Organizational Behavior

International Journal of Cross
Cultural Management
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Organizational Commitment Profiles and Job Satisfaction among Greek Private
and Public Sector Employees
Yannis Markovits, Ann J. Davis and Rolf van Dick
International Journal of Cross Cultural Management 2007; 7; 77
DOI: 10.1177/1470595807075180

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Cultural Perspectives CCM International Journal of
Cross Cultural
2007 Vol 7(1): 77–99 Management

Organizational Commitment
Profiles and Job Satisfaction
among Greek Private and Public
Sector Employees

Yannis Markovits
Aston University, Birmingham, UK,

Ann J. Davis
Aston University, Birmingham, UK,

Rolf van Dick
Aston University, Birmingham, UK and Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany

ABSTRACT Recent research into organizational commitment has advocated a profiles-based
approach. However, with the exception of Wasti, published findings are confined to North
American samples. This article examines the relationships between organizational
commitment profiles and job satisfaction in Greece. Greek organizations have rarely been
the subject of detailed examination, so the study provides baseline information regarding
levels of organizational commitment and job satisfaction in Greece. Both private sector (N =
1119) and public sector (N = 476) employees in Greece were surveyed, as this sectoral
distinction is regularly associated with different patterns of job-related attitudes. The
contrasts between Greek and Anglo-American values present a new challenge to the profiles
approach. The results confirm the utility of the profiles approach to the study of
organizational commitment. Affective organizational commitment was found to be most
influential with respect to levels of intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. This concurs with
other studies of the behavioural outcomes of commitment.
KEY WORDS • Greece • job satisfaction • organizational commitment profiles • private sector
• public sector

Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications
www.sagepublications.com
DOI: 10.1177/1470595807075180


78 International Journal of Cross Cultural Management 7(1)

This article examines the relationship Eastern’ cluster (see Ronen and Shenkar,
between organizational commitment and job 1985), including Arab countries, Spain, some
satisfaction in Greece. Greece is represented Latin American countries and Turkey.
in most major studies of cross cultural varia- Griffeth et al. (1985) cluster Greece with the
tion (Hofstede, 1980, 2001; House et al., Latin European countries of Spain, Portugal
2004), however organizational commitment and Italy, and the Netherlands and Belgium.
is barely reported from a Greek perspective. In terms of the societal values, institutional
Following on from Myloni et al.’s (2004) collectivism and uncertainty avoidance are
identification of the culture-specific nature of highly valued, while power distance and
Greek human resource management (HRM) assertiveness are less valued than in most of
practices, this article explores the outcomes the GLOBE participant countries. Of the
of these practices in terms of organizational nine GLOBE dimensions, only gender egali-
commitment and its relationship with job tarianism is both highly valued and widely
satisfaction. practised in Greece. Societal practices (in
In line with recent developments, we take contrast to values) are reported to be high on
the approach of exploring the role of com- assertiveness and power distance, and low on
mitment profiles (Meyer and Herscovitch, performance orientation, institutional collec-
2001). That is, the way in which different tivism, humane orientation and uncertainty
commitment components combine to form avoidance. Hofstede’s findings are largely
an overall pattern or profile of organizational similar, although he reported high power dis-
commitment, and how these profiles influ- tance being valued rather than just practised.
ence the outcomes of organizational commit- This shift from Hofstede’s study to the
ment, specifically intrinsic and extrinsic job GLOBE findings may be a function of the
satisfaction. economic development and related changes
Finally, the article contrasts the responses that Greece has experienced in the past 30
of employees in the public sector with those years.
in private sector employment in Greece. While Greek values have been explored,
These sectors have different implications the impact of this value set on organizational
for the likely nature of commitment profiles outcomes has not, in contrast to its neighbour
generated and for job satisfaction. However Turkey, which has been the subject of an
the approach to employment in the two sec- extensive series of studies on organizational
tors in Greece differs markedly from the pat- commitment by Wasti (1998, 2003). The
tern normally expected in Western European cross cultural studies that have included
countries, which is also discussed. Greece reinforce the contrast between Greek
attitudes, decision-making style, values and
beliefs and those of more widely researched
Greek Context and Culture
contexts, primarily the UK and North
Greece is rarely explored in management America (Schwartz, 1994). Bourantas et al.
research (Myloni et al., 2004; Papalexandris, (1990) argue that Greek management is
1992) although it is represented in major characterized by a fear of responsibility and a
studies of cross cultural variation. Indeed its low belief in others’ knowledge and capacity
position in these studies is quite distinctive. – a characterization that accords with the
The GLOBE studies (Global Leadership and GLOBE data.
Organizational Behavior Effectiveness; House Green et al. (2005) clustered countries’
et al., 2004) locate Greece in the Eastern individualistic and collectivistic dimensions
Europe cluster, while Hofstede’s earlier work on the basis of three attitudes: self-reliance
(1980) locates Greece in a broadly ‘Near (an individualistic attitude), group-oriented


Markovits et al.: Organizational Commitment Profiles and Job Satisfaction 79

interdependence (a collectivistic attitude), Organizational Commitment
and competitiveness (an attitude that is both and Commitment Profiles
individualistic and collectivist). Greece was
clustered into the self-reliant non-competitor Organizational commitment (OC) has been
quadrant (together with Italy), whereas the a popular topic for research into work atti-
USA was on the borders of the interdepen- tudes and behaviours in recent years (see
dent competitor quadrant, and Turkey was Meyer et al., 2002). It has been formulated in
located in the self-reliant competitor quad- a variety of ways, typically as a construct with
rant. This seems to indicate an emergent multiple components describing individuals’
individualism within both Greece and feelings of attachment to, identification with
Turkey. and obligation to the organization (e.g. Allen
Taken as a whole, these and other studies and Meyer, 1990; Cook and Wall, 1980;
(e.g. Bond et al., 2004, Smith et al., 2002) Mowday et al., 1979).
support the assertion that Greece is clearly Cook and Wall (1980), working in a UK
distinguishable from Anglo and East Asian context, view OC as the ‘feelings of attach-
countries, but shares similarities with Latin, ment to the goals and values of the organiza-
Eastern European and Arabic countries. tion, . . . and attachment to the organization
Lammers and Hickson (1979) describe for its own sake rather than for its strictly
Greece as akin to a typical bureaucracy, high instrumental values’ (p. 40). This attachment
in power distance and with a strong rule ori- takes three forms: identification (a feeling of
entation, the inverse of the Anglo pattern. pride and belonging to the organization);
Kirkman and Shapiro (2001) argue that involvement (the willingness to invest personal
there is a tendency for higher levels of collec- effort for the sake of the organization); and
tivism to be associated with greater job satis- loyalty (attachment and obligation towards
faction and organizational commitment, and the organization). This is operationalized in
a tendency for lower levels of power distance the British Organizational Commitment
to be associated with higher levels of organi- Scale (BOCS), modelled on Mowday et al.’s
zational commitment. Clugston et al. (2000) (1979) Organizational Commitment Ques-
argue that high power distance results in tionnaire, and has been widely used in the
strong relationships with continuance and UK across a range of employment contexts
normative commitment but not affective (e.g. Biggs and Swailes, 2006; Pendleton,
commitment; individuals high on uncertainty 2003). Its psychometric properties have been
avoidance develop continuance-type rela- extensively tested: a recent study by Mathews
tionships across all foci; while collectivism and Shepherd (2002) supported the three-
leads to more workgroup commitments as component structure, although like Guest
well as normative commitments. According and Peccei (1993) a decade earlier, cautions
to Smith et al. (2001) job satisfaction is remain regarding some negatively worded
greater in individualistic than collectivist items.
nations, possibly due to greater economic Internationally, the BOCS has been used
and social prosperity. Against this back- in the USA (Madsen et al., 2005), in Israel
ground, Greece would appear to be a good (Bar-Hayim and Berman, 1992), and in
socio-cultural context to further examine Australia (Albrecht and Travaglione, 2003),
organizational attitudes. however there are no reports of its use in the
Near East (Israel is located in the Latin
Europe cluster in the GLOBE studies and
tends more towards northern Europe in
Hofstede’s 1980 study).



Allen and Meyer’s (1990) formulation more predictive of OC in individualistic soci-
also proposes a three-component model: eties, whereas post-materialistic job values
affective commitment (employees remain (e.g. helping others) were more predictive of
with the organization because they want to; OC in collectivistic societies.
AC), continuance commitment (employees Research on the consequences of OC has
remain because they need to; CC) and nor- found that OC in general is a more powerful
mative commitment (they remain because predictor of job performance in nations
they feel they ought to; NC). A self-report scoring high on collectivism (Jaramillo et al.,
measure of these three components has been 2005). Meyer et al. (2002) report AC in
developed by Meyer et al. (1993). particular to be a powerful predictor of job
The BOCS and Meyer and Allen’s con- outcomes in the (individualistic) US, with NC
ceptualization share an ‘affective’ component becoming more important elsewhere (see
(organizational identification or affective com- Gautam et al., 2005; Wasti, 2003).
mitment), which is generally suggested to be Recent theoretical developments (Gellatly
the main determinant of commitment-related et al., 2004; Meyer and Herscovitch, 2001;
focal and discretionary behaviours (Meyer et Wasti, 2005) have begun to emphasize the
al., 2002). They also share a broadly norma- importance of overall commitment profiles.
tive component (NC or loyalty) emphasizing This goes beyond the extent to which indi-
mutual obligation. The remaining compo- vidual components of commitment relate to
nents (job involvement and continuance com- other variables, to looking at the combina-
mitment) are not directly comparable. tions of those components and how they
Meyer et al.’s (1993) measure has been interact as a whole to influence focal and dis-
researched extensively across cultures. Its con- cretionary outcomes. A review of the litera-
struct validity has been demonstrated in ture identified only limited research on com-
Europe (Vandenberghe, 1996; Vandenberghe mitment profiles and their work-related
et al., 2001), Nepal (Gautam et al., 2001), implications, and these have adopted Allen
and the Middle East (Yousef, 2002), although and Meyer’s (1990) approach to OC. Until
others question its validity in East Asian recently such studies have limited themselves
samples (e.g. Chen and Francesco, 2003; to exploring only two-way interactions
Cheng and Stockdale, 2003; Ko et al., 1997; among the three forms of OC. For example,
Lee et al., 2001). The debate continues as to Meyer et al. (1989) and Randall et al. (1990)
whether differences arise from translation associated the components of organizational
problems (Lee et al., 2001) or cultural differ- commitment with job performance and
ences in the OC construct: Wasti (2003) behavioural manifestations of job attitude.
demonstrated the importance of developing Both studies reported differences in the
‘emic’ items when assessing ‘etic’ OC con- correlations of each component of commit-
structs. ment with the predictor variables, and some
The antecedents of OC appear to vary two-way interactions, but neither examined
systematically with societal values, particu- three-way interactions. Subsequently, Somers
larly collectivism. Wasti (2003) found that (1995) identified that while AC was the sole
satisfaction with work and promotions were predictor of turnover and absenteeism, when
the strongest predictors of OC among indi- observed in conjunction with NC a positive
vidualists, whereas satisfaction with supervi- relationship with intent to remain emerged; a
sor was an important predictor of OC among two-way interaction. However, the statistic-
collectivists. Across seven nations, Mesner ally significant relationships among the
 
Andolsek and Stebe (2004) also found that variables were modest. Similar results were
material job values (e.g. job quality) were found by Jaros (1997), where turnover inten-



tions were more strongly correlated with AC Wasti (2005) adopts a clustering procedure
than with either NC or CC. In China, Cheng rather than explicitly exploring eight theo-
and Stockdale (2003) found that NC reduced retically constructed profiles. This procedure
the relationship between CC and job satis- identified six distinguishable commitment
faction, and Chen and Francesco (2003) profiles in her Turkish data: the highly com-
found that NC moderated the impact of AC mitted, the non-committed, the neutral, the
on organizational citizenship behaviour and affective dominant, the continuance domi-
performance, providing support for the pri- nant and the affective-normative dominant.
macy of NC in non-western cultures. Despite the difference in approach, Wasti’s
In their 2001 article, Meyer and Hersco- analysis indicated that, in line with previous
vitch proposed eight theoretically distin- findings, the best job-related outcomes for
guishable commitment profiles, derived from both employee and employer were exhibited
splitting each component into high or low where affective commitment was high. Speci-
scores (2 × 2 × 2). The existence of ‘pure’ fically the highly committed group (high on
affective commitment was suggested to cre- all three commitment components), and
ate the highest levels of both focal and dis- the affective-normative dominant group dis-
cretionary behaviours, followed by those played significantly lower levels of turnover
cases where AC is accompanied by high intention, and the affective-normative domi-
levels of either NC or CC, or both. nant group showed significantly more loyal
Herscovitch and Meyer (2002) report three boosterism (defending the organization
studies exploring this model, demonstrating against co-worker criticism) than all other
that commitment to change was positively groups except the highly committed group.
correlated with compliance with the require- This contrasting approach lends further
ments of change. However cooperation and support to the case for a distinctive contribu-
championing of change were only correlated tion of a profile-based interpretation of com-
with AC and NC. Overall, both articles mitment. The current article returns to
supported the view that AC by itself or in the original approach from Meyer and
conjunction with NC were the best predic- Herscovitch (2001), statistically generating
tors of positive organizational behaviours. eight theoretically feasible groups within a
Continuing this line of research, Gellatly three-component model. However, it explores
et al. (2004) explored the association between two different three-component models of
intention to stay and OC among Canadian commitment, those of Cook and Wall (1980)
hospital staff. They report that intention to and Allen and Meyer (1990; Meyer et al.,
stay was strong when any one component of 1993), in terms of their relationships to
commitment was strong and the other two intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction.
components weak. They further reported
that normative commitment could take Job Satisfaction and
different forms depending on its context. In
Organizational Commitment
conjunction with low affective commitment
and high continuance commitment, norma- Job satisfaction is one of the most widely
tive commitment reduced the display of discre- researched concepts in organizational behav-
tionary behaviours. When coupled with iour, although to date no studies have been
high levels of affective commitment however, published linking it to commitment profiles.
normative commitment increased the likeli- Job satisfaction is typically construed either
hood of engaging in discretionary behaviour. as an affective or emotional attitude of an
In the first reported replication of the individual towards his or her job (James and
profiles approach outside North America, Jones, 1980) or as a general attitude towards



a job and some particular aspects of it likely impact on commitment profiles that
(Knoop, 1995). We take the position that job they may generate. Reports of differences in
satisfaction has two facets relating to the attitudes among public and private sector
extrinsic and intrinsic features of a job employees abound. For example, in Israel,
(Cooper-Hakim and Viswesvaran, 2005), a Solomon (1986) reports that performance-
formulation that can be traced back to based rewards and policies intending to pro-
Herzberg (1968). Extrinsic job satisfaction mote efficiency lead to higher job satisfaction
relates to satisfaction with, for example, pay, among private than public sector managers.
physical conditions of the organizational Karl and Sutton (1998) found that private
environment, human resource management sector employees placed higher value on
policies and procedures, interpersonal rela- good wages, while public sector employees
tionships, and so on. Intrinsic job satisfaction valued interesting work. Naff and Crum
represents an employee’s satisfaction with the (1999) reached similar conclusions, identify-
non-monetary, qualitative aspects of work, ing the different values and responses to dif-
such as creativity, opportunity to develop, ferent incentives between the sectors in the
ability utilization, feelings of personal achieve- USA.
ment and accomplishment, and so on. These With respect to organizational commit-
features are internal to a particular job and ment, studies using the OCQ and the BOCS
are viewed and felt individually and differ- highlight that Australian private sector
ently by each employee (Arvey et al., 1989). employees were more committed than their
An examination of the relationships public sector counterparts (Rachid, 1995).
between organizational commitment and its Cho and Lee (2001) argue that organiza-
forms, and job satisfaction and its facets, tional culture and societal values determined
demonstrates consistent and significant cor- the differences in commitment between
relations, in particular with respect to the public and private sector managers in South
affective component of commitment. The Korea. Goulet and Frank (2002), reporting
meta-analysis by Meyer et al. (2002) reports on findings from the OCQ in the USA, iden-
strong correlations between affective com- tified lowest levels of organizational com-
mitment and overall job satisfaction (ρ = mitment in the public sector, with higher
0.65), extrinsic satisfaction (ρ = 0.71) and levels in the non-profit sector and still higher
intrinsic satisfaction (ρ = 0.68). These rela- levels of commitment in the for-profit sector.
tionships have been shown to be influenced The only study examining the differences
by cultural context. between private and public sector employees
in Greece was conducted by Bourantas and
Differences between Public Papalexandris (1999). They showed that,
apart from the structural and environmental
and Private Sector in Greece
differences exemplified between the private
One final dimension of this study relates to and the public sector, there were also differ-
the impact of the employment sector on ences in the personality characteristics of the
commitment and job satisfaction. There are people attracted to each sector. In general,
significant differences in the nature of em- Bourantas and Papalexandris argued that
ployment in the public and private sectors in private sector employees tended to display
Greece, which are likely to have different higher levels of activity, a greater sense of
implications for the nature of commitment competence, more tolerance of ambiguity, a
and the commitment profiles generated. stronger work ethic and higher growth need,
Therefore it is appropriate to explore these all of which were believed to contribute to
sectoral differences and speculate on the higher job performance. They conclude that



the public organization’s context tended to enhance satisfaction and motivation at work.
attract people with certain characteristics, From the information presented so far a
and that these characteristics did not pro- number of hypotheses can be generated
mote positive work-related attitudes and regarding the nature of organizational com-
behaviours. In summary, private and public mitment in Greece. Three hypotheses can be
sector employees project different attitudes identified with respect to the likely impact of
and behaviours towards their organizations commitment profiles on reported job satis-
and jobs; however, specific influences on faction among Greek employees. Looking
organizational commitment, job satisfaction first at the BOCS measure, high levels of
and their relationships remain unexplored. organizational identification, job involve-
Substantial differences in employment ment and loyalty are likely to result in
relationships, status, wages, fringe benefits, satisfaction with both the intrinsic and the
and HRM exemplify differences between extrinsic aspects of a job:
private and public sector employment in Hypothesis 1a: Employees will be most satisfied,
Greece. Table 1 summarizes the most impor- both extrinsically and intrinsically, if they are
tant and significant of these differences totally organizationally committed (i.e. have high
(derived from Papapetrou, 2006; Sotirakou scores on all three components: organizational
and Zeppou, 2005). Unusually, the starting identification, job involvement and loyalty)
compared to all other profiles.
wage for Greek public sector employees is
higher than for the private sector, and given Even if employees are not involved or
its stability of employment and guarantee of loyal to their organization, the dominance of
pay increases, it is a highly attractive career the affective aspect of commitment (organi-
choice for young Greeks. Private sector zational identification) in predicting work-
employment offers greater potential rewards, related outcomes suggests that where identi-
but at greater risk. fication is present, higher satisfaction will be
This research represents the first attempt found:
at exploring commitment profiles among Hypothesis 1b: Employees reporting high levels
Greek employees. It also provides an analysis of identification will exhibit higher mean val-
of the nature of organizational commitment ues for extrinsic and intrinsic satisfaction than
in Greece and its relationships to job satisfac- those reporting low identification, irrespective
tion, and an exploration of the impact of the of loyalty and job involvement.
employment sector on commitment and job While the nature of organizational com-
satisfaction. mitment and job satisfaction between public
Two studies are reported, one based in and private sector employees in Greece may
the private sector and one in the public sec- vary in degree, it is unlikely that it will vary
tor. Greek translations of Cook and Wall’s in type. Therefore these hypotheses hold
(1980) BOCS and Meyer et al.’s (1993) orga- equally for both private and public sector
nizational commitment questionnaire are employees. However, the role of loyalty may
used. Initially, the two samples are analysed differ by sector. In particular, public sector
separately to explore the roles of commit- employees are expected to both value and
ment profiles derived from Cook and Wall’s express greater loyalty to their organization,
model in influencing job satisfaction in the given the stability of employment and the
private and the public sectors. This analysis is high cost of leaving:
then repeated for the public sector sample
Hypothesis 1c: Public sector employees will
alone, using Meyer et al.’s scales. Conclu- report higher levels of extrinsic and intrinsic
sions are drawn regarding the development satisfaction when loyalty is high than when
of organizational commitment profiles to loyalty is low.



Table 1 Contrasting approaches to employment in the Greek private and public sectors

Private sector Public sector

Loyalty To the private sector employer To the government and the State. The
new entrant gives an oath to the Greek
Constitution
Employment Individual-, company- or Government, regional government,
contract sector-based local government-based
Employment status Contracted employment (mainly Life-time and secured employment
fixed term; rarely without time
restriction)
Type of employment Full-time, part-time and flexi-time Full-time
Hours of work Mainly 40 hours per week, but 37.5 hours per week
varies from sector to sector
Policies and Determined by each private sector Determined by law and applied to all
procedures organization employees
Wages determination Individual, enterprise or branch National collective agreement –
collective agreements – minimum minimum wages are guaranteed
wages are not guaranteed across everywhere in the public sector
sector
Fringe benefits Not provided to everyone Provided to everyone by law and
collective agreements
Wage progression Determined by each private Determined by seniority and
sector organization (according to educational background
merits, achievements, company needs)
Entrance wage Around 600 euros per month for a Around 900 euros for all employees
full-time employee
Wage differentials Substantial Marginal and provided as a fringe
by rank benefit
Hierarchical Unclear, depends from each After 12 years of public service an
progression particular organization employee may become departmental
manager
Unionization Dependent on the industry. Essential for everyone
Generally low
Training and Dependent on the company. Scheduled and organized by the
development Generally rare and unscheduled National Centre for Public
Administration and Local Government
Performance Unclear and unsystematic, Typically annually
evaluation and dependent on organization
assessment



Turning to the Meyer et al. (1993) meas- of business students from the Technological
ure of commitment, comparable hypotheses Educational Institute of Thessaloniki. Partici-
can be generated. The direct association pants’ organizations ranged from family
identified earlier between organizational owned small businesses to medium-sized
identification and affective commitment industrial or commercial enterprises, produc-
would suggest a similar pattern should occur ing a response rate of 69%. A little less than
with respect to affective commitment as for half the sample (45.3%) were male, with a
identification: mean age of 33 years and mean organiza-
Hypothesis 2a: Employees will be most satisfied, tional tenure of 6 years. Educational achieve-
both extrinsically and intrinsically, if they are ment was varied, with 38.2% having com-
totally organizationally committed (i.e. have high pleted secondary education, 29.3% having
scores on all three components: affective, con- attended a technological educational insti-
tinuous and normative commitment), com- tute, and 23.8% being university graduates.
pared to all other profiles.
The second set of data were collected
Hypothesis 2b: Employees reporting high levels from a random sample of 476 public sector
of affective commitment will exhibit higher employees from Northern Greece, working
mean values for extrinsic and intrinsic satisfac-
tion than those reporting low affective com- in government authorities, customs and pub-
mitment, irrespective of levels of normative lic health care. The response rate from the
and continuance commitment different areas of public sector employment
ranged from 61% to 85%. Approximately
In the literature drawing on Meyer et al.’s
40% of this sample were non-supervisory
model, affective and normative commitment
employees, while the remainder were mainly
are highly correlated, and normative com-
middle-level supervisors. All were employed
mitment displays similar but distinguishable
in secure, primarily white-collar civil service
patterns of association with antecedent and
employment. Again slightly less than half the
consequential variables. Given the impor-
sample (47.3%) were male, with the mean
tance of job security in Greece and the way
age being 41 years and the average tenure 11
in which normative commitment recognizes
years. Education level was generally higher
the binding of the employee to the organiza-
than in the private sector sample, with 11.6%
tion through a sense of obligation and its
achieving only secondary education, 21.4%
tendency to be more strongly represented
technological educational institute and 67%
within more collectivist cultures, we put for-
university graduates.
ward:
Hypothesis 2c: Public sector employees who Measures
report high levels of normative commitment All scales used were translated into Greek, in
will report higher mean values for extrinsic
and intrinsic satisfaction, irrespective of the some cases with minor modifications provid-
value of continuance commitment. ing explanations of the concepts under study.
The job satisfaction measure was based on
the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire
Method (MSQ) (Weiss et al., 1967) coupled with the
questionnaire developed by Warr et al.
Data Collection and Samples (1979). In total 21 items were included, each
Data were collected from two different sets of scored on a 7-point scale (endpoints 1 = I am
participants. The first was a random sample very dissatisfied, 7 = I am very satisfied). The
of 1119 non-supervisory employees from 35 scale is divided into two facets: extrinsic satis-
private sector organizations in the Northern faction (e.g. wage level, security and safety
Central Greece, surveyed with the assistance offered by the job), and intrinsic satisfaction



(e.g. opportunity to use one’s own abilities,

<.01
.71
<.01

<.01
<.01
feelings of accomplishment). For the public

p
sector sample, two additional items relating
t-tests
Table 2 Descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients), Pearson correlations and t-tests for common

to satisfaction with industrial relations and

5.65
0.37
2.86

4.83
7.91
with the trade union were included in the
t extrinsic satisfaction scale.
The measure of organizational commit-

.38**
4

ment taken across both samples was the
BOCS (Cook and Wall, 1980), with addi-

.18** .26** .28**
.51** .48** .64**
tional items taken from Lawler and Hall
3

(1970), Mowday et al. (1979), and Buchanan
.61** .58**
(1974). This scale produced three sub-scales
Public sector N = 476
2

each comprising four items: organizational
identification (e.g. ‘I am proud to say who it
.68**
1

is I work for’), job involvement (e.g. ‘As soon
as the job is finished I leave work’, reversed)
.88

.64
.56
.64
.83
α

and loyalty (e.g. ‘Even if there are financial
difficulties in the organization, I would be
1.08

1.14
1.06
1.25
1.00

reluctant to leave’). All items were scored on
SD

a 7-point scale (endpoints 1 = complete dis-
Mean

agreement and 7 = complete agreement).
4.64
4.62
4.76

4.18
4.45

Negatively worded statements were reverse
coded for the purposes of analysis. One
.65** .57**
4

item from the job involvement scale was sub-
sequently deleted to improve the reliability
.30**

of the overall scale. Karassavidou and
3

Markovits (1994) report on previous use and
.67**
.18**
.51**
Private sector N = 1119

testing of these scales in Greece.
2

For the public sector sample, Meyer et
al.’s (1993) organizational commitment scale
.77**

.62**
.19**
.52**

was also included in the measurement instru-
1

ment. This scale comprises 18 items, six for
each of the three commitment components
.83
.89

.61
.55
.54
α

(affective, normative and continuance com-
mitment). Items again were scored on a
0.98
1.10

1.11
1.06
1.16
SD

7-point scale (endpoints 1 = complete dis-
agreement and 7 = complete agreement).
Mean

4.60
4.59

4.29
3.90
3.92

Results
Note: ** p < .01 (two-tailed).
1. Extrinsic satisfaction

Table 2 provides descriptive statistics, Cron-
2. Intrinsic satisfaction

bach’s alpha coefficients and inter-correla-
variables by sector

4. Job involvement
3. Organizational

tions for the job satisfaction and BOCS scales
identification

across the two samples. All commitment
5. Loyalty

measures were significantly higher in the
Variables

public than the private sector (p < .01 in all
cases), and levels of identification were higher



Table 3 Distribution of commitment profiles (Cook and Wall, 1980)

Organizational identification
Low High
Job involvement Low High Low High

Low P1 P2 P5 P6
N (pri) = 276 N (pri) = 154 N (pri) = 115 N (pri) = 67
N (pub) = 141 N (pub) = 35 N (pub) = 33 N (pub) = 23
“Totally
Uncommitted”
Loyalty
High P3 P4 P7 P8
N (pri) = 67 N (pri) = 89 N (pri) = 113 N (pri) = 237
N (pub) = 36 N (pub) = 31 N (pub) = 75 N (pub) = 102
“Totally
Organizationally
Committed”

than those of job involvement and loyalty. Two three-way analyses of variance were
Loyalty was more prevalent in the public performed on each data set, with extrinsic
sector sample than involvement, whereas in and intrinsic satisfaction as the dependent
the private sector sample both were equally variables, and level of each commitment
depressed. Levels of extrinsic satisfaction did component (high or low) as the three inde-
not vary significantly between the public pendent variables. These produced the
and private sectors, whereas public sector results shown in Tables 4a and 4b. Figures 1a
respondents were significantly more intrinsi- and 1b illustrate the group means.
cally satisfied with their jobs. While main effects for identification and
Taking the BOCS data, eight theoretic- loyalty and a few two-way interactions were
ally meaningful profiles were generated using evident, these effects were qualified by the
median splits on each of the three commit- predicted significant three-way interaction.
ment components (see Table 3). This proce- Looking first at the private sector profiles, the
dure was carried out independently for the significance of both three-way interaction
public and private sector samples and sepa- terms indicates that variation in both extrin-
rate analyses are reported. sic and intrinsic satisfaction can be inter-
Profile P8 represents what is identified in preted on the basis of the commitment
Hypothesis 1a as ‘total organizational com- profiles. The organizational commitment
mitment’. Respondents with this profile are profile with the highest levels of both extrin-
expected to demonstrate the highest levels of sic and intrinsic satisfaction was the totally
satisfaction. All profiles to the right of the organizationally committed profile (P8), sup-
table (P5–P8) include high organizational porting Hypothesis 1a. The next highest
identification. According to Hypothesis 1b, profiles were those incorporating high orga-
these profiles should produce higher levels of nizational identification and one or other
satisfaction than cells P1–P4 where organiza- component (P5–P7), supporting Hypothesis
tional identification is low. 1b. Employees with the non-committed



Table 4a Analysis of variance for private sector (BOCS)

Variables df F p Variables df F p

Extrinsic Intrinsic
satisfaction 1 27689.04 .00 satisfaction 1 24047.06 .00
OI 1 206.76 .00 OI 1 298.59 .00
JI 1 .07 .80 JI 1 .23 .63
LO 1 43.85 .00 LO 1 35.94 .00
OI × JI 1 .00 1.00 OI × JI 1 2.70 .10
OI × LO 1 4.79 .03 OI × LO 1 .00 .99
JI × LO 1 .50 .48 JI × LOC 1 .00 .96
OI × JI × LO 7, 1118 9.30 .00 OI × JI × LO 7, 1119 20.78 .00

Note: OI = Organizational identification, JI = Job involvement, LO = Loyalty.

Table 4b Analysis of variance for public sector (BOCS)


Extrinsic Intrinsic
OI 1 68.55 .00 OI 1 77.19 .00
JI 1 2.89 .09 JI 1 2.75 .10
LO 1 28.08 .00 LO 1 11.59 .00
OI × JI 1 1.12 .29 OI × JI 1 .25 .62
OI × LO 1 .10 .92 OI × LO 1 .17 .68
JI × LO 1 2.98 .09 JI × LOC 1 1.08 .30
OI × JI × LO 7, 476 4.92 .03 OI × JI × LO 7, 476 .48 .49

Note: OI = Organizational identification, JI = Job involvement, LO = Loyalty.

profile (P1) were the least satisfied. In other intrinsic satisfaction, compared with those
words, a commitment profile containing job profiles that included the element of identifi-
involvement related to low satisfaction levels, cation. These low satisfaction profiles tended
whereas a profile also containing organiza- to be relatively higher on extrinsic satisfac-
tional identification related to high satisfaction than intrinsic satisfaction.
tion levels. Furthermore, high extrinsic In the public sector sample, only the
satisfaction levels were exhibited with the three-way interaction term for extrinsic
commitment profile P7, incorporating high satisfaction achieved significance. Again, the
levels of both identification and loyalty, but organizational commitment profile repre-
in contrast high intrinsic satisfaction levels senting total organizational commitment (P8)
were found in the commitment profile P5 was associated with the highest levels of both
with high levels only of identification. Finally, extrinsic and intrinsic satisfaction. As with the
all profiles that did not contain organiza- private sector sample, organizational identifi-
tional identification – that is, P1 to P4 – had cation makes the largest difference to the
lower mean values for both extrinsic and commitment profiles. Its existence in P7 and



6

5.5

Extrinsic satisfaction
5

Intrinsic satisfaction
4.5

4

3.5
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8

Commitment profile

Figure 1a Mean satisfaction values for commitment profiles in the private sector (Cook and
Wall, 1980)

6

5.5

Extrinsic satisfaction
5

Intrinsic satisfaction
4.5

4

3.5
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8

Commitment profile
Figure 1b Mean satisfaction values for commitment profiles in the public sector (Cook and
Wall, 1980)



P5 created very high levels of extrinsic satis- tional commitment, thus replicating Gellatly
faction. However, in this sample, profile P3, et al.’s (2004) study. The same measures of
representing only high levels of loyalty, was job satisfaction were used. The descriptive
also associated with high levels of satisfaction, statistics, reliability coefficients and inter-
particularly extrinsic satisfaction. Finally, the correlations are shown in Table 5.
non-committed profile (P1), as well as profiles The same procedure was used to test
containing job involvement but not organiza- these hypotheses as described above. The dif-
tional identification (P2 and P4), showed low ference here is that the eight theoretically
levels of extrinsic satisfaction. These results meaningful profiles were derived from the
only partially support the hypotheses since Allen and Meyer (1990) model (see Table 6).
the relationships were only valid for extrinsic The results of the three-way analyses of
satisfaction. It appears however that, in con- variance are shown in Table 7, with Figure 2
trast to the private sector results, loyalty is illustrating the mean values for extrinsic
much more important in determining satis- satisfaction and intrinsic satisfaction by com-
faction than organizational identification, so mitment profile.
broadly supporting Hypothesis 1c. This may Using this formulation of organizational
be associated with the higher levels of loyalty commitment, both three-way interactions
associated with public sector employment as were statistically significant. As in the previ-
compared with the private sector in Greece. ous analyses, totally organizationally com-
The requirement to swear an oath to the mitted employees (C8) were both the most
employer, coupled with the extensive benefits extrinsically and intrinsically satisfied, sup-
and job and career security offered by the porting Hypothesis 2a. Those profiles con-
public sector may enhance the role of loyalty taining high affective commitment (C5–C7)
for this group. Finally, job involvement had a had high mean satisfaction values, support-
rather negative effect on satisfaction; profiles ing Hypothesis 2b. Finally, all commitment
containing this variable tended to produce profiles containing normative commitment
lower levels of satisfaction. exhibited higher mean values for both facets
Overall, these findings support the useful- of job satisfaction than the profiles containing
ness of the ‘profiles’ approach to interpreting continuance commitment, providing support
organizational commitment. Eight viable for Hypothesis 2c.
profiles were identified within the sample.
The totally organizationally committed pro-
Discussion
file (P8) was associated with the highest levels
of satisfaction, while profiles containing orga- In the present article, we examined the rela-
nizational identification all generated higher tionships between organizational commit-
levels of satisfaction than those without iden- ment and job satisfaction in Greece, using
tification. The existence of job involvement an approach based on exploring profiles of
within a commitment profile does not appear commitment as suggested by Meyer and
to make people satisfied with their jobs. Herscovitch (2001). We first identified pat-
Profiles without identification tended to be terns of organizational commitment and job
higher on extrinsic satisfaction than intrinsic satisfaction in the Greek private and public
satisfaction in the private sector, but higher sectors, and went on to explore the relation-
on intrinsic than extrinsic satisfaction in the ships between commitment profiles and job
public sector. satisfaction, using two different approaches
The final set of analyses presented here to the measurement of organizational com-
relate to Hypotheses 2a to 2c, using the mitment.
Meyer et al. (1993) measures of organiza- Greece is an under-researched cultural



Table 5 Descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients) and
correlations among the Meyer et al. (1993) commitment variables (public sector)

Variables Mean St.dev. a 1 2 3 4

1. Extrinsic satisfaction 4.62 1.00 .83
2. Intrinsic satisfaction 4.76 1.08 .88 .68**
3. Affective commitment 4.76 1.19 .82 .42** .53**
4. Continuance commitment 4.82 1.03 .66 .04 .01 .05
5. Normative commitment 4.27 1.18 .75 .36** .34** .66** .23**

Note: ** p < .01(two-tailed).

Table 6 Distribution of commitment profiles (Meyer et al., 1993)

Affective commitment
Low High
Continuance
commitment Low High Low High

Low C1 C2 C5 C6
(N = 96) (N = 77) (N = 42) (N = 26)
“Totally
Uncommitted”
Normative
commitment
High C3 C4 C7 C8
(N = 19) (N = 39) (N = 81) (N = 96)
“Totally
Organizationally
Committed”

Table 7 Analysis of variance for public sector (Meyer et al., 1993)


Extrinsic Intrinsic
AC 1 28.96 .00 AC 1 55.79 .00
CC 1 .06 .80 CC 1 4.82 .03
NC 1 5.84 .02 NC 1 12.56 .00
AC × CC 1 .01 .91 AC × CC 1 .50 .48
AC × NC 1 .00 .99 AC × NC 1 .77 .38
CC × NC 1 .53 .47 CC × NC 1 .00 .97
AC × CC × NC 7, 476 5.19 .02 AC × CC × NC 7, 476 13.10 .00

Note: AC = Affective commitment, CC = Continuance commitment, NC = Normative commitment.


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