The Influence of Occupational Rank on Organizational Commitment of Faculty Members

1. INTRODUCTIONThe impact of organizational commitment on individual's attitudes, behaviour and outcomes has long been a concern for behavioural scientists. Much of the research has investigated the relationship between job satisfaction, turnover intentions, organizational culture, leadership styles (Gunlu et al., 2010; Lam and Zhang, 2003; Yousef, 2000; Lee et al., 2008; Stallworth, 2003; Calisir et al., 2011; Awan and Mahmood, 201); Lok and Crawford, 2004). The research is motivated primarily by finding effect of organizational commitment on organizational variables and outcomes. The work environment dimension related specifically to workers attachment with his/ her organization has received significant research attention. However, less has been said about the effect of organizational demography on organizational commitment. This study examines the impact of one of the organizational demography variable, i.e., ran, on organizational commitment. A study of assistant professors, associate professors, readers and professors in 28 privately-owned technical institutes in Haryana, revealed the extent of the influence of rank on organizational commitment level of faculty members. Findings elucidate on the effect of rank on overall organizational commitment and on three forms of commitment i.e., affective, continuance and normative commitment.1. 1. Defining organizational commitmentOrganizational commitment, of interest to behavioural researchers for over a quarter of the century, has evolved from a single to a multidimensional construct. Despite its conceptual and methodological uncertainties the topic has gained wide interest among researchers and practitioners in both public and private sector. The concept of commitment is often associated with both attitudes and emotions. There are various definitions of commitment in the related literature stemming from various approaches to this concept. According to Mowday et al., (1979) organizational commitment is the relative strength of a person's identification with and involvement in an organization. Buchanan (1974) defined commitment as "a partisan or affective attachment to the aims and values of an organization for its own sake". Lee and Mitchell (1991) characterised commitment as a shared belief and acceptance of the values and goals of the commitment and the eagerness to go above and beyond the call of duty to enhance the organization's goals, values as well as the desire to maintain membership with the organization. O'Reilly and Chatman (1986) defined organizational commitment as a psychological attachment to the organization predicted by three independent constructs, those of compliance, identification and internalization.Compliance is defined as involvement for extrinsic awards. Identification is the involvement with the organization because of the desire for affiliation and is an important mechanism for developing the process of psychological attachment (Bowlby, 1982). Internalization is the involvement based on individual's acceptance of the organization's values. Alternatively, Hunt and Morgan (1994) advocated the multiple commitment view of organizational commitment. They reported commitment to be defined as multiple commitments to various groups comprising the organization such as commitment to work group, to one's superior and to the top management. Researchers studying organizational commitment have also revealed it to be a multifaceted concept; there are various dimensions to an individual's commitment. Commitment to managers, owners, and customers (Reichers, 1985); commitment to top management and supervisors (Gregersen, 1993; Erickson and Roloff, 2007); commitment to careers (Chang, 1999; Joo and Park, 2010; Bambaca, 2010); commitment to a profession (Wallace, 1993; Vandenberg and Scapello, 1994; Rowlinson, 2001); commitment to a job (Aremu and Adeyoju, 2003; Simola, 2010) and commitment to colleagues (Yoon et al., 1994; Paille et al., 2011). …