Page 1 of 14

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 07

August 2015

Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 558

Factors Associated With Organizational Commitment among Nurses

*Ms. Rekha Timalsina1

, Ms. Lalita Rai2

, Ms. Saraswoti Gautam2 & Mr. Prem Panta3

1Lecturer, Lalitpur Nursing Campus, Sanepa Lalitpur

2Lecturer, Nursing Campus Maharajgunj, Maharajgunj, Kathmandu

3Associate Professor, Nepal Institute of Health Sciences, Jorpati, Kathmandu

*Email: rekha.timalsina@gmail.com

Abstract:

Organizational commitment among nurses is necessary for

the attainment of the organizational goals and sustainability

of the health service organization. The descriptive cross- sectional study was carried out to determine the factors

associated with organizational commitment among nurses.

Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was

used for the selection of 288 nurses working in Tribhuvan

University Teaching Hospital and Manmohan

Cardiothoracic Vascular and Transplant Centre. Self- administered semi-structured questionnaires related to

socio-demographic information and structured

questionnaires related to Organizational Commitment

(Myer & Allen, 2004), Job Satisfaction (Spector, 1994) and

Perceived Organizational Support (POS) (Eisenberger et

al., 1986) were used for data collection. Double data entry

and data cleaning were done by using Epi Data Software

and analysis was done by using SPSS Software version 20.

Descriptive statistics along with inferential statistics namely

Chi-square test and Binary Logistic Regression were used.

The findings showed that 65.3 percent of respondents had

moderate, 34 percent had high and the least 0.7 percent had

low level of organizational commitment. While controlling

confounding factors, perceived organizational support

(POS) was only one variables that is statistically

significantly associated with organizational commitment.

However, age, marital status, education in nursing and other

field, position, type of appointment, having dependent family

members towards respondents, work experiences, perceived

staff developmental opportunity, and job satisfaction were

no statistically significantly associated with organizational

commitment.

Based on the findings of the study, it is concluded that the

higher the perceived organizational support the nurses have,

the higher will be the organizational commitment.

Therefore, nurse administrators should pay attention to

enhance perceived organizational support.

Key Words: Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment,

Perceived Organizational Support

Introduction

Employees are viewed as one of the most important assets

for most organizations, particularly in service-based

organizations, because of the benefits of delivering

successful performances (Evans, Campbell, & Stonehouse,

2003; Fiorita, Bozeman, Young, & Meurs, 2007). But,

nowadays, hospitals are confronting great competition and

scarce resources than ever before. Hospitals have challenges

by the external and internal environment to achieve their

goals effectively and efficiently. In health care institution,

nurses’ are playing an important role in determining the

quality and cost of healthcare (Sakthivel & Jayakrishnan,

2012). Similarly, high-quality patient care depends on a

nursing workforce that is empowered to provide care

according to professional nursing standards (Ibrahem,

Elhoseeny, & Mahmoud, 2013).

Organizational commitment, the spirit of the organization, is

essential for the success of any organization because until or

unless the employees of any organization are not loyal and

sincere to it, it is difficult for organization to meet challenges

and pressures faced internally and externally (Hashmi &

Naqvi, 2012). Therefore, committed employees would lead

to higher levels of performance and increased effectiveness

and productivity at both the individual and organizational

Page 2 of 14

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 07

August 2015

Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 559

level. Therefore, the potential organizational benefits have

resulted to focus on the nature of the organizational

commitment (Fiorita et al., 2007; Mirza, Redzuan,

Halimatusaadiah, & Shahrimin, 2012). Job satisfaction is the

most dominant factor that decides how well the organization

satisfies employees’ prospect. The relationship between the

job satisfaction and organizational commitment is very vital

because people often do not prefer to stay with the same

organization for long duration. The employers generally

wish that people with higher levels of job satisfaction be able

to exhibit a higher level of the organizational commitment

(Warsi, Fatima, & Sahibzada, 2009). Organizational

commitment and job satisfaction had a positive relationship

among nurses (Ahmad & Oranya, 2010; Jahangir &

Shokrpour, 2009; Mahmaud, 2008; Moneko & Umeh, 2013;

Rainayee, Bhat, Ahmad, & Shah, 2013).

Perceived Organizational Support (POS) refers to

employees’ perception concerning the extent to which the

organization values their contribution and cares about their

wellbeing (Eisenberger, Hungtington, Hutchison, & Sowa,

1986). POS plays a vital role in enhancing employees’

organizational commitment (Shumaila, Aslam, Sadaqat,

Maqsood, & Nazir, 2012). POS was another factor

frequently found to be positively correlated with an

organizational commitment (Colakoglu, Culha, & Atay,

2010; Gokul & Srinivasan, 2012; Gutierrez, Candela, &

Carver, 2012; Lee, Lee, & Choi, 2013; Lee, 2010; Makanjee,

Hartzer, & Uys, 2006; Shumaila et al., 2012). Besides job

satisfaction and perceived organizational support,

experience in nursing (Jahangir & Shokrpour, 2009), gender

(Adengugau, Adenuga, & Ayodele, 2013; Ferreira, 2007),

marital status (Adengugau et al., 2013), educational status,

job type and tenure (Adengugau et al., 2013; Salami, 2008)

and years of experience (Lee, Chitpakdee, & Chontawan,

2011) were associated with organizational commitment.

Many nurses in Nepal, migrate abroad in search of

employment or to get further training. The main reasons of

migration are better pay and working conditions, greater

career opportunities, professional development, personal

safety and a better life in general (Gurung & Facchini, 2011).

Though organizational commitment, job satisfaction and

perceived organizational support are job related attitudes

that have received considerable attention from the

researchers around the globe and the multiple factors

associated with organizational commitment among nurses

were identified in the previous studies, the research on

factors associated with organizational commitment among

nurses working in hospitals of Nepal, appears to be limited.

Therefore, this study was aimed to identify the level of

organizational commitment and factors associated with it

among nurses. So that the findings of the study would be

helpful to the nurse managers for developing strategies to

ensure organizational commitment.

Materials and Methods

Materials

Design

Descriptive cross-sectional research design was used for

identifying the factors associated with organizational

commitment among nurses.

Setting and Population

The study was carried out in Tribhuvan University Teaching

Hospital (TUTH) and Manmohan Cardiothoracic Vascular

and Transplant Centre (MCVTC) which are located at

Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal. The population was 590

nurses working in the selected hospitals: 488 nurses in

TUTH and 102 nurses in MCVTC.

Sample Size and Sampling Technique

The total number of nursing staff meeting the inclusion

criteria was 460: 78 nurses of MCVTC (i.e. 70 staff nurse

and 8 sister) and 382 nurses of TUTH (i.e. 289 staff nurse

and 93 sister)]. Proportionate stratified random sampling

technique was used for selecting the desired sample size i.e.,

288 nurse.Therefore, 239 and 49 nursing staffs from TUTH

and MCVTC were selected respectively. Out of 239

respondents from TUTH, 181 staff nurses and 58 sisters and

out of 49 respondents from MCVTC, 44 staff nurses and 5

sisters were selected for the study. The staff nurses and

sisters who have been employed by the organization for 1

year and greater than 1 year were included, where nursing

director, senior nursing supervisors, ward supervisors and

senior auxiliary nurse midwives were excluded.

Page 3 of 14

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 07

August 2015

Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 560

Tools

The instrument used in this study were composed of four

parts. Part one was related to semi-structured questionnaire

regarding socio-demographic information and staff

development opportunity. Part two was related to

organizational commitment questionnaires (OCQ) to

measure organizational commitment among nurses. The

commitment to the organizations instrument contains 18

self-reported items consisting of the three factors of the

organizational commitment (Myer & Allen, 2004). Part

three was related to 36 items of job satisfaction survey (JSS)

(Spector, 1994) was used to measure job satisfaction among

nurses. Part four was 8 items of Survey of Perceived

Organizational Support (SPOS) (Eisenberger et al., 1986) to

measure perceived organizational support of nurses.

Before using these research instruments, forward and

backward translation were done. Pretesting of these tools

was done at Sahid Gangalal National Heart Centre of Nepal

by using Nepalese version of the questionnaire among 30

respondents (i.e. 2 sisters and 28 staff nurses) who were

similar in characteristics with actual samples of this study.

Reliability coefficient of the structured instruments was

determined by means of the Cronbach’s alpha, which

revealed 0.74 for organizational commitment scale, 0.85 for

job satisfaction survey and 0.87 for survey of perceived

organizational support. This showed that the instruments

used to measure each variable in this study were reliable.

Ethical Consideration

First of all, permission was taken from Dr. John Meyer and

Professor Robert Eisenberger to use the organizational

commitment scales and perceived organizational support

respectively. JSS tools is provided free for noncommercial

educational and research purposes. Ethical approval was

taken from the Institutional Review Board of Institute of

Medicine, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu; Nepal.

Administrative approvals for data collection were taken

from TUTH and MCVTC. The respondent’s rights were

protected by taking written informed consent before data

collection and keeping the collected information

confidential. Anonymity was assured by requesting

respondents not to write their names on the questionnaires.

Method of Data Collection

The duration of data collection was 4 weeks that was started

from 6th April and end at 3

rd May, 2014. Semi-structured

questionnaire regarding socio-demographic information and

structured self-administered questionnaires regarding

organizational commitment, job satisfaction and perceived

organizational support were distributed to each respondents

at the time of lunch break and their free time. Before

distributing the questionnaire, orientation about the tools

was given to the respondents and they were informed about

the importance of responding to each statement of the

questionnaire very carefully. Respondents were given 2 days

period to return the completed questionnaire and they were

met after 2 days in their respective departments for the

collection of completed questionnaire based on their duty

shift. One reminder call was given to all non-respondents on

short leave to request them to return the questionnaire within

the next 2 days. The respondents were requested to telephone

the researcher for any queries or for a replacement if they

misplaced the questionnaire. During the data collection

period, one respondents refused to complete the

questionnaire, 2 respondents refused to participate, and 5

respondents, who were included in the sampling frame but

did not meet the inclusion criteria. Therefore, the preceding

random numbers were chosen as a sample.

Each questionnaire was given a code number in the upper

right hand corner ranging from form 1 through form 288.

These numbers were corresponded to each respondent.

Then, the completed questionnaire was received from each

respondents by the researcher and reviewed for

completeness, correctness and accuracy at that time. If the

returned questionnaire were found to be incomplete, the

respondents were asked if they would like to complete it and

if they consented, the questionnaire was given to them for

responding to the missing items. The privacy was

maintained by keeping the collected information

confidential.

Data Analysis

The obtained data were edited, classified and the different

variables of the questionnaire were coded and double

checked. Double data entry as well as data cleaning were

done using Epi Data software. Then, the data were

transferred to SPSS Software version 20. Descriptive