Investigating the Correlates and Predictors of Affective and Continuance Organizational Commitment: A Cross sectional Survey of Malaysian Academic Librarians

Abstract

This study attempts to identify the correlates and predictors of affective and continuance organizational commitment. Meyer & Allen’s (1997) conceptualization and operationalization of organizational commitment has been adopted for this study. This study was carried out to determine whether work related variables such as job satisfaction, job involvement, job autonomy, job performance feedback, role conflict and role clarity would have a predictive relationship with affective as well as continuance organizational commitment. Additionally, the study also investigated whether worker related variables such as employee’s age, job tenure and employment tenure would also account for the variance in both affective as well as continuance organizational commitment. It employs a cross-sectional survey design in which 279 academic librarians from all the eight universities were randomly selected to participate in the study. The survey resulted in a 63 percent response rate in which 139 of the questionnaires returned were usable. The results of running Pearson Product Moment Correlation analyses showed that worker related variables such age, job tenure and organizational tenure to be significantly but negatively correlated with continuance organizational commitment but not significantly correlated with affective continuance commitment. Similarly, the results of running Pearson Product Moment Correlations showed that work related variables such as job satisfaction, job autonomy, job involvement, job feedback, role conflict and role clarity to be significantly and positively correlated with affective organizational commitment but not with continuance organizational commitment. The study provides an empirical glimpse of the organizational commitment phenomenon in a Malaysian academic library setting. The findings provide encouraging empirical illumination that most Western based organizational commitment theories have important application for academic librarians in Malaysia