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Abreu Et Al 2013 IJHRM PDF
Abreu Et Al 2013 IJHRM PDF
Abreu Et Al 2013 IJHRM PDF
To cite this article: Mnica Cavalcanti S Abreu, Maria Cristiane Cunha & Silvia Maria Pedro
Rebouas (2013): Effects of personal characteristics on organizational commitment: evidence
from Brazil's oil and gas industry, The International Journal of Human Resource Management,
DOI:10.1080/09585192.2013.781527
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.781527
In 1997, Brazils major energy company faced a loss of its monopoly as part of the
countrys structural reform. Many of its employees were recruited by new entrants to the
oil and gas industry. In order to retain employees, the company initiated a multiyear
planning process which included a redesigned human resource management model
oriented to organizational commitment. This study examines the long-term influence of
five employee personal characteristics (type of employment, job level, gender, education
level and service time) on the affective, normative and continuance components of
organizational commitment. The research was conducted in one of the company refinery
and involved a questionnaire survey of all employees and interviews with senior
managers. It was found that type of employment (company staff or contractor) had the
greatest impact on affective and normative commitment, while service time and
education level are the most significant contributors to continuance commitment.
Gender and job level were found to have limited implication for commitment. The results
demonstrate that the company response to structural reform had the long-term positive
effect of binding employees to the organization.
Keywords: emerging country; human resource management; oil and gas industry;
organizational commitment; structural reforms
Introduction
Since the 1990s, a new development strategy, named competitive integration, started to
emerge in Brazil. A macroeconomic plan called the Plano Real was introduced in 1994
as the main vehicle for the new strategy. It involved trade liberalization, industrial
restructuring and deregulations (Ferraz, Kupfer and Serrano 1999). Trade liberalization
was aimed at increasing both imports and exports which exposed the local industry to
international competition. The industrial structure, in turn, was modified by privatization
of state-owned companies and increased foreign direct investment. Deregulation meant
decreasing direct government intervention in the economy and creating independent
regulatory agencies.
An important feature of the changes associated with the structural reform is the way in
which the major Brazilian government energy company (Petrobras) responded to the new
external environment and became increasingly reliant on a committed workforce. In 1997,
Petrobras lost its monopoly on oil and gas activities. The sector moved from a rigid system
of government control to a neoliberal approach where private corporations were allowed
to participate in exploration, production, refining and distribution through concessions or
authorizations.
The new National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuel Agency assumed responsibility
for authorization and regulation of all petroleum companies, including Petrobras. In order
to participate in the oil and gas industry, companies are required to have corporate
headquarters and administration in Brazil. As a result of these changes, foreign direct
investment in Brazil has increased substantially (OKeefe and OKeefe 2004).
This structural reform has modified human resource requirements in Brazil in line with
a global mind-set to increase competitiveness (Kuchinke and Cornachione 2010). In the oil
and gas industry, there has been a dramatic shift in employment patterns from stable,
orderly career progression in a single company to shifting and diverse job opportunities in
multiple settings and a variety of roles.
There were huge oil and gas reserves to be explored in Brazil but not enough human
resources to meet the needs of new companies. These changes created a new competitive
environment where many firms needed human resources and looked to Petrobras as the
logical source. The government directly intervened in this situation by creating early
retirement incentives, prevented Petrobras from hiring new permanent employees and
other measures aimed at reducing workforce levels.
Petrobras workforce declined from 50,295 employees in 1994 to 32,809 in 2001. The
company was forced to meet new workload requirement by hiring contractors who
eventually made up 30% of the overall workforce. This led to distortion of Petrobras
human resource management process. The company responded to this new organizational
setting by initiating a strategic planning processes aiming at making human and
technological resources more efficient and innovative.
A new management and organizational model emphasized proactive decision-making,
a harmonious organizational environment, and the implementation of quality management
and performance indicator systems. The human resource policies were completely shifted
to support a continuing role of Petrobras as a major Brazilian company. Petrobras decided
to re-prioritize projects in support of cultural evolution aimed at market competitiveness,
organizational commitment and retention of capable employees.
At the time of this research (in 2009), Petrobras had regained its workforce to 55,802
employees, which was similar to 1990 (55,569). However, during the same period, oil
production had increased from 653,628 barrels per day to 1,970,811. In relation to this
performance, it is interesting to note that annual investment in staff training in 2009 totaled
US$ 56,788,671.66. The efforts were recognized by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index
where Petrobras obtained a score of 100 points (the maximum) in the human capital
development area.
The change brought about by structural reform together with the responses of
Petrobras through its strategy planning process provide an interesting backdrop on which
to examine the influence of employee personal characteristics on the components of
organizational commitment. Authors such as Armenakis and Bedeian (1999) and Meyer,
Srinivas, Lal and Topolnytsky (2007), for example, have pointed out that commitment is
one of the most important factor involved in employees support for change initiatives.
Mowday (1998) recognized that organizational commitment may have multiple forms
and suggests alternative management strategies leading to desired behaviors in the
workplace. Herscovitch and Meyer (2002) identified behavioral differences for employees
with different commitment profiles. In turn, demographic characteristics of employees are
important factors often used as control variables to rule out alternative explanations of the
organizational commitment (Rhoades and Eisenberger 2002).
The current study extends past research in three ways. First, we explore the effect of
the type of employment, job level, gender, education level and service time on the
affective, normative and continuance components using the Classification and Regression
Trees (CART) method proposed by Breiman, Freidman, Olshen and Stone (1984). Second,
we examine commitment among Brazilian professionals whereas most previous work has
involved employees in Anglo countries (e.g. Gellatly, Meyer and Luchak 2006; Meyer
et al. 2007; McInnis, Meyer and Feldman 2009; Casper, Harris, Taylor-Bianco and Wayne
2011). Finally, we deemed that Petrobras, as one of the largest oil and gas company in the
world, could provide relevant insights on organizational commitment to change.
The following section of this paper reviews the antecedents associated with affective,
continuance and normative commitment. Then, the methodology used to understand the
human resource policy at Petrobras and to measure the influence of employees personal
characteristics on the three types of commitment is explained. We continue with a
description of the results of the empirical study. Finally, we use the Petrobras case to
develop insights on how personal employee characteristic need to be considered in
developing HR policies in order to retain talented employees facing industry restructuring.
Antecedents associated with affective, continuance and normative commitment
A great deal of attention has been given to the study of antecedents and outcomes of
commitment to the organization. This interest derives from evidence that a motivated and
committed workforce provides benefits to the organization (Meyer, Vandenberghe and
Becker 2004). Meyer and Allen (1991) pointed out that the essential core of organizational
commitment is the feeling of being tied to the company goals and targets.
Allen and Meyer (1996) proposed a three-component model of commitment because a
unidimensional model did not capture the diverse nature of organizational commitment
between individual employees. The three components of the model reflect emotional
desire to work in the company (affective commitment), perceived cost of changing jobs
(continuance commitment) and moral obligation to stay (normative commitment).
Meyer and Allen (1991) argued that one of the most important reasons for
distinguishing among the different forms of organizational commitment was that they
have different implications for behavior. In the case of the affective component of
commitment, the employee is bound to the company by a desire or a belief related to the
significance of his/her activity in relation to the companys goals.
Allen and Meyer (1990) considered affective commitment as an emotional attachment
to the organization such that the strongly committed individual identities with, is involved
in and enjoys membership in, the organization. Affective commitment deals with having a
sense of belongingness, feeling emotionally attached and feeling a part of the company
(Bloemer and Odekerken-Schroder 2003). Carpiano and Hystad (2011) established that
the sense of belonging means sharing a sense of personal relatedness.
Cohen (2007) explained that before an employee joins the organization, he/she has a
propensity toward both instrumental and normative commitment. Instrumental
commitment propensity is derived from a general expectation about the quality of
exchange with the organization in terms of expected benefit and rewards in return for job
performance. The normative commitment propensity is a general moral obligation toward
the organization. After entry into the organization, the instrumental commitment is
confirmed and the employee develops affective commitment demonstrated by
identification with it, emotional involvement and a sense of belonging.
Antecedent variables associated with affective commitment can be categorized as:
organizational characteristics, personal characteristics and work experience. Meyer and
Allen (1997) found that a significant positive correlation exists between perceptions of the
fairness of policy and affective commitment. The manner in which an organizational
policy is communicated has also been linked to affective commitment (Konovsky and
Cropanzano 1991). Mathieu and Zajac (1990) pointed out that the link between
decentralization and affective commitment is neither strong nor consistent.
Marsden, Kalleberg and Cook (1993) pointed out that gender can have an impact on
affective commitment depending on work characteristics and previous experience.
McColl-Kennedy and Anderson (2005) stated that female focus is on participating in
connection, mutuality, interdependence and collectively, rather than the traditionally
masculine focus on self-gratification, autonomy, competition and independence.
Mathieu and Zajac (1990) suggested that there is a significant but weak relationship
between age and affective commitment. Meyer and Allen (1997) added that older employees
are more likely to have a positive work experience than younger employees. Unlike age,
educational level appears not to be significantly related to affective commitment.
Meyer and Maltin (2010) provided some evidence that affective commitment to ones
career or occupation can have positive implications for employee health and well-being. A
strong relationship between performance and health benefits can be achieved by fostering
employee commitment to company goals. Meyer, Hecht, Gill and Toplonytsky (2010)
pointed out that affective commitment was greater when the perceived culture of the
organization was similar to the preferred culture of the individual.
McInnis et al. (2009) pointed out that long-term affective employee commitment
requires that the company is willing to abide by a clear set of terms and to treat employees
as equal. Luchak, Pohler and Gellatly (2008) found that employees who experience
stronger rather than weaker levels of affective commitment are more likely to favor later
retirement. Powell and Meyer (2004) argued that satisfying the conditions of the job is
positively related to affective commitment. Allen and Meyer (1996) pointed out that
affective commitment is positively correlated with work experiences and characteristics of
the organization.
Lievens and Corte (2008) found that perceived share values were significantly related
to affective commitment. This is particularly true, when the employee feels psychological
comfortable (e.g. approachable managers, equitable treatment of employees) and his or
her sense of competence is enhanced through challenging tasks and feedbacks. The abovediscussed literature review suggests the following proposition:
PROPOSITION 1:
Cohen and Lowenberg (1990) pointed out that as employees get older and have greater
organizational tenure, they perceive greater costs associated with leaving an organization.
Depending on the economic environment, however, the perceived cost of leaving might
actually decrease, as employee experience and skills increase and the employees value to
other organizations is greater. For this reason, age and tenure are not considered direct
predictors of continuance commitment.
Powell and Meyer (2004) stated that continuance commitment has been shown to
increase over time as people accumulate personal investments or side bets (e.g. seniority
rights, attractive benefits, organization-specific training) that would be at risk if the
relationship was terminated. Years spent in an organization are likely to yield greater side
bets, such as pension plan, and develop a continuance commitment.
Using structural equation models, the authors found a strong zero-order correlation
with bureaucratic arrangement. Side bets reflecting social cost (expectations of others and
self-presentation concerns) had a stronger correlation with normative commitment. In
summary, this discussion leads to the following proposition:
PROPOSITION 2:
Allen and Meyer (1990) pointed out that there is some overlap between affective and
normative commitment, both are relatively independent of continuance commitment.
Meyer et al. (2002) conducted meta-analyses to assess the relationships between the
affective, continuance and normative components of commitment, and to identify causes
(antecedent variables) and effects (consequences) of the three components. They found
that the components are related yet distinguishable from one to another and have different
consequences (i.e. job satisfaction, job involvement and occupational commitment).
The authors pointed out that all three forms of commitment related negatively to
withdrawal cognition and turnover. Affective commitment had the strongest positive
correlation with organizational-relevant activity (attendance, performance and organizational
citizenship behavior) and employee-relevant (stress and workfamily conflict) outcomes.
Normative commitment was also associated with desirable outcomes, albeit not as strongly.
Continuance commitment was unrelated or related negatively to these outcomes.
Gellatly et al. (2006) explored the propositions established by Meyer and Herscovitch
(2001) concerning the interactive effect of the three component of commitment on staying
intentions and citizenship behavior. Study measures were gathered from a sample of 545
hospital employees. An employees commitment profile provides a context that can
influence how a particular component of commitment is experienced.
Methodology
The first part of this research consisted of interviews with the refinerys CEO, the planning
and controller manager and the human resource manager about human resource
management policy and processes at Petrobras. Initially, they were asked how the
company overcame difficulties associated with the lack of trained petroleum engineers in
the Brazilian marketplace and how human resource management policy was adjusted to
reflect the breakup of the state-owned company monopoly.
They were then asked to explain the extent to which their human resource policy
and plans are oriented to enhancing employee commitment and the extent to which
employees engage in achievement of goals established in the strategy plan. Petrobras
documents and reports were also analyzed as an additional source of information on these
matters.
Following the interviews, a general employee survey was undertaken to identify the
relative importance of each of the three components of commitment (affective, continuance
or normative) using the scale developed by Meyer, Allen and Smith (1993), and the influence
of personal employee characteristics on these components of commitment. The survey
involved a questionnaire divided into two parts.
The first part included employee characteristics variables and the second part included
the commitment scale (Meyer et al. 1993). The personal characteristics and work
experience analyzed included questions related to type of employment (Petrobras staff or
contracted personnel), service time (more or less than 10 years of service), gender,
education (university degree or not) and job level (managerial or operational).
The second part of the questionnaire consisted of 18 questions divided equally among
affective, continuance and normative dimensions. The questionnaire used a five-point
Likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Each type of response
was assigned a value from 1 to 5 with a value of 5 meaning a strong commitment to the
item being measured.
The survey was distributed to all employees, involving 389 people working in three
shifts, of which 242 were Petrobras employees and 147 were contractors. A total of 233
questionnaire forms were returned. The return rates were equal for company employees
and contracted staff as seen in Table 1. The sample size of 233 respondents gives a 4%
margin of error with 95% confidence.
An exploratory factor analysis using the principal component method was used to
validate the three-component model proposed by Meyer and Allen (1991), combining data
from the questions within each component of commitment. According to Field (2005),
factor analysis achieves parsimony by explaining the maximum amount of common
Organizational unit
CEO and secretary
Environment, health and safety
Marketing
Infrastructure
Human resources
Planning and accounting
Quality control
Production
Logistic
Maintenance
Engineering
Equipment inspection
Information technology
Total
Respondents
Percentage responding (%)
Petrobras employee
Contracted
Total
2
16
16
17
6
8
18
61
26
31
19
8
14
242
141
58.3
0
10
14
9
1
0
9
0
3
73
25
3
0
147
92
62.6
2
26
25
26
7
8
27
61
29
104
44
11
14
389
233
59.9
results. A new career classification and evaluation systems was introduced based on
experience, skills and knowledge. The new system increased salary ranges and eliminated
pay inequalities between employees hired before the government ban on recruitment
(1990) and those recruited after the ban was removed (2002).
The current human resource value chain of Petrobras is presented in Figure 1. It is
structured into four macro-processes: human resources strategy; human resources
relations; human resources processes and human resources functions. The macroprocess human resources strategy provides the overall orientation of human resource
plans, goals and practices aligned with Petrobras strategic planning.
Workforce engagement in this strategic planning process is crucial to achieve business
results. Over the years, communication processes and workforce participation have been
substantially improved. A major event in the strategic planning process is a meeting with
employees (contractors do not participate in this meeting) of each business unit where the
general manager reviews the approved version of objectives and targets.
The second macro-process human resources relations includes managing the
organizational climate and engaging with the labor union, workers, in general, and external
stakeholders. These relationships are guided by ethics code, principles, values and
organizational culture. For example, in recent years, Petrobras has reinforced gender equality
and nondiscrimination through a series of agreements. These agreements are related to the
Brazilian Pro-Gender Equity Program of the Special Secretariat for Policies related to
Women, the Global Compact of the United Nations and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
Human resource processes involve three areas: provide workforce (select people and
move employees), employee development (manage performance, careers and technology
education) and employee remuneration (manage pay, heath care and others benefits).
Petrobras hires its own employees through national competitions. Successful candidates
Implement strategy
Manage union
relations
Manage labor
relations
Manage stakeholder
relations
Provide workforce
Select people
Define capabilities
Career sctruturing
Employee development
Employee remuneration
Manage performance
Manage pay
Manage careers
Manage benefits
Manage technology
education
Move employees
HR communication
10
expend considerable time and effort preparing for these competitions. For example, in
2009, 1,308 new employees were hired through a national competition process involving
249,044 candidates. This builds commitment to the company even before they are hired. In
addition, once they are hired there is a low risk of being fired.
New employees participate in extensive training programs and receive salaries lower
than competing firms. As soon as they finish the Petrobras operational course (lasting for
about 1 year) and get some experience, they are frequently offered jobs elsewhere.
Petrobras has reduced this to some extent by offering substantial increase in salary when
the training course is completed. However, Petrobras flexibility to match the offers of
other firms is limited by the fact that it remains under government control.
More senior employees receive competitive salaries and other benefits, such as profit
sharing bonuses which engender commitment to the company. Petrobras staff has an
extensive program of benefits that are not available to contractors. For example, the
company offers comprehensive medical and educational assistance (from daycare to
university) for employees and their dependents, supplementary retirement insurance and
profit-sharing bonuses.
Managing at Petrobras is challenging. Managers are forced to deal with a diversity of
people with different behaviors, religious believes, cultures and ideologies. They are
appointed to their positions after a long period of faithful service to Petrobras and are
selected on the basis of their skills in committee work.
The fourth macro-process (human resources function) refers to managing changes,
communicating, and collecting and analyzing employee data. Petrobras collects and
analyses substantial employee data. Since 2002, the company has undertaken an annual
organizational climate survey and from this survey, two indicators are calculated. One is
the employee satisfaction index and the other is employee commitment level. Both
indicators are used in developing Petrobras balanced scorecard strategy map.
Employee participation in this survey is voluntary. However, there is a strong
campaign to provide incentives for employees participation. The survey is structured in
three dimensions: organizational climate, organizational commitment and social
responsibility. The organizational climate dimension is based on the degree of
satisfaction with benefits (health, education and complementary retirement fund);
communication; leadership; recognitions (time service, retirement and performance) and
career development; workforce motivation; remuneration; environment, health and safety;
and training and development.
The organizational commitment dimension measures the degree of agreement that
Petrobras success is part of the employee success, that they feel part of the company, that
they identify opportunities to keep working at the company and that they contribute to the
Brazilian society development. All these factors are combined to measure the overall level of
commitment to the company. Finally, the corporate social responsibility dimension measures
employee commitment to social and environmental projects developed by Petrobras.
The final results are presented to all members of the workforce. Reports are prepared
on the two indicators (employee satisfaction index and employee commitment level)
focusing on the reasons for the results and then managers must elaborate plans of remedial
actions where required or to improve it.
Influence of personal characteristics on organizational commitment
The profile of survey respondents is shown in Table 2. Typical characteristics of the
respondents are male (78.1%), Petrobras employee (60.5%), university degree (54.5%),
11
non-managerial position (90.9%) and less than 10 years working at the company (56.2%).
This survey profile is representative of the refinerys entire workforce consisting of 62.2%
Petrobras staff, 87.5% male, 21.3% with university degrees, 93.1% operational jobs and
59.6% with less than 10 years at the company.
An exploratory factor analysis using the principal component method grouped
questionnaire items under three factors as defined by Meyer and Allen (1991). The factor
analysis showed a Kaiser Meyer Olkin adequacy measure value of 0.795 which is a
significant value according to Hair, Anderson, Tatham and Black (2005). The
Kolmogorov Smirnov test performed for the three components of commitment confirms
that the data followed a normal distribution (in three cases p . 0.05). The t-student
distribution test for independent populations was used to compare means of groups defined
by the independent variables.
Table 3 shows the statistical results of the survey related to the affective component of
commitment and the score coefficients obtained by confirmatory factorial analysis. The
affective commitment factor explains 40.76% of the variance of the questions and
Cronbachs a is 0.692 indicating a good internal consistency.
The values observed for statistic t-test and corresponding p-values for affective
commitment are presented in Table 4. It was found that significant mean differences in the
affective component of commitment were found only related to type of employment and
Table 2. Respondents personal characteristics profile.
Characteristics
Type of employment
Gender
Educational level
Service time
Job level
Variables
Quantity
Petrobras staff
Contractor
Male
Female
High school degree
University degree
No information
Less than 10 years of service
More than 10 years of service
No information
Managerial
Operational
141
92
182
51
102
127
4
131
93
9
21
212
60.5
39.5
78.1
21.9
43.7
54.5
1.7
56.2
39.9
3.9
9.01
90.9
Table 3. Descriptive statistics and component score coefficients for affective commitment.
Affective commitments questions
Mean
Standard
deviation
Component score
coefficient
3.53
1.253
0.227
3.58
1.206
0.180
3.62
3.75
3.63
1.138
1.038
1.096
0.285
0.320
0.313
3.89
1.127
0.208
12
Job level
Variables
Mean
Standard
deviation
Petrobras staff
3.823
0.698
Contractor
Male
Female
University degree
No University degree
10 or more years of service
Less than 10 years of service
Managerial
Operational
3.409
3.577
3.655
3.655
3.669
3.832
3.552
3.849
3.658
0.721
0.749
0.666
0.738
0.719
0.749
0.701
0.771
0.731
df
4.229
221
0.000
2 0.666
191
0.506
2 0.138
216
0.891
2.853
222
0.005
0.844
222
0.400
service time. In general, affective commitment is greater for Petrobras staff (3.823) than
for contractors (3.409). Employees with 10 or more years of service have greater affective
commitment (3.823) than employees with less than 10 years of service (3.552).
Factorial ANOVA showed evidences of interactions between all employee personal
characteristics. Significant interactions were found between: gender and type of
employment ( p 0.006), gender and educational level ( p 0.005), gender and service
time ( p 0.008) and type of employment and educational level ( p 0.018). Levenes
test shows a p-value of 0.485.
These results indicate the necessity of evaluating how these interactions are manifested
in homogeneous groups and a CART method was used for this purpose. These interactions
are showed in the regression tree (Figure 2). Re-substitution risk estimate (risk for training
samples) is 0.480 and cross-validation risk estimate (risk for validation samples) is 0.518
suggesting that the potential problem of over-fitting did not occur. The principal features
of terminal nodes were obtained and the regression tree was developed using affective
commitment as the dependent variable and all employee personal characteristics as
independent variables.
The highest mean level of affective commitment is observed at terminal node 7 (3.934)
which include Petrobras staff, males with no university degree. The lowest mean level of
affective commitment is registered at terminal node 10 (3.177) which include contracted
employees, males with a university degree.
Although service time does not appear in the tree, it is important in the model as a
surrogate. This is the case where the variable responsible for splitting the data is missing
and other independent variables that have high associations with the original variable
assumed its role.
The CART analysis provides information on which employee personal characteristics
have the most important influence on commitment. Type of employment, with a normalized
importance of 100%, is the personal characteristic that has the greatest influence on the
affective component of commitment at Petrobras. Type of employment is much more
important than service time (47.3%), educational level (26.4%) and gender (12.1%).
The type of analyses used to evaluate affective commitment above was also used for the
components of continuance and normative commitments. The values for continuance
commitment are shown in Table 5. The continuance commitment factor explains 44.5% of
the variance of the six questions and a good internal consistency was indicated by a
Cronbachs a of 0.746.
13
Affective commitment
Node 0
3.667
Mean
0.732
Std. Dev.
224
n
100.0
%
Predicted
3.667
Employee relationship
Improvement=0.040
Staff
Contracted
Node 1
Mean
3.823
Std. Dev.
0.698
n
140
%
62.5
3.823
Predicted
Node 2
Mean
3.406
Std. Dev.
0.717
n
84
%
37.5
3.406
Predicted
Gender
Improvement=0.003
Gender
Improvement=0.002
Male
Female
Male
Female
Node 3
Node 4
Node 5
Node 6
Mean
3.456
Std. Dev.
0.606
n
30
%
13.4
Predicted
3.456
Mean
Std. Dev.
n
%
Predicted
Mean
3.805
Std. Dev.
0.706
n
117
%
52.2
Predicted
3.805
Educational level
Improvement=0.006
3.915
0.665
23
10.3
3.915
Mean
3.379
Std. Dev.
0.778
n
54
%
24.1
Predicted
3.379
Educational level
Improvement=0.005
Node 7
Node 8
Node 9
Node 10
Mean
3.177
Std. Dev.
0.801
n
20
%
8.9
Predicted
3.177
Mean
Std. Dev.
n
%
Predicted
3.934
0.642
46
20.5
3.934
Mean
Std. Dev.
n
%
Predicted
3.722
0.737
71
31.7
3.722
Mean
Std. Dev.
n
%
Predicted
3.497
0.747
34
15.2
3.497
The values observed for statistic t-test and corresponding p-values for continuance
commitment are presented in Table 6. There were significant differences between the means
of personal characteristic measured within the educational level and service time factors.
The mean level for employee with no university degree (3.146) is greater than that for
employee with university degrees (2.934).
Table 5. Descriptive statistics and component score coefficients for continuance commitment.
Continuance commitments questions
Mean
Standard
deviation
Component score
coefficients
3.64
1.042
0.219
3.44
1.302
0.281
3.22
1.340
0.281
2.62
1.097
0.279
2.58
1.165
0.192
2.61
1.086
0.232
14
Mean
Standard
deviation
Petrobras staff
3.052
0.753
Contractor
Male
Female
University degree
No University degree
10 or more years of service
Less than 10 years of service
Managerial
Operational
2.995
3.028
2.959
2.934
3.146
3.173
2.932
2.969
3.035
0.886
0.784
0.837
0.873
0.686
0.729
0.838
0.577
0.812
Variables
df
0.520
230
0.603
0.542
197
0.588
2 2.053
225
0.041
2.279
231
0.024
2 0.264
231
0.792
Employees with 10 or more years of service have a greater mean level (3.173) than
employees with less than 10 years of service (2.932). Factorial ANOVA showed
significant interactions between educational level and service time ( p 0.015). Levenes
test shows a nonsignificant result ( p 0.101).
Continuance commitment
Node 0
Mean
3.032
Std. Dev.
0.802
n
233
%
100.0
Predicted
3.032
Service time
Improvement=0.014
Node 1
3.173
Mean
0.729
Std. Dev.
96
n
41.2
%
Predicted
3.173
Educational level
Improvement=0.003
Node 2
2.932
Mean
0.729
Std. Dev.
137
n
58.8
%
Predicted
2.932
Educational level
Improvement=0.010
Node 3
3.293
Mean
0.632
Std. Dev.
40
n
17.2
%
Predicted
3.293
Node 4
3.088
Mean
0.785
Std. Dev.
56
n
24.0
%
3.088
Predicted
Node 5
3.060
Mean
0.712
Std. Dev.
62
n
26.6
%
3.060
Predicted
Node 6
2.827
Mean
0.920
Std. Dev.
75
n
32.2
%
Predicted
2.827
Gender
Improvement=0.002
Male
Female
Node 7
2.887
Mean
0.898
Std. Dev.
53
n
22.7
%
2.887
Predicted
Node 8
2.682
Mean
0.977
Std. Dev.
22
n
9.4
%
2.682
Predicted
15
These interactions observed in the regression tree (shown in Figure 3) are based on
data using continuance commitment as the dependent variable and employee personal
characteristics as independent variables. The re-substitution risk estimate (risk for training
samples) is 0.611 and the cross-validation risk estimate (risk for validation samples) is
0.653. The proximity of these values suggests that over-fitting did not occur.
Regression tree demonstrate that node 3 represents employees with the highest level of
continuance commitment (3.293). They have 10 or more years of service at Petrobras and
do not have university degrees. The lowest level of continuance commitment (2.682) at
node 8 represents female employees with less than 10 years of service at Petrobras and a
university degree.
According to the CART analysis, it is possible to establish the relative importance of
the personal characteristics on continuance commitment. Service time at Petrobras has the
most significant influence (with a normalized importance of 100%), followed by educational
level (89.5%), type of employment (14.9%), gender (12.9%) and job level (1.4%). Note that
service time and educational level are by far the most influential characteristic.
The values for the normative commitment variable are shown in Table 7. The
normative commitment factor explains 47.4% of the variance of its questions. The six
questions present a good internal consistency showed by a Cronbachs a of 0.760. The
values for statistic t-test and corresponding p-values for normative commitment are
presented in Table 8. There were no significant differences between the means of any of
the personal characteristics analyzed.
Table 7. Descriptive statistics and component score coefficients for normative commitment.
Normative commitments questions
Mean
Standard
deviation
Component score
coefficients
3.09
1.098
0.128
2.87
1.241
0.291
2.52
3.89
2.94
1.160
1.323
1.131
0.274
0.215
0.291
3.46
1.182
0.211
Variables
Mean
Standard
deviation
df
Petrobras staff
3.057
0.772
2 0.477
149
0.634
Contracted
Male
Female
University degree
No University degree
10 or more years of service
Less than 10 years of service
Managerial
Operational
3.115
3.068
2.965
3.107
3.038
3.068
3.090
3.034
3.083
0.966
0.826
0.912
0.852
0.854
0.844
0.851
0.491
0.861
0.745
195
0.457
0.601
223
0.548
2 0.201
229
0.841
2 0.188
229
0.851
16
Normative commitment
Node 0
3.081
Mean
0.847
Std. Dev.
231
n
100.0
%
3.081
Predicted
Gender
Improvement=0.002
Male
Female
Node 1
3.114
Mean
0.827
Std. Dev.
180
n
77.9
%
3.114
Predicted
Educational level
Improvement=0.003
Node 2
2.965
Mean
0.912
Std. Dev.
51
n
22.1
%
2.965
Predicted
Employee relationship
Improvement=0.006
Staff
Contracted
Node 3
Mean
3.067
Std. Dev.
0.860
n
84
%
36.4
3.067
Predicted
Service time
Improvement=0.001
Node 4
Mean
3.155
Std. Dev.
0.799
n
96
%
41.6
Predicted 3.155
Employee relationship
Improvement=0.003
Node 5
Mean
2.765
Std. Dev.
0.673
n
21
%
9.1
2.765
Predicted
Node 6
Mean
3.104
Std. Dev.
1.036
n
30
%
13.0
3.104
Predicted
Staff
Contracted
Node 7
3.122
Mean
0.885
Std. Dev.
38
n
16.5
%
3.122
Predicted
Node 8
3.021
Mean
0.846
Std. Dev.
46
n
19.9
%
3.021
Predicted
Node 9
3.111
Mean
0.787
Std. Dev.
74
n
32.0
%
3.111
Predicted
Service time
Improvement=0.000
Node 10
3.305
Mean
0.842
Std. Dev.
22
n
9.5
%
3.305
Predicted
Node 11
3.138
Mean
0.803
Std. Dev.
42
n
18.2
%
3.138
Predicted
Node 12
3.075
Mean
0.776
Std. Dev.
32
n
13.9
%
3.075
Predicted
17
Table 9. Summary of CART regression tree results for the three components of commitment.
Determinant variables
Component of
commitment
Personal
characteristics
Normalized
importance (%)
Affective
Type of employment
Service time
Educational level
Gender
100
47.3
26.4
12.1
Continuance
Service time
Educational level
Type of employment
Gender
Job level
Type of employment
Service time
Educational level
Job level
Gender
100
89.5
14.9
12.9
1.4
100
44
32.6
20.4
19.4
Normative
Highest
commitment
nodes
Lowest
commitment
nodes
Male,
Petrobras staff
with no
university
degree
10 or more years
of service at
Petrobras with
no university
degrees
Male,
contracted
employees
with university
degree
Male, Contractor
with university
degree
Female with less
than 10 years of
service at
Petrobras with
university degree.
Female Petrobras
staff
18
19
The survey demonstrated that educational level has a stronger influence on continuance
commitment than on normative or affective commitment. The influence is negative for
continuance and affective commitment. Consistent with our results, Mathieu and Zajac (1990)
explained that education exhibited a small negative correlation with commitment and Meyer
et al. (2002) found a negative correlation between education and continuance commitment.
Employees with university degrees have higher expectations and the company seems
unable to meet it. These employees receive salaries and benefits comparable to those in
other companies and have more mobility. On the other hand, employees without university
degrees receive higher salaries, benefits and training possibilities at Petrobras than their
counterparts in other companies in Brazil.
Gender has no bearing on the level of organization commitment at Petrobras. This may
reflect the pro-gender equity efforts of the company. It is interesting to note that the lack of
a consistent relationship between gender and organizational commitment was noted by
Mathieu and Zajac (1990). Meyer et al. (2002) also demonstrated that gender plays a
relatively minor role in development of organizational commitment.
Finally, the results show that job level (e.g. managerial position) does not significantly
influence affective commitment at Petrobras and has only a weak influence on the
continuance dimension. It seems to have a limited influence on normative commitment.
These results are probably because of the limited scope for managerial actions and
individual initiatives at Petrobras. For example, employees are hired through national
competition and therefore managers cannot choose their own teams based on individual
style or leadership characteristics.
Conclusion
This study contributes to an understanding of the effects of Brazilian structural changes on the
nature of organizational commitment in the oil and gas industry. The traditional career in
Brazil has been characterized by high security and low mobility. The structural change in the
Brazilian oil industry offered less job security but greater mobility opportunities.
Petrobras attempted to adapt to the new environment changing the human resource
model by offering employment challenges as well as job security, extensive training and
career developing programs. This is line with the suggestion by Gong and Chang (2008)
that firms confronting a changing environment need to invest more in practices such as
career planning, job rotations and cross-functional training. These measures increase
employee commitment and retention.
Our results show that organizational commitment at Petrobras reflects the nature of human
resource policy and practices that the company has adopted. The nature of the commitment,
however, depends on personal characteristics of the employees. Type of employment, service
time and education level are shown to have the greatest impact on commitment at Petrobras.
On the other hand, gender and job level seem to have no significant influence.
Three propositions were developed to guide the study. They were built to reflect human
resource policy and practices and used demographic variables to predict employees behavior
in the workplace. Our first proposition stated that affective commitment is positively
influenced by a sense of belonging to the organization and the significance of his/her activity in
relation to the companys goals. This influence is greatest for Petrobras staff and weakest for
contracted employees as would be expected because the human resource management policy
is mainly focused on company employees.
Petrobras attracts a large pool of applicants from which to selectively recruit. Through
this process, selected employees enhanced their self-worth and allegiance to the company.
20
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