Factors Related To The Organizational Commitment Of College And University Auditors.(Statistical Data Included)

Two other demographic variables, organizational size and type, have also been studied in relation to organizational commitment. Sommer et al. (1996) found that employees in large organizations had lower commitment levels. They explained this relationship as a result of the lower potential for interaction and involvement in larger organizations. Results from a meta-analysis (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990) did not confirm this result. Virtually no relationship was found between size and commitment in the meta-analysis. Research has also shown a difference between organizational commitment of employees working in public versus private organizations. Bourantas and Papalexandris (1992) found that organizational commitment was lower among employees in public organizations. They attributed this relationship to the gap between the perceived and the desired organizational cultures, which was found to be higher in public organizations. Zeffane (1994) confirmed this relationship between organizational commitment and organiza tional type, noting that the perceived management style of private organizations was more flexible and placed less emphasis on rules and regulations.

Study Objective and Hypotheses

Using variables shown to be related to organizational commitment for a range of professions, this study attempts to develop an expanded list of variables related to the organizational commitment of college and university internal auditors. Because internal auditors do not have the authority to implement changes, they are reliant on the organization; therefore, organizational variables are expected to affect their organizational commitment. Specifically, this study will examine the relationships of organizational support, organizational dependability, instrumental communication, group attitudes toward the organization, and satisfaction with promotion opportunities with organizational commitment.

All of these organizational characteristics are expected to be positively related to organizational commitment. Past research (Settoon et al., 1996; Cropanzano et al., 1997) has used social exchange theory to explain the positive relationship between organizational support and organizational commitment. When employees perceive that the organization is supportive, they may feel obligated to respond with behaviors such as increased levels of commitment. The perception of high levels of organizational dependability, instrumental communication, and satisfaction with promotional opportunities may also be expected to result in these types of reciprocal behaviors. Group attitudes toward the organization may be expected to influence organizational commitment because such work experiences are "a major socializing force and as such represent an important influence of the extent to which psychological attachments are formed with the organization" (Steers, 1977: 48).

It is also expected that internal auditors' organizational commitment will be related to job characteristics. Hackman and Oldham (1975) indicate that positive personal and work outcomes are obtained when jobs have high levels of five core job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, task autonomy, and feedback. Skill variety measures the degree to which a job requires an employee to utilize a variety of skills. Task identity describes the degree to which an employee completes an identifiable product as a result of the tasks performed. Task significance represents the impact that the employee feels the task has on others. Task autonomy refers to the degree to which an employee may make his/her own decisions about the processes used in and the scheduling of his/her work. Feedback measures the degree to which an employee receives information about the effectiveness of his/her performance. All five job characteristics are expected to be positively related to organizational commitment based on Hackman and Oldham's (1975) theory that the five core job dimensions lead to positive personal and work outcomes.

In addition to examining the relationships of organizational and job characteristics with the organizational commitment of internal auditors, this study also examines the relationships of several personal and demographic characteristics with organizational commitment. The demographic characteristics of interest include age, gender, organizational tenure, educational level, size of the student body, and type of organization (private or public). Age and organizational tenure are expected to be positively related to organizational commitment due to increased attachment over time. Males and employees with higher levels of education are expected to be less committed based on their perception of alternative employment opportunities. Employees at larger organizations (as measured by larger student bodies) are expected to be less committed based on lower potential for interaction and involvement (Sommer et al., 1996). Employees at public institutions are expected to have lower levels of commitment than their counter parts at private institutions due to increased bureaucracy (Zeffane, 1994) and a large gap between perceived and desired culture (Bourantas and Papalexandris, 1992).

Methodology

Instruments

Three survey instruments (available upon request) were used to measure organizational commitment and two control factors, job and organizational characteristics. In addition, the survey instrument captured demographic variables about the respondent and the respondent's college or university.

Organizational commitment was measured by an instrument developed by Porter et al. (1974).Job characteristics and organizational characteristics were measured by instruments developed for this study. The job characteristics instrument has five major constructs (skill variety, task identity, task significance, task autonomy, and feedback), consisting of two or three questions per construct. The items measuring job characteristics were developed by reading the descriptions of the five core job dimensions (Hackman and Oldham, 1975) and writing two or three statements to describe each dimension. The organizational characteristics instrument also has five major constructs (organizational dependability, organizational support, group attitudes, promotion opportunity, and instrumental communication) consisting of two or three questions per construct. The items measuring these constructs were developed by reading the descriptions of these constructs in other research that used these constructs as antecedents of organ izational commitment and developing two or three items to measure each construct. Finally, a simple questionnaire was designed to measure the respondent's demographic information. This instrument was designed based on the existing literature review.

Survey Population

A packet of survey instruments was mailed to 497 college and university internal auditors who are members of the Association of College and University Auditors (ACUA). ACUA is a professional organization which promotes internal auditing as a profession in institutions of higher education. The questionnaire was sent to the institutional representative for each college and university within the United States that is a member of ACUA. To maximize the return rate, four subsequent reminders were sent over the e-mail list maintained by ACUA after the initial surveys were mailed.

Variables

Dependent Variable. Organizational commitment was used as a dependent variable and it was measured using the fifteen-item OCQ developed by Porter et al. (1974). The OCQ uses seven-point response scales (1 = strongly disagree through 7 = strongly agree). Six of the questions in the OCQ were reversed such that a response of strongly agree indicates low organizational commitment. The OCQ has been used to measure organizational commitment in other studies (Steers, 1977; Baack et al., 1993; Sommer et al., 1996).

Independent Variables. Three sets of variables were used as the independent variables: job characteristics, organizational characteristics and demographic information. Job characteristics measure the five job characteristics identified by Hackman and Oldham (1975). These five core job dimensions were measured using twelve items designed for this study to determine the respondents' perception of the degree to which each core job dimension is present in his/her job. Seven-point response scales were also used for these items. One question in this section was reversed such that a response of strongly agree indicated that the respondent perceived that his/her job had a low level of that job characteristic.

Thirteen questionnaire items were designed to measure organizational characteristics (Porter et al., 1974). These items captured the respondents' perceptions about organizational support, organizational dependability, instrumental communication, group attitudes toward the organization, and satisfaction with promotion opportunities. Seven-point response scales were also used for these items. Four questions in this section were reversed such that a response of strongly agree indicated that the respondent perceived that his/her organization had a low level of the organizational characteristic.

Demographic variables include age (Sommer et al., 1996), gender (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990), educational level (Steers, 1977), organizational tenure, size of the student body (Sommer et al., 1996), and type of college or university (Bourantas and Papalexandris, 1992). Type of college and university is included in our study to capture a distinct difference in mission statements between private and public institutions as it relates to organizational commitment.

Results

Of the 497 questionnaires distributed, 248 completed usable questionnaires were returned for a response rate of 49.9%. The fifteen-item scale of organizational commitment has a high internal consistency with a Cronbach alpha of 0.9042 (F = 118.57, p-value = 0.000). The job characteristics questionnaire also has a high internal consistency with a Cronbach alpha of 0.8527 (F = 72.20, p-value = 0.000). The organizational characteristics questionnaire has a high internal consistency with a Cronbach alpha of 0.8779 (F = 61.73, p-value = 0.000).

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