ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT: A CASE STUDY

BY

NADARAJ NAICKER
Over view
This study investigated the preferred as well as the existing culture and employee commitment levels at a South African company. This study attempts to look at a small business enterprise

Problems
The company, Nampak Tissue . Riverview Paper Mill, has been experiencing high staff turnover in recent times The company is highly specialized and individuals with these specialist skills are very hard to find. Therefore, recruitment is a major problem.

Research Objectives
the current culture of the company; the preferred culture of the company; and the current level of employee commitment at the company.

Scope of the study and delimitations The study was limited to a single plant of a larger organization and may not Necessary reflect the findings of the organization as a whole.

Research Design
quantitative, cross-sectional design Population and Sample the population is defined as all full-time employees, The

study was a census of the entire workforce of Nampak Tissue - Riverview Paper Mill, which totalled fifty two (52) permanent employees (N=52). Data Collection Data collection involved the administering of two types of questionnaires to the employees of the selected company

Data analysis Technique Statistical Analysis Of Data Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets. using the SPSS, (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software. The analysis was based on inferential statistics. The descriptive and inferential statistics that were used, included measures of central tendency and dispersion. The results have been presented in tabular format.

Findings
there is a strong achievement culture prevalent at the company, with a good mix of the other culture types like, role culture, power culture and support culture. The employees at Riverview Paper Mill also strongly prefer an achievement and support type, culture. Employee commitment is very low and employees stay with the company out of necessity.

ABSTRACT
This study examines six factors that influence employees internal service quality level in a public sport organization in China through testing six hypotheses.

Hypothesis:
The six factors are organizational learning culture, job satisfaction, motivation to learn, affective organizational commitment, continuance organizational commitment, and normative organizational commitment.

Sample frame and size

A total of 370 questionnaires were distributed to employees in the State Sport General Administration of China (SSGAC). Two hundred and ninety eight were returned, of which 6 were discarded because of missing data. Therefore, the number of usable questionnaires was 292 and the response rate was 80.5%.

This study has implications for human resource managers and advances the knowledge base of internal service quality in the field of sport management.

Purpose of the Study

primary purposes of this study were (a) to identify the relationships among organizational learning culture, job satisfaction, motivation to learn, affective organizational commitment, continuance organizational commitment, normative organizational commitment, and internal service quality in a sport organization in China, (b) to examine which factor can best explain the variance in internal service quality.

Research Hypotheses and Rationale

Internal service quality Organizational Learning Culture Job Satisfaction Motivation to Learn Organizational Commitment

Significance of the Study

The contribution of the study is threefold. First, this study tests existing organization learning concepts in a new context, a sport organization. Second, it also tests a new non-financial outcome variable -- internal service quality Third, this present study will also provide some helpful information for human resource (HR) managers in sport organizations.

Delimitations
This study was delimited to examining only six variables thought to influence internal service quality. Other variables, such as occupational commitment, job involvement, and supervisors roles might also be able to explain an employees internal service quality, but were not included in this study.

Limitations of the Study

First, measurement of the variables of internal service quality, job satisfaction, motivation to learn, and organizational commitment are all based on perceptions and attitudes of participants through a selfreported questionnaire. No peer evaluation, manager feedback, or actual behaviors on those variables were observed. Thus, some potential sources of error might exist in the data set. Second, all respondents in this study worked for the same sport organization. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to other organizations. The sample was not selected randomly and may not be representative of all SSGAC employees, research results should be interpreted with caution.

Research Design
study should be identified as a correlational study. Typically, the purposes of a correlational study are (a) to determine relationships among variables, or (b) to use these relationships to predict likely outcomes (Gay & Airasian, 2003). This study was conducted to determine the relationships among six independent variables and one dependent variable from the same group of people - employees at a sport organization in China. The strength and direction of relationships among variables were examined through testing the hypotheses of this study. Predications were also made depending on whether a relationship of sufficient magnitude exists between variables.

Research Setting
The research setting for this study is a public sport organization, the State Sport General Administration of China (SSGAC), located in the capital Beijing.

Selection of the Sample

Samples were selected from employees at the various departments within the SSGAC referred by the researchers personal contacts. SSGAC employees at least 18 years old who agreed to participate were eligible for this study. Therefore, a convenience sampling strategy was used in this study.

Sample size
Three hundred and seventy questionnaires were distributed to the employees in the different departments; 298 questionnaires were returned, for a response rate of 80.5%.

Study of Variables

The variables examined in this study were: (a) Demographic (control): Age, gender, and years of working at the organization. (b) Independent: Organizational learning culture, job satisfaction, motivation to learn, affective organizational commitment, continuance organizational commitment, and normative organizational commitment. (c) Dependent: Internal service quality.

Instrumentation
A self-administered questionnaire with a total of 73 items was designed by the researcher based on other already established instruments to gather data from subjects on the seven studied variables.

Data Collection and Data Analysis Procedures

This correlational research study collected quantitative data through a questionnaire with 73 items.

Data Collection
Before distributing questionnaires to participants, the researcher talked with the contact person in the SSGAC about the research and got permission to collect data from employees working at various departments of the organization. Then, follow-up e-mails were sent to the contact person to make sure that he had delivered the information about the study to each departments leader. After that, the researcher contacted each department leader via e-mail to set up the visit schedule. The visit date and time were confirmed with each department leader over the phone.

Data Analysis
Demographic variables description, reliability and validity tests, descriptive statistics, correlational analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted to analyze the collected quantitative data through the SPSS version 13.0 software. Second, Cronbachs alphas were calculated for testing the reliability of the scales used in this study. Third, descriptive statistics were calculated to get information about the means and standard deviations for each of the variables of interest. Fourth, to test hypotheses one through six, correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted.

The Effects of Organizational Learning Culture and Job Satisfaction on Motivation to Transfer Learning and Turnover Intention
Toby Marshall Egan, Baiyin Yang, Kenneth R. Bartlett

This study examined the relationship of organizational learning culture, job satisfaction, and organizational outcome variables with a sample of information technology (IT) employees in the United States.

Significance of the Study

How organizations can create and improve workplace environments, as well as recognition of the potential impacts of such environments on employees, is crucial for practice, research, and theory building.

Method
A survey research method was used to investigate the relationships among organizational learning culture, job satisfaction, motivation to transfer learning, and intention to turnover. A self-administered Web-based survey was used to collect individual-level perception data from employees in a single industry. Sample and Procedure. The focus of this study was employees in standalone information technology (IT) departments, which are more often associated with large organizations. For large business was defined as a firm with five hundred or more employees in all of its industries or business locations in which the firm operates

Learning Orientation, Organizational Commitment and Talent Retention across Generations: A Study of European Managers Alessia D'Amato Center for Creative Leadership Avenue de Tervueren 270 B - 1150 Brussels, BE Tel 0032 (0)2 7735113

Fax 0032 (0)2 6790930 E-mail: damatoa@ccl.org Regina Herzfeldt Center for Creative Leadership Avenue de Tervueren 270 B - 1150 Brussels, BE Tel 0032 (0)2 7735125 Fax 0032 (0)2 6790930 E-mail: herzfeldtr@ccl.org ABSTRACT
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test the relationships of learning, organizational commitment and talent retention across managerial generations in Europe. Design/methodology/approach: Hypotheses are developed to explain the influence of learning and organizational commitment on talent retention across generations. 1666 European managers completed a survey on these issues. Depending on year of birth, they were categorized into four generational cohorts. Their answers were analyzed with statistic procedures. Findings: Findings reveal that younger generations are less willing to remain in the same organization and have lower organizational commitment. The youngest generations (Early and Late Xers, born 1960 and after) show stronger learning orientation and lower organizational commitment than older generations (Early and Late Boomers, born 1946-1959). Learning orientation predicted the intention to remain in the same organization for Early Xers and Late Xers. Organizational commitment mediated this relationship. For Late Boomers and Early Xers, it mediated the relationship between specific leadership development intentions and intention to stay. Research limitations/implications: Managerial, job-related learning is confirmed as an important antecedent for the intention to stay/leave ones current organization. The differential meaning of learning and commitment across generations need to be better understood in order to develop effective strategies for the retention of talent in all generations. In particular, differences in the psychological contract between organizations and their managers need to be understood. Practical implications: The findings suggest an approach of generation-specific HR practices for talent retention. Originality/Value: This work is one of the first to date to address leadership development and learning orientation in the context of talent retention, as well as one of the first to address the discussion of generational challenges in Europe and across the specific population of people in managerial roles.

Paper type: Research paper.

KEY WORDS: Generational differences Talent Management Retention Learning Orientation Organizational Commitment

Organizational Learning Culture's Influence on Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Turnover Intention among R&D Professionals in Taiwan during an Economic Downturn

This study investigated the relationship between organizational learning culture and job-related behaviors of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention. A total of 418 of 77 5 (53.9% response rate) R&D professionals in the high-tech industry in Taiwan participated and completed the survey, comprised of 71 questionnaire items related to these four constructs. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to verify the construct validity of the instrument, while Cronbachs alphas confirmed its reliability. The data analyses used correlational analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the research hypotheses and hypothesized model. The results of the study indicated that R&D professionalsperceptions of a high level of organizational learning culture has a positive effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and job satisfaction has a negative effect on turnover intention and a positive effect on organizational commitment. However, the results showed no significant relationship between organizational learning culture and turnover intention, or between organizational commitment and turnover intention. Further, the present study suggests that there is an indirect impact of organizational learning culture
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on turnover intention when job satisfaction or organizational commitment is considered as a mediator. Finally, the implications for HRD theory and practice are discussed, and limitations and the directions of future research are provided

Statement of the Problem Organizational learning has been among the most widespread and fastestgrowing of interventions in HRD practice to lead organizational effectiveness in the past decade (Cummings & Worley, 2005). Hence, numerous studies have investigated theoretical and operational models of organizational learning culture and its relationship to employee performance, such as innovation, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention. Other studies have been related to increased organizational performance (Kontoghiorghes, Awbery, & Feurig, 2005; Kuchinke, 1995;
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Lien, Huang, Yang, & Lin, 2002; Yang, Wang, & Niu, 2007). A summary of research evidence of the relationship between learning organizations and performance is presented in Table 1. A closer look at these studies, however, shows that they have not found strong relationships between organizational learning culture and organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. However, only one study (i.e., Lee-Kelley, Blackman, & Hurst, 2007) has examined the relationship between learning organizations, job satisfaction, and turnover intention for knowledge workers in the information technology (IT) industry. Purpose and Research Questions The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between

organizational learning culture and three outcomes: job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention of R&D professionals in the high-tech industry in Taiwan. This study should be useful to HRD scholars and practitioners by providing empirical evidence for the development of an organizational learning culture that meets
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the needs and improves the performance of R&D professionals and also enhances HRD professionalscontributions to the organization.