Work-Family Psychological Contract, Job Autonomy and Organizational Commitment

Kiran Kiran

doi:10.3844/ajassp.2012.740.747

Abstract

Problem statement: With the increase in dual-career couples in the wo rkforce and absence of adequate legal contracts in the form of work-fam ily policies, employees may hold expectations regarding employer's obligation based on what has b een promised by the organization regarding work- family benefits. Employees' expectations of obligat ions from an employer may depend on psychological mechanisms or psychological contracts rather than formalisms arising from laws. Despite the existence of earlier studies on psychol ogical contract, the contract has been studied as a global concept. Approach: This study had applied the global psychological co ntract concept to a more specific concept that was work-family psychological contract. Since earlier studies had established the relationship between psychological contract and organizational commitment as well as the effect of job autonomy on this contract, this study examin ed the mediating role of work-family psychological contract in the relationship between job autonomy and organizational commitment. Using self-administered data were collected from 30 7 employees in media organizations in Malaysia. Results: Results of correlation analyses revealed that job autonomy was correlated to work- family psychological contract and organizational co mmitment and work-family psychological contract was related to organizational commitment. The resul ts also indicated that work-family psychological contract partially mediated the relationship betwee n job autonomy and organizational commitment. Conclusion/Recommendations: Employees with greater freedom to make their own decisions at work would have stronger beliefs that the organization c an fulfill promises regarding work-family benefits and they can in turn be more committed to the orga nization.

Highlights

The dynamic change in demography of the workforce including the increase in the participation of women means that more couples are juggling both work and family roles (Zoharah and Aminah, 2010)
Indirect 2.89 95.332 0.079 0.943 0.969 0.957 0.969 0.566 commitment, the results show that employees with more job autonomy tend to report positive perceptions of Work-Family Psychological Contract (WFPC) fulfillment and this would in turn increase their levels of organizational commitment
The findings of this study show that employees who perceive that they have more job autonomy, in terms of freedom, independence and discretion in scheduling the work and in determining work procedures, exhibit higher levels of organizational commitment

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The dynamic change in demography of the workforce including the increase in the participation of women means that more couples are juggling both work and family roles (Zoharah and Aminah, 2010). Findings, employees who have greater freedom to Hypothesis: There is a positive relationship between arrange how they can perform their work would have WFPC and organizational commitment In line with this theoretical perspective, perceptions of job autonomy may result in increased attachment to the organization. It can be argued that because autonomous employees have the freedom to arrange how they perform their work, it may increase an employee’s belief that the organization fulfills its obligation in integrating workfamily demand, increasing the employees’ organizational commitment. Based on this argument, the following hypothesis was formulated.

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION