Assignment: The Meyer-Allen Instrument

Assessing cross-national
invariance of the three-component

model of organizational
commitment

A cross-country study of university faculty
Shefali Nandan, Daphne Halkias, Paul W. Thurman,

Marcos Komodromos, Baker Ahmad Alserhan, Chris Adendorff,
Norashfah Hanim Yaakop Yahaya Alhaj, Alfredo De Massis,

Eleanna Galanaki, Norma Juma, Eileen Kwesiga,
Anayo D. Nkamnebe, Claire Seaman

(Information about the authors can be found at the end of this article.)

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine affective commitment, normative commitment, and
continuance commitment in a cross-national context to identify if the effect of country-specific cultural orientation
on organizational commitment of faculty in higher education functions invariably in different countries.
Design/methodology/approach – The work expands on Meyer and Allen’s (1991) three-component model
of organizational commitment. It includes relevant literature review on ten countries and the results of a survey of
university faculty members, assessing their institutions’ human resources practices and their effect on
organizational commitment. Basic descriptive statistics were performed on nominal and interval data, means,
medians, and standard deviations were computed, and tests of mean equivalence, including ANOVA tests, were
performed. In certain instances, Pearson and Spearman correlations were computed to ascertain correlation, and
χ2 tests for randomized response were used, while Cronbach’s α test helped to establish survey instrument validity.
Findings – Though certain differences may exist between different countries and cultures with respect to the
three-component model of organizational commitment, there is strong evidence of the existence of invariance
and, thus, generalizability of the model across cultures.
Research limitations/implications – Cultural studies have focused on differences in organizational
commitment at national levels. Further attempts to identify the universality of factors leading to
organizational commitment should account for culture in the study of employee-related globalization issues in
higher education institutes. Knowledge of cultural impact is also useful from a managerial perspective, and
for the design of relevant strategies.
Practical implications – National context plays a major role in shaping the nature of educational
institutions. This study brings out the need for a deeper understanding of invariance in organizational
commitment (inter-alia, through the three-component model).
Originality/value – This study contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between
organizational commitment and its various antecedents, including human resources management practices,
for faculty in higher education institutes.

EuroMed Journal of
Vol. 13 No. 3, 2018
pp. 254-279
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1450-2194
DOI 10.1108/EMJB-09-2017-0031

Received 19 September 2017
Revised 22 February 2018
Accepted 8 March 2018

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1450-2194.htm

The authors acknowledge the research contributions of Stuart Graham and Janine Saba Zakka.
Corrigendum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article, Daphne Halkias in article

Nandan, S., Halkias, D., Thurman, P., Komodromos, M., Alserhan, B., Adendorff, C., Yahaya Alhaj, N.,
De Massis, A., Galanaki, E., Juma, N., Kwesiga, E., Nkamnebe, A. and Seaman, C. “Assessing
cross-national invariance of the three-component model of organizational commitment” published in
EuroMed Journal of , Vol. 13, No. 3, contained an incorrect affiliation for the author, Daphne
Halkias. This error was introduced in the editorial process and has now been corrected in the online
version to the ‘International School of Management Paris’. The publisher sincerely apologises for this
error and for any inconvenience caused.

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Keywords Higher education, Organizational commitment, Human resources,
Three-component model of organizational commitment, University faculty
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
The drivers of change in higher education today include technology, changing demographics,
economy (Futhey et al., 2010; Goldstein, 2006), globalization of economic, cultural, and political
institutions, increasing interdependence of nations (Morey, 2004), and revolution in
information and communication technology (Swist, and Kuswara, 2016). The changes have
not only necessitated adoption of new teaching approaches in educational institutions, they
have also resulted in a change in work culture and management styles in universities.
The challenges are similar to that of business organizations – there has been not only an
increase in pressure for accountability in resource usage from both internal and external
bodies in higher education institutions (Hawkins, 2008) these institutions are now also
required to adopt efficiency, responsiveness, and innovation in their approach (Charlier, and
Croché, 2016). Thus, faculties in these institutions are faced with new expectations and a
different work environment, to which they must adapt themselves. In the changing
socio-economic scenario, several models have been recommended to redesign institutions.
These include the entrepreneurial model (Wissema, 2008; Etzkowitz, 2008) and the “new
managerialism” (Deem, 1998, 2001) model, among others. Managerialism is characterized by
many highly formal organizational processes and systems, high accountability and standards,
quick decision making, competitiveness, responsiveness and adaptability, and excellence
(Kauffmann Foundation, 2008).

Though different universities have varying focus (Pratt, 2001; Jacob et al., 2003) and may
view “excellence” differently (Tasopoulou et al., 2017; van Vught, 2008) at a national level;
however, factors like traditions, hierarchies, and pressure groups (Bourdieu, 1999) play a
major role in shaping the nature of higher education institutions. Thus, universities in
different countries are expected to have a different work environment. Despite these local and
national differences, educational institutions in general have a unique culture that provides an
environment for independent thinking, autonomy, participation, and shared governance
(Allen and Fifield, 1999; Rowley and Sherman, 2001). Certain academics in every educational
institution are always seeking knowledge from varied sources (Bird and Allen, 1989).
Stiles (2004) proposed three types of academic identities – separatist, integrationist, and
hegemonist – that represent different sets of academic organization with separate institutional
strategies, and further stated that when the values of academics did not correspond with the
values of their “academic organization,” there arise problems.

In the networked and globalized world, universities today, like business organizations,
have culturally diverse faculty members (Unum, 2013). In view of the varied challenges
faced by the human resources departments in institutions of higher education, these
organizations must have committed employees who can adapt to change and deliver
results (Razali and Vrontis, 2010). Against this background, it is important to study
organizational commitment of faculty in higher education. Since changes are taking place
globally, so it becomes imperative to understand the phenomenon of organizational
commitment across cultures. Meyer and Allen (1991) proposed organizational
commitment as being made up of three components: affective commitment, normative
commitment, and continuance commitment.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the invariance of affective commitment,
normative commitment, and continuance commitment in a cross-national context and to
identify if the effect of country-specific cultural orientation on organizational commitment of
faculty in higher education functions invariably in different countries. The study attempts

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to identify the universality of factors leading to organizational commitment. The research
question to meet the goals of this study was:

RQ1. Is there a relationship between organizational commitment and its various
antecedents for faculty in higher education?

Following, the hypothesis central to this study extends Meyer and Allen’s (1991) main thesis
and their suggestion “that a complementary set of processes may be involved in the
commitment-behavior link” (p. 62).

Theoretical framework
Porter et al. (1974) defined organizational commitment as the strength of an individual’s
identification with and involvement in an organization. It is important to understand what leads
to organizational commitment as it is related to two very important variables: the intention to
leave an organization and actual withdrawal behavior (Allen and Meyer, 1996). Employee
expectations of both intrinsic and extrinsic growth affect their commitment toward an
organization. Thus, it has been shown that personal development opportunities (Liu and Wang,
2001), promotion and training (Long et al., 2002), and learning opportunities (Bashir and Long,
2015; Ng et al., 2006) affect organizational commitment. Such researchers suggest that personal
and professional growths affect psychological attachment to employer (Weng et al., 2010).

Meyer and Allen’s (1991) three-component model of commitment explains that the
commitment to an organization is a psychological state and has three distinct elements:
affective commitment (emotional attachment to job); continuance commitment (fear of loss);
and normative commitment (sense of obligation to stay).

According to Allen and Meyer (1990), experiences in the organization that “fulfill employees’
needs to feel comfortable within the organization and competent in the work role” (p. 4) develop
affective commitment. Continuance commitment is mainly dependent on the investment that an
employee has made in the organization (e.g. contribution to pension funds and other such
major investments) and the perceived lack of alternative employment opportunities. Normative
commitment is based more on early experiences of socialization and on the sense of obligation to
stay (Allen and Meyer, 1996) as an organization might suffer due to the leaving of an employee.

Meyer et al. (2002) identified that all three forms of commitment are related negatively to
withdrawal behavior and turnover. Affective commitment had the strongest and most positive
correlations with favorable behaviors like attendance, performance, and organizational citizenship
behavior. Normative commitment had somewhat lesser correlation with desirable outcomes, while
continuance commitment was either unrelated or negatively related to such outcomes.

Most cultural studies have focused on the differences in organizational commitment at
national levels. This theoretical framework provides the knowledge base for the design of the
study, which study proposes to expand the existing theory by studying invariance in affective
commitment, normative commitment, and continuance commitment in the faculty of
universities in at least eight countries, and expand the three-component model of organizational
commitment in a cross-national context. Theories that are considered universal and that are
based upon assumption of similarity in behaviors of employees in different cultures are
vulnerable to being “partially applicable” or “not applicable at all” in many countries. If culture
is found to have an important impact upon the three-component model of organizational
commitment, it should occupy an important place while studying employee-related
globalization issues in institutes of higher education. The knowledge of cultural impact is
also useful from a managerial perspective, while designing strategies.

review
Commitment is one of the most widely studied phenomena in organizations. It is important
to have committed employees, as employees with higher commitment perform better than

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those having lesser commitment (Mowday et al., 1974). Moreover, commitment may also be
seen as an indicator of organizational effectiveness (Schein, 1970; Steers, 1975). Commitment
has been found to be negatively related to turnover (Cooper-Hakim and Viswesvaran, 2005;
Robertson Cooper and Bank Workers Charity, 2017), absenteeism (Farrell and Stamm, 1988),
and counterproductive behavior (Dalal, 2005), while it is positively related to job satisfaction
(Cooper-Hakim and Viswesvaran, 2005), motivation (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990), and
organizational citizenship behaviors (Riketta, 2002). It has been found that a positive
relationship exists between commitment and certain values and beliefs of employees in an
organization (McCaul et al., 1995; Mueller et al., 1992). In this regard, research by Robertson
Cooper and Bank Workers Charity (2017) emphasizes the benefits of organizations shifting
focus from work – life balance to work – life integration in recognition of the challenges of
contemporary demands on work and life equally. Thus, organizational culture, management
style, etc., affect commitment (Al-Sada et al., 2017; Yahaya and Ebrahim, 2016).

There are various employee-related factors that affect organizational commitment. Steers
(1977) found that besides job characteristics, personal characteristics, and work experience also
influence commitment. Commitment has been positively related to personal characteristics such
as age (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990) and duration of service in a particular organization (Luthans
et al., 1985; Kushman, 1992; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990). With respect to continuance commitment,
age proved to be negatively related (Bayona-Sáez et al., 2009). An employee’s beliefs about
organizational support (Eisenberger et al., 1990), fair treatment (McFarlin and Sweeney, 1992),
equity in pay workload (Quirin et al., 2001), and enhancement of the feeling of personal
competence and self-worth (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; Steers, 1977) have been found to be strongly
linked with organizational commitment. Employee perceptions of human resource management
(HRM) practices also have an impact on organizational commitment (Steijn and Leisin, 2006).

There is evidence of organizational factors also affecting organizational commitment
(Ayari-Gharbi et al., 2014). The presence of certain work characteristics like autonomy
(Dunham et al., 1994) and job challenge (Meyer et al., 1998) might strengthen perceptions of
personal competence, which is likely to lead to increased commitment (Mathieu and Zajac,
1990; Steers, 1977). Even promotion (Gaertner and Nollen, 1989), high compensation
(McElroy, 2001), and opportunities for social interaction (Steers, 1977) lead to feelings of
commitment. Other factors that research studies have found to be positively related to
organizational commitment are job security (Yousef, 1998) and general working conditions
(Painter and Akroyd, 1998; Richards et al., 1994).

Different studies indicate that both differences and similarities exist at cross-national level
with respect to different aspects of affective commitment, normative commitment, and
continuance commitment. For example, in a study of six European countries no difference was
noted in affective commitment and continuance commitment in the sample, but substantial
cross-national differences were found for normative commitment (Eisinga et al., 2010).
Personal variables and group variables such as working atmosphere have been found to have
a positive impact on affective commitment, while job-related characteristics did not appear to
be significant in a study of Spanish academic staff at a university (Bayona-Sáez et al., 2009).
However, a study of Dutch public sector employees revealed a relatively major importance of
job and organizational characteristics and the relatively minor importance of personal
characteristics for affective commitment (Steijn and Leisin, 2006). In Pakistani university,
teachers distributive justice was more significantly related to organizational commitment than
procedural justice (Chughtai and Zafar, 2006), while research studies in the USA have revealed
that procedural justice is a stronger predictor of organizational commitment whereas
distributive justice is more strongly related to personal outcomes, such as pay satisfaction (e.g.
Folger and Konovsky, 1989). Commitment experienced by the faculty member was associated
with the fit between the task, goal, or purpose of the job and the personal values of individuals
in the USA and Canada (Henkin and Marchiori, 2003).

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An equally important distinction to take into consideration is the difference between national
culture and culture of the international university in that country. In this regard, Ayari-Gharbi
et al. (2014) suggest that a higher education institution’s external environment (international
academic market, host country culture, and expatriate teachers’ personal characteristics) has an
influence on teachers’ organizational commitment. It also follows then that a well-established
university will differ from a “younger” educational institution in that the former will likely have
over time embraced elements of its host culture and better understand the demands of work and
life in the country, and so this too plays a role in teachers’ commitment.

The bulk of the research and literature on organizational commitment has been company
specific or nation specific, or focused on variance between countries. Therefore, in the era of
globalization, an examination of international dynamics in terms of invariance is useful and
timely for both contemporary research and practice (Vrontis and Thrassou, 2007).

Cross-national literature review
Greece
Greece is represented in most major studies of cross-cultural variation (Hofstede, 2001; House
et al., 2004; Papalexandris, 2007; Papalexandris et al., 2002). Greek researchers have also focused
their attention on organizational commitment at large quite early. This has resulted in a
substantial volume of empirical evidence on organizational commitment from Greece, given the
relatively small size and limited importance of this country, globally. So, despite the assertion of
recent writings that organizational commitment has been rarely reported from a Greek
perspective (Markovits et al., 2007; Dimitriades and Papalexandris, 2012), it appears that there is
a considerable body of evidence on organizational commitment from this country. The – mostly
Greek – researchers who have dealt with organizational commitment in Greece come from
diverse disciplines and, therefore, have followed different approaches and methodologies on the
study of organizational commitment, and they have also focused on different aspects of the topic.

Organizational commitment has attracted the interest of Greek management scholars
early on, so there are numerous studies focusing on organizational commitment at large
(Bourantas and Papalexandris, 1992), but also in relation to personality (Bourantas and
Papalexandris, 1999), job satisfaction (Markovits et al., 2007), employee performance
(Dimitriades and Papalexandris, 2012), organizational culture (Simosi and Xenikou, 2010),
communication (Simosi, 2010; Vakola and Bouradas, 2005), and leadership styles
(Bourantas, 1988; Epitropaki, 2003; Epitropaki and Martin, 2005; Martin et al., 2005).
The effect of specific HRM practices (Panagiotakopoulos, 2011; Katsikea et al., 2011;
Nikandrou et al., 2008) and functions (Simosi, 2010; Katou and Budhwar, 2008; Sahinidis and
Bouris, 2008) on organizational commitment has also been repeatedly studied, while the
effect of specific critical organizational events, such as mergers and acquisitions (Bourantas
and Nicandrou, 1998) and change management (Tomprou et al., 2012; Vakola and Nikolaou,
2005), on commitment has also been studied in the Greek context.

At the same time, research on organizational commitment has focused on different sectors
of the economy, as well as on different management functions. There have been studies
focusing mainly on the public or private sector (Markovits et al., 2007), on banks (Dimitriades,
2011), on hotels (Glinia et al., 2004), and on smaller firms (Panagiotakopoulos, 2011). There
have also been studies focusing on a specific work category/profession, most notably front-
line personnel (Bozionelos and Kiamou, 2008) (such as salespeople (Stathakopoulos, 1996;
Theodosiou and Katsikea, 2007; Panagopoulos and Dimitriadis, 2009), retailers (Giannikis and
Mihail, 2008), and hotel employees (Glinia et al., 2004)) who come into contact with customers.
What is actually missing in the Greek literature on organizational commitment are
international studies that would allow for comparisons with the experience from other
countries. The gap in the Greek literature on organizational commitment is the lack of
empirical evidence that would transcend Greek borders.

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Italy
Studies on organizational commitment in Italy focus on Italian employment in the public and
private sectors; but to our best knowledge, no studies analyze the topic among universities
employees. A number of scholars have chosen Italy within a list of countries to account for
cultural context as a variable affecting organizational commitment (Bresciani et al., 2012). Thus,
for example, Italian nurses’ mean score for continuance commitment was the highest with
respect to Hungary, the UK, and the USA, and values were found to be significantly correlated
with continuance commitment; moreover, openness to change values and self-enhancement
values were negatively correlated with affective commitment, whereas conservation values had
a significant and positive correlation with affective commitment (Glazer et al., 2004).

Compared with Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden, in Italy subjective job insecurity
was found to be negatively associated with organizational commitment (De Witte and
Näswall, 2003). Finally, one study focused on the Italian labor market situation after the
reforms (introduced in the 1990s) that introduced flexible arrangements and atypical work
contracts (Gianecchini et al., 2008). It deals with normative commitment as regards the
legislative framework that affects firms and individuals when choosing and managing
employment contracts.

India
The liberalization and bold economic reforms initiated by the government of India in the
early 1990s, coupled with advancements in information technology (IT), have affected the
organizations and workforce in many ways. A shift is taking place in the pattern of HRM
practices in Indian organizations from traditional administrative type to a more strategic
and proactive type (Balasubramanian, 1995; Budhwar, 2009) that should manage change
and be an employee champion (Srimannarayana, 2010).

Like in many other sectors, there has been an impressive growth in higher education in
India in terms of increase in number of institutions/universities and enrollments (University
Grants Commission, 2017). Just as in any other industry, HR practices seem to be important
in educational institutions as well. Bhatnagar (2008) found a positive relationship between
strategic HR roles and organizational commitment. It has been found that teachers’ job
satisfaction is a multifaceted phenomenon (Sharma and Jyothi, 2006) that is critical to
commitment (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990).

There are very few studies available on organizational commitment in university
employees in the Indian context. Higher education institutes may be viewed as service-
providing organizations. Findings in other service sector industries in India may be an
indication toward those in institutes of higher education. In service sector organizations,
excessive behavior controls may adversely affect the work performance. The type of activity
requires the application of knowledge, intellectual skills, and strong internal motivation
(Nigam, 2008). A case study of an Indian university showed that HR practices include creating
a vision, linkages with agencies, training, resource generation, restructuring of curricula,
decentralization of administration, and support to the disadvantaged sections. Direct and
positive correlation was found between leadership behavior of heads of department and
efficacy of employees in the Indian university (Tabbodi and Prahallada, 2009).

HRM practice can contribute significantly to organizational commitment, and performance
appraisal has emerged as a significant predictor of organizational commitment in consultancy
and research-based organizations (Shahnawaz and Juyal, 2006). Employee-friendly work
environment, career development, development-oriented appraisal, and comprehensive
training show a significant positive relationship with organizational commitment in India
(Paul and Anantharaman, 2004). Bakhshi et al. (2009) reported a positive relationship between
distributive and procedural justice with organizational commitment of medical college
employees in India.

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Bhatnagar (2005) identified a need to move from control-oriented to commitment-oriented
work practices and to align configurational HR strategies to these high-commitment
work practices.

To foster organizational commitment, managers need to create an environment where
employees can feel a sense of control over resources and decision making (Rama-Krishna, 2007).
Psychological empowerment was found to influence affective and normative commitment
positively in IT professionals in India (Jha, 2011). Bhatnagar (2008) proposed that psychological
empowerment facilitates organizational learning capabilities, leading to higher commitment.

Personal variables like age and tenure have been reported to have an impact on affective,
continuance, and normative commitment at each career stage in India (Kaur and Sandhu,
2010). Kumar and Bakshi (2010) reported that the personality type of an employee has an
impact on all the three forms of organizational commitment.

Lebanon
Lebanon is a middle eastern country that is unique among other Arab countries as to the
freedom of education and work with no discrimination regarding religion, race, and gender.
Nevertheless, Lebanese society is affected by its Arab environment and its religious and
cultural factors, which drew researchers to focus on gender issues in the workplace, with
limited research on job satisfaction and organizational commitment mainly applied to the
Lebanese banking sector.

Crossman and Abou-Zaki (2003) found that job satisfaction is not related to an individual
facet, and that satisfaction with one job facet might lead to satisfaction with another in
commercial banks. On the other hand, Dirani (2009), in a study of employees of Lebanese
commercial banks found a relationship between learning organization culture, employee job
satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Dirani (2009) specified that dimensions like
creating continuous learning and team learning are not significant predictors of
organizational commitment, while dimensions like system connectedness, providing
leadership, promoting inquiry and dialogue, and shared systems were significant predictor
variables. Ballout (2009) found that career commitment was positively related to objective
career success (salary level) and subjective career success (career satisfaction) among
employees with moderate to high self-efficacy.

In a study of the retail sector in Lebanon, Messarra and Karkoulian (2008) found that
affective organizational commitment increased after a war crisis as compared to before the
war crisis, continuance commitment decreased, and normative commitment increased,
with no change in overall organizational commitment. In a similar study conducted in
medium-size organizations in Lebanon, using the three-component model of Meyer and
Allen (1997), Nasr (2010) reported that workplace stress is negatively correlated with
affective commitment, positively slightly correlated with continuance commitment, and
slightly positively correlated with normative commitment. Nasr (2010) added that career
path is negatively related to normative commitment, is not correlated to affective
commitment, and is not correlated to continuance commitment.

Malaysia
The Ministry of Higher Education in Malaysia is a government ministry that is responsible
for determining the policies and direction of higher education in the country. Development
of the higher education sector is being seen as a prerequisite to strong economic growth by
the Government of Malaysia, articulating the effort to establish a world-class university
system, to make the country a regional education hub, and to transform Malaysia into a
knowledge-based economy (Ministry of Education, 2004).

Rosdi and Harris (2011) and Rahman and Hanafiah (2002) found that professional
commitment was best related to organizational normative commitment and least linked to

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organizational continuance commitment. A more recent case study by Bashir and Long
(2015) appears to corroborate these findings. Their survey of academic staff at a university
in Malaysia found a significant and positive relationship between affective and normative
commitment components of organizational commitment and variables related to training
(availability, motivation, support by coworkers and supervisors, and benefits). The results,
however, returned a non-significant relationship with continuance commitment.

…