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The relationship between
organizational socialization and
commitment in the workplace
among employees in long-term
nursing care facilities
Aaron Cohen and Aya Veled-Hecht
Commitment in
the workplace
537
Received June 2008
Revised July 2008
Accepted July 2008
Department of Political Science, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
Abstract
Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the relationship between organizational socialization and
commitment in the workplace (affective organizational commitment, occupational commitment,
workgroup commitment, work involvement and job involvement). It also examines whether this
relationship holds when organizational justice is included in the equation.
Design/methodology/approach – A total of 109 employees employed no longer than 3.5 years in
long-term nursing care facilities in Israel completed the questionnaire (a 70 per cent response rate).
Findings – The results showed that organizational socialization was related to all forms of
commitment, particularly to organizational commitment, workgroup commitment and job
involvement. The relationship held when organizational justice was added to the equations,
particularly for the previously mentioned three commitment forms. The models explained a relatively
large amount of the variance in commitment forms. The implications of the findings for future
research on commitment and organizational socialization are discussed.
Originality/value – While a number of studies have explored the relationship between socialization
and commitment, very few studies have examined how socialization is related to more than one focus
of commitment simultaneously. This paper aims to fill this gap.
Keywords Nursing, Israel, Long-term care
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The concept of commitment in the workplace has attracted the attention of academics
and practitioners for more than half a century. Many definitions of commitment have
been offered, but it is well accepted that commitment reflects feelings such as
attachment, identification, or loyalty to the object of the commitment (Morrow, 1983,
1993). The concept was initially proposed to replace or enhance older ideas that had
failed to offer a convincing theory of how job satisfaction affects work behaviors such
as turnover and absenteeism (Mowday et al., 1982). As such, it focused primarily on
organizational commitment. From the beginning, lack of organizational commitment
or loyalty has been cited as an explanation for employee absenteeism, turnover,
reduced effort, theft, job dissatisfaction, and unwillingness to be relocated (Morrow,
1993).
Research into organizational commitment boomed in the 1980s and 1990s (Mathieu
and Zajac, 1990) prompted by national anxiety in the USA about what seemed to be a
Personnel Review
Vol. 39 No. 5, 2010
pp. 537-556
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/00483481011064136
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highly motivated and successful Japanese work force (Cohen, 2003). Researchers
believed organizational commitment to be a key factor accounting for the hard work
and low turnover of Japanese workers. Today it is quite clear that neither of these
phenomena has been explained in the way researchers anticipated. The Japanese and
US workforces have been shown to be less different than appeared at first and where
differences do exist, variations in organizational commitment appear to play only a
minor role (Cohen and Gattiker, 1992). For instance, organizational commitment seems
to be only a modest predictor of turnover, certainly not of the magnitude expected
(Cohen, 2003). The upshot of this was a reaction against organizational commitment as
a single, all-explanatory focus. There was an air of disappointment that after so many
years of research, many aspects of the process, determinants, and outcomes of
organizational commitment remained cloudy (Cohen, 2003; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990).
Indeed, some researchers even questioned the need for future research on this concept
(Baruch, 1998; Randall, 1990).
Researchers naturally sought alternative ways to understand commitment and to
pinpoint its contribution in both theory and practice. One important alternative
approach was to characterize commitment as a multidimensional concept. Suggestions
to this effect had been made in earlier research. Rotondi (1975), for example, argued
that it was essential to differentiate between targets of identification in organizations,
such as occupational activities, task groups, or reference groups. Later, such an
approach was advanced by Morrow (1983, 1993) and in the works of Reichers (1985,
1986), Becker (1992), Cohen (1993a, 1998, 2000, 2003), Blau et al. (1993), and others.
These authors delineated a number of specific objects of commitment, including the
organization, the work group, the occupation, the union, one’s job, and even work itself
(Blau et al., 1993; Cohen, 1993b, 1999a, 2003; Randall and Cote, 1991). Together, they
formed what can be termed the multiple commitments approach.
Like any explanatory theory, the multiple-commitment approach must be judged by
the extent to which it offers “added value”. That is, if the recognition that we live in a
multiple-commitment world is to have either theoretical or practical importance, we
must show that examining commitments to different constituencies and domains
refines our understanding of work-related behavior (Cohen, 2003; Meyer and Allen,
1997; Morrow, 1993). Indeed, the multiple commitments approach has been shown to
predict important work outcomes such as withdrawal, performance, absenteeism, and
tardiness (e.g. Blau, 1986; Cohen, 1993a, 1999b, 2000; Wiener and Vardi, 1980). How
and why this is so, however, are still open questions, with researchers taking different,
sometimes contradictory views.
Wiener and Vardi (1980), for example, argued that because individuals in a work
setting simultaneously experience varying degrees of commitment to several aspects
of working life (e.g. the employing organization, the job or task, their personal career),
work outcomes may be best understood as a function of all such commitments, rather
than one or another separately. Steers and Rhodes (1978), in contrast, contended that
outcomes such as absenteeism could be understood as a result of conflict among
commitments, on the grounds that when employees are committed to objects other
than the organization, whether inside or outside the work environment, they will
experience less internal pressure to go to work. Randall and Cote (1991) emphasized the
importance of continued research on the subject, noting that “a multivariate approach
to work commitment research will advance the understanding of how various pieces of
the commitment puzzle fit together and how constellations of work commitment
constructs influence outcome variables” (p. 209).
Thus, though the past few decades have added a great deal to our understanding,
there is still a need for more research on the correlates of commitment – and in
particular, the relationship of different commitment forms to different determinants
(Cohen, 2003). This is an important research question, because resolving it will provide
important evidence about the discriminant validity of commitment forms, particularly
in light of the potential concept redundancy problem in the study of multiple
commitments. Research on this topic is as yet very scarce, and except for a qualitative
analysis of the determinants of commitment forms (Cohen, 2003), almost no studies
have looked into how determinants are related simultaneously to different commitment
foci.
One determinant in particular, organizational-socialization, has rarely been
examined in the context of commitment at all, let alone in relation to different
commitment foci. Indeed, such studies are so thin on the ground that several
meta-analyses (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; Meyer et al., 2002), which examined correlates
of organizational commitment, did not even consider socialization as a determinant,
probably because of lack of data. Two recent meta-analyses that focused on
socialization (Bauer et al., 2007; Saks et al., 2007) showed that a few studies have
examined the relationship between socialization and organizational commitment (e.g.
Allen and Meyer, 1990; Ashforth and Saks, 1996; Ashforth et al., 1998; Baker and
Feldman, 1990; Mitus, 2006). Most studies that have looked at this relationship have
focused on organizational commitment as one of the dependent variables of
socialization or as a mediator in the relationship between socialization and outcomes
(Gruman et al., 2006; Heimann and Pittenger, 1996; Klein et al., 2006; Riordan et al.,
2001). Because organizational commitment is the most researched form of
commitment, very few studies have looked at organizational socialization in relation
to other forms of commitment such as occupational commitment or job involvement.
The lack of research on the relationship between organizational socialization and
commitment forms is surprising, and points to a gap in our understanding of
commitment. We know that commitment influences significant outcomes such as
in-role and extra-role performance and turnover (Cohen, 2003). Likewise, we know that
socialization is a mechanism that can affect the commitment levels of employees,
particularly newcomers (Ashforth and Saks, 1996; Saks et al., 2007). Organizations,
scholars, and practitioners should therefore be very interested in understanding this
relationship.
This study is aimed at addressing this important research issue. It will examine the
relationship between organizational socialization and various commitment foci among
relatively new employees – that is, those in the first few years of employment – in
three long-term nursing care facilities in Israel. This study will make two significant
contributions. First, it will further the multiple-commitments approach by exploring
the relationship between socialization and multiple foci of commitment in the
workplace, not just organizational commitment. Second, it will examine how
organizational socialization relates to commitment when controlling for demographic
variables (age, education, gender) commonly examined in the commitment literature,
and justice variables (distributive and procedural), which represent an important
exchange concept. This examination will provide a broader perspective on the effects
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of socialization. Once an employee begins to accumulate experience in the organization,
do the effects of socialization still hold? The findings of the study will offer guidance
for managers and human resource personnel as well as researchers and academics.
Conceptual framework and research hypotheses
Socialization and multiple commitments
Organizational socialization refers to the process by which newcomers make the
transition from being organizational outsiders to being insiders (Bauer et al., 2007).
Through this process, employees acquire knowledge about and adjust to new jobs,
roles, work groups, and the culture of the organization in order to participate better as
an organizational member (Haueter et al., 2003; Saks et al., 2007). While socialization
can occur at every stage, the socialization of newcomers or new hires in particular is
considered crucial. It is at the initial point of entry into the organization where learning
and adjustment issues are most important and problematic (Gregersen, 1993).
Effective socialization can have lasting and positive effects, enhancing
person-organization fit and person-job fit as well as organizational commitment.
Socialization can affect a variety of constructs that reflect newcomer adjustment
because broadening the knowledge of new hires about the work setting reduces the
uncertainty and anxiety inherent in the early work experience (Ashforth and Saks,
1996; Cooper-Thomas and Anderson, 2002).
The first hypothesis, presented in the following, is already well accepted, based on
previous research. It focuses on the relationship between organizational socialization
and organizational commitment, defined as affective attachment to the organization
(Cohen, 2003), a relationship that has been examined in a number of previous studies
(e.g. Gruman et al., 2006; Heimann and Pittenger, 1996; Klein et al., 2006; Riordan et al.,
2001). Based on this body of work, newcomers who are more socialized should be more
committed than their less-socialized peers. This is because socialization involves
giving employees information through structured experiences, which can help them
overcome their anxiety, confusion and concern about their roles – which in turn can
increase their attachment to and identification with the organization (Allen and Meyer,
1990; Jones, 1988).
While socialization should increase commitment, looking at socialization from a
content perspective (Chao et al., 1994; Haueter et al., 2003) suggests that the process is
not identical for everyone. New employees may vary in how much they learn about the
organization as a whole, and about its norms, goals, values, history, politics, language,
and other features. Employees may also differ in how well they develop the
interpersonal relationships necessary to function successfully in the organization.
These variations can mean that employees develop different levels of commitment,
with those who are more knowledgeable and better adjusted becoming more active and
loyal participants in the organization. Employees who are more knowledgeable may
also feel their employer has a greater vested interest in them. Consequently, they
reciprocate by showing greater loyalty to the organization (Mitus, 2006).
H1. Organizational socialization will be positively related to organizational
commitment.
The unique contribution of this study is its exploration of the relationship between
organizational socialization and multiple forms of commitment in the workplace. The
literature offers a good understanding of how socialization is related to organizational
commitment, as suggested in the previous discussion. The next question is how
socialization might be related to other forms of commitment. Two explanations will be
advanced here.
One approach argues that different commitment forms will be affected differently
by organizational socialization based on whether they are oriented within or outside
the specific work setting – that is, the employing organization (Cohen, 2003).
Organizational socialization is the employer’s way of helping employees fit in so they
can work more effectively (Mowday et al., 1982). Organizational socialization is thus
likeliest to be related to commitment to the employing organization, through the
framework discussed previously, and other commitments that develop as a result of
work experiences in the organization, including the job, defined as a belief about the
present job and tends to be a function of how much the job can satisfy one’s present
needs (Kanungo, 1982), and the work group, defined as an individual’s identification
and sense of cohesiveness with other members of the organization (Randall and Cote,
1991). In contrast, commitments to foci outside the organization, such as the
occupation, defined as one’s attitude to one’s profession or vocation (Blau, 1988), and
the work itself, defined as a normative belief about the value of work in one’s life
(Kanungo, 1982), are less likely to be affected by organizational socialization. Indeed,
work is the most stable commitment focus because a general work-value orientation is
learned early in the socialization process (Shamir, 1986), and is less affected by
characteristics of the specific work setting.
Another approach is based on the logic of proximity as presented by Cohen (2003).
This approach relies on Lawler’s (1992) theory of attachment, a principle of proximal
rules that explains why “actors develop stronger affective ties to subgroups within a
social system rather than to the social system, to local communities rather than to
states, to work organization, and so forth” (Lawler, 1992, p. 334). Interpersonal
attachment produces a stronger commitment to subgroups than to the larger group,
because the credit for positive results is likely to be attributed to the proximal
subgroups, while the blame for negative effects is likely to be attributed to the larger
group (Lawler, 1992). This logic can explain why one will develop a stronger personal
attachment to one’s job than to one’s career. The job is a proximal target, the center of
the immediate work setting, while the career is a much more distant target.
Gregersen (1993) and Mueller and Lawler (1999) argued that proximal variables
exert the most significant influence on employees’ actions because proximity provides
more opportunities for exchange relationships. Mueller and Lawler (1999) focused on
the nested nature of organizational units. The general principle they proposed is that,
given the nesting of one unit within another, employees’ commitment to a particular
organizational unit in the structure will be affected primarily by the work conditions
that are created and controlled by that particular unit. Commitment to the most
proximate unit will be influenced especially by work conditions because day-to-day
experiences in the local unit exert the strongest effects on positive emotions, and
positive emotions produce commitment primarily to this more proximate unit.
According to Gregersen (1993), individuals can come to identify strongly with
proximal and potentially influential foci. Gregersen’s argument can easily be applied to
the relationship between socialization and commitment forms. The organization, the
job, and the work group provide more proximal foci in terms of their relationship to the
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immediate work setting. The basic argument here is that in the workplace context,
organizational socialization will be more strongly related to commitment foci that
provide more opportunities for exchange relationships. Organizational socialization
helps early-stage employees establish more intensive exchange relationships with
these foci by giving them important information about the organization’s expectations,
how they can meet these expectations, and the rewards for doing so. Work involvement
and occupational commitment are less proximal in terms of their relationships to the
work setting. They provide fewer opportunities for exchange relationships, and so
their relationship with organizational socialization is expected to be weaker
(Gregersen, 1993).
H2. Organizational socialization will be positively related to organizational
commitment, job involvement and group commitment. It will have a weak
relationship or no relationship at all with work involvement and occupational
commitment.
Justice, organizational socialization and commitment
Organizational justice is concerned with how employees determine if they have been
treated fairly in their jobs (Moorman, 1991). Three sources of organizational justice are
routinely cited. The first, distributive-justice, is based on equity theory, which states
that perceptions of an unfair distribution of work rewards relative to work input create
tension within the individual, a tension the individual seeks to resolve (Niehoff and
Moorman, 1993). Prior research and theory on social exchange and distributive justice
suggest that when employees receive inducements that are commensurate with their
knowledge, skills and abilities, they are more likely to think that outcomes such as pay,
benefits and terms of work are fair and just (Ang et al., 2003; Greenberg, 1990). These
employees will reciprocate with higher levels of commitment.
The second source, procedural justice, has two components. The first, formal
procedures, refers to the presence or absence of procedures believed to be fundamental
to the fair distribution of rewards. Employees will not be committed to an organization
they perceive to not be procedurally fair (Martin and Bennett, 1996). The second
component, interactional-justice, refers to perceptions of fairness in the enactment of
formal procedures or in explanations of those procedures (Niehoff and Moorman, 1993).
Prior research and theory on social exchange and procedural justice suggest that when
organizational decision-making is consistent and meets the bias suppression rule
(uniform treatment of all), employees have positive assessments of procedural justice
(Ang et al., 2003; Colquitt, 2001; Greenberg, 1990). As a result, employees will
reciprocate with higher levels of commitment.
Following the proximity argument presented in the discussion to H2, we expect
different relationships between the two organizational justice variables and the
different commitment forms. As argued previously, the organization, the job, and the
work group provide more proximal foci in terms of their relationship to the immediate
work setting. Therefore, they are expected to have stronger relationships with
organizational justice. Work involvement and occupational commitment are less
proximal in terms of their relationships to the work setting. Because the foci of these
commitments are less proximal to the work setting, their relationship with
organizational justice is expected to be weaker.
H3. Higher levels of distributive justice and procedural justice will be positively
related to organizational commitment, job involvement and group
commitment. It will have a weak relationship or no relationship at all with
work involvement and occupational commitment.
Justice, organizational socialization and commitment
The final hypothesis will examine whether the relationships between organizational
socialization and the various commitment forms hold when justice variables are
included in the equations. This examination is important because it will show whether
socialization continues to shape employees’ attitudes regardless of their daily
exchanges and experiences in the organization. Following the logic of proximity
presented earlier, the expectation is that this relationship will hold for organizational
commitment, job involvement, and group commitment.
As discussed previously, the basic argument is that in the workplace context,
organizational socialization will be more strongly related to commitment foci that
provide more opportunities for exchange relationships – that is, the organization, the
job, and the work group. In the early stages of employment, organizational
socialization helps employees establish exchange relationships with these foci by
giving them information about the organization’s expectations and the likely outcomes
of meeting or failing to meet those expectation (Gregersen, 1993). In fact, organizational
socialization can act much as described in the expectancy or path-goal theory of
motivation (Evans, 1970) by clarifying the paths between effort and performance and
between performance and outcomes. As the employee becomes comfortable in the
organization and familiar with its workings, perceptions of organizational justice feed
into the set of exchange relationships formed during the socialization process.
Work involvement and occupational commitment are less proximal in terms of their
relationships to the work setting, so their relationship with organizational socialization
is expected to be weaker. This relationship, which was not strong initially, may
disappear when we consider the effects of organizational justice on commitment.
H4. The relationship between organizational socialization and organizational
commitment, job involvement, and group commitment will hold when
perceptions of justice are included in the equation.
Method
Subjects and procedure
Participants. The sample for this study was employees of three long-term nursing care
facilities in the north of Israel. Employees were included in the study if they had
worked no more than three and a half years in their organization. We chose the 3.5-year
cutoff to ensure that we would be able to measure the effects of socialization. Both the
career and the socialization literature suggest that the first and second years in an
organization are a time of transition, when individuals focus on becoming effective in
their work role, understanding its formal demands, and getting to know potential
commitment targets within the workplace (Gregersen, 1993). Employees need this time
to establish themselves in their roles and become familiar with the values and goals of
various stakeholders within the organization. By the third year, employees generally
feel secure in their roles and have had the opportunity to develop attitudes regarding
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commitment (including commitment toward particular foci) and exchange
(organizational justice).
Questionnaires were distributed to 155 employees who had worked in any of the
three institutions studied for 3.5 years or less (the three organizations employed 356
people in total). One hundred and nine usable questionnaires were returned – a
response rate of 70 per cent. The mean age of the respondents was 48.3 years. Almost
two-thirds (62 per cent) of the employees were female, 60 per cent were married, 56 per
cent had an academic education, 55 per cent worked full time, and 33 per cent were in
managerial positions.
Measures
Control variables. Three demographic variables were examined in this study as control
variables: age, gender, and marital status. These three variables have been frequently
considered as determinants of commitment, in accordance with the side-bet theory
(Becker, 1960; Meyer and Allen, 1984). The rationale is that these variables represent
hidden investments that bind the individual to the organization or the occupation – or
put differently, hidden costs of leaving. The higher these perceived costs, the higher the
level of commitment. Age is known to be one of the strongest representatives of such
costs, as older employees may lose their benefits if they leave their current
organization, and may face more difficulties in finding a new job or changing careers.
Gender is another, as women are generally the family members expected to deal with
additional, sometimes conflicting, demands from home. This situation is particularly
true in Israel (Cohen and Kirchmeyer, 2005; Yishai and Cohen, 1997). Marital status is
another constraint that limits employment alternatives, as married employees may
need a steady income to support their families. Age was measured in years. Gender and
marital status were measured as dichotomous variables (gender: male ¼ 0; female ¼ 1;
marital status: married ¼ 0; not married ¼ 1).
Organizational justice. This variable was measured using Niehoff and Moorman’s
(1993) scales, which include one dimension measuring perceptions of distributive
justice and two dimensions measuring perceptions of procedural justice. Distributive
justice was measured using five items assessing the fairness of different work
outcomes. Procedural justice was measured with items designed to tap both formal
procedures and interactional justice. Formal procedures (six items) measured the
degree to which job decisions included mechanisms to ensure that information
gathered would be accurate and unbiased and that employees’ voices would be heard,
along with an appeals process. Interactional justice (nine items) measured the degree to
which employees felt their needs were considered in, and adequate explanations made
for, job decisions. Given the strong correlation found here between formal procedures
and interactional justice (r ¼ 0.793), we decided to combine these items to form one
procedural justice scale.
Organizational socialization: This variable was measured by applying the 10-item
scale developed by Haueter et al. (2003). This scale follows the content approach to
socialization, meaning that socialization is viewed as a learning process (Saks and
Ashforth, 1997), and the scale measures the content that was actually learned and
internalized (Chao et al., 1994). The scale measures not only the factual information the
employees have gathered about the organization, but also their adjustment to and
understanding of how to behave in the organization. A socialized employee should
know the basic responsibilities of employees and the expectations of organizational
members. Note that the scale focuses on the organization, rather than other possible
foci of socialization such as the job or workgroup.
The items in the scale are:
.
I know the specific names of the products/services produced/provided by this
organization.
.
I know the history of this organization (e.g. who founded the company and when,
original products/services, how the organization survived tough times).
.
I know the structure of the organization (e.g. how the departments fit together).
.
I understand the operations of this organization (e.g. who does what, how sites,
subsidiaries and/or branches contribute to the organization).
.
I understand this organization’s objectives and goals.
.
I understand how various departments, subsidiaries, and/or sites contribute to
this organization’s goals.
.
I understand how my job contributes to the larger organization.
.
I understand how to act to fit in with what the organization values and believes.
.
I know this organization’s overall policies and/or rules (e.g. compensation, dress
code, attitudes about smoking, travel expense limitations).
.
I understand the internal politics within this organization (e.g. chain of
command, which is influential, what needs to be done to advance or maintain
good standing).
Commitment foci. For the sake of simplicity, research that looks at multiple
commitments in the workplace tends to measure only one dimension of commitment
for each commitment focus (job, occupation, union, etc.) (Cohen, 2003, 2007). Affective
commitment is recognized as a stronger, more reliable and more valid representative of
organizational commitment than normative or continuance commitment, and therefore
is typically the form chosen in studies that look at multiple commitment foci (Cohen,
2003; Meyer et al., 2002). Indeed, recent criticism of continuance and normative
commitment suggests that these should perhaps not be considered forms of
commitment at all: “. . . continuance and normative commitment should be seen not as
commitments but rather as antecedents of attitudes toward a specific behavior, more
precisely as different classes of imagined consequences of (dis)continuing
employment” (Solinger et al., 2008, p. 76; see also Cohen, 2007; Ko et al., 1997). For
these reasons we focused on the affective dimension of commitment for all the
commitment forms examined here.
We used the eight-item scale developed by Meyer and Allen (1984) to measure
affective organizational commitment. Occupational commitment was calculated using
the seven-item measure developed by Blau (1988). Job involvement was measured by a
ten-item scale and work involvement by a six-item scale, both developed by Kanungo
(1979, 1982). Group commitment was calculated using the sefven-item measure
developed by Ellemers et al. (1998). Except for the group commitment scale, all the
scales applied in this research have been noted in the literature (Cohen, 2003;
Cooper-Hakim and Viswesvaran, 2005; Morrow, 1993) as the most commonly used and
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the most reliable and valid work commitment scales. All the items were measured on a
seven-point scale (1 ¼ strongly disagree to 7 ¼ strongly agree).
Data analysis
Correlation analysis was applied first to present the interrelationships among the
research variables and to examine the possibility of multicollinearity. Regression
analysis was used to test the other hypotheses. This regression was performed in three
steps. In the first step, commitment foci were regressed on the three demographic
variables. In the second step, the organizational socialization variable was added to the
equation, and in the third step the two justice variables were added.
Results
Table I shows the descriptive statistics, reliabilities, and intercorrelations among the
research variables, demonstrating acceptable psychometric properties of the variables.
The only high correlation between the predictor variables is 0.62, between distributive
justice and procedural justice. However, this correlation does not exceed r ¼ 0.70,
which is the criterion for multicollinearity. In addition, it should be emphasized that
multicollinearity could not have spuriously produced the pattern of results obtained in
the correlations. Moreover, since simultaneous regression tests only the unique
contribution of each predictor (Cohen and Cohen, 1983), multicollinearity could not
have produced the results found in the regression analyses.
To establish further the discriminant validity of the scales applied here, several
procedures recommended by Podsakoff et al. (2003) were applied. First, confirmatory
factor analysis (CFA) was performed for the commitment scales using the AMOS
structural equation-modeling program. This analysis was performed following the
procedure outlined by Brooke et al. (1988), Mathieu and Farr (1991), and Cohen (1999a).
Three indicators were established for each multi-item measure by first fitting a
single-factor solution to each set of items and then averaging the items with highest
and lowest loadings to form the first indicator, averaging the items with the next
highest and lowest loadings to form the second indicator, and so forth until all items
were assigned to one of the three indicators for each variable. This procedure was
necessary to reduce the number of parameters estimated in the measurement models.
In effect, this strategy reduced the scale items to three parallel indicators of each
construct, in much the same manner that parallel test forms are developed (see
Nunnally, 1978). The extent to which, the three indicators adequately tapped the more
general underlying constructs, was then assessed by fitting the confirmatory factor
analysis models.
For the commitment scales we compared the fit of a five-factor model for the five
commitment scales to the alternative fit of a single, one-factor model. The results for
the five-factor model (the model incorporating organizational, occupational, and group
commitment, and work and job involvement) revealed the following fit indices: X2 ¼
155:83 (df ¼ 80); X2 =df ¼ 1:95; CFI ¼ 0.91; IFI ¼ 0.91; NFI ¼ 0.84; and
RMSEA ¼ 0.09. In the second model tested, all commitment form items were loaded
onto a single factor, producing X2 ¼ 288:36 (df ¼ 90); X2 =df ¼ 3:20; CFI ¼ 0.76;
IFI ¼ 0.77; NFI ¼ 70; and RMSEA ¼ 0.14. We then conducted a chi-square difference
test, which indicated that the five-factor model fit significantly better than the
SD
1
2
Gender
0.67 0.47
Marital statusb
0.32 0.47
0.03
Age
48.4 23.64 20.11 2 0.24 *
Organizational socialization 5.75 1.06 20.10
0.02
Procedural justice
5.26 1.18 20.05 2 0.06
Distributive justice
4.82 1.23
0.03
0.08
Organizational commitment 4.70 1.14 20.06 2 0.11
Group commitment
5.72 0.83 20.01 2 0.02
Job involvement
4.84 1.16 20.07
0.01
Occupational commitment
5.27 1.38
0.11
0.15
Work involvement
4.42 1.15 20.08
0.03
Mean
0.05
0.04
0.12
0.10
0.23 *
0.12
0.05
0.06
3
(0.92)
0.28 * *
0.35 * * *
0.44 * * *
0.46 * * *
0.48 * * *
0.28 * *
0.34 * * *
4
(0.94)
0.62 * * *
0.48 * * *
0.40 * * *
0.40 * * *
0.28 * *
0.32 * * *
5
(0.76)
0.37 * * *
0.48 * * *
0.58 * * *
0.44 * * *
0.40 * * *
6
(0.72)
0.66 * * *
0.70 * * *
0.37 * * *
0.50 * * *
7
9
10
11
(0.71)
0.69 * * * (0.85)
0.52 * * * 0.54 * * * (0.82)
0.51 * * * 0.57 * * * 0.31 * * * (0.76)
8
Notes: aMale ¼ 0; female ¼ 1. bMarried ¼ 0; not married ¼ 1. n ¼ 109. *p # 0.05 * *p # 0.01 * * *p # 0.001; reliabilities in parentheses
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
a
Commitment in
the workplace
547
Table I.
Psychometric properties
and intercorrelations
among research variables
PR
39,5
548
one-factor model (chi-square difference ¼ 132.53; df ¼ 10; p # 0:001). The findings
support the superiority of the five-factor model over the one-factor model.
In addition, we performed CFA for the predictor variables. We first compared the fit
of a two-factor model for the two organizational justice scales to the alternative fit of a
single, one-factor model. The results for the two-factor model (incorporating
distributive and procedural justice) revealed the following fit indices: X2 ¼ 14:39
(df ¼ 8); X2 =df ¼ 1:80; CFI ¼ 0.98; IFI ¼ 0.99; NFI ¼ 0.97; and RMSEA ¼ 0.09. In the
second model tested, all organizational justice items were loaded onto a single factor,
producing X2 ¼ 40:93 (df ¼ 9); X2 =df ¼ 4:55; CFI ¼ 0.93; IFI ¼ 0.93; NFI ¼ 91; and
RMSEA ¼ 0.18. The chi-square difference test showed that the two-factor model fit
significantly better than the one-factor model (chi-square difference ¼ 26.54;
df ¼ 1; p # 0:001). The findings support the superiority of the two-factor model
over the one-factor model.
To further establish the discriminant validity of the predictor variables we
compared the fit of a three-factor model for the two organizational justice and the
organizational socialization scales to the alternative fit of a single, one-factor model.
The results for the three-factor model (incorporating distributive justice, procedural
justice, and organizational socialization) revealed the following fit indices:
X2 ¼ 57:10 ðdf ¼ 24Þ; X2 =df ¼ 2:38; CFI ¼ 0.95; IFI ¼ 0.96; NFI ¼ 0.93; and
RMSEA ¼ 0.11. In the second model tested, all the items were loaded onto a single
factor, producing X2 ¼ 324:93 ðdf ¼ 27Þ; X2 =df ¼ 12:03; CFI ¼ 0.59; IFI ¼ 0.60;
NFI ¼ 58; and RMSEA ¼ 0.32. The chi-square difference test showed that the
three-factor model fit significantly better than the one-factor model (chi-square
difference ¼ 267.83; df ¼ 3; p # 0:001). The findings support the superiority of the
three-factor model over the one-factor model.
To test for common method variance, a Harman’s one-factor test was performed
(Harman, 1967; Podsakoff and Organ, 1986). All the commitment items, the
organizational justice items, and the socialization items were entered into a principal
components factor analysis with varimax rotation. According to this technique, if a
single factor emerges from the factor analysis or one “general” factor accounts for most
of the variance, common method variance is deemed present. However, the results of
the analysis revealed 14 factors (explaining 80.19 per cent of the variance) with
eigenvalues greater than one with only two factors accounting for more than 15 per
cent of the variance each (16.91 and 15.59 per cent). These results are consistent with
the absence of common method variance.
In short, several tests were performed for a deeper examination of the scales applied
here. The findings showed that the respondents were able to differentiate among the
different dimensions of commitment as well as between the predictor variables, and
that the data are not inflated with common method errors.
Table II presents the results of the regression analyses. Hypothesis 1 expected that
socialization would be positively related to organizational commitment. This
hypothesis was supported. Step 2 in the regression for organizational commitment
showed that organizational socialization added 21 per cent to the explained variance
for organizational commitment. The direction of the relationship was as expected. This
is a considerable amount of variance explained by one variable.
H2 expected that organizational socialization would be related to organizational
commitment, job involvement and group commitment. It also expected a weak
Step 2
Step 2
0.47 ***
0.24
0.20
6.97 ***
0.22
25.56 ***
0.32 ***
0.35 **
0.03
0.34
0.29
7.42 ***
0.12
8.39 ***
0.21
0.17
5.94 ***
0.19
21.48 ***
0.02
0.00
0.60
20.05 20.01
0.04
0.03
0.12
0.10
Step 1
0.44 ***
0.00
20.09
0.04
Step 3
0.01
0.04
0.24 *
0.04
0.01
0.18 *
0.12
0.12
0.04
0.29 ** 0.16
0.12 0.14
0.17 0.16
0.10 0.09
0.14
0.03
0.25 *
0.33 **
0.25
0.36
0.04 0.12
0.23
0.22
0.32
0.01 0.08
0.18
7.60 *** 8.39 *** 1.38 3.23 ** 4.46 **
0.20
0.11
0.08
0.10
23.80 *** 7.67 ***
8.42 ** 6.16 **
0.45 *** 0.32 ***
0.06
0.02
0.22 *
0.01
0.00
0.33
0.21 **
0.08
0.27 *
0.21
0.16
3.97 ***
0.09
5.23 **
0.12
0.08
3.05 *
0.11
11.10 ***
20.06
0.01
0.00
0.33 ***
20.07 20.04
0.05
0.03
0.05
0.04
Occupational
Group commitment
commitment
Work involvement
Step
Step
1
Step 2 Step 3
1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 1 Step 2
Step 3
0.02
0.45 ***
0.42
0.05
0.39
0.02
10.78 *** 1.75
0.18
14.22 ***
0.45 ***
20.04
20.01
0.03
Step 3
Job involvement
Notes: n ¼ 109; amale ¼ 0; female ¼ 1; bmarried ¼ 0; not married ¼ 1; * ¼ p # 0.05; **p # 001; ***p # 0.001
Organizational justice
Procedural justice
Distributive justice
R2
0.02
0.01
R2 adjusted
F
0.62
DR2
F for DR2
Socialization
Organizational
socialization
Demographic variables
20.04 20.00
Gendera
20.09 20.10
Marital statusb
Age
0.07
0.05
Step 1
Organizational commitment
Commitment in
the workplace
549
Table II.
Hierarchical regression
analysis (standardized
coefficients) of
commitment forms on
control variables,
organizational
socialization and
organizational justice
PR
39,5
550
relationship or no relationship at all with work involvement and occupational
commitment. This hypothesis was partly supported. A large amount of variance for
the three commitment forms was explained by organizational socialization – 21 per
cent for organizational commitment, 24 per cent for job involvement, and 25 per cent
for group commitment (see Table II step 2). In comparison, organizational socialization
was a less satisfactory explanation of the variance in the two other commitment forms,
accounting for 8 per cent of the variance in occupational commitment and 11 per cent of
the variance in work involvement. These findings support H2, demonstrating that
organizational socialization was more strongly related to the three proximal
commitment forms (organization, job, and work group) than to the less proximal
ones (work and occupation).
H3, which predicted that higher levels of distributive justice and procedural justice
would be related positively only to the three proximal commitment forms, was partly
supported. In the equations presented in Table II (see step 3) procedural justice was
related only to organizational commitment, one of the three proximal foci. However,
distributive justice was related to four commitment forms – all except organizational
commitment. This does not provide empirical support for H3. It should be noted that in
all the equations, organizational justice added a considerable amount of variance to
that already explained by the control variables and by organizational socialization.
This variance ranged from 9 per cent for work involvement to 18 per cent for job
involvement.
H4 expected that the relationship between organizational socialization and
organizational commitment, job involvement, and group commitment would hold
when perceptions of justice were included in the equation. This hypothesis was partly
supported. As can be seen in Table II (step 3), the effect of organizational socialization
on these three commitments remained significant after inclusion of the justice
variables, though there was some reduction in the size of the coefficient. As for the
other two commitment forms, the results were mixed. As expected, in the case of
occupational commitment, the effect of organizational socialization did not hold when
the justice variables were added to the equation. However, in the case of work
involvement the effect of socialization remained significant after the addition of
organizational justice, an unanticipated finding.
Discussion
The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between organizational
socialization and various commitment forms. A review of the literature (Cohen, 2003)
shows that relatively few studies have examined determinants of multiple commitment
forms simultaneously. Naturally, even fewer have explored the role of organizational
socialization while applying a multiple commitment approach. Most studies that have
examined the socialization-commitment relationship have limited their focus to
organizational commitment (Gruman et al., 2006; Klein et al., 2006; Riordan et al., 2001).
Yet looking at how socialization may be related to other commitment foci can offer
valuable insights into employees’ attitudes and behavior in the real,
multiple-commitment world.
The examination of organizational socialization as a determinant is important both
conceptually and practically. Most established determinants of commitment,
particularly organizational commitment, are variables that represent work
experiences, such as met expectations, perceptions of organizational justice, and
relationship with the supervisor (Meyer et al., 2002). Socialization is different in that it
takes place primarily during the very early stages of employment. This raises the
interesting question, how early in employment can organizations affect commitment?
Bearing in mind that commitment is considered a fairly stable concept, and that
organizations have a great deal of control over the socialization process for new
employees, organizational socialization can be an important tool for shaping
employees’ commitment in its early stages. In other words, given evidence of a strong
relationship between socialization and commitment, managers can use this knowledge
to help boost employees’ organizational commitment not only by offering fair
treatment and good conditions at work, but also by a well-planned organizational
program designed to socialize new employees.
Some of the specific findings of this study deserve specific attention. First,
organizational socialization as defined and measured here was related to all the
commitment foci studied, indicating that a strong socialization – one that imparts both
broad knowledge about the organization and comfort with the interpersonal
relationships needed for success – can affect not only organizational commitment
per se but also other commitment forms equally vital to the organization, such as job
involvement and commitment to the work group. This means, in turn, that different
commitment forms in the workplace can also be affected at very early stages of
employment. No less noteworthy is that in our analyses, the effect of socialization held
even when organizational justice variables were added to the equations, demonstrating
the powerful effect of socialization even in the face of later experiences. Only in the case
of occupational commitment did the effect of socialization become non-significant
when organizational justice was included. In other words, the attitudes of employees
toward various aspects of the organization and the work setting can be shaped at the
early stages of employment, and the outcomes of socialization are likely to remain
regardless of the later experiences of employees in the organization.
The findings here have other important conceptual and practical implications. First,
organizational socialization has, on the whole, not been considered in commitment
research as an important determinant of commitment. Our findings suggest that more
attention should be given to organizational socialization in studies that examine the
antecedents of commitment forms. The finding that organizational socialization was
related to other commitment foci besides the organization strengthens this argument.
There is strong evidence that different commitment forms together have a stronger
effect on important outcomes in the workplace (e.g. performance, turnover, and OCB)
than any one form alone, even organizational commitment (Cohen, 1999b, 2003). Our
findings thus point to the importance of organizational socialization as a way to
indirectly improve work outcomes. Future research should examine a mediated model
of organizational socialization, commitment forms, and work outcomes. From a
practical point of view, managers interested in boosting performance and reducing
turnover should rely more techniques of organizational socialization as a way to
develop higher commitment levels in the early stages of employment.
The findings of this study are all the more remarkable given the very weak effect of
the control variables on the results. The three control variables used here, particularly
age, are considered consistent correlates of commitment (Cohen, 1993, 2003) based on
the established side-bet theory. Yet they had no effect on the findings here, with or
Commitment in
the workplace
551
PR
39,5
552
without the inclusion of the conceptual variables. One of the explanations for this
finding is the specific target population. Employees in long-term nursing care facilities
probably have few opportunities in other jobs and are less affected by side-bets.
Perhaps, too, the dire need for such employees means that their length of employment
in this industry depends more on the employees than on the organization. These two
forces reduce the effect of side-bets.
Finally, several limitations of this study must be considered. First, because this
research examined employees in long-term nursing care facilities, there may be limits
to the generalizability of the findings to other occupations and organizations. Second,
the study relied on self-report data, allowing for the possibility of same-source bias, a
common problem with cross-sectional, non-behavioral measurements. However,
because the multivariate analysis considered the simultaneous effects of all variables,
the extent of this problem was reduced. Third, the paper examined employees in Israel,
and the findings should be generalized to other cultures with some caution. Fourth, the
paper focuses on organizational socialization and does not examine group or task
socialization. Results might differ for the other forms of socialization despite the high
correlations found between them (Haueter et al., 2003).
Despite its limitations, this study makes some important contributions. Its findings
demonstrate the importance of organizational socialization as a construct that can
increase our understanding of the sources of commitment in the workplace. More
research on this issue seems warranted in light of the findings and before solid
conclusions can be drawn.
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About the authors
Aaron Cohen is an Associate Professor in the Division of Public Administration, School of
Political Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel. He received his PhD in Management at the
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and taught three years at the University of Lethbridge,
Alberta, Canada. His current research interests include commitment in the workplace, in
particular organizational commitment and occupational commitment; organizational citizenship
behavior (OCB); cross-cultural research; and work/nonwork relationships. His work has been
published in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of
Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Human Resource Management, Human
Relations, Cross-Cultural Psychology, Cross-Cultural Research, and Applied Psychology: An
International Review. He is the author of Multiple Commitments in the Workplace: An Integrative
Approach (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003). Aaron Cohen is the corresponding author and
can be contacted at: acohen@poli.haifa.ac.il
Aya Veled-Hecht is a PhD candidate in the Division of Public Administration, University of
Haifa, Israel.
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