Factors related to the organizational commitment of college and university auditors.

As organizations recognize the competitive advantage that can be gained through human resources, research on organizational commitment has gained importance. Determining factors related to organizational commitment may be useful on several levels. Organizational commitment has been found to be strongly related to the intention to leave one's job and to the intention to search for job alternatives. Additionally, a positive relationship has been found between organizational commitment and lateness and organizational commitment and turnover (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990). Knowledge of the antecedents of organizational commitment will enable organizations to manage these withdrawal behaviors. One variable that has been found to affect organizational commitment is power. Power is defined as the "capacity of social actors to overcome resistance on the part of other social actors in order to achieve desired objectives or results" (Astley and Sachdeva, 1984: 104). Employees who have the power necessary to achieve results experience higher levels of commitment. In a study examining the organizational commitment of executives in the federal government, Wilson (1995) found subunit power to be significantly related to organizational commitment. Steel et al. (1992) found that employee perceptions of decision- making influence, another form of power, were positively correlated with the organizational commitment of employees at a U.S. Federal Mint. Many bases of power have been identified. One base of power is the formal hierarchy. This formal authority is concentrated most heavily in upper management; therefore, employees at lower levels of the organization often have less ability to directly influence the organization and achieve results. Cannings (1989) found a positive relationship between hierarchical responsibility and managerial attachment to the organization. Because of the positive relationship between organizational commitment and authority, it is especially important to consider how commitment can be increased for positions with lower levels of formal authority. This study uses internal auditors as subjects to explore various job, organizational, and demographic characteristics that may be related to the organizational commitment of employees with lower levels of formal authority. Internal auditors were chosen as the subjects in the study because the profession, by definition, cannot have the authority to make changes in an organization. Internal auditing has been defined by Lawrence Sawyer as An independent appraisal of the diverse operations and controls within an organization to determine whether acceptable policies and procedures are followed, established standards are met, resources are used efficiently and economically, and the organization's objectives are being achieved (1981: 6). In order to provide "an independent appraisal," internal auditors may recommend changes to operations, but cannot be responsible for implementing these changes. Internal auditors do not have the authority to directly impact their organizations' operations. According to O'Connor, "The greatest frustration for professional internal auditors is to identify areas where significant cost savings or risk reduction can be achieved, but middle management resists change and prevents the internal auditors recommendations from being implemented" (1989: 50). Management support in implementing change is vital if the auditors' recommendations are to have an effect on the organization. Studying the job, organizational, and demographic characteristics that are related to the organizational commitment of internal auditors allows us to begin to examine the variables that may result in increased commitment of employees with lower levels of authority. Literature pertinent to organizational commitment will be briefly reviewed in the following section. The study objective and testable hypotheses will be presented after the literature review. …