Individual value systems,organizational investments,and personal constraints as predictors of organizational commitment: Direct or indirect effects?

This study attempted to determine if individual value systems, organizational investments, and personal constraints affect organizational commitment directly or only indirectly through job satisfaction. Previous research has determined that certain job characteristics exert only indirect effects on the value or affective dimension of organizational commitment. The purpose of this study was to examine whether other categories of antecedents have any direct effects on value commitment. The study used hierarchical regression on data from 270 evening MBA students employed full-time in managerial or professional positions. Results showed that organizational investments and the Protestant Work Ethic both exerted significant direct effects on organizational commitment as predicted. Personal constraints showed a negative relationship with value commitment, opposite to the prediction, while the effect of the Materialistic Work Ethic was nonsignificant. However, job satisfaction showed a substantially higher correlation with value commitment than did any other antecedent.