Job Satisfaction and Organisational Commitment

Although job satisfaction and organisational commitment are similar as attitudinal or affective constructs, several differences have been observed between the two constructs. Job satisfaction refers to the extent to which individuals “like” or are “happy” with their work, while commitment refers to the extent of “attachment” or “loyalty” to the organization (Mottaz, 1987). Also, Organizational commitment is a more global attitude which potrays an employee’s attachment and identification with the goals and values of the organization as a whole, while job satisfaction represents an employee’s attachment to the job (or certain aspects of one’s job) which is part of the organization (Mowday ,1982).

Irving, Coleman & Cooper (1997) investigated the relationship between affective, continuance, normative commitment and turnover intentions and job satisfaction. All the three types of organizational commitment were negatively related to turnover intentions where, out of which continuance commitment correlated most negatively. The study also reported a small but significant positive correlation between job satisfaction and affective and normative commitment, whereas continuance commitment was negatively correlated. Yang and Chang (2008) reported significant and positive correlation between job satisfaction and commitment of nursing staff while they perform emotional labour.

During an economic downturn in Taiwan Hsiu-Yen Hsu (2009) studied the relationship between organizational learning culture, job satisfaction and organizational commitment among research and development professionals. Even during a downturn, he reported a positive correlation amongst the three variables.

Whereas a study conducted in Turkey among hotel managers by Gunlu, Aksarayli & Percin (2010) showed that intrinsic, extrinsic and general job satisfaction had a significant effect on normative and affective commitment. The findings further suggested that the dimensions of job satisfaction had no significant impact on continuance commitment among the hotel managers.

Guleryuz, Guney, Aydm & Asan (2008) conducted a survey on the mediating effect of job satisfaction between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment on a sample of nurses. The findings of the study suggested that emotional intelligence was significantly and positively related to job satisfaction as well as organizational commitment. They also reported a strongly positive correlation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Whereas Ahmad, Ahmad and Shah (2010) reported an insignificant impact of organizational commitment on job satisfaction. Also, performance of employees of advertising agency of Islamabad had a weak relationship with job satisfaction and a strong positive relationship with Organizational commitment. Attitude of an employee towards work is what has a strong positive relation with job satisfaction.

Development of employee’s commitment towards the organization takes more time and effort as compared to the time required to build job satisfaction (Rifai, 2005). Whereas job satisfaction may be affected by day-to-day events in the workplace or tangible aspects of the work environment such as pay, supervision, working hours, promotions among others, commitment attitudes develop more slowly over time as employees evaluate their relationship with the organization and other aspects of working for the organization such as its goals and values (Porter et al., 1974). Whereas, it is expected that any changes in the organization, for instance, plans for redundancies, unfair promotional procedures or poor pay, affect the employee’s commitment in the long run.

Mowday (1982) stated that day to day events in any organisation might affect an employee’s level of job satisfaction, but such events do not make an employee re- evaluate seriously his or her overall attachment to the organization”. Lambert (2004) reinforced the suggestions of Mowday in findings of his study. In his study of 272 correctional facilities employees, he found that job characteristics like job variety, autonomy and supervision varied in how they affected job satisfaction and organisational commitment, with these characteristics having stronger effects on job satisfaction than on organizational commitment. Since, job satisfaction is concerned with an individual’s job while organizational commitment is concerned with the bond formed with the overall organisation, it is expected that job characteristics would have larger effects on job satisfaction than they would have on organisational commitment. Despite these differences, studies (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990) have shown that job satisfaction and organizational commitment had a strong positive correlation with each other.

Due to the differences between job satisfaction and organizational commitment, these two constructs will be examined separately as dependent variables.

Emotional Intelligence and Commitment

The success of any organisation in general not only depends on the organisation taking advantages of its human resources but also on its staff organizational commitment. Commitment is a variable which is related to both staff outputs and organisation outputs. Meyer and Allen (1997) argue that organisational commitment consists of individuals psychological status which specifies the individual’s relation with organization that leads to making decision about staying with the organisation. Mowday, et al (1982) also defined organizational commitment as conviction held by staff towards organisations goals and values, having tendency towards significant efforts representing organization as well as high interest in maintaining one’s membership in organization. EI has been found to be an important predictor of various enviable organizational outcomes, such as job performance, job satisfaction and organisational commitment (Carmeli,2003; Kafetsios & Zampetakis, 2008; Law, Wong, & Song, 2004; Sinha & Jain 2004; Sy, Tram & O’Hara,2006). In addition, the neurological sciences literature also suggests that there is a positive relation between EI and commitment (Bechara, Tranel, & Damasio, 2000).

According to Robinson and Rousseau (1994), job insecurity can lead to reduced commitment and high turnover intentions which might threaten organisational stability. Individuals who have higher level of emotional intelligence will be able to ameliorate the effect of job insecurity on their affective commitment. This is where the moderating influence of emotional intelligence helps in assessing the emotions that are leading to feeling of job insecurity and then to adopt multiple perspectives to determine if their feelings are accurate and reasonable.

Emotionally Intelligent employees are likely to foresee possible complex emotions that will emerge from a situation, including whether they have mixed feelings of loyalty and betrayal and how anxiety about their insecurity may lead to feelings of frustration and anger. Employees with high ability to manage their emotions will be more likely than their low ability counterparts to control their initial emotional reaction to perception of job insecurity especially when they consider these reactions to be unproductive. The employee with higher emotional intelligence can manage the felt emotion and generate enthusiasm for their work to increase their affective commitment. Alternatively, employees with high ability to manage emotions will realise that it is in their personal interest to suppress their feelings of insecurity and merely to increase their normative commitment towards the organisation till they are part of it. Thus, emotional intelligence is expected to augment a higher level of affective commitment to the organization and diminish the level of continuance commitment.

Nikolaou, I., & Tsaousis, I. (2002) explored the relationship between emotional intelligence and sources of occupational stress and organizational commitment on a sample of professionals in mental health institutions. The results indicated that employees with higher EI score, scored lower in stress assessing test and higher in both types of commitment (organization to employee and employee to organization). Study shows that emotionally intelligent employees feel more valued at their positions, and also less distressed, which increases feelings of loyalty and commitment.

Jordan, Ashkanasy, and Hartel (2002) proposed a theoretical model where EI as a moderator predicts employee’s emotional and behavioural response to job insecurity. Employees low in EI were hypothesized to be more susceptible than employees high in EI to negative emotions resulting from job insecurity. Therefore, they are more likely to behave defensively and negatively lowering affective commitment and increasing job related tension. Whereas employees with high EI deal better with job insecurity, which in turn would help ameliorate the effect of job insecurity on affective commitment.

Carmeli, A. (2003) has closely examined the extent to which senior managers with a high emotional intelligence employed in public sector organizations develop positive work attitudes, behavior and outcomes. The results indicated that emotional intelligence augments positive work attitudes, altruistic behavior and work outcomes, and moderates the effect of work-family conflict on career commitment but no significant relationship between emotional intelligence of these managers and job involvement was found.

Chris (2003) investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence and career decision making, self efficacy, vocational exploration and commitment. He revealed that emotional intelligence is positively related to career decision making and self efficacy. All four EI predictors empathy, utilization of feelings, handling relationships and self control were positively related to career decision making and self efficacy and utilisation of feelings and self control emerged as significant predictors of vocational exploration and commitment. He reported that people who are able to label their emotions effectively and understand complex feelings, who are open to pleasant and unpleasant feelings in self and others have a very high level of commitment to career choice and report high confidence in their abilities to successfully perform a career related task.

Sharma (2005) conducted a study on understanding the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment of the executives working in manufacturing and service sectors with at least 10 years of service. The findings state the fact that the employees who are emotionally intelligent are able to find themselves more concerned with the organization as their emotions gets pacified with the working environment, which makes them more committed. Emotionally intelligent employees show their concern for the organizations by discharging their duties with responsibility and keep their spirits high even in the critical times.

Salami (2008) investigated the relationships of demographic factors such as age, marital status, gender, job tenure, and educational level, emotional intelligence, motivation, job satisfaction with organizational commitment of industrial workers. Participants were 320 employees (170 males, 150 females) randomly selected from 5 service and 5 manufacturing organizations in Oyo State, Nigeria. The results showed that emotional intelligence, motivation, job satisfaction and all demographic factors except gender significantly predicted organizational commitment of the workers. He found that Emotional Intelligence is positively associated with organizational commitment.

Rangriz & Mehrabi (2010) studied the relationship between emotional intelligence, organizational commitment and employee performance. A sample of one hundred working professionals were selected for the study. The results of the study reported that Emotional Intelligence could be used for increasing organization commitment and employee performance in the organization.