J Bus Ethics (2012) 109:301–307
DOI 10.1007/s10551-011-1128-y
Antecedents of Organizational Commitment in a Chinese
Construction Company
Weihui Fu • Satish P. Deshpande
Received: 9 May 2011 / Accepted: 21 November 2011 / Published online: 2 December 2011
Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Abstract This study examines the impact of various
ethical climate types and job satisfaction on organizational
commitment of 144 employees working at a Chinese pri-
vate construction company. Both caring and independence
climate types had a significant positive impact on organi-
zational commitment. Instrumental climate had a signifi-
cant negative impact on organizational commitment. Other
climate types (professional, rules, and efficiency) had no
significant impact on organizational commitment. Overall
job satisfaction had a significant positive impact on orga-
nizational commitment. Overclaiming was significantly
correlated with organizational commitment, caring climate,
rules climate, and job satisfaction.
Keywords China
Ethical climate
Job satisfaction

Organizational commitment
Private construction
company
Introduction
Much has been written about China’s rapid economic
growth and its critical role in an increasingly integrated
global economy (Krueger 2009). China’s average annual
growth rate of 9.5% over the last three decades had made it
W. Fu
School of Economics and Management, University of Science
and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
e-mail: tinafu1107@yahoo.cn
S. P. Deshpande (&)
Department of Management, Haworth College of Business,
Western Michigan University, 1903 W. Michigan Ave.,
Mailstop 5429, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5429, USA
e-mail: satish.deshpande@wmich.edu
the second largest economy in the world. At current growth
rates, China is likely to overtake the United States in the
next two decades and become the largest economy in the
world. China’s focus on industrialization and urbanization
has been a boon to its domestic construction industry
(Sridharan 2007). Even the world wide 2008–2009 reces-
sion had little impact on the construction industry in China
largely due to the RMB 4 trillion stimulus package
implemented by the Chinese government to fuel growth in
this sector. The growth in the construction section in China
is not expected to decline in the near future (Clapper 2011).
Thus, it is not surprising that this high growth sector has
been drawing a lot of attention from construction firms in
the US, Europe, and Japan who are facing a declining or
flat market in their home countries. With China’s entry into
the WTO, it is much easier for international firms to pen-
etrate the Chinese construction market today.
As China moves toward a market economy, private-
owned enterprises (POEs) have been in a better position to
adapt to the needs of the marketplace. Currently the
number of private enterprises in China exceeds 8.4 million.
In the last 5 years, the number of POEs has increased at an
annual rate of 14.3% (Wang 2011). This sector has become
a major player in foreign-trade market and makes sub-
stantial contribution to China’s tax revenue, export vol-
umes, and urban employment (IMD 2009).
Unfortunately like other sectors of the Chinese econ-
omy, the construction industry also faces a shortage of key
talent (Sridharan 2007). It is not surprising that recruiting
and retaining key talent is one of the major operational
problems facing both domestic and foreign firms in China
(Lane and Pollner 2008; Hudson 2010). These issues can
be more critical in a construction company. Construction
work is very labor intensive. Besides attracting key talent,
firms have to make sure that they can retain key talent for
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long periods of time. The ability of a firm to retain and
foster long-term commitment of high quality human capital
can be a major source of competitive advantage for a
construction company (Leininger 2008; Youzheng and
Ming 2008). Hrebeniak and Alutto (1972) look at com-
mitment as reluctance of an individual to change organi-
zations for modest individual gain. Steers (1997, p. 46)
described organizational commitment as ‘‘the relative
strength of an individual’s identification with and involve-
ment in a particular organization.’’
Firms with highly committed employees provide greater
shareholder returns (Leininger 2008). Meyer et al. (2002)
in their meta-analysis found that organizational commit-
ment and withdrawal cognition were strongly linked. In
addition, they voiced their concern about the lack of studies
on organizational commitment in counties beyond North
America. Due to difference in economic, political, and
social environment, Western theories on organizational
commitment may not apply to non-Western countries. For
example, in China ‘‘guanxi’’ or ‘‘interpersonal network of
reciprocal bonds’’ has a major impact on organization
behavior, relationships, and business ethics (Lin 2011,
p. 441). It has been suggested that many work outcomes in
China are influenced by guanxi (Chen and Francesco
2011). It is not unusual for employees in China to use
personal relationships to achieve instrumental ends. Thus,
it is not surprising that previous research reports that many
practices considered corrupt by Westerners may be con-
sidered appropriate in China (Chua et al. 2007).
Since the publication of Meyer et al.’s (2002) meta-
analysis, we have seen a gradual increase in research on
organizational commitment in countries outside North
America such as Taiwan (Tsai and Huang 2008), Singapore
(Koh and Boo 2004), Turkey (Cetin 2006; Turker 2009),
Pakistan (Malik et al. 2010), Portugal (Rego et al. 2010),
and Oman (Azeem 2010). The purpose of this study is to
study organizational commitment in a Chinese POE. Spe-
cifically, the objective of this research is to examine the
impact of different ethical climates, job satisfaction, and
various demographic variables on organizational commit-
ment of employees working for a privately owned Chinese
construction company.
Previous research has shown that different ethical cli-
mate types impact organizational commitment. Filipova
(2011) in a sample of nurses in Midwestern United States
found that a caring ethical climate had a significantly
positive influence on organizational commitment, whereas
an instrumental climate was negatively associated with
organizational commitment. Erben and Guneser (2008)
found a strong relationship between ethical climate and
affective commitment and a moderate relationship between
ethical climate and continuance commitment in a sample of
142 Turkish employees. Schwepker (2001) suggests that
123
W. Fu, S. P. Deshpande
salesperson’s perception of positive ethical climate can
significantly impact organizational commitment. Sims and
Kroeck (1994) report that ethical climate impacts person–
organization fit. In a subsequent research (Sims and Keon
1997), they found that turnover intentions were lower when
subjects expressed a match between their preferences for
an ethical climate and their present ethical climate.
Research indicates that stronger enforcements of ethical
rules and codes were positively related to organizational
commitment (Schwepker 2001). Cullen et al. (2003) found
that benevolence ethical climate of had a positive impact
on organizational commitment, while egoistic climate is
negatively related to commitment. Tsai and Huang (2008)
found that Taiwanese hospitals can increase organizational
commitment among nurses by influencing an organiza-
tion’s ethical climate. In addition, Shafer and Wang (2010)
also report that weak ethical culture can result in decreased
commitment in a sample of Chinese accountants.
Most of the current research on ethical climate of firms
is based on climate types identified by Victor and Cullen
(1987, 1988). They used ethical theory research (Fritzche
and Becker 1984; Williams 1985), moral development
research (Kohlberg 1984), and sociocultural theories of
organizations (Schneider 1983) to identify six ethical cli-
mates that could exist within an organization. Professional,
rules, and independence climates were developed from
principle dimension. Caring climate belongs to benevo-
lence dimension and instrumental and efficiency climates
are developed from egoism dimension. Thus, based on the
literature review we propose the following hypotheses:
H1 Professional climate has a significant positive impact
on organizational commitment of Chinese employees.
H2 Caring climate has a significant positive impact on
organizational commitment of Chinese employees.
H3 Rules climate has a significant positive impact on
organizational commitment of Chinese employees.
H4 Instrumental climate has a significant negative impact
on organizational commitment of Chinese employees.
H5 Efficiency climate has a significant negative impact
on organizational commitment of Chinese employees.
H6 Independence climate has a significant positive impact
on organizational commitment of Chinese employees.
Previous meta-analysis research has shown that job
satisfaction is a significant predictor of organizational
commitment (Meyer et al. 2002). Cheung et al. (2009,
p. 78) define job satisfaction as ‘‘a person’s pleasurable
state that stems from one’s own appraisal of one’s job or
job experience.’’ Filipova (2011) found that job satisfaction
was negatively related to employees’ intent to leave in a
Antecedents of Organizational Commitment
survey of 656 nurses in the Midwestern United States.
Azeem (2010) found that supervision and pay satisfaction
significantly influenced organizational commitment of
service industry employees. Malik et al. (2010) found that
various facets of job satisfaction like satisfaction with
work, supervision, pay, and co-worker were significantly
correlated with organizational commitment of faculty
members in Pakistan. Valentine et al. (2011) found that
employees with a higher job satisfaction are less likely to
leave an organization. Tang and Chiu (2003) found a
positive relationship between pay satisfaction and organi-
zational commitment in Hong Kong. We expect that job
satisfaction will have a significant positive impact on
organizational commitment of Chinese employees in our
study. Thus, we hypothesize:
H7 Job satisfaction has a significant positive impact on
organizational commitment of Chinese employees.
This study also included demographic variables like age,
gender, and type of job. Previous research suggests that
social desirability bias may impact the result in research in
business ethics and organizational commitment (Bernardi
et al. 2003; Bernardi and Guptill 2008). Accordingly, we
used an overclaiming scale to control the impact of social
desirability bias.
Study Methodology
Sample Characteristics
The data for this study was part of a survey done by the first
author at a private construction firm in the Jiangsu province
of mainland China. Data collection was completed in
October 2010. The survey for this study was initially pre-
pared in English. It was subsequently translated into Chi-
nese by the first author. In order that there is no distortion
in the translation, the survey was translated back to English
by three professionals and compared with the original
English version of the paper. 200 surveys were distributed
and 152 were returned. We were left with a sample of 144
respondents after dropping surveys with missing values.
This resulted in a useable response rate of 72%.
Measures
Items in the survey included measures of organizational
commitment, ethical climate, job satisfaction, overclaim-
ing, and demographics. Four items were used to measure
organizational commitment (Hrebeniak and Alutto 1972).
They were ‘‘Would you leave your present organization if
another organization offered you: an increase in pay; more
freedom to be professionally creative; more status; and to
303
work with friendlier people?’’ These four items were rated
on a seven-point Likert scale (7 = definitely no, 1 = def-
initely yes). High scores indicate strong organizational
commitment while low scores imply weak organizational
commitment. The Cronbach’s alpha for organizational com-
mitment was 0.868.
Ethical climate was measured using six climate types
proposed by Victor and Cullen (1987). We used global
measures of the six ethical climate types (Deshpande 1996;
Deshpande et al. 2011). They are professional climate
(people are expected to comply with the law and profes-
sional standards in my organization), caring climate (our
major consideration is what is best for everyone in the
organization), rules climate (it is important to follow rules
and procedures in this organization), instrumental climate
(in this organization, people protect their own interest
above all else), efficiency climate (the most efficient way is
the right way in this organization), independence climate
(each person in this organization decides for themselves
what is right and wrong). A seven-point Likert scale was
used to measure the climate types (7 = mostly true and
1 = mostly false). Thus, a high score shows the presence
of a climate type and a low score shows the absence of a
climate type.
Job satisfaction was measured using 20 items. These
items were developed by Cellucci and Devries’s (1978)
and used by previous researchers in business ethics
(Deshpande 1996; Vitell and Davis 1990). These items
were: My organization pays better than competitors; My
pay is adequate considering the responsibilities I have; I am
underpaid for what I do (R); My fringe benefits are gen-
erous; I do not like the basis on which my organization
promotes people (R); Promotions are infrequent in my
organization (R); If I do a good job, I am likely to get
promoted; I am satisfied with my rate of advancement; The
people I work with do not give enough support (R); When I
ask people to do things the job gets done; I enjoy working
with people here; I work with responsible people here; The
managers I work for back me up; The managers I work for
are ‘‘top notch’’; Management does not treat me fairly (R);
My superiors do not listen to me (R); My job is interesting;
I feel good about the amount of responsibility in my job; I
would rather be doing another job (R); and I get little sense
of accomplishment from doing my job (R). These items
were rated on a seven-point Likert scale (7 = mostly true;
1 = mostly false). Job satisfaction score was arrived at by
calculating the average of the items after reverse coding
items with R. The Cronbach’s alpha for job satisfaction
was 0.854.
Overclaiming scales were used to control for social
desirability bias in our survey. The protocol used in our
study was first proposed by Randall and Fernandes (1991).
Respondents were asked to rate their degree of familiarity
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with items within four categories (movies, products, TV was 27-year old worker. About 62% of subjects were
shows, and designer labels) on a three-point Likert scale males. In addition, over 52% of the respondents were
(1 = not at all familiar, 3 = very familiar). Each category workers. While professional and rules were the most
has a fake item which is nonexistent. Overclaiming score reported ethical climate types, independence was the least
were arrived at by calculating the average score of fake reported ethical climate.
items. High scores indicate that respondents report that Pearson’s zero-order correlations and reliabilities are
they were aware of items that actually did not exist. shown in Table 2. The reliabilities (coefficient alphas) of
Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was 0.723. Other control organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and over-
variables were demographic variables like age, gender claiming are shown in parentheses on the diagonal of
(1 = male, 2 = female), and type of job (1 = worker, 2 = Table 2. All of them had a satisfactory reliability
clerical 3 = technical, 4 = office manager, 5 = executive). (alpha [ 0.70). Professional climate, caring climate, rules
climate, instrumental climate, job satisfaction, and over-
claiming were significantly correlated with organizational
Results commitment of respondents. A number of these variables
also had significant inter-correlations. Unfortunately, zero-
The mean and standard deviation of all the variables used order correlations do not show causations or control for the
in this study are shown in Table 1. An average respondent impact of other variables in the study. In order to overcome
these limitations, a regression analysis was done to
Table 1 Descriptive information of all variables
examine the impact of various factors on organizational
Variables Mean SD commitment.
Organizational commitment 4.17 1.57
Table 3 shows ordinary least square (OLS) regression
Professional 6.13 1.59
analysis results for our study. Standardized regression
Caring 5.29 1.71
coefficients show that caring climate had a significantly
positive impact on organizational commitment; so H2 was
Rules 6.13 1.56
supported. Instrumental climate had a significantly nega-
Instrumental 3.06 2.03
tive impact on commitment; so H4 was also supported.
Efficiency 3.63 2.15
Independence climate also had a significantly positive
Independence 2.49 1.81
impact on organizational commitment; so H6 was sup-
Job satisfaction 4.72 0.79
ported. Since professional, rules, and efficiency climates
Age 26.51 7.34
did not significantly impact organizational commitment;
Gender 1.38 0.49
H1, H3, and H5 were not supported. The results also show
Type of job 1.79 0.68
that job satisfaction had a significant positive impact
Overclaiming 2.61 0.46
on organizational commitment; so H7 was supported. None
n = 144 of the demographic variables nor overclaiming scale

Table 2 Zero-order Correlations among the variables

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1. Organizational commitment (0.87)

2. Professional 0.22 1
3. Caring 0.45 0.40 1
4. Rules 0.25 0.60 0.46 1
5. Instrumental -0.21 0.09 -0.02 0.10 1
6. Efficiency -0.13 0.10 -0.14 0.02 0.42 1
7. Independence 0.03 0.03 -0.15 0.00 0.33 0.45 1
8. Job satisfaction 0.48 0.22 0.54 0.33 -0.28 -0.25 0.25 (0.85)
9. Age 0.09 0.14 0.30 0.21 0.05 -0.17 -0.09 0.20 1
10. Gender 0.02 -0.22 -0.17 -0.02 -0.12 -0.02 0.06 -0.12 -0.19 1
11. Type of job 0.12 0.07 0.17 0.13 -0.06 -0.08 0.00 0.01 0.13 -0.08 1
12. Overclaiming 0.16 0.10 0.19 0.17 -0.12 -0.02 -0.09 0.24 0.07 -0.08 -0.08 (0.72)
Correlations of 0.22 and greater or -0.22 or less are significant at p \ 0.01 (two-tailed); correlation between 0.16 and 0.22 and -0.22 and -0.16
are significant at p \ 0.05 (two-tailed). Listwise n = 144

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Antecedents of Organizational Commitment 305

Table 3 Regression results for social desirability bias in international samples and busi-
Variable Beta t
ness ethics studies may affect the validity of the results.
Among the six ethical climate types examined in our
Professional 0.07 0.76 study, only caring, instrumental, and independence cli-
Caring 0.31*** 3.34 mates significantly impact organizational commitment.
Rules -0.02 -0.20 Interestingly, Lin (2011) in their study of antecedents of
Instrumental -0.16* -1.87 guanxi report that among the various ethical climate types,
Efficiency -0.06 -0.74 only caring, instrumental, and independence climates stress
Independence 0.23** 2.79 the development and growth of guanxi in an organization.
Job satisfaction 0.31*** 3.35 This suggests that the Chinese philosophy of guanxi or
Age -0.05 -0.59 networking is dominant in the private sector too.
Gender 0.09 1.17 Caring climate had the most impact on organizational
Type of job 0.02 0.31 commitment of respondents in our study. A caring climate
Overclaiming 0.04 0.52 is utilitarian based in which the firm has a sincere interest
F 6.49*** in the well being of others in the organization. Our results
R2 0.35 suggest that employees feel more committed to their firm
Adjusted R2 0.30 and feel a sense of shared values with an employer who
N 144 shows concern for them. While independence was the least
reported climate in our study, it also had a significant
*** p B 0.01; ** p B 0.05; * p B 0.10
positive impact on organizational commitment. In an
independence climate, employees act on their own set of
significantly impacted organizational commitment of moral beliefs and conviction. Such a climate allows
respondents in our regression model. employees to develop their own ethical standards without
being influenced by others. This makes them more com-
mitted to their organizations.
Discussion and Conclusions Our results also found that instrumental climate has a
negative impact on organizational commitment of respon-
Factors such as globalization, low-cost production facili- dents in our study. Thus, employees who work for a Chinese
ties, and access to cheap labor have resulted in massive firm that allow them to protect their own interests and/or do
foreign investments by Western firms in China. Over the what is necessary to further the company without paying
last three decades, this has allowed China to move from an attention to the consequences of their actions are less likely
agrarian economy to the manufacturing hub of the world. to be committed to their organization. Self-interest behav-
However, this radical transformation has created some iors in such an environment may include lying, cheating,
unique concerns for employers in China. Today, the flight and other dysfunctional behaviors (Martin and Cullen
of human capital and poor retention of local staff is the 2006). Since an instrumental climate encourages employees
biggest challenge faced by both domestic and foreign to look out for their own self-interests, such a climate may it
employers in China (Hudson 2010). This has made orga- easier for employees to quit their jobs if they cannot get
nizational commitment a major issue for employers given what they want at their current workplace.
that it has been shown to directly impact employee reten- The most widely reported climate by Chinese respon-
tion, employee turnover and intent to leave (Schwepker dents was the rules climate. This climate type that ensures
2001; Steers 1997). that employees follow rules and procedures had no sig-
This study makes four important contributions to help us nificant impact on organizational commitment. Previous
understand and address organizational commitment in China. business ethics research has found that factors such as
First, it shows how ethical climate and job satisfaction can business such as forms of institutionalization of ethics
positively impact organizational commitment in China. Sec- (Vitell and Singhapakdi 2008), ethical optimism (Koh and
ond, it employs a comprehensive measure of ethical climate. Boo 2004) and corporate ethical values (Valentine et al.
Instead of one global measure (e.g., Schwepker 2001), we 2011) also has a significant impact on commitment. Future
examine the impact of six different types of ethical climate on research in Chinese firms must examine these issues.
organizational commitment by Chinese employees. Third, Future research in China should examine whether other
this study was done in a private construction company in aspects of business ethics (e.g., ethical behavior, ethical
China. Past studies in China have mostly focused on service- codes, corporate social desirability, and ethical values)
oriented firms, student samples, and state-owned enterprises have a significant impact on organizational commitment of
or joint ventures. Finally, we also show that the lack of control Chinese employees.

123
306
Consistent with previous studies, job satisfaction had a
significantly positive impact on organizational commit-
ment of Chinese employees (Schwepker 2001; Mulki et al.
2008). In our study, job satisfaction was significantly cor-
related with age. Employee surveys in China suggest that
people in different age groups are motivated differently
(Kelly Services 2010). It has been shown that while baby
boomers are more motivated by pay levels and benefit
coverage, generation Y (ages 18–29) in China think
training opportunities are relatively more important than
compensation. Also, the younger generation is said to be
more individualistic and thus respond better to individual
merit-based plans. It has also been suggested that there is a
decline in group-focused Confucian values among the
younger generation (Ralston et al. 1999). Correlation
results show that younger employees are not only less
satisfied; they also are less likely to perceive a caring
environment within the organization. Thus, Chinese firms
have to come up with specific steps to address the needs of
their younger workforce. Some strategies suggested by
previous research to increase job satisfaction of all Chinese
employees include creating a participative environment,
involve employees in decision making, design inter-
dependent jobs, and team-related interventions (Scott et al.
2003).
While overclaiming did not significantly impact our
overall results in our regression model, it was interesting to
note that overclaiming was significantly correlated with
organizational commitment, caring climate, rules climate,
and job satisfaction. It is possible that respondents did not
want to provide true responses on these variables as it
would make their employer look bad. However, whatever
the reason, these correlations suggest that the values on
these variables may be inflated and the respondents were
providing socially desirable responses on these factors.
This confirms assertion by researchers that social desir-
ability response bias can overstate culturally desirable
responses (Bernardi and Guptill 2008). Clearly future
researchers in business ethics and international research
need to understand that they need to control for social
desirability bias even in studies when respondents were not
asked to identify themselves on the survey.
Although this study helps us better understand organi-
zational commitment in private companies in China, it still
has a number of limitations. As work environment (e.g.,
promotion rules, wage system, and ethical issues) in POEs
may be different from other companies, it is possible that
the results of this study may not be applicable to multi-
national firms, state-owned companies, joint ventures, or
even private companies of other industries. The company
in which this study was done is heavily generation Y
dominated, so the results may be different in firms that
have a larger number of old employees. In spite of these
123
W. Fu, S. P. Deshpande
limitations, this research has important conclusions for
researchers and human resource managers of different
firms in China.
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