The dependent variable in this study is OC. There has been much debate as to what constitutes OC and whether is it is a uni-dimensional (Blau, 1985; Wiener, 1982) or a multi-dimensional construct (Meyer & Allen, 1991; 1997). However, the most widely accepted definition is that of Mowday, Steers and Porter (1979, p. 226) who define OC as, “the relative strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in a particular organization”. In addition, Mowday et al. (1979, p. 226) believed OC consisted of three factors, “a strong belief in and acceptance of the organization’s goals
and values, a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization and, a strong desire to maintain membership in the organization”. It is from these three factors identified by Mowday et al. (1979) that Meyer and Allen (1991; 1997) developed their three-component theory of OC, which is the basis for the survey tool used in the current research.
Meyer and Allen (1991; 1997) summarised much of the earlier research on OC by researchers such as Mowday et al. (1979) and later Mowday, Porters and Steers (1982) and developed their three-component theory of commitment. Meyer and Allen (1991; 1997) found the OC of an employee to their organisation can take three quite distinct forms. These three types of commitment are referred to as affective
commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. Those employees with high levels of affective commitment have a strong emotional attachment to their organisation and stay with that organisation because they want to do so. Employees with high levels continuance commitment recognise the costs involved in leaving the organisation and remain because they have to. Finally, employees with high levels of normative commitment have a strong sense of obligation to their organisation and stay with them because they believe they ought to do so (Allen & Meyer, 1996). Meyer and Allen (1991; 1997) found these three components of OC can be reliably measured using scaled responses in a questionnaire. As a result they developed their Three- Component Model (TCM) Employee Commitment Survey (2004).
The research of Meyer and Allen (1991; 1997) is regarded as one of the most comprehensive and well-developed theories on OC (Gade, 2003) and as a result their survey (Meyer & Allen, 2004) is used in the current research. There are two versions of this survey available for use, the original version which consists of eight questions for each commitment sub-group of affective, normative and continuance commitment and a revised survey which consists of six questions for each commitment sub-group. The
major difference between the two versions is in the original version the normative commitment scale seeks to determine the basis for the feeling of obligation felt by the participant, whereas the revised version does not. It was felt by the researcher the original version would provide a more thorough exploration of the hypotheses with little impact upon the participants and was therefore favoured for this study.
Whilst the survey groups each question into its commitment sub-group, Meyer and Allen (2004) recommend the questions for each group be mixed throughout the survey. In addition, four of the questions measuring affective commitment are reverse coded whilst three questions in the normative and two questions in the continuance sub-groups are reverse coded. The reverse coding of questions occurs in an attempt to ensure participants think about each question carefully and to guard against
acquiescence biases (Baumbartner & Steenkamp, 2001). The commitment scores for each commitment type are scored on a Likert-type scale from 1 for “strongly disagree” to 7 for “strongly agree”.
Meyer and Allen (2004) recommend the scores for each response be averaged rather than using the sum totals for analysis. This is especially important where there is missing data. It is also recommended that statistical analysis techniques such as ANOVA be used to examine commitment levels across groups and correlation and regression analysis be utilised to determine if significant relationships exist between commitment levels and other variables within the data set. As the version of the survey tool used in this study is authorised for academic research purposes, prior consent of the authors was not required (Appendix 7).
The independent variables in this research include, gender, work location, employment hours, rank, tenure and finally whether they engage in secondary
and determine whether they are a representative sample of the population within the study (Salkind, 2010).
The survey was manually loaded onto the web based survey tool Qualtrics which provided a link to the online survey which was disseminated to the participants. This survey tool was used over alternative tools such as Survey Monkey due to its charting and graphing capabilities, as well as it being offered at no cost to the researcher. This tool is also visually appealing as indicated by the screenshot taken below at Figure 4.1 which shows how the survey appeared to the participants.
In addition to the demographic information, the survey asked participants, who indicated they engaged in secondary employment, to nominate the industry that best described their secondary occupation from a nominated list. This list was adopted from the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification 1993 (ANZSIC) and is the standard industry classification used in Australia by government agencies such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It allows for the collection, compilation and publication of statistics by industry (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006).
The participants were also asked how many hours per fortnight they worked in their secondary occupation. Following these questions the participants are asked, “On a sliding scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree please select one response which best describes your answer to each of the following questions”. The 24 questions as suggested by Meyer and Allen (2004) then follow this request. Examples of
questions asked include, “I would be very happy to spend the rest of my career with the WA Police” and “I do not feel emotionally attached to the WA Police” (Appendix 8).