International Journal of Basic Sciences & Applied Research. Vol., 4 (SP), 5-8, 2015
Available online at http://www.isicenter.org
ISSN 2147-3749 ©2015
Correlation between Organizational Commitment and Job Involvement of
Physical Education Teachers of Schools of Zanjan
Maryam Hosseini1, 2, Hossein Talebian Nia1, 2*
1
Department of Physical Education, East Azarbaijan Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz,
Iran
2
Department of Physical Education, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
*
Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]
Abstract
Aim: The aim of conducting the current research was surveying the correlation between
organizational commitment and job involvement of physical education teachers of schools
of Zanjan. Materials & Methods: The research method was descriptive-correlative. 151
individuals participated in this research. Data collection tools included Allen and Meyer
standard organizational commitment questionnaire (OCQ), and Edwards and Kilpatrick
job involvement questionnaire. Pearson correlation coefficient and regression were used
for analyzing data. Findings: Results indicated a positive and significant correlation
between organizational commitment and job involvement. Also other results showed that
there is a positive and significant correlation between all subscales of organizational
commitment and job involvement. Conclusion: In order to improve the qualitative level
of organizational commitment of physical education teachers it is suggested to authorities
of education organization to use appropriate management styles in order to promote the
employment of teachers.
Keywords: Job involvement, Organizational commitment, Physical education teachers.
Introduction
Organizational commitment is an important job and organizational attitude which has been at the center of
attention of many researches of organizational behavior and psychology fields and especially social psychology.
This attitude has undergone some changes during the last three decades; and perhaps the most important change has
been related to the multi-dimensional attitude toward this concept rather than a one-dimensional attitude.
Organizational commitment is an attitude toward employees’ loyalty to organization and it is a continuous process
through which the organization members show their interest in organization, its success and efficiency. The general
attitude of organizational commitment is an important factor for understanding the organizational behavior and it is
a good predictor for staying at the job position. Also commitment could have several positive outcomes; employees
who have commitment have more order in their work, stay longer at the organization and do more work. Managers
should maintain the employees’ commitment to the organization and to this aim they have to be able to use
employees’ participation in decision makings and provide an acceptable level of job security for them and increase
their commitment (Zarifi et al., 2012). It must be noted that efficiency and effectiveness of organizations is affected
by several factors and one of these factors is employees’ job involvement. Job involvement is related to the personal
characteristics and job duties. Among different perspectives of job involvement, the most realistic one is a
subordinate of organizational character and climate. It is not a long time since the term job involvement has entered
the organizational behavior and it is defined as the degree or amount that individuals consider their jobs to be their
representative, and consider that their work or performance is honorable, valid and authentic (Hajizadeh, 2011).
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Intl. J. Basic. Sci. Appl. Res. Vol., 4 (SP), 5-8, 2015
According to Robbins (1999), job involvement is the amount of unifying of the individuals with their work, actively
doing activities in their job and considering their performance as a valuable thing, doing their job with devotion,
conformity and loyalty, and accepting the goals and tending to make more efforts to realize their goals. Generally,
job involvement indicates that to what extent the individuals are involved in their jobs and in fact to what extent they
spend their time doing their job. Job involvement as an attitude is an important variable for maximizing the
organizational effectiveness (Elankumaran, 2004). Job involvement is a significant and important factor in most
people’s lives; because employees are affected by the emotional degree of involvement in or hatred from work
(Zakerin, quoted by Word and Park, 2004). Generally, job involvement has an effect on both the individual and the
organization. From an organizational perspective, job involvement is considered as a key to motivate employees and
to increase production and from the perspective of the individual, it is considered as a key to motivate performance,
personal growth and satisfaction at workplace. Through deeply involving employees in their works and giving
meaning to their work experience; job involvement helps the organizational effectiveness, production and
employees’ morale (Brown, 2007).
Generally, the quality of each educational system ultimately relies on the quality of its teachers; in fact no
country could go beyond the level of its teachers; unfortunately in Iran, due to the completely governmental
structure and high number of personnel the human resource of education organization is not very desirable.
Regarding the important responsibility of physical education teachers, it is necessary that these individuals have
enough motivation and capability to do their job. Although reaching educational goals only depends on optimal use
of human resources, financial resources and equipment, dynamics of education system depends on several factors
such as having satisfied employees who have high commitment and loyalty and are involved in their work in order
to move toward more efficiency of this cultural organization in a healthy and dynamic environment. Thus in this
organization it has always been tried to have appropriate attitude toward different attitudes of members and
employees; because its attitudes are related to the behaviors that are important for the organization. For example it is
more probable that dissatisfied employees become absent at work and/or leave the organization to join a better
organization; and also having negative attitude toward the organization causes the employees to form unions or join
informal groups. Finally, job involvement is a phenomenon which goes beyond the organization border and its
impact is observable on personal life of individuals outside the organization. People with high job involvement have
more sensitivity toward the job they choose and really pay attention to what they do (Shojaeifar, 2000). The current
research tries to answer this question that is there a correlation between organizational commitment and job
involvement of physical education teachers of schools of Zanjan or not.
Methodology
The current research method was descriptive-correlative. The population included all physical education
teachers of Zanjan with the number of 247 individuals; and based on Morgan table 151 individuals were chosen as
the sample. The predictor variable was organizational commitment and the criterion variable was job involvement.
At the research implementation stage after offering introductory explanations about the measurement tools and aim
of conducting the test, the answering method was fully explained to participants. Regarding the ethical
considerations, after gaining their testimonials and giving necessary information, they were assured that received
information would be only used in this research and they would be protected from any sort of abuse. The following
questionnaires were used for measuring the research variables.
Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) (Allen & Meyer, 1990): OCQ was produced and validated
by Allen and Meyer in 1990. This questionnaire includes 24 questions measuring subscales of affective
commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment.
Job Involvement Questionnaire (Edwards and Kilpatrick, 1984): This questionnaire has been developed by
Edwards and Kilpatrick in 1984 and it includes 20 items. The grading method is based on a 4-item Likert scale.
Validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by professors and experts. Previous researches reported Cronbach
alpha coefficients of 77% for affective commitment, 79% for continuance commitment, and validity coefficient of
61% for normative commitment (Parnian, 1999). Also Tavakoli, Abedi and Salehnia (2009) reported the following
reliability coefficients of: 0.75 for affective commitment, 0.68 for continuance commitment, and 0.72 for normative
commitment (Quoted by Arizi et al., 2011). The Cronbach alpha of OCQ in this questionnaire was 0.82 which
indicated stability and internal consistency of the questionnaire. Also Cronbach alpha of job involvement
questionnaire was 0.66 which indicates stability and internal consistency of the questionnaire. Pearson correlation
coefficient and regression were used for data analysis. In all analyses the significance level was considered to be
p≤0.05.
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Intl. J. Basic. Sci. Appl. Res. Vol., 4 (SP), 5-8, 2015
Results
Kolmogorov-Smirnoff test showed that data distribution is normal (p≥0.05). Pearson correlation coefficient
was used for surveying the correlation between organizational commitment, its subscales and job involvement. The
analysis showed a positive and significant correlation between organizational commitment and job involvement of
physical education teachers (Table 1, p≤0.05).
Table 1. Results of correlation between organizational commitment and job involvement.
Variables
Organizational commitment and job involvement
r
0.545
p
0.042
Also there was a significant correlation between dimension of affective commitment and job involvement (p≤0.05,
r= 0.123), between normative commitment and job involvement (p≤0.05, r= 0.162), and between continuance
commitment and job involvement (p≤0.05, r= 0.555) of physical education teachers. Linear regression was used for
surveying the predictability of job involvement from commitment. Analysis results showed a significant model
(p≤0.05). In table 2 it is observable that the coefficient of determination of 0.29 indicates that 29% of changes of job
involvement are related to the organizational commitment. Its adjusted coefficient of determination is 37%.
Regression equation based on the achieved amounts is as follows:
Organizational commitment (0.089) + 75.27= job involvement
Which could be said that by increasing one unit of organizational commitment 0.089, job involvement increases.
Table 2. Standard and non-standard coefficients of regression analysis.
Sig.
t
0.000
14.400
0.042
0.547
Standardized
Coefficients
Beta
0.045
Non-Standardized Coefficients
Deviation and
Error
5.227
75.272
0.163
0.089
Model
B
Constant amount
2
Organizational
commitment
Discussion and Conclusion
The aim of conducting the current research was surveying the correlation between organizational commitment
and job involvement of physical education teachers of schools of Zanjan. Results indicated a positive and significant
correlation between organizational commitment and job involvement. Also other results showed that there is a
positive and significant correlation between all subscales of organizational commitment and job involvement. These
findings are consistent with research results of Tadris Hassani (1993), Talebpour (2001), Zarifi et al (2011), Mantler
(2005), McMurray (2004) and Lambert et al (2009). Multiple regression analysis showed that among dimensions of
organizational commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment respectively had the highest role
in and effect on creating job involvement in teachers. Generally, in this research and previous researches,
organizational commitment had an important role in creating job involvement in employees because of creating the
prevailing values and beliefs in the organization. Results of further surveys in this regard indicate that compared to
other two dimensions of organizational commitment, continuance commitment has more effect on job involvement.
Continuance commitment is a reflection of estimated costs caused by leaving the organization compared to
benefits of the organization; generally, if the costs caused by leaving the organization be a little bit more than the
costs caused by keeping the job, individuals avoid it (Chiang et al., 2002). Employees who have high continuance
commitment tend to stay at the organization because the costs caused by leaving the organization are higher than the
costs for keeping the job; and also the rewards for staying at the organization are more than leaving it. Also in these
findings the affective commitment had the lowest correlation with job involvement which indicates the low
emotional dependency of individual to the organization. Paying attention to issues such as job involvement,
organizational commitment and their use in organizations; results in less absence from work and more job
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Intl. J. Basic. Sci. Appl. Res. Vol., 4 (SP), 5-8, 2015
performance, job involvement and participation in decision makings by employees. The more the demands and
interests of individuals be met by the organization, the more the probability of job involvement of employees, the
more their satisfaction with their job, supervisors, and colleagues and the less the stress and trauma and the more the
well-being will be. Undoubtedly an organization in which its employees work without any motivation and level of
job involvement is not a productive and effective organization and employees do not have organizational
commitment. In order to improve the qualitative level of organizational commitment of physical education teachers
it is suggested to authorities of education organization to use appropriate management styles in order to promote the
employment of teachers.
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