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Organizational Commitment Scale Nepal PDF
Organizational Commitment Scale Nepal PDF
IN NEPAL
Author Note
Acknowledgement
I am very much grateful to Dr. Ulrich Wagner, Dr. Rolf van Dick, Dr. Narottam
Upadhyay, and Dr. Upendra Koirala for their invaluable suggestions and their careful
editing of this paper.
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Abstract
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Organizational Commitment Concept
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transactions and alterations in side bets or investment over time”(p 556).
Salancik (1977) has defined commitment in terms of a binding of individuals to
their behavioral acts. He argued that highly explicit, irrevocable, done by one’s
own volition, and public act will result in strong commitment of the individual.
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Virtranen, 2000 specified commitment into obligation, utilities, and emotions as
the components of organizational culture.
Antecedents of OC
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Other factors are communication fairness (Konovsky & Cropanzano, 1991),
and participation in decision-making (Kim & Mauborgne, 1993), which are both
positively related to affective commitment. Based on the above findings,
favorable team climate and organizational culture can be responsible factors in
development of affective commitment.
Consequences of OC
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Cross Cultural Applicability of Organizational Commitment
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would provide an opportunity to investigate the stability of scale-items and
internal structure of OC in a developing country that has a quite different
culture from the western world (cf. Gautam et al., 2001). The secondary
objective is to investigate the measurement reliability of the translated
Nepalese version compared to the original English version of the OC scales.
Most of the commitment studies have been conducted in North America, few
in developed Asian and European countries, and a negligible number in the
rest of the world. Recently, Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, and Topolnytsky
(2001) conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the antecedents, correlates,
and consequences of the three-component commitment concept. Findings
showed that the three components are related but distinguishable. Affective
and continuance commitment were found related with antecedent and
outcome factors as theoretically assumed (e.g., Meyer & Allen, 1997).
Furthermore, comparisons of studies conducted within and outside North
America revealed considerable similarity. Nevertheless, the available evidence
is too small to state the global validity of the OC scales and more systematic
research concerning cultural differences is warranted.
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Method
Participants
Participants were selected from head office and city branches of five Nepalese
organizations – Standard Chartered Bank, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Nepal
Arab Bank, Nepal Telecommunication, and Nepal Television – for
questionnaire survey. Out of five organizations, first three are private sector
banking companies and rests two are state owned communication and media
companies. These organizations were selected by convenience to make a
large and heterogeneous sample.
Instruments
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Results
Insert: table 1
Cronbach'
s Alphas of English version were .81, .82, .82, and of the Nepalese
version by .83, .87, and .75 for affective commitment, continuance
commitment (CC), and Normative commitment components of OC scales,
respectively. In general, the homogeneity in psychometric patterns of both
versions revealed that the Nepalese version OC scales are almost free from
translation biases and reliable enough to capture the three-component
commitment concept.
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change in the correlated model over the orthogonal model was found
significant (χ2=271.11, P<0.001, DF=3). Nevertheless, model fit was still poor
because of the relatively high Chi-square/DF ratio (5.26) and lower CFI (0.85)
compared to the normal standard (0.90).
Lagrange Multiplier Test (LM Test) was conducted in the first sample to find
the possible common error variance in intra-scale items. The LM test detected
some common error overlap among NC items. Besides, such error variance
was also experienced in between Items 4 & 6 of the AC scale and Items 7 & 8
of the CC scale.
The correlation for the detected errors between intra-scale items were
included in the three-factor correlated model to get new fit indices. It
significantly increased (χ2=229.46, P<0.001, DF=7) the overall model fit in
sample A (NA=450). The same model was replicated in another sample B
(NB=103), which also showed significant increment in model fit (χ2=35,
P<0.001, DF=7). Furthermore, a two factor correlated model was designed in
sample-A assuming moderately correlated affective and normative
commitment into a single factor to resolve the issue of distinctiveness of the
AC and NC scales. The poor fit (Chi-square=916.56, P=0.00, CFI=0.79,
RMSEA=0.11) confirmed that the AC and NC components represent different
factors in the present data structure. Fit indices for unidimensional, orthogonal,
correlated, and modified correlated models produced by using EQS version
5.7b in both data sets are presented in table 2.
Insert: Table 2
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The Chi-square and RMSEA dropped and CFI improved significantly in the
modified three factor correlated model. The fit indices of both samples also
seem very close to each other. The OC scale showed the three-correlated
factor structure in both Nepalese samples. However, some differences
observed in the psychometric patterns of the two models have to be discussed.
Insert: Figure 1
Most of the parameter values – factor loadings, R2, and standard errors –
show very similar patterns in both samples. Nevertheless, some differences
were also observed in both samples, especially in the correlations between
factors and correlations between standard errors. Sample A is around five
times greater than sample B in terms of valid cases, thus, it is very hard to
compare all the parameters in absolute terms. In general, the CC scale was
found strong, AC satisfactory, and NC relatively weak in stability of
psychometric patterns over the two different Nepalese samples. However,
some issues appeared in the OC models that have to be discussed before
multi-sample analysis.
Item six was found highly loaded in sample-A but weakly loaded in sample-B.
Item 13 and item 17 showed higher factor loadings than the other items in
sample-B but the same items loaded relatively lower than the other items in
sample-A. The correlations among the three factors showed almost similar
patterns in sample-B, which showed moderate correlations between AC and
NC and weak correlations between CC and AC in sample-A. The correlations
of standard errors between Items 4 & 6, and Items 16 & 18 were found
different in the two samples.
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parameter – variables, factors and errors – were defined as equal in the model
to explore differences between the two model fits generated from the two
samples. LM test pointed few significant differences between the samples
especially due to correlations between AC and NC, factor loadings of item 13,
and common error variances between Items 4 & 6 and Items 16 & 18.
Thereafter, the aspects of the observed differences in LM test between two
models were defined as constrains in the EQS. Results showed satisfactory
overall model fit in the multiple sample analysis (Chi square=688.53, DF=254,
CFI=0.90) in the two Nepalese samples. The low Chi-square/DF ratio (2.71)
and CFI at the general standard (0.90) seem satisfactory to argue the stability
of OC model across the Nepalese samples.
Discussion
The main purpose of this chapter has been specified as to cross validate the
OC scales across two Nepalese samples. In the beginning, the existence of
translation biases has been investigated. The analysis was based on the sub-
samples (n1=78, data generated by English version OC scales, and n2=372,
data generated by Nepalese version OC scales) of sample A (N=450). Results
revealed similar psychometric properties, thus, the Nepalese versions were
found almost free from translation biases.
Some differences of in the models between the two samples were tested using
multi-sample analysis. The observed differences in some paths and
correlations were defined as constrains. The model fit was satisfactory which
proved that the differences observed in two samples were not determinants in
model fit, i.e., three-component OC was found stable across the Nepalese
samples irrespective to the minor differences observed. Moreover, the CC
scale was found comparatively more stable whereas normative commitment
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was less stable among three components of Meyer, Allen, and Smiths'(1993)
OC scales. The reason behind some differences observed in model fit in two
samples has to be discussed.
Some overlap between AC and NC has been experienced because of the high
correlation between the factors. Exploratory PC factor analysis showed some
double loadings, albeit relatively lower loadings than in the respective factor,
which indicates that same items have some content ambiguity in the Nepalese
context. Item 1 ("I am happy to spend rest of my career in this organization")
might be close to satisfaction than to commitment in Nepalese context. The
possible reason behind instability of the NC items might be content ambiguity
of the items or a different cognitive meaning of normative commitment in
Nepalese context. For example, item fifteen was found relatively unstable. The
possible reason for this instability could be that the statement e.g., "I would
feel guilty if I left organization now" might led contradictory responses in both
way around: for the subjects who are willingly remaining and for those who are
obligatorily staying in the organization. Some equivocal words (i.e., "loyalty" of
item 16 and "owe" of item 18) used in the normative commitment items are
unclear about the meaning in sense of rational or irrational commitment (cf.
Virtanen, 2000). Thus, it would be better to capture the NC construct by
restructuring items in future research. Nevertheless, some possible reasons
behind the observed differences in the model fits of the two samples might be
just because of the differences in sample size, too.
In general, overall loadings of the NC scale were observed very clear, albeit
some instability observed. Cronbach'
s alpha was found satisfactory (sample A
= .81, sample B = .71), thus, the data generated from the NC scale seems
appropriate enough for the further analysis. Nevertheless, the ambiguity of
some statements should be resolved through item reformulation in future
research to precisely capture the OC concept.
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References
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Table 1: Exploratory PC factor loadings of sub-samples followed by English
and Nepalese version three component OC scales
Note: n1 = Data generated by using English version, n2 = Data generated by using Nepalese
version (R)= Reversibly scored
Table 2: Model fit indices of three-component OC scales across two Nepalese samples
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Figure 1: Three-component Organizational Commitment Model in Two Nepalese Samples
Sample A (N=450, valid cases 448) Sample B (N=103, valid cases 87)
.73 .95
AC_01 R2 =.47 AC_01 R2 =.11
.68* .68 .32* .90
AC_02 R2 =.54 AC_02 R2 =.20
.73* .44*
AC_03 .76 AC_03 .82
R2 =.42 R2 =.32
Aff. .65* Aff. .57*
Comm. AC_04 .62 Comm. AC_04 .76
.78* R2 =.61 .65* R2 =.43
.65* .68*
AC_05 .76 AC_05 .74
R2 =.42 .33* R2 =.46 -.14
.74* .44*
AC_06 .68 AC_06 .90
R2 =.54 R2 =.19
Chi-square=465.39, P=0.00, DF=125; CFI=0.91, RMSEA=0.08 Chi-square=187.80, P=0.00, DF=125; CFI=0.89, RMSEA=0.01
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