Organizational
commitment and
job satisfaction
567
Personnel Review,
Vol. 29 No. 5, 2000, pp. 567-592.
# MCB University Press, 0048-3486
Received July 1998
Revised/Accepted
February 1999
Organizational commitment
and job satisfaction as
predictors of attitudes toward
organizational change in a
non-western setting
Darwish A. Yousef
College of Business and Economics, United Arab Emirates University,
Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
Keywords Organizational change, Commitment, Job satisfaction, United Arab Emirates,
Multi-cultural society
Abstract This study investigates the role of various dimensions of organizational commitment
and job satisfaction in predicting various attitudes toward organizational change in a non-
western work setting. The study uses a sample of 474 employees in 30 organizations in the
United Arab Emirates. Path analysis results reveal that employees' affective and behavioral
tendency attitudes toward organizational change increase with the increase in affective
commitment, and that continuance commitment (low perceived alternatives) directly and
negatively influences cognitive attitudes toward change. Results further show that affective
commitment mediates the influences of satisfaction with working conditions, pay, supervision and
security on both affective and behavioral tendency attitudes toward change. Continuance
commitment (low perceived alternatives) mediates the influences of satisfaction with pay on
cognitive attitudes toward change. Satisfaction with various facets of the job directly and
positively influences different dimensions of organizational commitment. Implications, limitations
and lines of future research are discussed.
Introduction
Change has become a source of frustration for today's organizations.
Management within organizations is experiencing numerous internal as well as
external pressures for organizational change. Such pressures include
government laws and regulations, production and process technology, political
and social events, and internationalization of business (Pfeffer, 1994). Caplow
(1983) argues that every organization must submit to the demands of its
environment, and that these demands vary as the environment changes.
Organizational change is defined as an attempt or series of attempts to modify
an organization's structure, goals, technology or work task (Carnall, 1986).
According to Dunham et al. (1989), attitude toward change in general consists
of a person's cognitions about change, affective reactions to change, and
The author is very grateful to Professor M.Y Al-Basyoni, Department of Statistics, UAE
University, for his help with the statistical analysis.