The relationship between training and

organizational commitment

Name: Michel J. Schats

ANR: 259237

Supervisor 1: Drs. J. De Jong

Supervisor 2: Dr. T. Goessling

Tilburg, March 2007

Preface

This literature study is part of the study Organisation Studies of the University of

Tilburg. Also this bachelor thesis is part of the circle 'Permanent employment in

contemporary society', with the following central question; what does it mean to

workers to have an open-ended employment relationship in contemporary

organizational, societal, economic and labour market conditions?

This research investigates the literature in the field of the relationship between

training and organizational commitment. Organizational commitment is an interesting

predictor for the willingness to remain in the company. Training is a HRM practice

that is influencing the organizational commitment.

Regardless my parents and friends I want to thank Jeroen de Jong and Tobias

Goessling for their feedback and Naomi Schmitt for the English level of my thesis.

Michel Schats

March, 2007

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Table of contents

1. INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................................3

1.1 RESEARCH PROBLEM.......................................................................................................................3 1.2 RESEARCH GOAL .............................................................................................................................4 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION......................................................................................................................4 1.4 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK .............................................................................................................5 1.5 RELEVANCE OF THE RESEARCH........................................................................................................5 1.6 RESEARCH APPROACH .....................................................................................................................5 1.7 STRUCTURE .....................................................................................................................................6

2. METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................................................7

2.1 INFORMATION SEARCH ....................................................................................................................7 2.2 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY ............................................................................................................8

3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK....................................................................................................9

3.1 ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT (OC)...........................................................................................9 3.2 TRAINING ......................................................................................................................................11

4. DATA ANALYSIS............................................................................................................................14

4.1 OVERVIEW OF THE EMPIRICAL RESEARCH......................................................................................14 4.2 CONCEPT-CENTRIC APPROACH OF THE RELATIONS ........................................................................17 4.3 THE INFLUENCE OF MEDIATORS AND MODERATORS.......................................................................18 4.4 THE INTEGRATION OF THE DATA ANALYSIS ...................................................................................20

5. CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................22

6. DISCUSSION, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................24

6.1 DISCUSSION...................................................................................................................................24 6.2 LIMITATIONS .................................................................................................................................24 6.3 RECOMMENDATIONS.....................................................................................................................25

References

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1. Introduction

1.1 Research Problem

In the contemporary business the talents and skills of the employees become more

important. In the past lifetime employment was the status quo, however nowadays the

employability of the individual employee is the leading thought. In the large meaning

of word employability refers to the skill to get a job or to keep the job (Forrier & Sels,

2003a; McQuaid & Lindsay, 2005).

There can be made a difference between internal employability and external

employability (Sturges, Guest, Conway & Mackenzie, 2002). Internal employability is

the capability of the individual to hold the job (Sanders & De Grip, 2004). External

employability is the capability of the individual to find another job (Sanders & De

Grip, 2004).

Individuals experience an increasingly competitive and hostile job market in

which they must be concerned with developing and marketing their human capital

(Hall, 1996). Individuals need to develop general skills to increase their mobility to

other jobs. Development of individual skills is now seen as an integral part of the

employment relationshop (Rousseau, 1995). Employers should come across inventive

manners to retent the employees. A method to commit your employees as employer is

to provide training. In the case of decisions around investments in the employability

through training and development of employees, employers must take into account the

effects on the employees.

Because of the different interests of the employer and the employee – the

employer wants to retent the employee and the employee wants to develop his skills

and talents for the competitive labour market – this research field is interesting to

investigate more closely. The challenge for employers is to discover ways to retent the

employees and to increase the organizational performance. Training has been

identified as an example of a human resource management practice that contributes to

gains in competitive advantage (Schuler and MacMillan, 1984) Researchers have long

argued that the importance of training extends beyond the skills and knowledge

needed to carry out one’s job (Tannenbaum, Mathieu, Salas, & Canon-Bowers, 1991).

Theories form management, psychology and labor economics show different and

sometimes contrary predictions about the impact of training on employee’s attitudes

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and the willingness to stay within the company.

The importance of the recruitment and retention of qualified and quality

employees is enormous. In the most organizations’ Human Resource Development

systems personnel training is the cornerstone (Nordhaug, 1989). In times of notable

changes many organizations change their policies and procedures related to training.

This may have consequences for the many work-related attitudes. Organizational

commitment is increasingly valued as a predictor of work behaviors and behavioral

intentions (Jaros et al. 1993) Studies of Human Resource Development practices,

including training, have shown to influence organizational commitment (Iles et al.

1990; Meyer and Smith 2000; Whitener 2001)

To specify the research problem, the research question will focus on the so

called employee Human Resource investment – training - in relation with the

organizational commitment of employees. Organizational commitment refers to the

“psychological link between an employee and his of her organization that makes it

less likely that the employee will voluntarily leave the organization” (Allen & Meyer,

1996, p. 252)

1.2 Research goal

The aim of the thesis is to describe the relationship between training and

organizational commitment and the influencing workplace attitudes and work

characteristics, in order to present a recommendation for future research.

1.3 Research Question

What is according to the literature, the relation between the human capital investment

training on the organizational commitment of the employee?

The sub questions are:

• What is the definition of organization commitment?

• What is the human capital investment training according to the literature?

• Which factors have the most influence on the relationship between training

and organizational commitment?

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1.4 Conceptual framework

Training

Organizational Commitment

Figure 1. Conceptual model relationship training and organizational commitment

1.5 Relevance of the research

Practical relevance: This literature-based research will offer more insight in decisions

regarding investments in the training of employees. As managers improve their

knowledge, they learn how they can use training as a tactical instrument to commit the

employees in turbulent economic times. In practice, managers should therefore be

able to make better decisions concerning the education and training of employees.

Societal relevance: This research can contribute towards finding answers to the

existing questions on the subjects of investments in human capital. When employers

learn to invest in the right manner in employees, this can be an important contribution

to the functioning of the society. By doing so, employers will contribute to getting the

right people in the right position.

Scientific relevance: This thesis can contribute to further scientific research. In the

case of advanced researches on the influence of training on organizational

commitment researchers can use this thesis to learn more about the basic relationship

between the concepts. While research on this topic is still within early stages, this

study can make a contribution to the research process.

1.6 Research approach

In this bachelorthesis the data is collected from already existing scientific research, to

deduce generalizations (Baker, 1999). Based on the timeframe and size of this

research, this study is not aimed at the development of theories. The aim is however,

to present the relationship between the two concepts, according to the literature.

Furthermore this thesis does not present all the causal relationships between the

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interrelating concepts, but the author wants to provide recommendations for this

research in the early stages. This thesis is based on a literature study, with presented

data from earlier research. After the presentation of the data the author’s goal is to

find relations.

1.7 Structure

The purpose of this study is to provide the reader with an overview of contemporary

literature, concerned with the relationship between the constructs training and

organizational commitment.

In chapter 2 a description will be given of the used methodology in this literature

research. In chapter 3 the explanation of the two most important concepts training and

organizational commitment will follow. The data analysis will be presented in chapter

4. The conclusion will be presented in chapter 5. Finally, in chapter 6 the reader will

be provided with discussion, limitations and recommendations for further research.

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2. Methodology

2.1 Information search

Within this research, internet is used as the most important tool for the extraction of

academic information. Webster and Watson (2002) states, that the major contributions

are likely to be in the leading journals. Important sources on the Internet to accelarate

identification of relevant articles are Google Scholar, Online Contents UvT, ABI

Inform, JSTOR and ISI web or Science.

The terms used for the sources are `training organizational commitment,

`antecendents organizational commitment,` relationship training organizational

commitment, ‘training’ and related terms. The articles found are criticised in relation

to their relevance. The questions used for the review respectively are:

- Is there a relation between the most important concepts of the article and the

two concepts of this thesis?

- Can the articles make a contribution to the articles, which is already found?

- Describe the article the relation between the two concepts training and

organizational commitment and the factors, which are correlating with the

correlationship?

The articles will be summarised with a few terms / concepts. The most important

articles will be the articles with the most important concepts / terms.

When a collection of high quality articles was found, the method of ‘snowball

sampling’ was used. First snowball sampling is searching for articles with the

established conditions (the questions above and the amount of concepts). Second,

snowball sampling is researching and using the references to find more specific

information (Baker, 1999). Webster and Watson (2002) recommended to go backward

by reviewing the citations for the articles to determine prior articles the author should

consider.

The next recommendation from them is to go forward by using the Web of Science to

identify articles citing the key articles identified in the previous recommendations

(start with journal databases and go backward). After this procedure I will decide

which articles can be included.

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With the use of all found articles, the thesis describes the relationship between the two

concepts training and organizational commitment and the corresponding factors. The

author’s goal is to discover the relationships in the found literature, to analyse them

and to present conclusions and recommendations.

2.2 Reliability and validity

A good qualitative study can help us ‘understand a situation that would otherwise be

enigmatic or confusing’ (Eisner, 1991, p. 58).

To guarantee the reliability it is important to registrate exactly which steps were taken

during the writing of the thesis. While throughout the writing of this thesis the

different steps of the process were carefully distinguished and listed, the reliability of

this research is expected to be high.

The concept of validity is described by a wide range of terms. The concept is not a

single, fixed or universal concept, but ‘rather a contingent construct, inescapably

grounded in the processes and intentions of particular research methodologies and

projects’ (Winter, 2000, p.1). In this kind of research it’s difficult to achieve a high

validity.

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3. Theoretical Framework

3.1 Organizational Commitment (OC)

Since the 1960's organizational commitment is an exciting issue for managers and

researchers. The meaning of Organizational Commitment is a ‘psychological link

between an employee and his of her organization that makes it less likely that the

employee will voluntarily leave the organization” (Allen & Meyer, 1996, p. 252)

A considerable amount of research in the field of organizational commitment, which

is aimed at locating the antecedents and the correlations with variables like turnover

and absenteeism, is at hand. Organizational commitment is increasingly valued as a

predictor of work behaviours and behavioural intentions (Jaros et al. 1993). In order

to have a good understanding of the construct organizational commitment, a table is

constructed, which presents the historical definitions.

Authors Definition Extra

Brief (1998) - emotional attachment (Affective Commitment) - the costs of leaving, such as losing attractive benefits or seniority (Continuance Commitment) - the individual’s personal values (Normative Commitment)

Meyer and Allen (1991), Bartlett (2001), Ahmad and Bakar (2003), Meyer and Allen (1984)

- Affective commitment (AC) refers to the psychological attachment to the organization. - Continuance commitment (CC) refers to the costs associated with leaving the organization. - Normative commitment (NC) refers to a perceived obligation to remain within the organization - added in 1991 by Meyer and Allen -

Liou & Nyhan (1994, p.100), Guffey, et al. (1997)

A. The attitudinal approach refers to the attitude that an employee has towards one's organization. B. The behaviorial approach states that an employee becomes attached or committed to an organization based on one's individual investment of time, money or training that would be lost if one left the organization.

Ad. A) An employee who has a high organizational commitment will:

- strongly belief in and accept the organization's goals and values;

- exert a significant effort for the firm's benefit.

- desire to remain a member of the organization

Porters, Steers, Mowday and Boulian (1974)

The relative strength of an employee’s identification with and involvement in a particular organization. Three factors influencing organizational commitment: acceptance of the organization’s goals and values, willingness to work on behalf of the organization and strong

Development of organizational commitment is a process that evolves through stages over a period of time.

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motivation to remain in the organization.

Sheldon (1971), Buchanan (1974)

Positive evaluation of the organization and the intention to work toward its goals.

Buchanan (1974) – a) identification – adoption as one’s own the goals and values of the organization, b) involvement – psychological immersion or absorption in the activities of one’s work role and c) loyalty – a feeling of affection for and attachment to the organization.

Hrebeniak and Alluto (1973)

The unwillingness to leave the organization for increments in pay, status, or professional freedom or for greater colleague friendship.

Kantor (1968) Willingness of social actors to give energy and loyalty to the organization.

Becker (1960) Employee's organizational commitment develops through their actions and choices over time. Commitment is viewed as a function of employee behavior.

Table 1. Overview definitions organizational commitment

The leading definition in contemporary scientific literature is the three-component

model of Meyer and Allen (Allen & Meyer, 1990; Meyer & Allen, 1991). Therefore

this definition will be used in this thesis. Meyer and Allen (1991) state that both

affective and continuance commitment represent psychological states that have

implications for whether an employee remains with an organization. “Employees with

a strong affective commitment continue employment with the organization because

they want to do so. Employees whose primary link the organization is based on

continuance commitment remain because they need to do so” (Meyer & Allen,

1991:67).

Most of the discussion and research concerning the influence of management

practices on employees’ commitment has focused on affective commitment. First of

all, recently multidimensional models of commitment and appropriate measures have

been developed. Second, affective commitment is the most desirable form of

commitment and the one that organzations are most likely to want to instill in ther

employees (Meyer, 1997).

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3.2 Training

Training is an ideal way to learn a job. Management of individual skills is an

important aspect of doing business today, and employee development will likely grow

in the future (Noe, 1999). The benefits of employee development extend beyond the

actual skills gained and their contribution to an individual’s productivity (Benson,

2002). A table is constructed to present an overview of the different historical

definitions of the construct training.

Authors Definition Extra

Palo & Padhi (2003) A process of updating the knowledge, developing skills, bringing about attitudinal and behavioural changes and improving the ability of the trainee to perform his/her tasks efficiently and effectively

Sparrow (1998), Bartlett (2001)

Can be viewed as a management practice that can be controlled or managed to elicit a desired set of unwritten, reciprocal attitudes and behaviours, including job involvement, motivation and organizational commitment

Variables Bartlett (2001): perceived access to training, training frequency, motivation to learn from training, perceived benefits resulted from training and supervisory supports for training

Smith and Hayton (1999) Factors appear to impact on the enterprise decision to train employees:

- improvement of employee performance

- improvement of the adaptibility and flexibility of the workforce

- investments in new technology - the adoption of new work

practices and moves towards the more sophisticated systems of HRM

Buckley and Caple (1995) A planned and systematic effort to modify or develop knowledge, skill and attitude through learning experience to achieve effective performance in an activity or range of activities

Several factors are known to affect the effectiveness of training: behavior of individual learner, the training program, the environment in which the trainee works and the support from the trainee's immediate supervisor (Montesino, 2002)

Rainbird (1994) and Heyes and Stuart (1996)

Training and employee development as a means of engaging the commitment of employees to the enterprise.

Development of organizational commitment is a process that evolves through stages over a period of time.

Schuler and MacMillan (1984)

Training has been identified as an example of a human resource management practice that contributes to gains in competitive advantage.

Table 2. Overview definitions training

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Three groups of theories, which mention the role of training in companies can be

identified (Smith and Hayton, 1999):

- Human capital theories – Economists traditionally look to the construct

training in terms of investment. Human Capital Theory has established

training in terms of increased productivity (Becker, 1964; Mincer, 1974;

Strober, 1990). The Human Capital theory developed the terms general and

specific training. In the mid-1980s the neo-human capital approach states that

companies train their employees in order to improve the adaptibility and

flexibility of the workforces and their responsiviness to innovation (Bartel and

LichtenBerg, 1987)

- Human resource management theory has viewed training and employee

development as a means of engaging the commitment of employees to the

enterprise (Rainbird, 1994; Heyes and Stuart, 1996). The initial formulation of

a theoretical framework for Human Resource Management came from the

Harvard Business School in the early 1980’s (Beer et al., 1984). Training

appears as one of a number of strategies for managing the human resource

flow of an enterprise which, together with other Human Resource policies,

produce the ‘four C’s’ of Human Resource outcomes; commitment,

competence, congruence and cost-effectiviness.

- Training and high performance organization - studies of skills trajectories in

Britain and the USA have suggested that a process of polarization is at work,

with some occupations becoming more skilled and others less skilled over

time (Gallie and White, 1993; Cappelli, 1993). Studies of high-performance

work practices and strategic HRM have been brought together in the concept

of human resources ‘bundles’ (MacDuffie, 1995; Dyer and Reeves, 1995)

which emphasize the importance of implementing a number of HRM practices

together in ‘bundles’ in order to achieve a performance improvement for the

enterprise. Training is always cited as a critical measure within the bundle.

The most used definition of training in relation with organizational commitment is ‘a

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management practice that can be controlled or managed to elicit a desired set of

unwritten, reciprocal attitudes and behaviours, including job involvement, motivation

and organizational commitment’ from Sparrow (1998) and Bartlett (2001). Bases on

this common use, this definition will be applied in this thesis as well.

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4. Data Analysis

For the data analysis the most important articles are selected and a short overview of

the selected empirical research is given in the first part. Following the concept-centric

analyzing technique of Webster and Watson (2002) the results of the analysis are

presented in clear tables in the second part. In the third part an overview of the

mediators in the relation between training and organizatational commitment is

presented. The fourth part consists of the syntheses of the preceding overviews.

4.1 Overview of the empirical research

After finishing the selection procedures for the articles, the six most important articles

in the field of the relationship between training and organizational commitment were

selected. The following overview should provide proper understanding of what kind

of articles were used.

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Author Sample Dependent

variables

Independent

variables

Moderators /

Mediators

Procedure

data

collection

Bartlett

(2001)

337 registered nurses of five public

hospitals in a midwestern state of the

USA

OC – three-

component Training

The moderators

job involvement

and job satisfaction

survey

Ahmad

and Bakar

(2003)

204 white-collar workers, employed

in the private and the public sector in

Malaysia, who participated in

(in)formal training programs with

their cuurent organization

OC – three-

component Training survey

Meyer and

Smith

(2000)

94 individuals recruited through

employee contacts at various (30)

organizations and 187 contacts within

five small organizations (n=281) -

Canada

Employee

commitment –

three-

component

HRM practices

The mediators

Perceived support

and procedural

justice

survey

Roehl and

Swerdlow

(1999)

Five hotels with 190 employees -

USA OC Training

The mediators

awareness of rules,

morale and

perceived quality of

management

survey

Benson

(2002)

12360 current and former employees

of a high-technology manufacturing

firm - USA

Employee

commitment,

intent to

turnover and

turnover.

Training -

Participation in

development and

rewards

survey

Hellman

(2000)

232 new employees who joined the

company – USA – one newly formed

company in the consumer and

business information industry

Newcomer’s

OC

Training – part of

socialization

strategies

survey

Table 3. Overview empirical research relation training and OC (Organizational commitment)

Sample

The samples are selected from hotels, hospitals, private and public companies, a high

technology manufacturing firm and a newly formed company. The diverse sample

improves the reliability of the research.

The research of Benson (2002) has the most respondents in the sample. In social

science applies the larger the sample size, the smaller the sampling errors. Following

this line of reasoning the chance of sampling errors is the smallest in the research of

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Benson (2002). It is important however, to emphasise that the sample of Benson

(2002) exists of one large organization. Other samples added more than one

organization, to advance the generalizability of the study.

Dependent variables

Remarkable with regard to the dependent variables is the use of the three-component

model of Meyer and Allen (1991). The first three studies have chosen to use this

model, but the last three researches have chosen for the definition of Porters, Steers,

Mowday and Boulian (1974): “the relative strength of an individual’s identification

with and involvement in a particular organization”, despite of the fact these researches

took place in 1999, 2000 and 2002 after Meyer and Allen (1991) developed their

modern definition. Benson (2002) has developed a complex research with several

independent, dependent and control variables.

Independent variables

Noteworthy in the context of the independent variables, is the fact that in three studies

the construct training is the major independent variable, but in the three other studies

training is part of socialization strategies, Human Resource Management practices and

several independent variables. The construct training is more figured out in the first

mentioned studies.

Moderators

Three studies have included moderators or mediators in the analysis of the

relationship. Bartlett (2001) has included the moderators job involvement and job

satisfaction, Meyer and Smith (2000) and Roehl and Swerdlow the mediators

perceived support, procedural justice, awareness of rules, moral and perceived quality

of management. These studies are important for the completeness of the description of

the relationship between the constructs training and organizational commitment. The

authors came across too strong significant relations between these moderators or

mediators and the two constructs training and organizational commitment, in order to

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drop them.

Procedure of data collection

All the qualitative studies use the self-administered questionnaires as primary data

collection technique.

4.2 Concept-centric approach of the relations

According to Webster and Watson (2002) a literature review is always concept-

centric. In this study, the choice was made to summarise all the relations in one table

with the dependent variable in the columns and the independent variables in the rows.

The conclusions of the six studies are presented in one matrix below.

Affective commitment Continuance

commitment Normative commitment Overall commitment

Perceived access

to training

Positive (Bartlett, 2001 +

Ahmad and Bakar, 2003)

Positive (Bartlett, 2001 +

Ahmad and Bakar 2003)

Positive (Ahmad and

Bakar, 2003)

Hours spent in

training Positive (Bartlett, 2001) Negative (Bartlett, 2001)

Training

frequency Positive (Bartlett, 2001)

Motivation to

learn

Positive (Bartlett, 2001 +

Ahmad and Bakar 2003) Negative (Bartlett, 2001)

Positive (Ahmad and

Bakar, 2003)

Positive (Ahmad and

Bakar, 2003)

Perceived

benefits of

training

Positive (Bartlett, 2001 +

Ahmad and Bakar, 2003)

Positive (Bartlett, 2001 +

Ahmad and Bakar, 2003)

Positive (Bartlett, 2001 +

Ahmad and Bakar, 2003)

Positive (Ahmad and

Bakar, 2003)

Training

environment

Positive (Ahmad and

Bakar, 2003)

Positive (Ahmad and

Bakar, 2003)

Positive (Ahmad and

Bakar, 2003)

Positive (Ahmad and

Bakar, 2003)

Social support for

training

Positive (Bartlett, 2001 +

Ahmad and Bakar 2003) Positive (Bartlett, 2001)

Positive (Bartlett, 2001 +

Ahmad and Bakar 2003)

Positive (Ahmad and

Bakar 2003)

On-the-job-

training

Positive (Benson,

2002)

Overall training Positive (Meyer and

Smith, 2000)

Positive (Hellman

(2002) and Roehl &

Swerdlow (1999) -

indirect via

moderators/mediators)

Table 4. Overview of the relations found by the researchers.

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Affective commitment

The most and strongest relationships are found between training factors and affective

commitment. Social support for training has got the largest influence on affective

commitment.

Continuance commitment

Remarkable are the two negative relationships between ‘hours spent in training’ and

‘motivation to learn’. The more hours spent in training, the less the continuance

commitment. Bartlett (2001) also found a negative but nonsignificant relationship

between motivation to learn and continuance commitment. This fact supported his

hypothesis, which states that employees with higher levels of training motivation

would report higher levels of organizational commitment.

Normative commitment

Only the factors ‘hours spent in training’ and ‘training frequency’ showed no

(positive) relationship with normative commitment.

Overall commitment

Some researchers have chosen for a single total construct for organizational

commitment. Roehl and Swerdlow (1999) found an indirect relationship between

training and organizational commitment via the mediatiors awareness of rules, morale

and perceived quality of management. Other researchers subdivide the construct in

affective, continuance and normative commitment.

4.3 The influence of mediators and moderators

The moderators and mediators in the relationship form the outcome of the analysis.

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The potential relationship between training and organizational commitment is most

likely moderated by other workplace attitudes (Bartlett, 2001). Roehl and Swerdlow

(1999) states there is also evidence to suggest that the relationship between training

and organizational commitment is indirect.

For the completeness of the description of the relationship between training and

organizational commitment, there was chosen to give a short overview of some found

mediators and moderators according to the six authors and their definitions of the

mediators and moderators.

Mediators, Moderators Dependent variable Independent

variable

Supported

Moderator job

involvement Affective commitment Access to training NO (Bartlett, 2001)

Moderator job

satisfaction Affective commitment Access to training YES (Bartlett, 2001)

Mediator perceived

support

Affective and normative

commitment

HRM practices like

training

YES (Meyer and Smith,

2000)

Mediator procedural

justice

Affective and normative

commitment

HRM practices like

training

YES (Meyer and Smith,

2000)

Mediator awareness of

rules Organizational commitment Training

YES (Roehl and

Swerdlow, 1999)

Mediator morale Organizational commitment Training YES (Roehl and

Swerdlow, 1999)

Mediator perceived

quality of management Organizational commitment Training

YES (Roehl and

Swerdlow, 1999)

Table 5. Overview of the influence of mediators and moderators on the relation between training and

organizational commitment.

- Job involvement refers to the extent to which peope are psychologically attached to

their jobs and the degree of importance that work holds in their life (Lodahl and

Kejner, 1965; Keller, 1997)

- Job satisfaction is frequently defined as an individual’s attitude toward his or her

job (Moorhead and Griffin, 1997)

- Perceived support is the employees’ belief that the organization values their

contributions and cares about their well-being (Eisenberger et. al., 1986)

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- Procedural justice refers to the perceived fairness of the means used to determine

those amounts (Folger and Konovsky, 1989)

- Awareness of rules – a work characteristic.

- Morale represents an “umbrella” notion that includes, in addition to satisfaction

with the work environment, such attributes as enthusiasm, commitment or loyalty to

the institution, willingness to work, and dedication to common goals (Johnsrud,

1996).

- Perceived quality of management can be explained by the quality of performance

with respect to specific primary stakeholders: owners, employees, customers and

(marginally) communities (Waddock and Graves, 1997).

4.4 The integration of the data analysis

For the overall presentation of the data analysis the data is shown in one large table. In

the columns affective, normative, continuance and overall commitment, the related

independent variables are displayed.

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Author Sample Dependent variables

Independent variables

Data collection Moderators / mediators Affective commitment Continuance

commitment Normative

commitment Overall commitment

Bartlett (2001)

337 registered nurses of five public hospitals in a midwestern state of the

USA

OC – three-component Training survey

The moderators job involvement (NOT

SUPPORTED) and job satisfaction on affective

commitment <-> access to training

Perceived access to training, hours spent in

training, training frequency, motivation to learn, social support for training and perceived

benefits of training

Motivation to learn (Negative), hours spent in training

(Negative) perceived benefits of learning

and social support for training

Perceived access to training, social support

for training and perceived benefits of

training

Ahmad and Bakar (2003)

204 white-collar workers, employed in the private and the public sector in

Malaysia, who participated in (in)formal training programs with

their cuurent organization

OC – three-component Training survey

Perceived access to training, motivation to

learn, perceived benefits of training, training

environment and social support for training

Perceived benefits of training and training

enviroment

Perceived access to training, motivation to

learn, perceived benefits of training,

training environment and social support for

training

Perceived access to training, motivation to

learn, perceived benefits of training,

training environment and social support for

training

Meyer and Smith (2000)

94 individuals recruited through employee

contacts at various (30) organizations and 187

within 5 small organizations (n=281) -

Canada

Employee commitment –

three-component

HRM practices survey

The mediators perceived support and procedural justice on affective and

normative commitment <-> training

Overall training

Roehl and Swerdlow

(1999)

Five hotels with 190 employees - USA OC Training survey

The mediators awareness of rules, morale and perceived quality of management on

training <-> OC

Overall training

Benson (2002)

12360 current and former employees of a high-

technology manufacturing firm -

USA

Employee commitment,

intent to turnover and

turnover.

Training - Participation

in development and rewards

survey On-the-job training

Hellman (2000)

232 new employees who joined the company –

USA – one newly formed company in the consumer and business information

industry

Newcomer’s OC

Training – part of

socialization strategies

survey Overall training

Table 6. The integration of the data analysis

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5. Conclusion

First indications for relations between the constructs training and organizational

commitment in the last age: increased organization commitment and other important

outcomes may likely be the result of training programs (McMahan, 1993; Zuboff,

1988). The developments after the first indications are analysed in this thesis based on

the research question: ‘What is according to the literature, the relation between the

human capital investment training on the organizational commitment of the

employee?’.

We have found the most influential independent variables perceived access to

training, motivation to learn, perceived benefits of training, training environment,

social support for training, on-the-job training and overall training, with social support

for training producing the highest correlations with organizational commitment.

Providers of training – the employers – have the challenge to improve these

independent variables to develop a high organizational commitment.

Research with regard to the relationship between training and organizational

commitment is still premature. This thesis supports prior research that has provided

evidence which suggests that human resource practices such as training might have

their greatest impact on affective commitment when it is believed that the

organization is motivated by the desire to create a climate of concern and care

(Kinicki et al., 1992). Bartlett (2001) states that the availability of training has been

shown to have a strong relationship with affective and normative commitment, but no

association with continuance commitment.

The thought is that employees who recieve training might perceive that the

organization values them as individuals and therefore develop a stronger affective

commitment. Employees who are aware of the expense of training or appreciate the

skilles they have acquired might develop a sense of obligation (normative

commitment) that will keep them within the organization at least long enough to allow

them to reciprocate (Meyer and Allen, 1997). The following conclusions can be

presented in this thesis.

First, training is related to organizational commitment. The strongest relationships are

found with the affective form of organizatonal commitment. Social support for

training produce the highest correlation with all forms of organizational commitment.

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Second, the relationship between training and organizational commitment is mediated

by perceived support, procedural justice, awareness of rules, morale and perceived

quality of management, with the strongest correlation of perceived support.

Third, the relationship between training and affective commitment is moderated by

job satisfaction.

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6. Discussion, limitations and recommendations

6.1 Discussion A remarkable issue is that all the researchers, except for Benson (2002), have used the

same view of development practices like training. Theories from management,

psychology and labor economics yield different and sometimes contrary predictions

about the impact of development experiences on the employee’s attitudes and

willingness to remain within the company (Benson, 2002). Management and

psychology studies like those of Gaertner and Nollen (1989) generally assume that

skill development and the oppurtunity to take training are viewed by employees as

benefits, and as signals that they are valued by their employers. On the other hand

labour economics predict that workers with upgraded general skills are likely to

turnover unless their wages are increased (Becker, 1965). Turnover literature also

suggests that development activities may have negative effects on attitudes and

retention by increasing an employee’s perceptions of external job oppurtunities

(Gerhart, 1990; Griffeth, Hom, & Gaertner, 2000).

The challenge for organizations is to retent their employees through training and it

seems to be sensible to combine these different theories in order to create equal

development programs. Most research in this thesis is done in the field of

management and psychology studies.

6.2 Limitations

First of all, there is a need for more research in the field of organizational

commitment and training. Not enough research has been done in order to describe the

relationship completely. Only three authors in this thesis have chosen for the research

in the constructs training and organizational commitment. The researchers use

different independent variables and moderators and mediators to obtain insight in

these relationships.

Second it is remarkable that in all of the researches the relationship between training

and organizational commitment is a positive one. The only negative relationship can

be found between the independent variables ‘hours spent in training’, ‘motivation to

learn’ and the dependent variable continuance commitment. It is not hard to imagine

there can be more kinds of training situations or training variables can be identified,

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which cause negative relationships.

6.3 Recommendations

The conclusion that the strongest relationship exists between training and affective

commitment, implies for organizations that they should focus on developing initiaves

that matter most to the affective form of commitment, such as support given in

training and benefits offered training (Ahmad and Bakar, 2003)

The authors have used different kinds of independent variables to conceptualize the

construct of training. For future research all the presented independent, dependent and

moderator variables can be used in one research aimed at identifying in the

relationship between the variables. There is a lot of evidence for an indirect

relationship between training and organizational commitment. This research will be

necessary to develop an overall view of the relationship between training and

organizational commitment. In figure 2 this suggested model for future research.

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Independent variables

A. Perceived access to training

B. Hours spent in training

C. Training frequency D. On-the-job training E. Motivation to learn F. Perceived benefits

of training G. Training

environment H. Social support for

training I. Overall training

Mediators

J. Perceived support K. Procedural justice L. Awareness of rules M. Morale N. Perceived quality of

management.

Moderators

O. Job satisfaction

Dependent variables P. Affective

commitment Q. Continuance

commitment R. Normative

commitment S. Overall commitment

Figure 2. Conceptual model for future research

The affective component of organizational commitment is related to access to training

when the moderating influence of job satisfaction is controlled for (Bartlett, 2001).

Training and affective and normative commitment are mediated by perceived support

and procedural justice (Meyer and Smith, 2000). Awareness of rules, morale and

perceived quality of management are mediators in the relationship between training

and overall organizational commitment. Roehl and Swerdlow (1999) have included

these mediators and the overall form of commitment, and not the three-component

model (affective, normative and continance).

So, there is a need for more evidence in the indirect relationship between training and

organizational commitment, the exact relationships between the mentioned

independent variables and dependent variables, and the moderators, influencing the

relationship.

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