Psychological Contract, Organizational Commitment and Work Satisfaction: Survey of Researchers in Chinese State-Owned Engineering Research Institutions

Abstract

This research analyzed the effect of knowledge workers' psychological contract on organizational commitment and work satisfaction. Data was collected thru a questionnaire survey given to 517 randomly selected Chinese knowledge workers in two state-owned engineering research institutions. The questionnaire contained items about the demographic profile of the respondents, psychological contract, organizational commitment and work satisfaction. The last three items were answered using a Likert rating scale ranging from 1 to 5 (strongly disagree to strongly agree). Descriptive statistics of the information on demographics was done together with reliability analysis, Pearson correlation and multiple regression of the data on the last three items on the questionnaire. The two dimensions of psychological contract were found to have a significant positive correlation with organizational commitment and work satisfaction. The three dimensions of organizational commitment were found to have a significant positive correlation with work satisfaction. From the regression model it was found that the fulfillment of knowledge workers' psychological contract contributed to the development of increased organizational commitment which in turn contributed to increased knowledge workers' job satisfaction level. This research investigated further the application of psychological contract in Chinese context and bridges the literature gap on analyzing the effects of Chinese psychological contract on work satisfaction through organizational commitment.

The Effect of Principals’ Competencies on Teachers’ Job Satisfaction and Work Commitment

“…Organizational commitment is a bond between the individuals and the organization, which lessens the possibility of the employees to leave the organization and improve their satisfaction and comfort in the organization (Matin et al, 2010). The results also support similar studies, which found that work commitment or organizational commitment has a positive and significant correlation with job satisfaction (Gangai & Agrawal, 2015;Kelly, 2015;Zhou et al, 2014).…”

Organizational commitment and turnover intention among rural nurses in the Philippines: Implications for nursing management

“…Organizational commitment is an important management element that determines nurses' work performance, productivity, and impact of organizational effectiveness [6,9,10]. In this current study, nurses perceived “moderate commitment”, with higher scores observed in the “affective commitment subscale.” This suggested that the study's nurses have strong emotional attachment to their organization and to the work that they do.…”

“…A clear link between organizational commitment and job outcomes is well documented in the literature. Higher levels of organizational commitment were contributed to work effectiveness and job engagement in nurses, increased job performance, reduction in burnout [6,9,10], reduction in absenteeism and nurse turnover, and a decrease in work fatigue [11].…”

Impact of employee development on job satisfaction and organizational commitment: person–organization fit as moderator

“…The roots of this challenge can be traced to organizational efforts to develop stability and job security for its human resources (Kinnie et al ., ). To this end, the organization needs to foster in its employees a sense of work commitment –a commitment to the organization’s values and goals, occupational commitment and a strong work ethic (Cohen, ; Zhou et al ., ). Providing support to this argument Ouchi () and Williamson () in their studies demonstrated that failure to develop this psychological attachment among members may require the organization to bear the increased costs of acquiring and maintaining sophisticated control systems.…”