PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND CAREER COMMITMENT: A SURVEY OF SELECTED OIL SERVICING FIRMS IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION.
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PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND
CAREER COMMITMENT: A SURVEY OF SELECTED OIL SERVICING FIRMS IN THE NIGER DELTA
REGION.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
CONTEXT
OF THE PROBLEM
In
recent years, organizational behaviour research has taken a slight shift from
seeing individuals as coping with negative weaknesses to those enhancing their
positive strengths and well-being at the workplace. Sligman and Csikszentihalyi
(2000) posit that “no longer do the dominant theories view the individual as a
passive vessel ‘responding’ to ‘stimuli; rather, individual are now seen as
decision makers, with choices, preferences, and the possibility of becoming
masterful, efficacious, or, in malignant circumstances, helpless and hopeless”.
Meanwhile,
a growing body of positive oriented research has advanced the exploration of
the wellness and wellbeing of humans in general and in particular to its
relevance to workplace. This body of knowledge includes Positive Organizational
Behaviour (POB) Luthans, 2002a, 2002b; Luthans & Yourssef, 2007; Luthans,
Youssef, & Avolio, 2007; Nelson & Cooper, 2007) positive Wellbeing
(PWB; Wright, 2005; Wright & Boneth, 2007), and Positive Organizational
Scholarship (POS; Cameron & Caza, 2004; Cameron, et al, 2003).
Derived
from this line of thinking, psychological capital has emerged as a positive
oriented higher order construct (Luthans, 2002; Luthans, & Youssef, 2007).
The higher order psychological capital is defined as “An individual positive
psychological state of development and is characterized by:
1. Having
self-efficacy (confidence) to take on and put the necessary effort to succeed
at challenge tasks;
2. Making
a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future;
3. Persevering
toward goals and when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to
succeed; and
4. When
beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond
(resilience) to attain success” (Luthans et al, 2007).
Positive
psychological capital (PsyCap) has been found to be related to various job
outcomes such as job performance (Luthans, et al, 2007), job satisfaction
(Luthans, Avolio, et al., 2007), job stress (Avery, et al, 2009), turnover
intentions (Avey, Luthans, & Youssef, 2010), Cynicism (Avey, & Luthans,
2008), absenteeism (Avey, Patera, & West, 2006) and career commitment
(Larson & Luthans, 2006).
Considerable
amount of research has focused on dispositional factors that may stimulate
behavious at the workplace. There are certain personality factors that have
been found to be related to creative behaviours at the workplace. These
personal factors include innovativeness (Flynn &Goldsmith, 1993), creative
self-efficacy (Tierney, & Farmer, 2002), extraversion (Furnham, & Bachtiar,
2008) openness to experience (Feist, 1998, 1999; Furtham, & Bachtiar, 2008;
George, & Zhou, 2001), emotional creativity (Averill, 1999) and positive
affect (Isen, Duabman & Nowicki, 1987).
Although
few attempts have been recently made to investigate the relationship between
positive psychological resources and creativity, however, these resources have
been separately linked with creativity or innovation related outcomes. For
example, Rego, Machado, Leal, & Cunha, (2009) investigated the relationship
between hope and creativity. Rego, Sousa, Marques, & Cunha (2011)
investigate the relationship between optimism and creativity. Similarly,
Tierney, & Farmer, (2002) investigated the relationship between efficacy
and performance. Despite this amplified attention, there has been only limited
progress in understanding the role of psychological capital in predicting
overall career commitment.
Extant theory suggest that positive
psychological resources of confidence, hope, resilience, and optimism do not
act in isolation, instead they provide support to each other through an
underlying shared values (Fredrickson, 2001; Hobfoll, 2002; Magaletta, &
Oliver, 1999; Youssef & Luthans, 2007), hence they should be studied
collectively (Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman, 2007). Against the backdrop
of the above this study is aimed at examining the relationship between
psychological capital and career commitment and further examines the moderating
role of organizational culture.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE STUDY
Although
organizations vary in the specific manner by which they allocate the costs
associated with performance, one overarching fact that applies is the
exorbitant direct and indirect costs of performance in organizations (Martinez,
1995; Shelly, 1993). Performance levels in the U.S. reached a five year high in
2004, with related costs estimated to range from $60,000 to more than $1million
annually for small and large companies, respectively (Newman & Roth, 2006).
For human resource departments and managers batting to build credibility and
extend their influence by contributing to their company’s financial success
(Barney, 1991; Hueslid, 1995), targeting career commitment may present
significant means for providing cost savings and added productivity.
In
order to accomplish this goal, researchers and practitioners must first seek to
understand potential predictors of career commitment behaviour that may be
incorporated into selection systems and lead to development programs aimed to
reducing the extent of low behavior within organizations.
Multiple Meta analyses (Bycio, Hackett, &
Allen, 1995; Harrison & Martocchio, 1998; Harrison, Newman & Roth,
2006) have revealed that there are both personal (example anxiety,
satisfaction, commitment, personality) and climatic (example shift work,
flextime) factors that may predict individual level performance. However, the
number of identified predictors remains somewhat restricted, and the limited
predictive validity of those antecedents with regard to individual performance
behaviour suggests that our understanding of performance behaviour remains
fairly limited (Harrison & Martocchio, 1998). A 20 years review of
performance by Harrison and Martocchio (1998) found that the focus had been too
heavily dependent upon attitudinal determinants such as job satisfaction,
career commitment and involvement.
Most
notably the studies that were highlighted point out that the commonly studied
attitudinal variables tend not to account for the hypothesized high levels of
variance in performance behaviour, which proposes that the career commitment
literature had grown too narrow. Harrison and colleagues (2006) recently
reported a low relationship between job satisfaction and career commitment and
performance when performance was considered as a single outcome variable. The
purpose of this study is to move beyond existing demographic and attitudinal
frameworks for understanding career commitment behavior, and to draw from
positive organizational behaviour (POB) Luthans, 2002a, 2002b, and psychological
capital (Luthans, Youssef & Avolio, 2007), to understand potentially
unexplored positive antecedents of performance such as positive psychological
capacities.
The
majority of studies in this field have focused on a single outcome construct,
incorporating all performance behaviours under umbrella or investigating only
voluntary performance (Scott & Markham, 1982). While these approaches
certainly appeal to brevity and coincide with how most human departments treat
performance behaviour, they limit the ability to gain a more complete
understanding of the nature of performance and its antecedents.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The
general purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between
psychological capital and career commitment in the hospitality sector.
Specifically, the objectives aimed are;
1. To
determine the relationship between hope and career commitment in oil servicing
firms.
2. To
ascertain the nature of relationship between optimism and career commitment in
oil servicing firms.
3. To
determine the relationship between confidence and career commitment in oil
servicing firms.
4. To
find out the relationships between which resilience and career commitment in
oil servicing firms.
5. To
determine the relationship between corporate culture and psychological capital
and its influence on career commitment.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION
The
following research questions are raised to guide the study;
1. What
is the relationship between hope and career commitment in oil servicing firms?
2. What
is the relationship between optimism and career commitment in oil servicing
firms?
3. What
is the relationship between confidence and career commitment in oil servicing
firms?
4. What is
the relationship between resilience and career commitment in oil servicing
firms?
5. What is
the relationship between corporate culture and psychological capital and its
influence on career commitment?
Figure 1.1: conceptual framework
on the relationship between psychological capital and career commitment.
Source: Conceptualized by the
Researcher, 2014.
The
figure above is a conceptual framework for the relationship between
psychological and career commitment.
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Based on the research
questions drawn we have also raised the following hypotheses as a guide.
H01:
There is no significant relationship between hope and affective attitude.
H02:
There is no significant relationship between hope and continuance attitude.
H03:
There is no significant relationship between optimism and affective attitude.
H04:
There
is no significant relationship between optimism and continuance attitude.
H05:
There is no significant relationship between confidence and continuance
attitude.
H06:
There is no significant relationship between confidence and continuance
attitude.
H07:
There is no significant relationship between resilience and continuance
attitude.
H08:
There is no significant relationship between resilience and continuance
attitude.
H09:
Organizational culture does not influence the relationship between
psychological capital and career commitment.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
There
are multi organizational actions aimed at improving and sustaining career
commitment in work organizations. While some of them have leveraged manages’
effort at achieving these goals, there is the imposing need to further examine
other variables that are characteristically intangible. As part of this effort,
the findings of this study will be significant in terms of providing manages
with the basic understanding of some innate dynamics that drives employee
psychology towards improved performance. The findings of the study further
enhance the relational climate in work organization with a view to tapping into
its potential of the ability to strengthen the intra organizational
relationship for a conducive workplace thereby improving performance. The study
no doubt will provide the platform for further research works by scholars with
interest in organizational development.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The
scope of this study is put into three sub themes which includes content scope,
geography scope and level of analysis.
Content:
The reviewed of related literature for this study will be restricted to the
literature on psychological and its dimensions, career commitment and its
measures, as well as the moderating role of corporate culture on the
relationship between the independent and dependent variables.
Geographical:
The geographical scope of this study is oil servicing firms in the Niger Delta
region of the country. This is made up of four (4) states which includes
Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa-Ibom.
Level/Unit
of Analysis: The level of analysis of this study
essentially micro which means it is at the individual level.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Psychological
Capital:-individual’s positive innate disposition that is
characterized by being hopeful, optimism, confidence and resilient towards
desired goal(s).
Hope-
The innate characteristic of expectation or looking forward to better outcome.
Confidence-
The innate characteristic of not being in doubt and strong belief on one’s
abilities to reach goals.
Commitment:
An attachment to a course of action with a view to achieving some desired
goals.
Optimism-
The characteristic feeling of things will be well challenges of the social
context notwithstanding.
1.9 ORGANIZATIONAL OF THE STUDY
The
study is in five distinct chapters. In the first chapter of the study, it was
introduced with the appropriate background, statement of the problems and the
objectives of the study were clearly outlined. This was followed with the
research questions, hypotheses, significance of the study highlighted and the
scope of the study was also discussed with operational terms defined. The
second was used to review literature on the studied constructs extensively. In
the third chapter, the methodology applicable in carrying out the study was
also discussed along research design, population and sampling procedure, data
collection methods, operational measures of variables, validity, reliability
and data analysis techniques. The fourth chapter of the study will present and
analyze the data and thereafter vivid discussion of the findings thereof. The
final chapter will conclude on the study and make recommendation therein.
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