Advertisement

Journal of Business Ethics

, Volume 104, Issue 4, pp 537–543 | Cite as

The Impact of Ethical Behavior and Facets of Job Satisfaction on Organizational Commitment of Chinese Employees

  • Weihui Fu
  • Satish P. Deshpande
  • Xiao Zhao
Article
First Online:

Abstract

This study examines factors impacting organizational commitment of 214 employees working at a Chinese state-owned steel company. Ethical behavior of peers and ethical behavior of successful managers had a significant impact on organizational commitment. The four facets of job satisfaction (pay, coworker, supervision, and work itself) had a significant impact on organizational commitment. Respondent’s age also significantly impacted organizational commitment. Perceptions of ethical behavior of successful managers, satisfaction with work, and gender were significantly correlated with social desirability bias.

Keywords

China Ethical behavior Job satisfaction Organizational commitment Steel company 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. P. (1990). The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63, 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Azeem, S. M. (2010). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment among employees in the Sultanate of Oman. Psychology, 1(4), 295–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Bernardi, R. A., Delorey, E. L., LaCross, C. C., & Waite, R. A. (2003). Evidence of social desirability response bias in ethics research: An international study. Journal of Applied Business Research, 19(3), 41–51.Google Scholar
  4. Cellucci, A. J., & Devries, D. L. (1978) Measuring managerial satisfaction: A manual for the MJSQ. Technical Report 11. Greensboro: Center for Creative Leadership.Google Scholar
  5. Cetin, M. O. (2006). The relationship between job satisfaction, occupational and organizational commitment of academics. Journal of American Academy of Business, 8(1), 78–88.Google Scholar
  6. Chandler, C. (2004). Inside the New China. Fortune, 150(7), 84–98.Google Scholar
  7. Cheung, M. F. Y., Wu, W., Chan, A. K. K., & Wong, M. M. L. (2009). Supervisor-subordinate Guanxi and employee work outcomes: The mediating role of job satisfaction. Journal of Business Ethics, 88, 77–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. China.org. cn. (2010). China issues white paper on human resources. http://www.China.org.cn/chinal/2010-09-10/content20909335.htm. Accessed March 11, 2011.
  9. Crowne, D. P., & Marlowe, D. (1964). The approval motive. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
  10. Cullen, J. B., Parboteeah, K. P., & Victor, B. (2003). The effects of ethical climates on organizational commitment: A two-study analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 46, 127–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Deshpande, S. P. (1996). The impact of ethical climate types on facets of job satisfaction: An empirical investigation. Journal of Business Ethics, 15, 655–660.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Eisinga, R., Teelken, C., & Doorewaard, H. (2010). Assessing cross-national invariance of the three-component model of organizational commitment: A six-country study of European University faculty. Cross-Cultural Research, 44(4), 341–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Greenwald, H. J., & Satow, Y. (1970). A short social desirability scale. Psychological Reports, 27, 131–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Han, P. (2008, January 18). Survey: Employers in China face worst staff turnover rate in Asia’. Xinhua Online. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/18/content_7448393.htm. Accessed March 01, 2011.
  15. Howard, A., Liu L., Weillins, R. S. & Williams, S. (2007) Employee retention in China, the flight of human talent. Development Dimensions International. http://www.ddiworld.com/DDIWorld/media/trend-research/employee-retention-in-china-2007_fullreport_ddi.pdf. Accessed March 11, 2011.
  16. Hrebeniak, L. G., & Alutto, J. A. (1972). Personal and role-related factors in the development of organizational commitment. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 555–573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Hunt, S. D., Chonko, L. B., & Wilcox, J. B. (1984). Ethical problems of marketing researchers. Journal of Marketing Research, 21, 309–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Hunt, S. D., Wood, V. R., & Chonko, L. B. (1989). Corporate ethical values and organizational commitment in marketing. Journal of Marketing, 53(3), 79–90.Google Scholar
  19. Jackson, T. (2001). Cultural values and management ethics: A 10-nation study. Human Relations, 54, 1267–1302.Google Scholar
  20. Kelly Services. (2010a). China’s talent market faces negative effects of large-scale key talent competence shortage in 2010. http://www.kellyservices.cn/web/cn/services/en/pages/skillsatwork01.html. Accessed March 01, 2011.
  21. Kelly Services. (2010b). During economic recovery, how to cope with key talent competences shortage. http://www.kellyservices.cn/web/cn/services/en/pages/skillsatwork02.html. Accessed March 01, 2011.
  22. Koh, H. C., & Boo, E. H. Y. (2004). Organizational ethics and employee satisfaction and commitment. Management Decision, 42(5/6), 677–693.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Maignan, I., & Ferrell, O. C. (2000). Measuring corporate citizenship in two countries: The case of the United States and France. Journal of Business Ethics, 23(3), 283–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Malik, M. E., Nawab, S., Naeem, B., & Danish, R. Q. (2010). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment of university teachers in public sector of Pakistan. International Journal of Business and Management, 5(6), 17–26.Google Scholar
  25. Manpower. (2010). 2010 Talent shortage survey results. http://us.manpower.com/us/en/multimedia/Global-Shortage-Survey-Results.pdf. Accessed March 01, 2011.
  26. Meyer, J. P., Stanley, D. J., Herscovitch, L., & Topolnytsky, L. (2002). Affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: A meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and consequences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61, 20–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Michael Page. (2008). Salary survey 07/08. http://www.careertimes.come.hk/english/newsroom/salary/legal2007michaelpage.pdf. Accessed March 01, 2011.
  28. Pettijohn, C., Pettijohn, L., & Taylor, A. J. (2008). Salesperson perceptions of ethical behaviors: Their influence on job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Journal of Business Ethics, 78, 547–557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Ralston, D. A., Egri, C. P., Stewart, S., Terpstra, R. H., & Yu, K. (1999). Doing business in the 21st century with the new generation of Chinese managers: A study of generational shifts in work values in China. Journal of International Business Studies, 30(2), 415–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. Ray, J. J. (1984). The reliability of short social desirability scales. The Journal of Social Psychology, 123, 133–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Steers, R. M. (1997). Antecedents and outcomes of organizational commitment. Administrative Science Quarterly, 22(1), 46–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Strahan, R., & Gerbasi, K. C. (1972). Short, homogeneous versions of the Marlowe-Crowne social desirability scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 28, 191–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Tang, T. L., & Chiu, R. K. (2003). Income, money ethic, pay satisfaction, commitment, and unethical behavior: Is the love of money the root of evil for Hong Kong employees? Journal of Business Ethics, 46, 13–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Tang, R. Y. W., Metwalli, A. M., & Smith, O. M. (2010). Foreign investment: Impact on China’s economy. Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance, 21(6), 25–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. Tsai, M., & Huang, C. (2008). The relationship among ethical climate types, facets of job satisfaction, and the three components of organizational commitment: A study of nurses in Taiwan. Journal of Business Ethics, 80, 565–581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. Valentine, S., Godkin, L., Fleischman, G. M., & Kidwell, R. (2011). Corporate ethical values, group creativity, job satisfaction and turnover intention: The impact of work context on work response. Journal of Business Ethics, 98, 353–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Vallejo, M. C., & Langa, D. (2010). Effects of family socialization in the organizational commitment of the family firms from the moral economy perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 96, 49–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  38. Vitell, S. J., & Davis, D. L. (1990). Ethical beliefs of MIS professionals: The frequency and opportunity for unethical behavior. Journal of Global Business Ethics, 9, 79–85.Google Scholar
  39. Vitell, S. J., & Singhapakdi, A. (2008). The role of ethics institutionalization in influencing organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and Esprit de Corps. Journal of Business Ethics, 81, 343–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.School of Economics and Management University of Science & Technology BeijingBeijingChina
  2. 2.Department of Management Haworth College of Business, Western Michigan UniversityKalamazooUSA

Personalised recommendations

Cite article

Buy options