Do academics’ emotions in teaching affect their organizational commitment?

Abstract

This research pioneered the investigation of the statistically predictive power of academics' emotions in teaching for their organizational commitment-beyond age, academic rank, academic degree, sex, and taught academic discipline. Two hundred 22 academics from 13 higher educational institutions in Shanghai, mainland China, responded to a revised version of the Emotions in Teaching Inventory (Trigwell, 2009) and the Organizational Commitment Inventory (Ling, Fang, & Zhang, 2002). Results revealed that positive emotions in teaching primarily predicted the adaptive types of organizational commitment, including affective, normative, and ideal commitment, whereas negative emotions in teaching chiefly contributed to the maladaptive types of organizational commitment, including economic and choice commitment. These findings have brought new insights into the literature on emotions in teaching and that on organizational commitment. At the same time, the findings have practical implications for academics and university senior managers. Educational Impact and Implications StatementAs a consequence of fundamental changes, such as intensified competition and output orientation in higher educational institutions, academics' organizational commitment has become exponentially more important over the last decade. Much research has been conducted to understand organizational commitment among academics. However, very few studies have examined how academics' psychological characteristics contribute to their organizational commitment. The present study found that academics' emotions in teaching made a significant difference to their organizational commitment in predictable ways: Positive emotions in teaching were conducive to adaptive organizational commitment, whereas negative emotions in teaching tended to foster maladaptive organizational commitment. Such predictions held true irrespective of age, academic rank, academic degree, sex, and taught academic discipline. The present findings offer a new lens through which university academics and senior managers can make sense of academics' organizational commitment, that is, through academics' feelings about their teaching.

Research agendas and organizational commitment among academics in mainland China

“…Ling et al ( 2002 ) constructed the 20-item Organizational Commitment Inventory (OCI) to evaluate the five components (i.e., AC, NC, IC, EC, and CC) of organizational commitment among employees in industries in mainland China. Subsequent studies among academics (Zhang, 2015 , 2019 ; Zhang & Jing, 2016 ) consistently found that satisfactory psychometric properties of the OCI were more easily obtained with three items removed. Thus, the 17-item inventory was adopted in this study.…”

“…Generally, older academics report significantly more adaptive organizational commitment. Specifically, older academics reported higher levels of IC (Zhang, 2019 ), NC (Zhang et al, 2017 ) and AC (Zhang & Jing, 2016 ) than did younger academics. Two studies revealed that compared with academics in non-STEM disciplines, those in STEM disciplines expressed stronger AC and IC (Zhang, 2015 ; Zhang et al, 2017 ).…”

“…The five-component model has been validated in universities in mainland China (e.g., Jing, 2010 ; Zhang, 2015 , 2019 ; Zhang et al, 2017 ). Essentially, two bodies of literature have been built: (1) organizational commitment and demographics and (2) organizational commitment with personal attributes and work outcomes.…”

“…Academics’ AC, NC, and IC were significantly positively predicted by the desirable conscientiousness personality trait, whereas their CC was positively predicted by the undesirable neuroticism personality trait (Zhang, 2015 ). Academics’ AC, NC, and IC were closely associated with positive teaching emotions, whereas EC and CC were related to negative teaching emotions (Zhang, 2019 ). Finally, Zhang and Jing ( 2016 ) found a significant association of organizational commitment with an intellectual process, teaching styles: Academics with stronger AC tended to report the use of creative teaching styles, while those with stronger EC and CC tended to report the use of norm-conforming teaching styles.…”

Integration of Emotional Intelligence in Teaching Practice Among University Teachers in Higher Education

“…Furthermore, the best teaching can be found in the attitude of the teachers, in their faith in their students' abilities to achieve, in their willingness to take their students seriously and to let them assume control of their own, learning and in their commitment to let all policies and practices flow from central learning objectives and from mutual respect and agreement between them and the students (Bain, 2011, p. 78-79). On a broader impact, Zhang (2019) found a strong association between teachers' emotions in teaching and their organizational commitment within the higher education context. Teachers with positive emotions in teaching are linked to adaptive forms of organizational commitment while maladaptive forms are associated with negative emotions in teaching.…”