Research Article - (2013) Volume 3, Issue 1
1Department of Sport Management, Islamic Azad University, Mobarake Branch, Iran
The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between organizational culture and organizational commitment among woman physical education teachers in Isfahan. For reach this aim, a total of 185 woman physical education teachers from Isfahan city participated in this study. To data collection, all subjects filled in Organizational Culture questionnaire (OCQ) and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire. Results showed that the positive and significant correlations between overall organization culture and organizational commitment subscales at the level of P<0.05. Furthermore, the positive correlations between organizational culture sub-scales such as Involvement, Consistency, Adaptability and Mission with organizational commitment sub-scales (including emotional commitment, continuous commitment and normative commitment) was significant at the level of P<0.05. Based on these results we concluded that the organizational culture and commitment are the main elements for promoting an innovative work environment and organization.
Organizational Culture, Organizational Commitment, Teachers, Physical Education
In the twenty-first century, with increasing specialization and individualization, the changes of industry and technology have become more significant. Knowledge is no doubt the key resource while in such changeable processes [1]. Quinn, Anderson and Finkelstein (1996) argued that the key ingredient for organizational success in the post-industrial era has gradually shifted from physical asset management to intellectual capital and knowledge asset. This is because the economic growth of industry mostly comes from the knowledge creation by professionals [2].
Organizational culture is theorized to be the prime factor shaping organizational procedures [3,4], unifying organizational capabilities [5], providing solution to the problems [6] and thereby hindering or facilitating the organization's achievement of its goal [7]. Forcadell et al. (2002) and Tidd et al. (2001) stated that the organizational culture is a main element for promoting an innovative environment. The organization’s culture represents the process of the way things are done [8,9]. In various studies, culture is divided into a number of traits. Each trait has a different effect on performance indicators [10]. In order to study organizational culture, we use Denison model. In this model, culture elements include Involvement, Consistency, Adaptability and Mission [7, 11]. Involvement equips organization with multiple view point in decision making. It creates a sense of ownership and responsibility, increases employee's commitment and hence improves innovation and creativity. Organizations that value individual authority, working cooperatively toward common goals, and develop employee's skill, are theorized to score high on this trait. The Consistency trait is also considered critical for achieving internal integration based on its ability to facilitate the coordination of activities [10]. This trait creates a sense of identity and a clear set of expectations [11]. Consistency is an indication of a system that is currently well coordinated and integrated [7]. Adaptability refers to the degree to which an organization has the ability to alter behavior, structures, and systems in order to survive in the wake of environmental changes [12]. Adaptability, in fact, converts customer's interests and desires to internal processes. The mission trait defines the organization's goals and provides the organization's member with a sense of purpose and meaning, as such, the mission emphasizes stability and direction and helps the organization to orchestrate its relationships with the external world [10]. Consistent with previous researches, each factor of organizational culture has a positive effect on the performance [11, 13]. The values and behavioral standards have been formed through organizational culture, acts as filters in processing the information [14].
Jones and George (1996) and Hargreaves (1992) define organizational culture as the set of values, norms, standards for behavior and shared expectations that influence the way in which individuals, groups and teams interact with each other and co-operate to achieve organizational goals [15,16]. These cultural elements and their relationships create a pattern that is a distinctive part of an organization, as personality is unique to the individual [17].
On the other hand, organizational commitment concerns the extent to which an organizational member is loyal and willing to contribute to the organization. The sense of cohesion among members in the organization is the key to organizational effectiveness [18]. Only when organizational members have a sense of belonging with organizational mission, goals, and values will they contribute all efforts to their work and the organization [19,20]. Salancik (1977) considered that organizational commitment was the behavior of an individual expressed in correspondence to his/her reliance on a specific organization [21]. To some scholars, organizational commitment can explain individual and organizational behaviors [22]. It is also believed that organizational commitment can effectively predict the resignation of employees. In light of its significance, organizational commitment has been explored as a hot issue in the literature of organizational management [18].
Theories of organizational commitment result from several studies conducted by Sheldon (1971), and Hrebiniak & Alutto (1972). Buchanan (1974) and Steers (1977) made studies concerning organizational commitment and found that organizational commitment was affected by three major factors: personality, job specialty, and working experience [25,26]. The outcome affected by organizational commitment includes the retention willingness, retention demand, attending rate, and work performance. Based on the related theory, Steers (1977) proposed a cause-effect relationship model. From this model, organizational commitment is the intervening variable which affects a member’s value, attitude, and behavior in the organization [26].
Morris & Sherman (1981) indicated that organizational commitment is able to effectively predict the employee’s performance and turnover [27]. Meyer, Paunonen, Gellatly, Goffin, & Jackson (1989) also found that organizational commitment was a proper indicator of work performance. It is important for managers and leaders to pay more attention to the employee’s organizational commitment [28]. Based on documents presented the aim of this study was to examination the relationship between organizational culture and organizational commitment among woman physical education teachers in Isfahan city.
This study was the correlation study decision. Participants were included 185 woman physical education teachers from Isfahan city and their ages ranged from 24-37 years-old.
Instruments and Questionnaires
To data collection, all subject filled in Organizational Culture questionnaire (OCQ) and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire from Allen and Meyer (1993). The Organizational Culture questionnaire (OCQ) was used to determined organizational culture in participants. The Organizational Culture questionnaire consists in Involvement, Consistency, Adaptability and Mission in 5-point Likert scale. Also, organizational commitment questionnaire is comprised of 24 questions and has 3 dimensions including of emotional commitment, continuous commitment and normative commitment in 5-point Likert scale. Also, reliability questionnaire with Cronbach's alpha for organizational culture and organizational commitment were obtained 0.91 and 0.94, respectively. The collected data was analyzed by descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential (Pearson's correlation test and Cronbach's alpha) statistical tests at the P<0.05 significant level with SPSS Version 15.
Table 1 shows the means (M) and standard deviations (SD) of organizational culture and organizational commitment sub-scales among physical education teachers.
Table 1: Mean (M) and Standard Deviation (SD) in organizational culture and organizational commitment variables
In addition, the matrix correlation among all variables that used in this research presented in table 2. Based on these results the positive correlation between overall organization culture and organizational commitment sub-scales was significant at the level of P<0.05. Furthermore, the positive correlation between organizational sub-scales such as Involvement, Consistency, Adaptability and Mission with organizational learning sub-scales (including emotional commitment, continuous commitment and normative commitment) was significant at the level of P<0.05.
Table 2: Matrix correlation between organizational culture and organizational commitment
Our results showed that the significant and positive correlations between overall organizational culture and organizational commitment sub-scales. Also, the correlations between organizational culture and organizational commitment sub-scales were significant (see table 2). Thus, the strength of the correlations obtained in the present research suggests that the organizational commitment and its sub-scales have a significant role in organizational culture. These results are consistence with previous research in this field.
Indeed, an examination of the literature is likely to conclude that organizational culture is one of the most popular concepts in the fields of management and organizational theory [30]. One reaction of the popularity of the culture concept is the increasing number of theoretical perspectives [31] and organizational disciplines which utilize the concept [32].
The implicit link between organizational culture and organizational commitment has long been recognized in both mainstream management literature [30]. An investigation into the establishment of organizational culture, therefore, implies a study within school boundaries. Goffee and Jones (1996) interpret the meaning of organizational culture in terms of the "community" of the organization and particularly in terms of how people relate to one another [16]. The latter implies that the culture of the organization can be viewed through a lens of sociology, which results in the two distinct human relations: sociability and solidarity. Sociability refers to the sincere friendliness among the members of the organizational community, whilst solidarity refers to the ability of the members of the organization to pursue shared objectives quickly and effectively [16, 33]. Also, several researchers suggest that the way in which organizational culture may create competitive advantage is by defining the boundaries of the organization in a manner which facilitates individual interaction by limiting the scope of information processing to appropriate levels. Similarly, it is argued that widely shared and strongly held values enable management to predict employee reactions to certain strategic options thereby minimizing the scope for undesired consequences [32].
Meyer et al. (1990) summed up the conceptualizations of organizational commitment into two mainstreams [34]. Porter et al.（1974）regarded organizational commitment as a kind of attitudinal inclination toward the organization, which can be characterized into three types: (1) value commitment containing a strong belief in and acceptance of organizational goals and values; (2) retention commitment with a strong desire to remain a part of the organization; and (3) effort commitment with a willingness to contribute more efforts to the interests of the organization. A number of scales of organizational commitment have been developed from various definitions of organizational commitment. Porter et al. (1974) applied the theory of individual and organization goal congruence to the development of Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) comprised the three dimensions of value commitment, retention commitment and effort commitment to measure organizational members in terms of organizational loyalty, individual willingness to achieve organizational goals, and individual acceptance of organizational values [35].
It is the imperative of every organization to understand its own dynamic culture so that managers can capitalize on the insights generated by the cultural perspective to wield greater control over their organizations. The culture of an organization has an important impact on its performance [36]. In fact, the difference between organizational success and failure significantly depends on organizational culture to impact organizational operation [37]. Several research have emphasized that organizational sub-cultures may exist independently of organizational culture, and that a small work group may have its own distinct set of values, beliefs and attributes [30-35]. Brewer (1993) further suggested that if an organizational culture is not articulated strongly enough, the subculture may take precedence over the organizational culture for individual employees and thus gain their commitment) [38]. However, most scholars recognize that organizational commitment is loyalty to the organization [39]. There are three characteristics: (a) one believes in and accepts organizational goals and value (value commitment), (b) one is willing to make an effort (effort commitment), and (c) one has strong desire to maintain the membership of the organization (retention commitment) [38, 39]. Generally, on the basis of these results, we can conclude that organizational culture has a positive correlation and meaningful impact on the organizational commitment in physical education teachers. Researches shows that every individual in the organization has different culture and he/she first try to adjust him with the norms and values of the organization. The adoption of culture of the organization is helpful for the teachers to done their work efficiently and effetely.
