Individual correlates of organizational commitment and intention to leave the organization

The goals of the present study are three‐fold. First of all, the paper aims to test the three‐component model (emotional, continuance and normative components) of organizational commitment in the Lithuanian population. The second goal is to analyze the relationships among individual factors (age, gender, personality traits) and organizational commitment. Finally, the paper aims to test the hypothesis if there was a relationship between organizational commitment and intention to leave the organization in the Lithuanian sample.

The participants of the study were 105 employees working in various Lithuanian organizations (41 men and 64 women). The average age was 34.9 (SD = 11.6). The subjects completed the questionnaire that included responses to three‐dimensional measure of organizational commitment, self‐reported measure of temperament, as well as questions about demographic information. Following Meyer et al., intention to leave the organization was assessed with three questions: first, how frequently the employee thinks about leaving his or her current employer; second, how likely it is that employee will search for a job in another organization; and third, how likely it is that an individual will actually leave the organization within the next year. The regression analysis was used to predict the relationships between individual factors and organizational commitment.

The results of the investigation revealed that the three‐component measure of organizational commitment is valid in Lithuanian sample. Contrary to expectations, it was found that there was no significant relationship between personality traits and organizational commitment, but there was a significant relationship between organizational commitment and intension to leave the organization. It was also found that there was a significant relationship among organizational commitment, age, and the level of education.

The design of the study does not allow making causal statements. In addition, the sample is quite small and may not be representative, so one should be careful to make generalizations to other populations. Third, since all measures used are self‐reports, common method variance is a problem, as well as social desirability effects.

Organizational commitment is an important research topic of human resource management, having both practical and theoretical implications. Managers could benefit from understanding the predictors of committed manpower because they can initiate the interventions when the problem exists.

The research contributes to organizational commitment literature by providing empirical findings and theoretical interpretations regarding the role of individual factors in explaining interrelationships among different forms of organizational commitment and employee behaviour.