PROFESSIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AMONG ENGINEERS - CONFLICTING OR COMPLEMENTING

Organizational commitment and professional commitment have been viewed as both complementary and conflicting in their effects on organizational outcomes. Engineering has many characteristics of a profession, but its practitioners usually have careers in organizational settings. Thus, the effects of these commitments on job satisfaction, job performance and job problems are particularly important in an engineering work environment. Results of this study based on data collected from 114 engineers in a bureaucratic work environment indicate that organizational commitment has a significant and direct effect on job satisfaction and job performance and a significant inverse effect on job problems. Professional commitment was marginally significant in respect to job performance. In addition, the highest levels of satisfaction and performance were reported by individuals high on both forms of commitment, while the lowest levels of satisfaction and performance were reported by individuals with low organizational commitment and high professional commitment. Results were mixed for job problems. Tenure also was found to be important; increased satisfaction, increased performance, but also increased problems with the superior were associated with longer tenure in the organization. These results suggest that managers seeking enhanced performance and job satisfaction from engineers must take specific actions to build organization commitment, then actions to enhance professional commitment, and finally action to mitigate the job problems which confront their engineers.