Some studies have proved that female employees are more committed to work than male employees, while other studies proved that male employees are more committed. What is your opinion.
Dear @Mahfuz, in the first paper, "it was examined whether significant differences exist between the two genders in term of employees’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Gender plays an important role in creating individual attitudes pertaining to the workplace and in interpreting the meaning of these attitudes".
Gender Differences in Organizational Commitment is the second resource which link is attached.
Of course, the Gender Influence is very significant in this matter!
http://wwwkal.ums.edu.my/ljms/2010/LJMS_vol4_2010_1-13[1].pdf
http://wox.sagepub.com/content/20/3/368.abstract
I am not an expert, but there is good information available.I have attached a couple of links for good reading material. Here is an abstract of a paper
Gender Differences in Organizational Commitment Influences of Work Positions and Family Roles by PETER V. MARSDEN, ARNE L. KALLEBERG and CYNTHIA R. COOK in Work and Occupations August 1993vol. 20 no. 3 368-390
"Data obtained from the 1991 “Work Organizations” module of the General Social Survey (GSS) reveal a small but significant tendency for employed men to display higher organizational commitment (OC) than employed women do. This article examines the gender differences and factors that arguably heighten or dampen it. The authors consider both job models highlighting gender differences on job attributes such as autonomy or rewards, and gender models that stress socialization, family ties, and differential labor market opportunities. They find that the primary explanation for the gender difference is that men are more likely than women to hold jobs with commitment-enhancing features. Gender differences in family ties do little to affect male-female OC difference. When job attributes, career variables, and family ties are simultaneously controlled, the authors find that, if anything, women tend to exhibit slightly greater OC. Contrary to implications of some gender models, the correlates of OC do not appear to be appreciably different for men and women."
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ927369.pdf
http://publicdata.norc.org:41000/gss/documents/TOPL/TR23%20Gender%20Differences%20in%20Organizational%20Commitment.pdf
Dear Nageswara,
Thank you very much for your valuable comment and for the two references you have attached.
Dear @Mahfuz, in the first paper, "it was examined whether significant differences exist between the two genders in term of employees’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Gender plays an important role in creating individual attitudes pertaining to the workplace and in interpreting the meaning of these attitudes".
Gender Differences in Organizational Commitment is the second resource which link is attached.
Of course, the Gender Influence is very significant in this matter!
http://wwwkal.ums.edu.my/ljms/2010/LJMS_vol4_2010_1-13[1].pdf
http://wox.sagepub.com/content/20/3/368.abstract
I don't think willingness to invest as expressed in organizational commitment is gender-specific
I recall reading the paper highlighted by Prof Rao (Marsden, Kalleberg & Crook). It is an enlightening read, especially in the context of this question.
Just a few salient points that I remember reading... Commitment depends upon factors such as perceived notions of growth, mobility, development as well as those of integration, ownership, and participation. These are universal factors cutting across genders. However, gender differences in those perceptions (and realities) exist. For example, more men than women find themselves in positions of leadership, and autonomy, and thus receive the perks and extra motivating factors that fuel commitment.
The other more important factor is that of competing affiliations. For example, women who are married and have kids may feel the family to exert a greater pull than professional goals. This is especially true in traditional societies where the birth of a child may generate greater commitment in males/fathers at the work-front and greater commitment from women/moms on the home-front. Thus, this becomes a case of balancing priorities as a family unit, in turn generating different levels of commitment to different areas. This equation is more fluid in more open societies where gender differences are narrowed, and men take on a greater roles at home. There are even instances of full-time women employees whose husbands are stay-at-home dads, and that would necessitate higher organizational commitment among women. The equation is further modified in single-parent households where if it is a case of a single -mom, she has to ensure maximum professional commitment and still be both mom and dad to her child. But an external support (daycare/ nanny) is a must here, unless organizations have facilities for on-site childcare. In such as case, I would imagine the best kind of commitment to automatically fall in place.
I am not an expert. In my opinion and after reading the various documents available in the links and opinions expressed...the two main questions are those of the balance that women can create between her family responsabilities and her profession; and the choice that is given to women to exercise at the same level of responsabilities in the organization...but not really reports of the gender.
My answer to your question is no. You can find female with high commitment to an organization as well as male. Of course, in many countries women have additional responsibilities with their children, the family, the house, among others that limit the time that these women could spent in the organization, but this is something different than the lack of organizational commitment. These are more cultural and educational issues associated with the type of society where the organizational is located.
The following ideas presented by different experts could be used to demonstrate that gender is not relevant on this subject.
Organizational commitment is defined as the desire on the part of an employee to remain a member of the organization. Organizational commitment influences whether an employee stays a member of the organization (is retained) or leaves to pursue another job (turns over). It is important to acknowledge that turnover can be both voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary turnover occurs when employees themselves decide to quit; involuntary turnover occurs when employees are fired by the organization for some reason.
Employees who are not committed to their organizations engage in withdrawal behavior, defined as a set of actions that employees perform to avoid the work situation— behaviors that may eventually culminate in quitting the organization.
Some employees may exhibit much more commitment than withdrawal. Leaving aside personal or family issues, these employees are not “retention risks” for the moment.
Other employees exhibit much more withdrawal than commitment. These employees are retention risks—teetering on the edge of quitting their jobs.
The theory relating to employee commitment to his organization has received increasing popularity as it will help the company to retain more staff and thereby increase in performance, productivity and profitability. Commitment of staff is important for several reasons, it will ultimately reduce employee turnover. Highly committed employees will tend to work for efficiently than less committed employees with more job satisfaction. Commitment of employees is a better indicator of effectiveness of an organization. Organizational commitment can be referred to as an individual’s identification with and involvement in the specific company. It can be characterized by a minimum of three indicators:
• Acceptance of the company goals and values.
• Ability and willingness to contribute considerable effort to attain that goals and values.
• Strong desire to continue with the company.
The nature of the job is playing a vital role in organizational commitment. Though several studies are conducted relating organizational commitment and job design employee productivity and performance many aspects of the subject are still not covered. Attitude of employees or the motivation to work in relation with job satisfaction and organizational commitment are important in the field of human resource management and organizational behavior perspective. Employee attitude has a direct impact on all aspects of business. Organizational commitment concentrates on total interest of the employee towards the organization rather than work. There is a relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction, commitment leads to job satisfaction, and however, most studies treat commitment and satisfaction differently.
Managers and consultants across the globe believe that a company cannot achieve it aims and objectives without enduring commitment from all staff of the organization. Employee motivation is a key element that determines the degree of commitment towards work. This includes all the elements that create sustain and channelize human behavior to a particular direction called work. Motivation is assumed as a good thing one cannot feel to be a good situation if one is not motivated enough.
Organizational behavior is a large concept of management that studies how people act in an organization. Management can use scientific theories regarding behavioral practice to effectively improve their relation with employees and improve overall objectives of the organization. Organizational behavior is an interdisciplinary subject that includes ideas and research from human behavior and interaction.
Organizational commitment is a bond which linking its employees to the company or organization. It is common that some employees show much commitment and acceptance to the goals and values of the company and they also show a strong desire to maintain the membership in the organization. Meyer and Allen (1997) call this form of commitment to the organization affective commitment. Another group of employees displays characteristics of normative ways of commitment (Wiener,1982). According to Wiener this groups of staff does not show or develop a very strong emotional attachment or commitment to the organization. However, an employee who has higher levels of these types of commitment continues to work hard and with good productivity. This is because of a total influence of their cultural, philosophy, family and organizational ethics than direct their behavior. A third section of employees remain in the organization not because of any loyalty or commitment to the organization, but because they have no other alternative job available or if they invested too much in the company that they can't leave. According to Meyer and Allen this takes the form of tenure, status, retirement benefit, and some other form of benefits. The third form of organizational commitment presented originally by Becker in 1960 is referred to as continuance commitment.
Meyer investigated some of the factors leading to the decision of an individual to join in an organization and their resultant commitment. The more the employee can match his qualities and skills with the job and its environment the better his job satisfaction and the better his commitment as well.
A number of studies shows that organization commitment can predicts many variables such as absenteeism, organizational citizenship, performance and turn over. A primary aspect of organizational commitment can be extra role behavior. This means employees go beyond their job specifications and done something extra. Most of the managements appreciate initiatives by the employees, this shows their commitment and positive attitude to the company. But few of the management professionals argue that job descriptions can effective describe all the aspects of the work of an employee. Organizational commitment resulted in more positive outcomes, it reduces absenteeism and it improves and promotes job satisfaction. Many firms are changing from simple work systems to highly motivating high commitment work systems that need high discretion, motivation with less supervision from management. It involves more roles to employees so that their creativity and working efficiency would improve, this leads to high performance and job satisfaction.
While studying about organizational commitment various factors should be taken in to account. Some of these factors include age, gender and longevity of services of the employee, and Human resource management practices followed within the organization and organizational characteristics. These are:
• Salary: Salary can be one of the most successful factor influencing motivation and job satisfaction. For using salary as motivation factor managers must consider several factors such as job rate, personal allowances, length of service, performance, personal traits etc.
• Incentives: Money has the power to attract and retain. Giving various types of incentives will keep staff motivated and better committed to the organization. Basically every staff is working for some sort of financial benefit, so the monetary benefit paid to the employees should be adequately cover their standard of living and competitive enough in the industry otherwise employee turnover will be higher for the company and the existing employees will not be motivated, instead frustrated employees cause reduced commitment to the organization. So management must take sufficient interest and care to maintain their employees with good pay and incentives it will help to improve organizational commitment.
• Staff training: This is an important motivational factor for all the organizations It is an indispensable strategy for motivating employees. This will give information with latest development and technologies in their respective field of work. So that the employees will feel confident and equipped with new strength to work more effectively and scientifically, ultimately it will increase motivation and productivity.
• Information and communication: Availability of information regarding the consequences of ones action on others helps to keep employees motivated.
• Optimism: Through optimistic approach one can attain success in life and profession. You will be able to influence the world and there by becoming successful in whatever you doing. Because of these features every employees should develop an optimistic approach to whatever he is doing in the organization. It will help to develop organizational commitment and better motivation.
• Confidence: Confidence coming out of optimistic approach. If you are confident you believe in yourself and are ready to undertake new challenges. Confident employees is an asset to the organization and they will help to improve motivation not only to themselves, but also all the people related to them with their work so the entire organization will keep motivated and better performance will be the result. Creativity Positive attitudes are key to forward thing and there by innovation. Without all these qualities no one will be able to try and implement new business ideas.
• Conflict resolution: In modern world every person is going through lot of interest conflict with one another. Conflict resolution is one of the major qualities needed to survive. A positive attitude towards ones work and company will increase a worker's efficiency to conflict resolution.
• Emotional intelligence: It is the ability or skill to manage ones emotions and to control behavior. Emotional intelligence includes personal competence such as self-awareness, self-regulation and self-motivation and social competence such as social skills and social awareness.
• Achievement drives: Positive attitude towards work also increase achievement drive.
• Motivation: Motivation and positive attitude towards work go hand in hand.
It depends on the organizational culture and the culture of the society where the organization is and where the employee comes from.
Dear Jorge,
I completely agree with your thorough and comprehensive answer. Thank you.
Dear Mahfuz. Your welcome!. In my past working experience, I found more women committed with their job than men, without ignoring the fact that I worked also with men that were also very committed to their job.
My experience like most of the colleagues that usually women are committed to their jobs more than men. Although, there are also many men that are committed to their jobs.
Dear Asmat, Jorge, and Abedallah,
Can we think of any reasons why usually women are more committed to their jobs than men.
Dear Mahfuz,
I cant accept the idea of gender that female employees are more committed to work than male and cant accept the opposite. Everything is dependent on the type of work and personality despite gender influence. I think efficiency and effectiveness are the two terms that we should judge the outcomes, the potential of the employee is more important,
Efficiency, effectiveness of the employee and psychological ownership ( as your recent question) with the sense of responsibility and experience is more important than gender differences which not appear to be appreciably different for men and women.
Dr. Mahfuz Judeh started with the query.."Some studies have proved that female employees are more committed to work than male employees, while other studies.."
Thank you!
Best wishes
Sundar
I strongly agree @ Monica & J Perriot. In my point of you female employees are more committed their work than male employees.
Jorge Morales Pedraza has given a very through and comprehensive answer.
I thank Jorge for the same.
I also like to read the research studies, though old, quoted by a friend to see what studies have been done on this topic, how the authors have drawn the conclusions and what inference can be made in the present world etc.
Best wishes
Sundar
In my first employment (1988) in English Electric (a General Electric group company in India) as Shop floor engineer, i managed a work team of 110 employees in my Fuse gear manufacturing line. There were hardly 5 men and remaining women. productivity was good and growing, quality levels within specs, house keeping was neat, work ambiance was lively...When wage settlement talks began and productivity was under scan, things changed, men took control and started influencing the shop floor output. many of the women employees were so committed that they do want to loiter or idle and waste time and resources, shared that they are "helpless & forced' in that situation.
At that juncture, a more notable point was 'Behavior of men is very drastically influenced in the presence of women"
I do not think that the gender makes a difference. If both the males & the females have job satisfaction in an organization where the managers treat them well & display reasonable transparency, then a high degree of commitment is expected.
Thank you dear Krishnan for your note, "Behavior of men is very drastically influenced in the presence of women".
I don't think that organizational commitment is gender specific. It is the natural desire of both man and woman to excel not only in their respective job performance , but also to earn reputation as persons who are trustworthy and can contribute amply in their respective field of specialization. God created men and women differently, and in this context, women face more problem in work life balance, specially during the times when they are going to be mother. Many professional women overcome more obstacles in life and still excel. This goes to prove that they are equally committed as their male counterpart. While the style of functioning of men are transactional, women are transformational.
Although for right answer you may have to collect statistics, but as an observer, I can say that women employees are more suited to routine jobs and once a job is given to them, they adhere to stay without much diversification. Men are often looking out for better opportunities and are not easily satisfied so do not look like that loyal. If they find surroundings and environment interesting they deliver. Probably an environment which has mixture of age groups and males and females makes the whole mass perform better.
Dear Sundarapandian. Many thanks for your comment. I am glad to know that my comment could help in the debate.
Dear Mahfuz. In my opinion, the reason of why women in general are more committed than men in the job is due to their role within the family and to their responsibility as mother.
Dear Mahfuz,
Thank you for the question. I'm not professional expert in HR and think my best answer would be associated with giving link to the research and analyze the data. So I give only relevant answer, personal opinion based on over 20 years of work at NCU.
As female employee, working on Educational Sciences Faculty I noticed, no special differences based on internal committment to work of female or males employees. Every achievements (scientific, teaching, organizational) are evaluated in every two years and this evaluation is motivating factor. There are however some external events showing difference in commitment between both sexes. While our pregnancies, giving births, raising newborn children, we females are less committed to work than males, we are "absent" those times having other things to do, we care about.
Demographically speaking it will be different between country in developing and develop country. It goes to equality of female and male employee develop country have no differences rather than developing country.
As psychological and behavior speaking nature of female comitment is bigger than male.
@ Jeorge. I agree with you that the reason why women in general are more committed than men in the job is due to their role within the family and to their responsibility as mother.
Please find some more references for further exploration of the topic.
1. Scandura, T. A., & Lankau, M. J. (1997). Relationships of gender, family responsibility and flexible work hours to organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 18(4), 377-391.
2. Chen, Z. X., & Francesco, A. M. (2000). Employee demography, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions in China: do cultural differences matter?.Human relations, 53(6), 869-887.
3. Tsui, A. S., Egan, T., & O'Reilly, C. (1991, August). Being different: Relational demography and organizational attachment. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 1991, No. 1, pp. 183-187). Academy of Management.
4. Aven Jr, F. F., Parker, B., & McEvoy, G. M. (1993). Gender and attitudinal commitment to organizations: A meta-analysis. Journal of Business Research,26(1), 63-73.
5. Allen, T. D., Russell, J. E., & Rush, M. C. (1994). The effects of gender and leave of absence on attributions for high performance, perceived organizational commitment, and allocation of organizational rewards. Sex Roles, 31(7-8), 443-464.
6. Iverson, R. D. (1996). Employee acceptance of organizational change: the role of organizational commitment. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 7(1), 122-149.
7. Peterson, D. K. (2004). The relationship between perceptions of corporate citizenship and organizational commitment. Business & Society, 43(3), 296-319.
8. Anderson, C. M., & Martin, M. M. (1995). Why employees speak to coworkers and bosses: Motives, gender, and organizational satisfaction. Journal of Business Communication, 32(3), 249-265.
9. Sheridan, J. E. (1992). Organizational culture and employee retention. Academy of Management Journal, 35(5), 1036-1056.
10. Allen, T. D., Russell, J. E., & Rush, M. C. (1994). The effects of gender and leave of absence on attributions for high performance, perceived organizational commitment, and allocation of organizational rewards. Sex Roles, 31(7-8), 443-464.
11. Boles, J., Madupalli, R., Rutherford, B., & Wood, J. A. (2007). The relationship of facets of salesperson job satisfaction with affective organizational commitment. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 22(5), 311-321.
12. Ramamoorthy, N., & Flood, P. C. (2004). Gender and employee attitudes: The role of organizational justice perceptions. British Journal of Management, 15(3), 247-258.
Thank you dear Nageswara for providing us with the twelve references. Always you are helpful.
Although we can't use the subject as a criteria, but talking about differences in general. Female always has psychological endurance more than male, so if you were talking about work pressures, the answer would be female, but talking about physical endurance, the answer would be male.
I am strongly agreed with the answers of Prof. Nageswara Rao Posinasetti, Prof. Ljubomir Jacić, and Prof. Jorge Morales Pedraza.
@ Ljibomir. "Gender plays an important role in creating individual attitudes pertaining to the workplace and in interpreting the meaning of these attitudes" and in turn in organizational commitment.
The answer is a contingency. It depends on the type and mission of the organization.
An organization for and about women with only female members of the organization would likely be a candidate where female commitment is greater than male commitment. A college sorority, where males are not permitted to be members, might be an example of why gender might affect organizational commitment.
Dear Reginald. You have a very good point. "The answer is a contingency. It depends on the type and mission of the organization".
In my opinion the diversity of persons constituing a team: older people very experienced and younger with innovative ideas, people with different educatinal courses improve the efficacy of a team. I also think that the diversity of gender in persons composing the team is essential in organizational commitment.
In My opinion I think both are committed it depends on the personality not gender as a factor BUT females usually like to focus on details and organized . By the end it is the person talent not the gender as an issue.
@ Dear Jean, I agree with you that the diversity of gender in persons composing the team is essential in organizational commitment.
Dear Mahfuz
The organizational commitment is independent of the employee gender and is directly related to the competence of each individual
Rather than employees' gender I think chellanges and interest in work would affect Organizational commitments..
Of course dear Dhara. Many variables other than gender would affect Organizational commitment.
Men and women are different and these differences can and should be used by businesses and institutions in a positive way.
Dear Gopinath. Many thanks for your comment. It is a modest contribution to the debate.
Discretionary effort among women -net worth of individual, family, and workplace characteristics.
A greater divergence of women’s labor force participation, careers, historically weaker regulation of workplace equality, and a sharper differentiation of gender roles on national context shape gender differential contribution in work orientations and behaviors.
Reference - Julie A. Kmec, Elizabeth H. Gorman (2010), Gender and Discretionary Work Effort Evidence From the United States and Britain
In a paper presented to Annual London Business Research Conference in London, the final results indicated that there was a significant difference between female and male leaders` behaviors regarding transformational leadership (Judeh, 2010).
Regarding survey about gender difference and organizational commitment, the geographical, economical, cultural and other aspects may be also taken into account. Thanks.
Commitment refers to the focus and the desire of attachment of an individual to a certain task or his work. Organizational commitment is a definite desire to maintain organizational membership, identification with the purposes, successes of organization, loyalty of an employee and a willingness to exert consider able effort on the behalf of the organization. Various factors affect an employee’s commitment towards the organization. Gender issue in organizational commitment has been widely researched and reports are contradictory. Mowday, Steers and Porter (1979) found that there was a coherent relationship between organizational commitment and gender. According to a study report males have stronger organizational commitment than females. This situation is interpreted as Females think that the source of their commitment and identity is their family roles. However, for males work is the first choice. In addition, females quit an employment or stay away from office more often. On the other hand, as per Alvi and Ahmed (1987) females have higher level of commitment than males because they try to do a lot for their job status. Primary explanation for the gender difference is that men are more likely than women to hold jobs with commitment-enhancing features. Contrary to implications of some gender models, the correlates of organizational commitment do not appear to be appreciably different for men and women. Further, the impact of gender difference on organizational commitment depends on the geographical, economical, cultural and other aspects as stated by Sundarapandian.
Yes, Dear Yogesh. Some studies report that males have stronger organizational commitment than females, whereas others report that females have higher level of commitment than males. It depends on the population, sample selected, and other factors.
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