of marital status; number of children;
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age of youngest and oldest child; and number of children living at home),
salary, and alternative job opportunities (Camilleri, 2002).
Age and tenure are believed to be demographic characteristics, which are
positively correlated with commitment. As employees get older and remain in
their organisations, their commitment increases, probably because alternative
employment opportunities diminish for older people or because commitment
may be a successful strategy in getting along. Or it may be, quite simply, that
more committed employees’ stay with the organisation longer.
Higher education is however associated with lower commitment, perhaps
because educated people have expectations which their organisations cannot
meet or are more committed to their professions (professional bodies) than to
organisations. It may also be that alternative work opportunities are greater.
Also, employees with lower educational level have been shown to have higher
continuance OC while those with high educational level appear to feel less
obligated to remain with the organisation. This could be because employees
with higher educational qualification will tend to have greater expectations
than the organisation may offer thus they become less committed.
Women are usually more committed than men to their organisations, possibly
because they have to overcome more barriers to getting into those
organisations or because fewer alternatives are available to them.
The marital status of an employee is believed to have a positive influence on
organisational commitment. This could be because married employees with
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dependent children are most times the breadwinners of their families; hence
they have more personal responsibilities and greater financial burdens than
their single counterparts. As a result, they are inclined not to risk leaving their
organisation.
Organisational characteristics include aspects of the task (e.g., skill variety,
task autonomy) the employee is engaged in, the degree to which the job is
interesting to the incumbent (e.g., job challenge and scope) and the degree to
which the job is defined and is under the control of the incumbent (e.g., role
conflict and role ambiguity) (Beck & Wilson, 1998). Several organisational
characteristics are correlated with commitment. Broad Job roles are positively
associated with commitment, perhaps because broad jobs challenge people
more than narrow jobs or because people with broader jobs (e.g. managers
and the like) often have already demonstrated their commitment, which is
why they have been given the broader jobs (Hahn, 2007). Role conflict and
role overload are negatively associated with commitment; role ambiguity
have mixed association (Lee & Schuler, 1982; Smith & Brannick, 1990). Thus,
when people have broad and clear jobs, commitment may increase, but if their
jobs are ambiguous, commitment decreases.
According to Steers (1977), there are three groups of antecedents, which act
as variables determining the level of commitment a worker will have towards
the workplace. The first group are demographic characteristics. Demographic
characteristics are factors that define the worker, and they include age,
opportunities for achievement, education, and role tension. The second group
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are the characteristics of the job and includes challenge, social interaction, and
feedback. The last group specify the importance of work experience, as work
experience is viewed “as a major socialising force and as such represents an
important influence on the extent to which psychological attachments are
formed with the organisation” (Steers 1977), these include group attitudes,
organisation dependability and trust, levels of personal investment, feelings of
personal importance to the organisation, and the expectations of rewards.
Over the years these antecedent factors have been validated by various
researchers (Grusky 1966; Mowday, Porter & Steers 1982; Meyer & Allen
1997; Camilleri 2002).
1.2 Employee Commitment
Literature defines commitment as an employee’s level of attachment to some
aspect of work (Rajendran & Raduan, 2005). Various authors have been
instrumental in identifying different types of employee commitment as critical
constructs in understanding attitudes and behaviours of employees in an
organisation. Meyer and Lynne (2001) identified more than 25 employee
commitment concepts and measures. They further group commitment into
three foci; commitment to work/job, commitment to career/profession and
commitment to organisation.
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Figure 1.1: Typology of Employee Commitment (Source: Mayer & Lynne,
2001)
Work commitment refers neither to commitment to the organisation nor to
ones career, but to employment itself (Baruch, 1998; Hagen & Nelson, 2001).
Employees who are committed to their work hold a strong sense of duty
towards their work and place intrinsic value on work as a central life interest
(Mottaz, 1988; Saros & Santora, 2001).
On the other hand, career commitment refers to identification with, and
involvement in ones occupation. It is similar in conceptualization to
occupational commitment (Mellor, Mathieu, Farell & Rogelberg, 2001).
Employees who are high in career commitment tend to be committed to their
career or occupation rather than to the organisation of which the employee is
a part of.
Organisational commitment forms a subset of employee commitment. It is the
willingness of employees to accept organisational values, and goals, and to
Employee Commitment
Organisational
Commitment
Career/Professional
Commitment
Work/Job
Commitment
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work towards achieving these; to be fully involved, and participate, in all the
activities, both work and non-work related, of the organisation; and to
dedicate time, and effort, towards the betterment of the organisation
(Herscovitch & Mayer, 2002; Rajendran & Raduan, 2005). The committed
employee, for example, is less absent, and is less likely to leave the
organisation voluntarily, than are less committed employees (Herscovitch &
Mayer, 2002).
For the purpose of this study, Commitment is defined as “a force that binds an
individual towards a course of action” (Meyer & Herscovitch, 2001). In the
case of employees in the Nigerian SME sector, commitment keeps them with
the organisation, irrespective of other openings available to them as a result of
the skill they have acquired. The concept of commitment is relevant because
commitment influences behaviours independently of other motives and
attitudes and, in fact, can lead to persistence in a course of action even in the
face of conflicting motives or attitudes. Commitment, for instance, can lead
individuals to behave in ways that, from the perspective of neutral observers,
might seem contrary to their self-interest.
1.3 Organisational Commitment and Demographic Characteristics
Demographic characteristics refer to those unique, individual factors, which
determine the attitude of an employee towards his or her job. Some
demographic characteristics that determine organisational commitment
include demographic variables such as age, educational level, gender, job
grade-level, job tenure, family life cycle status (made up of marital status;
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number of children; age of youngest and oldest child; and number of children
living at home), salary, and alternative job opportunities (Camilleri, 2002).
Most researchers agree that these variables do influence organisational
commitment of employees. There are however divergent views as to whether
most of the identified demographic characterises negatively or positively
affect organisational commitment of employees. Also, most of these studies
have been western oriented and focused on large organisations. There is
therefore need to evaluate the generalizability of these finding in Nigeria and
in small and medium sized organisations.
1.4 Organisational Antecedents of Commitment
Organisational Characteristics in the context of this study refer to those job
specific factors inherent in the job that could result in reducing or increasing
employee’s organisational commitment. These characteristics include aspects
of the task (e.g., skill variety, task autonomy) the employee is engaged in, the
degree to which the job is interesting to the incumbent (e.g., job challenge and
scope) and the degree to which the job is defined and is under the control of
the incumbent (e.g., role conflict and role ambiguity) (Beck & Wilson, 1998).
In this study, organisational characteristics encompass two broad dimensions;
job characteristics and role tension.
Job characteristics were defined comprehensively by Hackman & Oldham
(1976) who argued that to enhance employee motivation the job must have
five core characteristics i.e. skill variety, task significance, task identity,
autonomy and feedback. Researchers have attempted to examine relationship
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between job characteristics and different variables including organisational
commitment. To raise job satisfaction (and organisational commitment)
among their employees, managers need to reduce the gap between the
importance and likelihood values for job characteristics that involve the
acquisition of skills (Linz, 2003). There are various dimensions of job
characteristics and their importance in the Human Resource Management is
well established.
1.5 Statement of the Problem
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are springing up at an alarming rate in
Nigeria. Their role towards the growth of Nigeria’s economy cannot be
underestimated. For this reason, government and non-governmental agencies
have, in the last two decades, increased awareness and support given to
entrepreneurs to invest in SMEs (Sanusi, 2003). Such investments by Nigerian
SMEs have continued to increase with these SMEs employing more and more
hitherto unemployed Nigerians. It is believed that SMEs employ over 58% of
the global working population and contribute over 30% to the global Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) (NigerianBusinessInfo, 2006). Moreover, SMEs have
continued to face severe constraints in Nigeria. The main identified
constraints are poor funding (NigerianBusinessInfo, 2006) and inadequate
managerial skills (Sanusi, 2003). These reasons contribute to the alarming
rate at which SMEs become moribund.
However, there may be more unidentified constraints than has been
attributed to poor financing and inadequate management skills. One of these
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unidentified constraints is the low level of organisational commitment among
SME employee. Employees in SMEs use such organisations as stepping-stones
because they are unskilled or semi-skilled. So, when these employees gain
experience or additional experience, they move on to bigger and better firms.
Also, since employees form the fulcrum of the daily organisational activity,
thereby determining the upswing in business activity and consequently, the
success of the organisation depends, to a large extent, on their high level
commitment which in the case of Nigerian SMEs is doubtful.
Furthermore, SME employees’ commitment may not only be as a result of the
organisation type. Demographic characteristics such as age, educational level,
gender, job grade-level, job tenure, family life cycle status (made up of marital
status; number of children; age of youngest and oldest child; and number of
children living at home), salary, and alternative job opportunities influence
their level of commitment. Also, the inherent organisational characteristics of
the job such as aspects of the task (e.g., skill variety, task autonomy) the
employee is engaged in, the degree to which the job is interesting to the
incumbent (e.g., job challenge and scope) and the degree to which the job is
defined and is under the control of the incumbent (e.g., role conflict and role
ambiguity) could also be influencing the low level of commitment among SME
employees.
1.6 Significance of the Study
Theoretically, this study added to the body of knowledge on the general
subject of employee commitment. From a practical point of view, this study
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would be of immense benefits to SMEs in Nigeria. In that it would provide
them with ample evidence on the organisational commitment level of SME
employees.
Also, the study would provide government and non-governmental agencies
with crucial data on factors, other than poor financial and inadequate
managerial skills that could result in reduced expansion of the SME sector.
1.7 Objective of the Study
The objectives of this study were:
1. To identify whether SME employees’ level of organisational commitment
(on three dimensions) is inversely related to their level of job-related
tension.
2. To access whether SME employees’ level of organisational commitment
will be different from their perceived level of job characteristics.
3. To find out whether older employees were different on the three
dimensions of organisational commitment than their younger
counterparts.
4. To identify if female employees will be different on the three dimensions
of organisational commitment than their male counterparts.
5. To confirm whether SME employee’s differ on the three dimensions of
organisational commitment based on length of service
6. To access whether the three dimensions of organisational commitment
differs among employees of different level of educational qualification
7. To identify if married SME employees differs on the three dimensions of
organisational commitment from their single counterparts.
Thus the conceptual model of the study:
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Figure 1.2: Conceptual model of the study
Job-Related Tension:
? Role Conflict
? Role Ambiguity
Organisational
Commitment:
? Affective commitment
? Normative Commitment
? Continuance Commitment
Demographic
Characteristics:
? Age
? Gender
? Tenure
? Educational Level
? Marital Status
Organisational
Characteristics
Perceived Job
Characteristics:
? Skill variety
? Task identity
? Task significance
? Autonomy
? Feedback from the job,
? Feedback from agents
? Dealing with others