Antecedents of Organisational Commitment across Hierarchical Levels

The present study investigated the impact of various personal and organisational characteristics on organisational commitment of employees working at different hierarchical levels. Age, length of service and locus of control of employees were studied as the personal characteristics, whereas perceived job characteristics and organisational structure were studied as the organisational characteristics. A sample of 240 employees working at different hierarchical levels, namely, executive, supervisory and rank and file/blue-collar worker from a public sector unit were assessed on the measures of organisational commitment, locus of control, job characteristics and organisational structure. Multiple linear regression analysis (simultaneous) revealed that favourably perceived organisational characteristics and internal locus of control had significant positive impact on organisational commitment of the executives. Age and length of service had no significant impact on organisational commitment of this cadre of employees. However, a different set of predictors of organisational commitment was obtained for employees working at lower hierarchical levels. Length of service was the most dominant predictor of organisational commitment of the supervisors followed by organisational structure. Other predictors had no significant impact on organisational commitment of this group of employees. For the workers, only locus of control was found to have significant positive impact on their organisational commitment.