The Impact of Caring Climate, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment on

Job Performance of Employees in a China's Insurance Company

Author(s): Weihui Fu and Satish P. Deshpande
Source: Journal of Business Ethics , October 2014, Vol. 124, No. 2 (October 2014), pp.
339-349
Published by: Springer

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24033273

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J Bus Ethics (2014) 124:339-349
DOI 10.1007/s 10551 -013-1876-y

The Impact of Caring Climate, Job Satisfaction,

and Organizational Commitment on Job Performance
of Employees in a China's Insurance Company

Weihui Fu • Satish P. Deshpande

Received: 11 May 2013/Accepted: 20 August 2013/Published online: 3 September 2013

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Abstract This research uses structural equation modeling
(SEM) to examine the direct and indirect relationships
among caring climate, job satisfaction, organizational
commitment, and job performance of 476 employees
working in a Chinese insurance company. The SEM result
showed that caring climate had a significant direct impact
on job satisfaction, organizational command, and job per
formance. Caring climate also had a significant indirect
impact on organizational commitment through the medi
ating role of job satisfaction, and on job performance
through the mediating role of job satisfaction and organi
zational commitment. In addition, job satisfaction had
significant direct impact on organizational commitment,
through which it also had a significant indirect impact on
job performance. Finally, organizational commitment had a
significant direct impact on job performance.
Keywords Caring climate • China • Job
performance • Job satisfaction • Organizational
commitment
Introduction
The rapid pace of progress in the Chinese insurance sectortremendous pressure on an already tight labor market in the
since China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) Chinese manufacturing sector (Chu 2013). In fact, in the
W. Fu (El)
Dongling School of Economics & Management, University of
Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
e-mail: weihuifu@ustb.edu.cn
S. P. Deshpande
Department of Management, Haworth College of Business,
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, USA
e-mail: satish.deshpande@wmich.edu
in 2005 is astonishing. China is expected to have the
highest growth rate in primary insurance premiums in the
world until 2020. Average growth in premiums between
2012 and 2020 is expected to be 12 % annually (Hu 2013).
The seeds of this growth were planted in 1979, when China
as a part of its economic reforms, reopened its domestic
insurance market and gradually decreased direct social
security protection. These reforms and the decline of social
security coverage made getting life insurance very attrac
tive for its citizens. As the transition period of WTO
accession for insurance industry ended, the Chinese
insurance sector saw increasing presence of foreign insur
ance companies in the form of joint ventures and direct
investment (CIRC 2005; Saunders and Lu 2004).
Unfortunately, the Chinese insurance industry is not
immune from unethical practices. The China Insurance
Regulatory Commission (CIRC) has taken serious action
against those in the insurance sector for activities like
misleading sales tactics, nondisclosure of policy condi
tions, and deception. In recent years, CIRC has increased
fines and passed laws making insurance firms more
accountable. The potential for personal growth, promising
future, and flexible working hours has made the insurance
sector in China a magnet for migrant workers and put
last 5 years, more jobs have been created in the service
sector than the manufacturing sector in China. Given the
rapid economic growth, and very little research on per
formance management in China, scholars have identified a
strong need for systematic research to examine perfor
mance-related issues and workplace behavior of Chinese
workers and managers (Wang et al. 2003; Huang and Bond
2012). In addition, more research is needed to examine
indirect effects of impacting factors of job performance

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 340 W. Fu, S. P. Deshpande

(Jaramillo et study.
al. In a caring2006).
climate, the major consideration
The
is what ob
fulfill these is best
needs by
for everyone in the organization. exam
In this climate,
formance in certain
a strategies
largefor managing ethical behavior like code
Chinese
of ethics will be ineffective but other strategies like ethical
behavior training that utilizes a utilitarian approach will be
Literature Review more effective (Victor and Cullen 1990).
Previous research has found that a caring climate has a
In the service sector, employee behavior can have asignificant
sig impact on various organizational outcomes.
Deshpande (1996) found that respondents who believed
nificant impact on the organization's reputation, success,
and service quality. Some of the factors impacting that pertheir organization had caring climate were more sat
formance examined by researchers include corporate ethi
isfied with their supervisors in a survey of 252 middle level
cal values (Sharma et al. 2009), positive job response
managers of a large non-profit organization. Goldman and
(Valentine et al. 2010), social power (Nygaard and Biong
Tabak (2010) proposed that caring and service climates
2010), employee feedback (Asumeng 2013), and climatepositively influenced all aspects of job satisfaction of 95
for innovation (Nusair 2013). Weeks et al. (2004) reported
nurses working in one central hospital in the state of Israel.
that ethical climate's impact on organizational commit
The study of Jaramillo et al. (2006) indicated that ethical
ment can indirectly influence job performance. In addition,
climate resulted in lower role conflict and role ambiguity
research has also shown that ethical climate can indirectly
and higher satisfaction. Meeusen et al. (2011) found work
influence turnover intention through job satisfaction, climate
and characteristics had statistically significant correla
organizational commitment (Schwepker 2001; Valentine
tions to job satisfaction, such as making employees feel an
and Barnett 2003). Unfortunately very few studies have
important part of the organization's mission statement and
examined the direct and indirect impact of caring climate,
providing sufficient opportunities to learn and to grow.
job satisfaction and organizational commitment onOkpara
job and Wynn (2008), in their study in Nigeria found
performance. The objective of this paper is to meet that
thiscaring climate had a significant positive impact on
deficiency. overall job satisfaction and various facets of job satisfac
tion including promotion, supervision, coworkers, and
Caring Climate work itself. Tsai and Huang (2008) suggested that hospital
administrators can foster within organizations the climate
Employees learn appropriate behavior within their organi types of caring, independent, and rules that increase satis
zation through climate perceptions. Victor and Cullen faction, while preventing organizations from developing
(1988, 1990) defined climate as "values and beliefs that are the type of instrumental climate that decreases it. We
known and perceived by workgroups and/or organization expect that caring climate will significantly impact job
members." Early research done on organizational climate satisfaction of Chinese insurance employees and propose
virtually ignored those aspects of a firm's climate that the following hypothesis:
guides ethical behavior. In 1975, Schneider strongly argued
HI Caring climate has a significant direct impact on job
that since many types of climate exist in an organization,
satisfaction.
researchers must stop focusing on a general climate. In
addition, researchers must focus on those dimensions of Some research has been done on the relationship
climate that relate to specific variables. between ethical climate and organizational commitment.
Ethical climate is a type of work climate which guides Cullen et al. (2003) proposed that benevolence ethical
ethical behavior within an organization. They help climate had a positive impaction organizational commit
employees decide what is right or wrong behavior within ment. Filipova (2011) found that a caring ethical climate
an organization. The initial work on identifying different had significantly positive influence on organizational
types of ethical climate within an organization was done by commitment of nurses in Midwestern United States.
Victor and Cullen (1988, 1990). They proposed six distinct Grdinovac and Yancey (2012) proposed employees of
climate types: professionalism, caring, rules, instrumental, organizations that used more caring adaptations and fewer
efficiency, and independence. A number of studies have uncaring adaptations will have greater affective and nor
examined the impact of different ethical climates on job mative organizational commitment than will the employees
satisfaction. Fu and Deshpande (2012a) found that among of organizations that use fewer caring adaptations and more
the different types of ethical climates, caring climate had uncaring adaptations. The research of Kang et al. (2011)
the biggest positive correlation with ethical behavior of showed that ethical organizational climate is a significant
Chinese employees in a survey of 208 samples of a steel correlate of organizational commitment in South Korea.
company. Thus, we will focus on this climate type in our Tsai and Huang (2008) in a sample of 352 employees

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Job Performance of Employees in a China's Insurance Company 341

impact on organizational
found that caring climate had a significant impact commitment.
on nor Chen and Liu
(2012)
mative commitment. A recent study of found that work performance
employees workingin Taiwan was posi
at a Chinese private construction company
tively affected byreported
job involvement,that
job satisfaction, and
compared with other ethical climate types,
internal marketing.caring climate
Hira and Waqas (2012) found there was
had a bigger impact on organizational commitment
a positive relationship of
between job satisfaction and job
Chinese employees (Fu and Deshpande
performance2012b).
in a survey ofTherefore,
335 respondents that work in
we propose that: middle level of banking sector. Iqbal et al. (2012) also
found that job satisfaction has a positive impact on job
H2 Caring climate has a significant direct impact on
performance in a survey of 251 respondents from various
organizational commitment.
universities. The previous studies have shown that job
Very little research had been performance
done to was examine theby job satisfac
influenced significantly
tion. A number
impact of ethical climate on employees' jobofperformance.
studies found that job satisfaction also
Job performance is a term usedhad to a significant
depict impact
how on organizational
well an commitment
(Qureshi et al. 2011;
employee performs his or her work-related Malik et
duties al. 2010; Samad and Se
(Caillier
2010). Schwepker and Ingram (1996) found
langor 2005), that
so we propose the sales
following two hypotheses:
people's job performance is positively related to their
H4 Job satisfaction has a significant direct impact on
ethical judgment. Jaramillo et al. (2006) found that a high
organizational commitment.
ethical climate leads to higher job performance of sales
people who work for a large retailer selling
H5 Job satisfaction has a high-end
significant direct impact on job
consumer durables at 68 stores in 16 states. Elci et al. performance.
(2007) proposed that corporate ethical values will be pos
Organizational
itively associated with job performance in a survey of 253 Commitment
blue-collar employees selected randomly from ten middle
Organizational commitment is a measure of an employee's
sized manufacturing companies. Kim and Brymer (2011),
identification with his or her organization. A meta-analysis
in a survey of 324 middle managers, found that executives'
on studies over the past 25 years across 14 countries
ethical leadership had an indirect impact on job perfor
(Jaramillo et al. 2005) indicated that the relationship
mance through the mediating role of affective commitment
between organizational commitment and job performance is
and extra effort. Sabir et al. (2012) found that corporate
ethical values had a significant impact on employee positive
per and stronger for sales employees than for non-sales
employees.
formance through the mediating effect of ethical leadership Stronger correlations between organizational
commitment
in a survey of 150 employees. The study of Sheraz et al. and job performance were also found for
(2012) indicated a positive and significant relationship
collectivist compared to individualistic cultures. Khan et al.
between ethical leadership and employee performance(2010)
in a revealed a positive relationship between organiza
tional commitment and employees' job performance and in
sample of 377 management staff of local and International
NGOs working in Pakistan. Therefore, we expectthe comparative analysis of three dimensions of organiza
that
caring climate also has significant impact on job perforcommitment, normative commitment has a positive
tional
mance and proposed the following hypothesis: and significant impact on employees' job performance.
Darolia et al. (2010), in a survey of 231 male-skilled
H3 Caring climate has a significant direct impact on job from different units of National Fertilizer Ltd.,
workers
performance.
India, found a positive correlation between organizational
commitment, and organizational support and their signifi
Job Satisfaction cant contribution in determining job performance. Jamal
(2011) reported that organizational commitment has a sig
Locke (1976, p. 1300) defined job satisfaction as "a plea nificant impact on performance and it moderates the rela
surable or positive emotional state resulting from the tionship between overall job stress and job performance in
appraisal of one's job or job experience." Edwards and Malaysia and Pakistan. Thus, we expect that organizational
Bell (2008) found a statistically significant positive rela commitment will have a significant impact on employees'
tionship between overall satisfaction and task performance. job performance and proposed the following hypothesis:
Springer (2011) suggested that managers can improve
H6 Organizational commitment has a significant direct
employees' job performance by applying managerial
impact on job performance.
strategies to increase job satisfaction and job motivation.
Fu et al. (2011) reported that facets of job satisfaction (pay, Based on the above hypotheses we have proposed, ethical
coworker, supervision, and work itself) had a significant climate also had indirect impact on organizational

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 342 W. Fu, S. P. Deshpande

commitment collected by the first author. Surveys

through the were first prepared
media in
on English and then translated into
performancejob Chinese. The survey was
through t
faction and translated back into English independently by three pro
organizational com
has an fessionalsimpact
indirect to ensure that there was no distortion
on of inforjob
tional mation during translation. 600
commitment. surveys were distributed
These rel
Therefore, withinfollowing
the the insurance company in late 2012. After deletion
three
for missing values, we were left with 476 respondents. This
H7 Caring climate has a sig
gave us a useable response rate of 79.3 %.
organizational commitment t
job satisfaction.
Measures
H8 Caring climate has a sig
job performance through th
faction and commitment. The comprehensive survey covered a variety of items
including measures of job performance, organizational
H9 Job satisfaction has a significant indirect impact on commitment, job satisfaction, caring climate, and demo
job performance through the mediating role of organiza graphic variables. Job performance is measured using three
tional commitment.
items. The represents were asked to use a five-point Likert
scale (1 = very poor; 5 = very good) to rate their own
Study Methodology overall performance at work in the last year; report how their
boss would rate or rated their overall performance at work in
Sample Information the last year; and how their colleagues would rate their overall
performance at work in the last year. High scores imply great
The sample for this study consisted of employees working job performance while low scores indicate poor performance.
in a large insurance company in mainland China. Data was The Cronbach's alpha for job performance was 0.837.

Fig. 1 The result of the path The result of the path model
model. *** p < 0.01;
** p <0.05; * p< 0.1. JP1:
How the respondent rate their
own overall performance. JP2:
How their boss would rate or
rated their overall performance.
JP3: How their colleagues
would rate their overall
performance. JS1: I frequently
think about quitting this job
(reverse coded). JS2: I am
satisfied with the activities I
perform every day. JS3:
Generally speaking, I am very
satisfied with this job

*** (P<0.01); ** (P<0.05); * (P<0.1)

JP1: How the respondent rate their own overall performance

JP2: How their boss would rate or rated their overall performance

JP3: How their colleagues would rate their overall performance

JS1:1 frequently think about quitting this job (reverse coded).

JS2:1 am satisfied with the activities I perform every day.

JS3: Generally speaking, I am very satisfied with this job.

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Job Performance of Employees in a China's Insurance Company 343

Organizational commitment was representing

measured using
"mostly 18used to measure caring
false") was
items proposed by Meyer and Allen (1991),
climate. which
Thus a high con
score shows the presence of a caring
sisted of three different dimensions. The first
climate and adimension
low score shows of
the absence of a caring cli
organizational commitment was affective commitment,
mate. The demographic variables included age, gender
(1 = male;be
which included 6 items. They were: I would 2 =very
female), education (1 = graduate;
happy
to spend the rest of my career with this
2 = undergraduate; 3 = high Ischool), work years, and type
organization;
really feel as if this organization's problems
of job (1 =are my
staff; 2 = own; I
office manager; 3 = executive).
do not feel a strong sense of belonging to my organization;
I do not feel like "part of the family" at my organization
Results
(R); I do not feel "emotionally attached" to this organi
zation (R); This organization has a great deal of personal
meaning for me. The second scale of A organizational com
detailed summary of the sample characteristics is pre
mitment was continuance commitment, which was mea
sented in Table 1. About 43.7 % of the respondents were
sured using the following 6 items: It would be
men and very
56.3 % of hard for
the respondents were women. Most of
the
me to leave my organization right now, respondents
even are aged 20-30
if I wanted to; (36.1 %) and 31-40
Too much in my life would be disrupted if I decided
(42.9 %), which I
gave us an average respondent age of
wanted to leave my organization now;34.5
Right now,
years old. Over staying
half of the respondents had an under
with my organization is a matter of necessity
graduate degree as (87.4
much as % of the respondents had
%). 57.4
0-10
desire; I feel that I have too few options toyears' job experience,
consider leaving 28.6 % of them had
11-20consequences
this organization; One of the few serious years' job experience
of and only 14.0% had over
leaving this organization would be the20scarcity of experience.
years' working available Most of the respondents were
alternatives; If I had not put so muchoffice
of myself
staff (82.6into this
%) a mix of salespersons and clericals.
Tableelsewhere.
organization, I might consider working 2 presents the The
mean, standard deviation, and
Pearson's
third scale of organizational commitment zero-order
was correlations for all variables in this
normative
commitment, which was measured using study.
the
Caring
following
climate, job6satisfaction and affective com
mitment, continuance
items: I would feel guilty if I left the organization now;commitment,
I do and normative
not feel any obligation to stay with my current employer;
Even if it were to my advantage, I doTable
not1 Sample
feel characters
it would be
right to leave my organization; This organization deserves
Variables Frequency Valid percent (%)
my loyalty; I would not leave my organization right now
because I have a sense of obligation to
Genderthe people in it; I

owe a great deal to my organization. These

Male 18 items 208
were 43.70

combined to form an index of overall

Female organizational
268 56.30

commitment. The items were rated on

Age a five-point scale
(5 = strongly agree; 1 = strongly disagree).
20-30 High scores
172 36.13

imply strong organizational commitment

31-40 while low 204
scores 42.86

indicate weak organizational commitment. The Cronbach's

41 and above 100 21.01
a for affective commitment, continuance
Education commitment,
normative commitment, and the overall
Graduate organizational
48 10.10
commitment was 0.601, 0.609, 0.604, 0.745, and 0.794,
416 87.40
Undergraduate
respectively. High school 12 2.50
Job satisfaction was measured using 3 items developed
Work years
by Cellucci and Devries's (1978). They are: I frequently 0-10 273 57.35
think about quitting this job (reverse coded); I am satisfied 11-20 136 28.57
with the activities I perform every day; Generally speaking, 21-30 51 10.71
I am very satisfied with this job. These three items were 31 and above 16 3.36
rated on a five-point Likert scale (5 = mostly true;
Job type
1 = mostly false). High scores imply higher job satisfac 82.59
Workers 406
tion. The Cronbach's alpha for job satisfaction is 0.696.
Office manager 46 9.67
Caring climate was measured using the caring climate
Executive 3 0.63
scale proposed by Deshpande (1996): our major consider
Others 21 4.41
ation is what is best for everyone in the organization. A
N= 476
5-point Likert scale (5 representing "mostly true" and 1

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 344 W. Fu, S. P. Deshpande

commitment are
providing significantly
sufficient support for Hypothesis 3. Job satisfaction
job has a significant impact
performance, which on organizational commitment
is sh
Table 2. (standard coefficient
Other variables = 0.46;p < 0.01), so Hypothesis 4 lik
was
cantly also accepted. But
correlate job satisfaction had no
with significant impact
job per
three dimensions of
on job performance (standard organi
coefficient = —0.07\p > 0.1),
related withso Hypothesis
caring climate
5 was rejected. Organizational commitment
faction, which are
was confirmed to have ashown as
significant impact on job perfor J
number of mance (standard
our coefficient = 0.17; p < 0.05), so Hypoth
independent
nificantly. It is
esis 6 was accepted.inappropria
Furthermore, from the above result it can
based on correlations as
be proved that caring climate has a significant the
indirect impact
ation betweenon organizational
two commitment
variables of Chinese employees b
caring through the mediating
climate, job role of satisfac
job satisfaction (standard
mitment influence
coefficient = 0. Yl\p < 0.01). the
Therefore, Hypothesis
job 7 was p
has the biggest
supported. Itimpact.
is indicated that caring climate also
For has a sig t
equation nificant indirect
model impact on job performance
(SEM) of Chinese
analy
The results of the
employees fit
through the mediating role of of the
job satisfaction and
Table 3. Three commitment (standard coefficient = 0.05; p < 0.1),
different kind so
were examined to
Hypothesis 8 was accepted. verify
Meanwhile, job satisfaction has a ad
first group ofsignificant
indexindirect impact on job
is performance
absolu of Chinese
RMSEA. The employees
model through the mediatinghad a
role of organizational si
(X2 = 129.54;commitment
x2/df (standard coefficient
== 0.08; p < 0.05), so
4.47).
that Chi squareHypothesis 9values
was also supported. lower
and Wothke 1999). The
The direct and indirect impact of caring root
climate, job
mation measure (RMSEA
satisfaction, and organizational commitment on job per=
model has a reasonably
formance is shown in Table 4. It is suggested good
that the total
ond group of impact
index of caring climate on
isorganizational
relativecommitment
fit index (CFIincreased=by 0.17 0.95), the
through the indirect impact mediated by n
and the incremental fit
job satisfaction. In addition, the impact on in
job performance
gested that the
increased by 0.05model
through the indirect impactfitmediated by w
(1999) stated that CFI, NFI,
job satisfaction and organizational commitment. It is also a
satisfactory. indicated that job
The satisfaction had significant
third group indirect
including parsimony
impact of 0.08 on job performance throughnorm
the mediating
parsimony goodness-of-fit
role of organizational commitment, although it had no in
both bigger than
significant direct0.70 and
impact on job performance. lead
The variance extracted score for each latent construct
showed the overall amount of variance in the indicators
accounted for by the latent construct (Hair et al. 1998 Discussions and Conclusions
p. 612). Variance extracted values above 0.50 are consid
ered satisfactory (Bagozzi and Yi 1988). As seen in Fig.In
1, recent years, a number of Chinese industries have been
the latent constructs representing job satisfaction, organi
hit by ethical scandals. News items like baby milk tainted
zational commitment, and job performance all suitably with melamine and toys with lead paint have underlined
accounted for the variance associated with their items. major business ethics problems in China. Unfortunately the
Results of the path analysis for the specified model areinsurance industry in China has also come under criticism
presented in Fig. 1. It is shown that caring climate has for a unethical practices. China Consumer's Association has
significant direct impact on job satisfaction of Chinese identified a number of unethical practices by insurance
employees (standard coefficient = 0.36; p < 0.01), which companies including unilateral rate adjustments, false
provides adequate statistical support for Hypothesis 1. Themarketing, and delay in processing claims (Chi 2013).
result also shows that the caring climate has a significant These complaints have been steadily rising and can have a
direct impact on organizational commitment of Chinese detrimental impact on the image of this growing industry.
employees (standard coefficient = 0.31; p < 0.01). ThereUnfortunately, voluntary turnover rate in the Chinese
fore, the Hypothesis 2 was also supported. Meanwhile, it is insurance industry have reached historically high double
also indicated that caring climate has a significant impact ondigits (Tower Watson 2012).While the Chinese Insurance
job performance (standard coefficient = 0.10; p < 0.1),Regulatory has increased fines and passed laws to make

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Job Performance of Employees in a China's Insurance Company 345

1.00
-0.25 1.00 -0.06 0.13 1.0

1.00 0.90 0.11

-0.19

1.00 0.03
-0.01 -0.10 -0.03

1.00 0.01 0.06 0.05 0.08 0.00

1.00 0.37 0.07 0.01 0.10 0.01 0.04

1.00 0.81 0.26 0.05

-0.02 -0.06 -0.09 -0.04

1.00 0.67 0.82 0.27 0.04 0.05 0.00

-0.01 -0.05

1.00 0.36 0.35 0.76 0.34 0.03 0.14 0.03

-0.13 -0.02

1.00 0.41 0.37 0.43 0.51 0.49 0.00 0.14 0.06 0.15
-0.05

1.00 0.82 0.44 0.42 0.46 0.55 0.50 0.01 0.12 0.13 0.01
-0.02

1.00 0.37 0.73 0.16 0.05 0.19 0.17 0.24 0.16 0.11 0.16
-0.04 -0.09

1.00 0.28 0.54 0.77 0.37 0.42 0.36 0.48 0.41 0.03 0.05 0.06 0.07
—0.04

DX)
e
1.00 0.21 0.09 0.11 0.09 0.02 0.12 0.03 0.12 0.06 0.19 0.11 0.22 0.07
o -0.08

1.00 0.86 0.19 0.13 0.09 0.02 0.11 0.01 0.06 0.13 0.01 0.15 0.10 0.16 0.08
-0.09

1.00 0.77 0.88 0.23 0.12 0.10 0.04 0.14 0.07 0.17 0.01 0.13 0.11 0.13 0.05
-0.09 -0.01

1.00 0.73 0.87 0.86 0.18 0.08 0.06 0.07 0.01 0.14 0.08 0.18 0.08 0.18 0.04
-0.09 -0.02 -0.06

0.76 0.72 0.74 0.68 0.60 0.66 0.61 0.48 1.21 0.97 0.94 0.83 1.09 0.50 7.74 0.37 8.34 1.00

MeanSD12345678910 23415678 3.87 3.77 3.81 3.79 3.34 3.13 3.06 3.18 3.60 3.21 3.46 3.42 3.13 1.56
34.45
2.08
11.72
1.45

a
•c
o
C/5

&

JD
03
H Variables 1. JP1 2. JP2 3. JP3 4. Overal JP 5. Affective 6. Continuance 7. Normative 8. Overal Commit 9. JS1 10. JS2 11. JS3 12. Overal JS 13. Caring Climate 14. Gender 15. Age 16. Education 17. Work years 18. Job type JPobperfmanc,JPIHowtherspnd atheirownvalpefrmnc,JP2Howtheirbsuldateor hiveralpfomnc,JP3Hwtheircolaguswdrtehi overalpfmnce,JSobsatifcn,JS1Irequtlyhinkabouqtghisjob(revcd),JS2IamstifedwhactivesIprfomvyda;JS3genrlyspakig.Im very satisfied with this job Corelatinsf0.12dgreato—0.12rlesaignfctp<0.1(wo-tailed);Cr onsbetw0.1and2 —0.1and resignfcatp<0.5(wo-tailed) n = 476

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 346 W. Fu, S. P. Deshpande

Table 3 The personal touch,

index of personalthe
follow up, putting
path personalized m
Indices Index Suggested standard
remarks in writing, giving public praise, and making fre
quent contact. Caring climate can also improve the job
Absolute indices The smaller the better 129.54
x2 satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job perfor
X2'df <3 (Good) 4.47
mance through other ways. A number of studies (Gano
<5 (Acceptable) Overway et al. 2009; Newton et al. 2007) have shown that
RMSEA <0.05 (Good) 0.08 perceptions of a caring climate were associated with par
<0.08 (Acceptable) ticipants' intending to continue their participation in the
Relative indices NFI >0.9 0.94 program, as well as reporting more empathic concern for
CFI >0.9 0.95 others. Caring climate was also found to be positively
IFI >0.9 0.95 related to mental well-being of the respondents (Fry et al.
Parsimony indices PNFI >0.5 0.60 2012). Future research needs to examine the impact of
PGR >0.5 0.50 other climate types like professional, rule, instrumental and
independence in the Chinese insurance industry.
This study confirmed the positive direct impact of job
firms more accountable, high turnover and lack of com satisfaction on employees' organizational commitment and
mitment of employees has made it very difficult for firms to indirect impact on job performance. Our study supports the
address unethical practices by their employees. This paper understanding that is worthwhile for firms to develop
examines factors that impact workplace behavior and per strategies to improve job satisfaction. A critical element of
formance of employees working in a Chinese insurance our findings is that the impact of these strategies in China
company. Future research needs to examine these issues in will be more effective when the employees are aware that
other industries in China too. the company cares for them. Sommer and Kulkarni (2012)
Our research indicates that caring climate is a predictor suggested that employees whose supervisors used con
of a number of important organizational outcomes like job structive feedback had greater job satisfaction. Research
satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job perfor also suggests that mangers can also improve employees'
mance of Chinese employees. The impact is both direct and satisfaction by providing a good environment for employ
indirect. This study clearly reinforces the need for Chinese ees learning (Alonderiene 2010).
organizations to undertake different strategies to improving Our results imply that employees feel more committed
the firm's perception of having a caring climate. A caring to their firm and have a better performance if they feel a
climate is utilitarian based in which the firm has a sincere sense of shared values with an employer who shows con
interest in the well-being of others in the organization. Dale cern for them. We also examined the impact of caring
(2005) proposed five ways to let employees feel cared: climate on demographics in a post hoc analysis. In Table 2

Table 4 The impact of independent variables on dependent variables

Independent variables Dependent variables

Job satisfaction Organizational commitment Job performance

Effect Sig. Effect Sig. Effect Sig.

Exogenous variables Caring climate

Direct impact 0.36 0.31 ***
0.10

Indirect impact 0.17 ***

0.05

Overall impact 0.36 0.48 ***

0.15

Endogenous variables Job satisfaction

Direct impact 0.46 -0.07

Indirect impact 0.08

Overall impact 0.46

Organizational commitment
Direct impact 0.17

Indirect impact
Overall impact 0.17

*** p < 0.01; ** p < 0.05; * p <0.1

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Job Performance of Employees in a China's Insurance Company 347

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