European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 15, Number 3 (2010)

The Impacts of Organizational Commitment on

Employee Job Performance

Muhammad Riaz Khan

PhD Scholar, Faculty of management Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad Pakistan
Tel: +92 300 9540295
E-mail: riaz_khan74@yahoo.com

Ziauddin
PhD Scholar, Faculty of management Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad Pakistan
Tel: +92 332 8412143
E-mail: ziasays@yahoo.com

Farooq Ahmed Jam

Lecturer, Faculty of management Studies, University of Centeral Punjab Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: +92 333 2213269
E-mail: jam_farooq@yahoo.co.uk

M. I. Ramay
Assistant Professor, Faculty of management Sciences
International Islamic University, Islamabad Pakistan
Tel: +92 300 8565533
E-mail: proframay@iiu.edu.pk

Abstract
The study investigated the impact of Organizational Commitment on employee job
performance from a sample of 153 public and private and public sector employees of oil
and gas sector in Pakistan. The results revealed a positive relationship between
organizational commitment and employees’ job performance. In the comparative analysis
of three dimensions of organizational commitment, normative commitment has a positive
and significant impact on employees’ job performance. Furthermore, the study explores the
employees job performance with four demographic variables, resulting that male
employees are high performer vis-à-vis their female counterparts. The implications and
limitations are also discussed at the end of the paper.

Keywords: Organizational Commitment, Affective Commitment, Continuance

Commitment, Normative Commitment, Job Performance

Introduction
The study of employee’s job performance and organizational commitment is of foremost importance to
the top-level management of the organizations. Somersl and Birnbaum (1998) studied the relationship
of career commitment to performance effectiveness and reported a positive relationship. Job
satisfaction is not the single dependent variable of commitment; it also has numerous other outcomes
in the organizations. Jackofsky (1984), found out that low commitment is leading to high rate of turn
over, whereas higher the level of job satisfaction through job security entails high level of
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organizational commitment which further leads to improved employees job performance (Yousuf,
1997).
Job performance has been defined as work performance in terms of quantity and quality
expected from each employee (business dictionary). Meyer and Allen (1990) suggested three types of
organizational commitment that are, affective commitment which measures an employee's emotional
attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization, normative commitment reflects
pressures on an employee to remain with an organization resulting from organizational obligations.
Continuance commitment refers commitment associated with the costs that employees perceive are
related to leaving the organization. Organizational Commitment is seeking the same impacts on women
as it is on men, but in some instances women react differently (Chusmir, 1984). Connectivity of
colleagues and the style of management can enhance commitment of employees and are considered as
an important asset of the company (Nijhof, de jong & Beukhof, 1998).
Commitment of employees can be an important instrument for improving the performance of
the organizations. In most of the organizations the high rate of stress leads to lower satisfaction and in
turn produces very low organizational commitment (Elangovan, 2001). The higher level of
communication in organization led top higher level of commitment and there by increased performance
(Chen, Silverthorne & Hung, 2005). A study conducted by Chughtai and Zafar (2006), among
university teacher of Pakistan concluded that highly committed teachers outperform vis-à-vis
uncommitted teachers.
This study primarily focuses on the impacts of low/high commitment towards the employee’s
job performance. The study is conducted in oil and gas sector of Pakistan, specifically in organizations
such as OGDCL, SNGPL and OMV Pakistan Ltd. This research will be basic replication of well
established commitment- performance relationship on Pakistani data.

Literature Review
Shore, Barksdale and Shore (1995) studied 231 managers and 339 subordinates in multinational firms
in United States and found that affective commitment and job performance are positively correlated. In
an other study Somers and Birnbanm (1998) studied the relationship of work related commitment and
input on employee job performance, however their findings suggested that career commitment is
positively related to job performance but no relationship existed between organizational commitment
and job performance. Both affective and normative commitments were found unrelated to job
performance.
Lee and olshfski (2002) studied the behavior of organizational commitment of the firefighters
in New York and their study led to believe that organizational commitment offers considerable promise
in describing the positive behaviors. Furthermore, Individuals take jobs, they identify with the role
attached to the job, they become committed to doing the job, and they behave according to the
expectations attached to that job.
Suliman and Lles (2002) explored the nature of organizational commitment in three industrial
units in Jordan by using employees' job performance and five demographic variables. Their research
revealed that that organizational commitment comprises three-dimensional concept. The findings also
uncovered a positive relationship between commitment (all the three components) and job
performance. Moreover, organizational commitment and its three dimensions present positive and
negative relationships with age, sex, education, job status, and organizational tenure variables.
Chen, Silverthrone and Hung (2006) studied the relationship of the organizational commitment,
communication and job performance. Their research findings indicated that there are positive
relationships between organizational communication, organizational commitment and job performance.
This finding suggested that companies strengthen their communication channels and processes in order
to strength their accounting professionals’ organizational commitment and job performance.

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Clarke (2006) studied the commitment and network performance in UK based health care units
and found that commitment may play a significant role specifically with performance outcomes. The
researcher found that statistically both affective and normative forms of commitment have significant
impact on performance. Affective commitment was positively related to network performance. The
finding that continuance commitment was negatively related to network performance suggests that the
relationship between commitment and performance within networks is certainly not straightforward.
Rashid, Sambasvani and Joari (2003) studied 202 managers in Malaysian companies and their
research findings suggested that corporate culture and organizational commitment are interrelated and
both have far reaching impacts on the performance.
The above literature review reveals that there is some definite relationship exists between
organizational commitment and employee’s job performance. We will try to replicate this relationship
in Pakistani setting to explore whether there are consistent results to western results or not.

Theoretical Framework

Organizational commitment
• Affective
• Normative
Job performance
• Continuance

Hypothesis
From the above literature review the following hypotheses are developed

H1: There is a positive significant relationship between organizational commitment and employees’
job performance?
H2: Affective commitment is positively and significantly related to employee’s job Performance.
H3: Continuance commitment is positively and significantly related to employee’s job performance.
H4: Normative commitment is positively and significantly related to employee’s job performance

Methods
a) Sample
A total of 230 questionnaires were distributed and personally administered among employees of
OGDCL, OMV and SNGPL in Pakistan. Filled 153 questionnaires were received, thus constituting a
66.52 % response rate. Descriptive statistics was applied which indicates that the sample comprises
80.4 % male and 19.6 % female. The sample further indicates that 24.8 % accounted for age group
between 25-30, 43.8 % were possessing bachelor degrees. 31.4 % respondent belongs to private sector
and 68.6 % were from public sector.

b) Measures
The scale used to measure organizational commitment in terms of affective, normative and continuance
has been developed by Allen and Meyer (1991). The scale comprises eight items, however, Meyer and
Allen (1997) shortened the original eight-item scale to six item scale each and is being used for this
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study. The tool used for measuring job performance has been developed by Willams & Anderson
(1991) using four items on a five point Likert point scale.

Results
Table. 1: Descriptive Statistics.

Descriptions Percentage
Gender
Male 80.4
Female 19.6
Age
Below 25 17.6
25-30 24.8
31-35 18.3
36-40 19.6
41-45 8.5
46-60 11.1
Qualification
SSC 4.6
HSSC 3.9
BS 43.8
MA 42.5
MS 5.2
Type of organizations
Private 31.4
Public 68.6

Table 2: Mean Standard Deviation and Correlation matrix

Variables Mean S.D 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1.Age 3.098 1.58016 1
2. Gender 0.1961 0.39833 -.282** 1
3. Qualification 3.3987 0.83776 0.055 -0.137 1
4.Type of organization 0.6863 0.46553 .248** -.198* 0.036 1
5.Job Performence 3.2615 0.64614 -0.154 -0.002 -.161* -.202* 1
6.Continuance Commitment 2.9837 0.52973 .303** -0.011 -.190* 0.032 .218** 1
7.Affective Commitment 3.1155 0.65597 0.061 0.005 -.166* -0.06 .282** .256** 1
8.Normative Commitment 3.2854 0.63022 0.14 -0.098 -.261** -0.063 .322** .369** .324** 1
9.Organizational Commitment 3.1318 0.44389 .211** -0.052 -.285** -0.041 .374** .688** .746** .763** 1
N = 153. Only organization was controlled in analysis and used as control variables*
** Correlation is significant at the 0.001 level (2-tailed)
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

The correlation matrix (table 2) shows that employees job performance is positively related
with organizational commitment (r = 0.374 p < .001) which supports our hypothesis no.1 in this study
.So hypothesis 1 of this study that there is positive relationship between Employees job performance
and organizational commitment is accepted. Correlation analysis establishes that employees job
performance relationship with Normative commitment was highly significant (r = 0.322 p < .01).
These results revealed strong empirical evidence in support of our hypothesis number 4 in this study. S
Employees job performance found significant impact on Affective commitment (r = 0.282, p < .01),
where as Employees job performance has highly significant effect on Continuance commitment (r =
0.218, p < .01).In (Table 3) the regression results showed highly significant impact of organizational
commitment on employee job performance. The analysis revealed (β = 0.22, p < .01) for affective

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commitment impact on employee job performance. The impact of Normative commitment was found
positive on job performance (β = 0.32, p < .001), the results for Continuance commitment revealed (β =
0.28, p < .001). The results for overall organizational commitment were also positive with employee job
performance (β = 0.218, p < .001) in accordance with our hypothesis number 1. So from correlation and
regression results our all hypothesis were accepted on this data from oil and gas sector of Pakistan.

Table 3: Results of Regression Analyses job performance and Commitment

Job Performance
Predictors β R² ∆R²
Step 1
Control Variables
Step 2
Affective Commitment 0.22**
Continuance Commitment 0.28***
Normative Commitment 0.32***
Organizational Commitment 0.218*** 0.140 .070
N =153. Only organization was controlled in analysis and used as control variables*
** Correlation is significant at the 0.001 level (2-tailed)
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

Discussion and Conclusion

The purpose of current study was to examine the relationship between organizational commitment
(Affective commitment, Continuance commitment and Normative commitment) on employee Job
performance. Job performance emerged as a determinant of Organizational commitment thus
hypothesis 1 is accepted. Respondents’ answers to various questions showed that they feel relaxed in
terms of their work environment and have increased organizational commitment which entailed high
job performance. The correlation and regression table suggests that hypothesis H2, H3, and H4 are also
accepted.
Out of the three dimensions all the dimensions of organizational commitment showed
significant affects on Job performance. The findings also reveals that the demographic variables such
as, age of the respondents both in public and private sectors has no significant variation in their job
performance. However the respondents with age group below 25 years have high performance as
compared to other age categories. The results also indicate that the males were higher performers’ vis-
à-vis Female. Like wise private sector employees exhibited high sense of performance levels than
employees in the public sector.
This study provides insights from Pakistani perspective that all the results in Pakistani data are
consistent with previous literature. All three types of commitments revealed positive relationship with
employee job performance. Now managers working in Pakistani context and world wide should pay
special attention to antecedents of organizational commitment and all the factors which foster
employee commitment. So that many organizations facing productivity problem should get solution of
increased employee performance by stimulation commitment.

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Implications
The study conducted have several significant implications for managers, as the findings suggest that
the performance of the employee working in the private sector is significantly higher than that of
public sector, so managers must devise some strategies which will improve the performance of the
employees working in the public sector.
As we have also found that male performance outweigh the female performance, therefore a
congenial working environment may be established, so that the females’ abilities may also be utilized
effectively.
This study has also a number of limitations, firstly the data collected is based on a very small
sample size, and therefore its results cannot be generalized. Secondly for data collection has been made
through questionnaire which may not capture the true responses of the respondents.

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