Social Support of Colleagues, Employee Loyalty, and Organizational Commitment in Microfinance Institutions: The Case of MFIS of the West Region of Cameroon

Douanla Jean,Nohotio Kenne Jean Mathurin

doi:10.5539/ijbm.v15n1p190

Douanla Jean, Nohotio Kenne Jean Mathurin

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v15n1p190

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Abstract

This study assesses the effects of the different dimensions of the social support of colleagues on the loyalty and commitment of micro finance personnel in the west region of Cameroon. We also examine the two-way relationship between organizational loyalty and commitment of the employees. To attain these objectives, we apply structural equations modeling to analyses data on 200 microfinance employees. The results obtained show that the loyalty of personnel to the organization is determined by the social emotional and professional support of colleagues. However, these variables do not explain the organizational commitment of these employees. We also find that in spite of the positive effect of loyalty on commitment, there is a negative effect on personnel loyalty in microfinance establishments. The latter finding is unexpected but can be explained by the particularities of the context or population of this study. We thus recommend that companies who wish to increase the level of commitment of their personnel to the organization to promote gregarious work.

Highlights

The environment in which the companies evolve is turbulent and poses many challenges to these companies, one of which is finding and winning the loyalty of the best employees
This is witnessed in the Cameroonian context given that according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS, 2011), only 7,5% of employees wish to continue working in their current company. This general problem of the development of personnel loyalty in Cameroonian companies is exacerbated in MFEs for various reasons: their low level of resources; poor working conditions, the violation of article 80 of the labour code limiting the number of working hours per week to 40 hours; the very competitive environment due to the presence of about 452 MFEs and many banks identified by the Ministry of Finance in 2012; the relatively low rate of labour contracts estimated at 20,3% (INS, 2011), and the internationalization of the supply of jobs which facilitates the mobility of employees
This study seeks to determine the relationship between the different forms of the social support of colleagues on the loyalty and commitment of the personnel in the MFIs of the West region of Cameroon

Summary

Introduction

The environment in which the companies evolve is turbulent and poses many challenges to these companies, one of which is finding and winning the loyalty of the best employees. This is witnessed in the Cameroonian context given that according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS, 2011), only 7,5% of employees wish to continue working in their current company This general problem of the development of personnel loyalty in Cameroonian companies is exacerbated in MFEs (microfinance establishments) for various reasons: their low level of resources; poor working conditions, the violation of article 80 of the labour code limiting the number of working hours per week to 40 hours; the very competitive environment due to the presence of about 452 MFEs and many banks identified by the Ministry of Finance in 2012; the relatively low rate of labour contracts estimated at 20,3% (INS, 2011), and the internationalization of the supply of jobs which facilitates the mobility of employees. The study by Abderrahman and Bertrand (2019) shows that the quitting intentions of employees is negatively related to organizational performance

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