Organizational Commitment in a Collectivist Culture: The Case of Turkey
Wasti, Syeda Arzu
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/87491
Description
Title
Organizational Commitment in a Collectivist Culture: The Case of Turkey
Author(s)
Wasti, Syeda Arzu
Issue Date
1999
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Triandis, Harry C.
Department of Study
Human Resources and Industrial Relations
Discipline
Human Resources and Industrial Relations
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Business Administration, Management
Language
eng
Abstract
The present study evaluated the nature of organizational commitment in Turkey, a predominantly collectivist society. The investigation involved three phases. In Study I, several emic organizational commitment items as well as emic organizational commitment antecedents were identified by in-depth interviews with Turkish employees (N = 83). In Study II, the organizational commitment scales by Meyer, Allen and Smith (1993) were revised with the addition of emic items and were pilot tested with a sample of Turkish public sector employees (N = 351). The etic-emic scales demonstrated enhanced psychometric properties when administered in Turkey. In Study III, an integrated etic-emic model of organizational commitment was tested using a sample of Turkish private sector employees (N = 914). The results indicated that although affective commitment is an etic type of organizational commitment, normative commitment develops primarily from collectivist antecedents such as generalized norms of loyalty, organizational collectivism and the influence of the ingroup. Further, normative commitment was a better predictor of work withdrawal than affective commitment; but affective commitment was more strongly related to organizational citizenship behaviors. In addition, normative commitment was not related to satisfaction with life, whereas affective commitment was positively related to employee well-being. The results also revealed some interesting findings with respect to the dimensionality of continuance commitment. Continuance commitment operationalized as perceived lack of alternatives was related to lower levels of turnover intentions but also to lower levels of organizational citizenship behaviors and higher levels of work withdrawal. On the other hand, continuance commitment operationalized as high personal sacrifice not only developed as a result of side-bets and perceived lack of alternatives but also from generalized norms for loyalty and the influence of the ingroup. These relations were stronger for individuals high on allocentrism. With respect to outcomes, this type of continuance commitment was related to more positive job outcomes for individuals high on allocentrism as well as those low on idiocentrism. It appears that continuance commitment conceptualized as high personal sacrifice is culture-bound. Taken together, the results suggest that organizational commitment is best conceptualized as having etic, partially emic (generalizable to collectivist cultures) and emic (specific to one culture) aspects.
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