This research project aims to investigate how the personal attribute of intelligence influences the development of individual levels of commitment to the organization, and how this relationship is affected by overall job satisfaction. How to increase employees’ commitment to the organization is of central importance to the ongoing policy debate on the development and especially the retention of the workforce, which this study aims to contribute to.
The outline presents the concept of organizational commitment (OC), specifically its three components affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment, and job satisfaction as a correlate of organizational commitment in the context of the personal characteristic of intelligence. This study analyzes the proposed relationship between OC, job satisfaction and intelligence. Further motivational aspects that are hypothesized to influence the development of OC were presented.
For the analysis of the data from the online survey ( n = 2,656 ), exploratory factor analysis using the principal component method was conducted to test the significance of the four factors of the underlying concepts (affective commitment, continuance commitment, normative commitment and job satisfaction), followed by confirmatory factor analysis to test the fitness of the structures. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were carried out to test the hypotheses and determine interactions among different independent variables. Further, qualitative results drawn from focus group discussions were added to validate the findings from the quantitative research.
The findings suggest that with the given sample, differences between the high-IQ group and the control group have been observed on the levels of commitment that were reported. While these differences could not all be confirmed at a statistical significance of 95%, levels of affective commitment, of continuance commitment and of normative commitment could be found to be lower among employees in the right tail of the IQ bell curve. Higher self-efficacy among high-IQ members could explain some parts of these differences. A positive relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment overall, as well as a positive relationship between high IQ and job satisfaction, indicates that (extrinsic) job satisfaction would have a moderating effect on the (negative) relationship between high IQ and organizational commitment. Further findings specific to the high IQ group are discussed.
The findings from this research and their interpretations can inform management practitioners and individuals employed in organizations. To the knowledge of the author, this is the first study that tested all three components of organizational commitment for intelligence as a determinant of commitment. Beyond confirming the reliability of the concept of organizational commitment through factor analysis, this study contributes to the understanding of how individual differences such as cognitive ability help develop different components of commitment to the organization. Additionally, this research project illustrates how theories on motivational states such as self-efficacy and self-determination theory can be linked to the different components of organizational commitment and intelligence. It is also the first study with a comparable sample size to analyze the relationship between intelligence and job satisfaction. Further, the findings expand the existing understanding of the relationship between job satisfaction and the three components of organizational commitment.
Group differences , Measurement and Psychometrics , Social and Life impacts
