Abstract
Orientation: Less committed employees have a huge impact on organisational performance. The affective commitment of municipal employees is critical for a municipality to achieve its strategic objectives.Research purpose: To determine the predictors of affective commitment at the four municipalities in the Nkangala district, Mpumalanga.Motivation for the study: There is a shortage of studies conducted at South African municipalities that have simultaneously measured negative emotions, positive emotions and job satisfaction as the predictors of affective commitment.Research approach/design and method: The approach was quantitative and cross-sectional in nature. A closed-ended questionnaire was developed and administered to 808 respondents who were conveniently selected from four municipalities in the Nkangala district. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Inferential statistics were used to determine whether the predictors and affective commitment were unidimensional and to determine the relationships and the highest predictor.Main findings: The results showed that job satisfaction was the greatest predictor of affective commitment and negative emotions were the lowest predictor. Job satisfaction, positive and negative emotions explained 68% of the variance in affective commitment.Practical/managerial implications: This research will empower municipality managers in cultivating a conducive work environment. Improving the interpersonal skills of supervisors and implementing fair human resource practices that promote a conducive work environment have been highlighted as some contributors towards increased affective commitment.Contribution/value-add: This study has developed a two-path framework that could be used by human resource management practitioners to determine the affective commitment of employees in Mpumalanga municipalities.
Highlights
Research on affective commitment at municipalities is gaining traction in the human resource literature (Bright, 2007). Kim (2008) found that committed managers at Asian municipalities had the ability to encourage newly appointed employees to perform exceptionally well
The rating can be interpreted to indicate that participants did not have enough time to execute their duties, perceived their http://www.sajhrm.co.za jobs to be difficult and agreed that their workload increased because the municipal managers were not replacing employees who had resigned
Consistent with Wegge et al (2006), this study found that job satisfaction mediated the relationship between positive and negative emotions and affective commitment
Summary
Research on affective commitment at municipalities is gaining traction in the human resource literature (Bright, 2007). Kim (2008) found that committed managers at Asian municipalities had the ability to encourage newly appointed employees to perform exceptionally well. Kim (2008) found that committed managers at Asian municipalities had the ability to encourage newly appointed employees to perform exceptionally well. Employees from South African municipalities have shown less commitment (Bizana, Naude, & Ambe, 2015). Kanyane (2006) discovered that the majority of employees employed by one of the South African municipalities were less committed because of lack of growth and promotional opportunities. It was further established that only politically connected employees without appropriate qualifications were appointed in senior positions, even when they were not performing well. This had the unintended consequence of skilled workers leaving the municipality (Mailovich, 2019). Irregular appointments adversely affect the affective commitment of employees at South African http://www.sajhrm.co.za
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