Relationship between Organizational Commitment, Job Performance and Job Satisfaction among Employees

Background.

According to Muthuveloo and Rose (2005), organizational commitment refers to the ability of employees to be loyal and identify with the organization in relations to the duties and responsibilities being held. In organizational commitment, the employees identify themselves with the goals and values of the organization they work for to enable it achieve increased performance ( Herscovitch & Meyer,2002 ).They argued that commitment can be informs of Affective, Normative and Continuance. Commitment comes with job related behaviors such as reduced absenteeism and this leads to effective quality service. Affective commitment is related to emotional attachment to the organization based on positive feelings of the job characteristics. This type of commitment is associated with job age and organizational tenure (Rowden, 2003).Continuance commitment emerges when the employee perceives the cost of leaving being high and decides to remain with the organization. And then normative commitment refers to an employee‟s obligation to stay working with the organization due to clear understanding of organizational goals and values (Meyer & Allen 1991; & Allen 1997). It is best therefore to select the right strategy for increasing organizational commitment based on your workplace culture and current objectives.

Byars and Rue (2006) define job performance as the extent to which an employee accomplishes the task that make up his/her job. It can be defined as the record of outcomes produced during a specific job over a specific time (Williams 1998).Performance is a measure of how well an employee meets the standards that are required on a specific job. Job performance refers to the quality and quantity necessary to meet work goals that are agreed upon by employees and their Managers .Therefore job performance can be evaluated as good or bad if the standards of the performance have been agreed upon by the employee and management. According to porter and Lawler (sited in Luneburg & Ornstein),”perceived equitable rewards are a major input in to employee satisfaction” The output of one‟s job are all the things the employee receives as a result of performing the job like salary, promotion, fringe benefits, job security, working conditions and so forth (Lunenburg&Ornstein,2004,128).The inputs include such aspects as educational qualification, work experience, professional training, personal ability, personality characteristics among others which bring with them to institution (Lunenburg, Ornstein 2004).In addition, workers are expecting to see justice and fairness in terms of work they do and fruits of their work. In short the theory claims workers assess whether there is fairness in what they get doing job. They do so by using what the author refers to as “the process of social comparison” (Lunenburg, Ornstein 2004 128) this implies that if the employees are fairly rewarded, they become happy or contented with their job and the opposite is true. According to Grusky rewards are among the most important factors which influence the strength of a person‟s attachment to an organization. He says that if a 29 person discovers that he cannot obtain the rewards he original desired, he either leaves the organization or joins another, or if it‟s not possible, he accepts those rewards which he can obtain and at the same time feels less committed to the organization. On the other hand, obtaining rewards sought operate to further his felt obligation to the organization and thus commitment is strengthened.

Shanks (2007) notes that extrinsic (external) rewards are „a host of external things that managers can provide that may serve as incentives for employees to increase productivity‟ (2007). These include money, benefits, bonuses, promotions, flexible schedules etc.According to Shanks, intrinsic (internal) rewards are internal to the individual and are in many ways less tangible. In fact, they are highly subjective, in that they represent how the individual perceives and feels about work and its value‟ (2007:30). Malhotra et al (2007:2098) argue that „intrinsic rewards are inherent in the content of the job itself‟ and include „motivational characteristics such as skill variety, autonomy and feedback‟ as well as employee participation

For the purpose of this study, job performance will be defined as the output required for employees, measured against specific set standards, which contribute toward attainment of organizational goals.

Employee job satisfaction literally means how contented an individual is with his/her job or the pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one‟s job, an affective reaction and attitude to one‟s own job. As an element in organizational management, employee job satisfaction has also been defined differently by different scholars. For example, according to Locke (1976), job satisfaction is an emotional reaction that results from the perception that one‟s job fulfills or allows the fulfillment of one‟s important job values, providing and to the degree that those values are congruent with one‟s needs. Sowmya and Panchanatham (2011) also defined job satisfaction as the feelings that an individual has about his/her job while Professor Kim, Yunki (2001) defined it as the emotional reaction to an employee‟s work situation.

For uniform understanding however, in this study, job satisfaction will be understood as the emotional reaction, feelings and preferences that employees have towards their job

Bateganya (2010) reported, that results clearly show that severer workload challenge faced by nursing in Uganda are imparting patient care and health outcome which if remain unaddressed will lead to dissatisfaction, low commitment and additional exodus of nurses from the profession within our country and the continued erosion of Uganda‟s health system. Only 12% of nurses in Uganda say that they are satisfied with nursing as a career, making Uganda among the lowest of the countries surveyed.

Problem statement

In Uganda, the health sector particularly in public hospitals employees witness low levels of job satisfaction, job performance leading to low levels of organizational commitment. This is based on a study carried out by Nabirye (V.C) 2010 in her study of occupational stress, job satisfaction and job performance among nurses in Kampala. Her findings demonstrated that, there were significant differences in the levels of job satisfaction and job performance between the public and private hospitals. Nurses in public hospitals reported low levels of job satisfaction and low levels of job performance negatively affecting organizational commitment. Therefore if such issues are not addressed, low levels of organizational commitment, job performance and job satisfaction will be witnessed.

Purpose of the study.

To find out the relationship between organizational commitment, job performance and job satisfaction among employees of Concern for the Girl Child in Kampala district.

Objectives of the study

⦁ To find out whether organizational commitment and job performance are related.

⦁ To find out whether job performance and job satisfaction are related.

⦁ To find out whether organizational commitment and job satisfaction are related.

Scope of the study

This research was limited to organizational commitment, job performance and job satisfaction. It was carried out at Concern for the Girl Child at Ntinda head office in Kampala and it took period of 2 month in which the researcher was able to collect the relevant data required

Significance of the study

The study is a contribution to those in the human resource department enabling them to understand and implement the different steps used to keep employees committed in their jobs.

The study is also a contribution to the body of knowledge relating to organizational commitment, job satisfaction and job performance.