تعهد سازمانی و عملکرد در میان کارگران میهمان و شهروندان یک کشور عربی

The relationships among affective organizational commitment, guest workers status, and two dimensions of individual performance (overall and helping) were explored in a unique international setting. Employees and supervisors (N=226) at two commercial banks in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) participated in the study. With a dissonance perspective as a backdrop, it was predicted that U.A.E. nationals, with substantial economic security and choice, would maintain more attitude–behavior consistency than guest workers, employed under highly restrictive work visas. Organizational commitment–guest worker status interactions were significant predictors of overall performance and helping, and partially supported the dissonance perspective. Implications are discussed and future research directions identified

Interest in the determinants and consequences of organization commitment has increased rapidly in the past several years. Much of this research was aimed at establishing the link between organizational commitment and employee turnover, a relationship that receives considerable empirical support Mathieu and Zajac, 1990, Meyer et al., 1989 and Morrow, 1993. Interestingly, there is comparatively little research that examines the organizational commitment–performance relationship (Meyer et al., 1989). This is likely attributable, in part, to the fact that several early studies failed to demonstrate a significant organizational commitment–performance relationship Angle and Lawson, 1994 and Randall, 1990. Indeed, Mathieu and Zajac's (1990) meta-analysis indicated only a weak direct relationship (r=.05) between commitment and measures of individual performance. However, design shortcomings and other ambiguities may have contributed to null findings in several studies, leading some to suggest that the commitment–performance relationship may still be an important component of organizational dynamics. Several guidelines for future commitment–performance research have been proposed. Researchers suggest that our understanding of this relationship will be enhanced by the identification and investigation of potential moderators (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990), examination of specific, in addition to general, performance dimensions (Angle and Lawson, 1994), and by investigation in various types of organizational settings (Brett et al., 1995). We follow these suggestions in this study. Specifically, we further research on the relationship between organizational commitment and performance by examining the relationship between commitment and two dimensions of employee performance. We conduct this investigation in a unique international setting, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). The dynamics of organizational commitment outside of North America has received only scant attention Alvi and Ahmed, 1987 and Luthans et al., 1985 and is a pressing need (Leong et al., 1994). In doing so, we use a dissonance perspective to explore the moderating role of “guest worker” or expatriate status between commitment and performance. The majority of the residents of the U.A.E. and the majority of the working population (>90%) are guest workers, from countries such as India and Sri Lanka, seeking financial opportunity (Gone Away, 1993). U.A.E. nationals receive different treatment, including substantial job and financial security, under the law. Conversely, guest workers in several Arabian Gulf countries, including the U.A.E., are employed under restrictive work visas that often stipulate deportation if the employment contract is ended Bhuian and Abdul-Muhmin, 1997 and Yavas et al., 1990. These conditions suggest that the relationship between organizational commitment and performance is likely to be quite different for U.A.E. nationals and guest workers, which provides a unique opportunity to explore guest worker status as a moderator of the commitment–performance relationship. In the following section, the relevant organizational commitment literature is briefly reviewed. Next, a theory tying organizational commitment to individual performance is developed. Finally, a hypothesis regarding the moderating role of guest worker status (i.e., the guest worker commitment hypothesis) between commitment and performance is explored.

Given that the guest workers in this study varied in their nation of origin, it was important to establish that there were no subgroup differences on the key variables in this study. The large majority of guest worker participants (80%) were from India or Pakistan. After coding (0=Indian and 1=Pakistani), we conducted mean differences tests on all of the variables included in the study. No significant differences were found.Correlations and descriptive statistics for all study variables are reported in Table 1. Coefficient alpha reliabilities are reported in the main diagonal in Table 1 where appropriate.As Table 1 shows, overall performance and helping were strongly correlated (r=.42, P<.01) as were organizational commitment and job satisfaction (r=.50, P<.01). These correlations give credence to the practice of using them as controls in this context. More interesting were the regression equations that allowed an examination of the predicted relationships in context (see Table 2). In the overall performance equation, neither guest worker status (β=.02, n.s.) nor organizational commitment was a significant predictor (β=.08, n.s.). However, the interaction term was significant as predicted, explaining an additional 1% of the variance in the equation. The form of this predicted interaction was also as expected. The plot of the interaction term is shown in Fig. 1. The organizational commitment–performance relationship is plotted separately for U.A.E. citizens and guest workers. The relationship between organizational commitment and performance was strong and positive for U.A.E. nationals, but was much weaker among guest workers. The nature of this interaction supports the dissonance perspective prediction.The relationship between organizational commitment and helping behavior was significant, but in the opposite direction from that predicted (β=−.22, P<.01). The guest worker status variable was marginally significant in predicting helping (β=.13, P<.10) with U.A.E. national status associated with more helping behavior. Again the interaction term was significant—this result is depicted in Fig. 2. As expected, there was no strong relationship between commitment and helping for guest workers, although the relationship was negative. The results for U.A.E. citizens unexpectedly indicate a strong negative relationship between commitment and helping. Thus, although the main effect result suggests that U.A.E. nationals, on balance, help more, highly committed U.A.E. nationals help less than those with low commitment.In summary, these results provide strong support for the interactive dynamics between organizational commitment and guest worker status in predicting performance dimensions, but there was only partial support for the dissonance perspective. Each interaction was significant, but only the organizational commitment–guest worker status interaction for overall performance conformed to the expected pattern.