This chapter comprises three sections: the first section presents the conclusions of the study based on the framework and purposes of this study, the second presents the research limitations and finally it concludes with the recommendations for management and future research.
Conclusions
According to the structure of the study, the main aim of the study was to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction on organizational
commitment of employees working in The Gambia banking industry. This section is divided into four parts and is based on the hypotheses formulated earlier on in this study. Hence, the following section summarized the main findings of the study.
Differences between Demographic Groups on OC
The first purpose of this study aimed to examine whether specific (gender, age, marital status and organizational tenure) demographic data would make no significant difference on organizational commitment. The one –way ANOVA test results shows that one out of the five demographic data which is level of education did make a significant difference on organizational commitment and hence our first hypothesis was partially supported. The following outlines the results with regards to the demographic data chosen for this study Gender makes no significant difference on organizational commitment
The ANOVA results showed that gender make no significant difference on organizational commitment. Hence been male or female does not differentiate one from been committed to one’s organization or not. Hence, these findings will help to change the perception of most people or employers in The Gambia Banking Sector where women are sometimes been stereotyped as been more committed to their families than their careers or jobs. Thus, it contributes to the knowledge on gender with regards to organizational commitment in The Gambian Banking Industry.
Age makes no significant difference on organizational commitment
With regards to age, the result of this study shows that the different age groups did not make a significant difference on organizational commitment. This finding is interesting since it shows that been younger; middle aged or older does not make a significant difference on organizational commitment. Hence, this study supports the inconsistent findings in the
relevant literature that age does not make a significant difference on organizational commitment.
Marital Status makes no significant difference on organizational commitment
According to the results, there was no significant difference found between marital status and organizational commitment. The reason as mentioned earlier on in the discussion part of this research might be that in the case of The Gambia where traditional values are still upheld that children after finishing school should start work and help their parents and hence this might be the motive why there was no significant differences found between marital status and organizational commitment hence singles might be committed to their organization because they might have responsibilities toward their parents and married people might also be committed because of the financial responsibilities they have towards their families.
Hence, this finding too shed an additional light in the relevant literature with regards to the difference in means scores between marital status and organizational commitment especially in a traditional and developing country like The Gambia.
Level of education makes no significant difference on organizational commitment
The results of this study showed that level of education does make a significant difference on organizational commitment. This was contradictory to our first hypothesis. The finding shows that employees with bachelors’ degree were more committed to their organization than employees with college certificate or diploma. This might suggest that employees with bachelors’ degree might be well placed and might hold comfortable positions in the organization and hence might not feel the urge to be uncommitted to their organizations. On the contrary, those employees with college certificate or diploma holders might be the junior staff and hence they might feel the need to find other opportunities elsewhere that could help them advance their education. It is important to note that in The Gambia as contrary to many countries in the developed world having a college certificate or diploma does not equals bachelor’s degree as the country’s university is the only mandatory institution conferred to give degree certificates. Hence the college serves as an intermediary between high school and university education.
Organizational tenure makes no significant difference on organizational commitment
Interesting in the findings is the result that the time that an employee spends with the organization does not make a significant difference on organizational commitment. This might suggest that new employees might have expectations from the job that might not have been met and hence this might give them the optimum urge to stay with the organization and tenured or those that have stayed long in the organization might still stayed because they might consider past experiences in the organization that might have been favorable to them.
Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Commitment
The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient results showed that emotional intelligence was not only positively related to organizational commitment but also it was statistically significant. Hence, this study supports the existence of a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment. In line with this, this study adds to the body of literature on the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment especially in the developing countries since there are few studies (Abraham, 2000) that also found a positive relationship between these two variables. This study suggests that employees who might possess the abilities embedded in emotional intelligence might build strong interpersonal relationships which in turn might influence their commitment to the organization. This finding is also in line with Nikolaou and Tsaousis (2002) who suggest that individuals with high emotional intelligence might be more committed to their organizations. Since correlation analysis does not imply causation, simple linear regression was further conducted between these two variables and the results showed that emotional intelligence could strongly predict organizational commitment. This result seems not surprising because of the nature of the construct of emotional intelligence, it is expected that the understanding of one’s and other people’s emotions, and one’s ability to regulate and manage them might have an effect on organizational commitment. The findings of the present study confirm with Ciarrochi, Chan and Caputi (2000a) that an objective measure of emotion management skills is associated with a tendency to maintain an induced positive mood which has obvious implications for organizational commitment. Hence, the findings of Ciarrochi et al. (2000a) lend additional support to the present study. In the same vein, in a workplace like banking sector where success is dependent upon teamwork and good interpersonal relationships, the importance of emotional intelligence cannot be over emphasized.
Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Job Satisfaction
The results of the correlation and regression analysis showed that emotional intelligence is positively and significantly related to job satisfaction. This result might indicate that employees’ with higher emotional intelligence might be more likely to have higher levels of job satisfaction. Hence, these findings might suggest that employees with high emotional intelligence are more adept at using their emotions to facilitate job satisfaction. Hence, the ability to understand their emotions could possibly imply that employees with high emotional intelligence are more aware of the factors that could contribute to their experience of positive and negative emotions. As Sy et al. (2006) states that awareness of the factors that elicit certain emotions and understanding the effects of those emotions could enable employees with high emotional intelligence to take the appropriate actions that might influence job satisfaction. Besides supporting previous research, this study makes a new contribution to the literature on the relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction since there are few studies (Prati et al., 2003; Sy et al., 2006) that look at the relationship between these two variables. The results of the present study support the findings of Wong and Law (2002) and Sy et al. (2006) which indicate that employees with higher emotional intelligence have higher levels of job satisfaction.
Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment
The results of correlational analyses confirmed that our predictions in hypothesis 4.
Thus, it showed a positive, strong and significant relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Regression analyses were further conducted to attest the causal relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment and the results revealed that job satisfaction was a stronger predictor of organizational commitment. The result concurred with those of previous researchers (Aamodt, 2007; Okpara, 1996; Petrides &
Furham, 2006). This result might suggest that the various aspects of job satisfaction are needed by employees to meet their basic needs and logically when employees’ needs are met, there is the likelihood that the level of organizational commitment manifested by the employees might be high. It might also be that employees who have higher job satisfaction are likely to be motivated and committed to their organization. This finding is also in line with Kim, Leong, and Lee (2005) who found that employees with job satisfaction have higher levels of organizational commitment than employees with job dissatisfaction. This might suggest that if dissatisfaction of employees with their work increases, they might have
intentions to leave the organization for other job conditions. Though the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment has been extensively researched on by scholars in the management field, this finding contributes to the literature on the relationship between these two variables in a developing country and specifically the banking sector in The Gambia.
From the above research results, it is evident that the emotional intelligence skills and competencies might be usable and valuable tools in understanding, supporting, maintaining and enhancing high level of organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Similarly, the results showed that job satisfaction might also serve as a catalyst in facilitating the commitment of employees to their organization.
Having briefly summarized the main findings of the study, let’s now proceed to the limitations of the study.
Limitations
Limitations of a study refer to conditions that cannot be controlled by the researcher.
Thus, as with any research study, this study too has its share of limitations. First, one of the limitations of the study was that the data collected were from self-report measures and so as with any self-report measures, common method variance and social desirability biases were a concern (Sy et al., 2006; Williams & Brown, 1994). Moreover, the utilization of self-report measurements is a common way of collecting data in the social sciences (Babbie & Mouton, 2002) and thus, current research provides evidence to alleviate some of these concerns. There are however, indications of both statistical relationships and practical significance in our results. Besides as Xie (1996) indicated, there is no theoretical foundation to expect that interactions are associated with common method variance.
Second, our study was based on a cross-sectional design method. Hence, this non-experimental research design does not allow making causal statements between the researched variables. In line with this, even though assertions on causality are not allowed by cross-sectional research, Davis (1985) argues that the criterion of temporal stability can give the researchers confident when they decide on causal relationships.
Another limitation of this study was that our study was based on private sector employees working in the banking sector and hence this might affect the generalization of our results to other private sectors, other occupational sectors and regions. However, studies conducted in other private sector organizations suggest generalizable relationships for most of our study variables (Gardner, 2003; Mattieu & Zajac, 1990; Meyer et al., 2002; Nikolaou
& Tsaousis, 2002).
Furthermore due to the nature of the banking industry in The Gambia, another possible limitation of the study was the use of a convenience sampling method. Hence, it is possible that this might limit the generalization of the results and as such employees that participated in the study might not be a true representation of the target population. However, the reason for choosing this method is because as Kahl (2000) says when time or cost is an issue, convenience sampling becomes a useful sampling method.
Moreover, another limitation of the study might be in the measurement scale whose items of each variable were developed according to widely-used scales. Even though, the original scales have reached standards of reliability and validity, there tend to be surveys of perception to which respondents express their subjective perception rather than provide objective figures. In line with this, the study makes use of a single method for data collection that is a questionnaire and the use of such instrument might be subject to bias as the answers of the respondents were the results taken for analysis. Their response might be subject to their perceptions and opinions and further, might be colored by how someone feels about the question at hand (Roelen et al., 2008). Thus, it is likely to result in research errors and so we proposed other studies to use different samples to cross-validate our findings. Nevertheless, this finding makes a significant contribution to the body of literature that examines antecedents that might improve organizational commitment.
Recommendations
This sub section suggests recommendations for management and future research based on the conclusions of the study.
Recommendations for Management
Organizational commitment has become one of the biggest challenges facing organizations in general and hence it is one of the factors that have been shown to be negatively correlated with employee intention to leave the organization and actual turnover (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Meyer & Allen, 1997). Some of the specific recommendations for managers and practice that emerge from this research are as follows:
Demographic Data make no significant difference on organizational commitment
First, the results of the present study has demonstrated that among the five demographic data that were chosen for this study, only level of education made a significant
difference on organizational commitment. Though, it has been argued that demographic variables are weak and inconsistent predictors of organizational commitment (Mattieu &
Zajac, 1990), it is important to note that the findings of the present study which reveals that those who have higher education- bachelors’ degree are more committed to the organization than their counterparts- college certificate or diploma seems logical not only to The Gambia Banking Sector but also to different sectors in other countries since in most cases the more educated ones are in better positions and might not feel the need to quit whereas the less educated might feel that they need to find other opportunities that might provide advance education. Hence, this study recommends that human resource practitioners and managers to incorporate the culture of continuous learning into their core values and these should be aimed to improve continuous growth and career development across all levels and all functions. In line with this, a human resource management system that incorporates and provides continuous learning particularly to the less educated employees in their organization is likely to result in motivating staffs and might enhance organizational commitment.
Additionally, it might make sense that since the less educated employees in the organization did not only stop at high school but went to college and hence this might justify that they might as well want to go to university if provided with the financial resources and support.
Thus, since it might be costly to send employees to study abroad, we recommend that human resource practitioners and managers to partner with local universities to provide higher education (degree certificates) to interested employees. Hence, this might go a long way to close the gap between bachelors and college certificate or diploma holders. Hence, this might increase commitment within the organization and might even boost performance as the employee might view it as a win-win situation.
Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Commitment
Furthermore, this study went beyond the idea of the importance of emotional intelligence to reveal the degree to which emotional intelligence enhances favorable work attitudes and results. The results shows, for example, that emotionally intelligent employees might be more committed to the organization than their counterparts. In line with this, research has showed that organizational commitment is significantly related to withdrawal intentions (Mattieu & Zajac, 1990). Hence, we recommend that selecting employees who are emotionally intelligent might have a positive and significant force on the extent to which an organization succeeds in retaining its most vital workforce. According to Goleman (1998), emotional intelligence is not fixed genetically, but it is to a large extent learned and continues
to develop with new experiences. It is important to note that we do not wish to advance the notion that employees with emotional intelligence are superior or superhuman. All employees are subject to emotional ups and downs (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). However, with the findings of this study, we believed that emotionally intelligent employees are more likely to break the sequence connected to negative behaviors at work and be more committed to the organization. In line with this, as we live in a world of work where employees have to work together, coupled with technical expertise and the ability to form a strong network and build teams that might navigate the inevitable bottlenecks, employees with emotional intelligence might be thought of as having a catalyzing effect, as they might help to leverage intellectual capital which might be a crucial ingredient to achieving competitive advantage and organizational goals. In line with this, the realization of organizational goals depends to a large extent on having a committed workforce. Specifically, we recommend that managers and human resource practitioners especially in the banking sector to design and include emotional intelligence into their training programs and this might help employees acquire emotional intelligent skills and competencies which might be translated into valuable tools in understanding, supporting, maintaining and enhancing high levels of commitment to the organization.
Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Job Satisfaction
Moreover, the results of this study showed that emotional intelligence is positively and significantly related to job satisfaction. Hence, the results indicate that employees with emotional intelligence are more satisfied with their jobs than their counterparts. In line with this, in the banking sector, where success is to a large extent depends on service quality rendered to customers, this could be a motive for managers and human resource practitioners to conduct training on emotional intelligence to enhance job satisfaction and this might yield to employee’s productivity, performance, better service quality and overall success in the organization. In the same vein, it might be that when employees acquire these emotional intelligent skills and competencies through the trainings rendered, employees would be more adept at regulating their emotions and this might give them more confidence and control over the requirements of their job which might in turn enable them to be more proactive and influence work outcomes positively. The result of this study concurs with Goleman (1995)
Moreover, the results of this study showed that emotional intelligence is positively and significantly related to job satisfaction. Hence, the results indicate that employees with emotional intelligence are more satisfied with their jobs than their counterparts. In line with this, in the banking sector, where success is to a large extent depends on service quality rendered to customers, this could be a motive for managers and human resource practitioners to conduct training on emotional intelligence to enhance job satisfaction and this might yield to employee’s productivity, performance, better service quality and overall success in the organization. In the same vein, it might be that when employees acquire these emotional intelligent skills and competencies through the trainings rendered, employees would be more adept at regulating their emotions and this might give them more confidence and control over the requirements of their job which might in turn enable them to be more proactive and influence work outcomes positively. The result of this study concurs with Goleman (1995)