On this last chapter is described the conclusions of this research based on the results and discussions of the chapter IV. Moreover, it also contains the implications and limitations of the study.
Conclusions
The main purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between work stress and organizational commitment. In addition, another objective was to examine the moderator effect of personality on the relationship between work stress and organizational commitment.
Therefore, based on the findings and discussions this section is focused on the conclusions of this research. Thus, it is center on the relationship between work stress and organizational commitment and the effect of personality on the relationship of work stress and organizational commitment.
There more stress the employee is the lower is his/her organizational commitment
The employees of the Maquila Industry facing work stress are more likely to have a low organizational commitment. Due to the fact, that the results clearly show a strong relationship between both variables the HR practitioners on this industry should clearly pay attention to this because the more stress the employees are the less committed they are to their organization.
On the other hand, previous research on the Maquila Industry in Honduras showed that women that work at the basic level of the production department face high stress levels (84%) (Ledesma, Pulido & Villegas, 2009). In addition, another study gave evidence that middle level managers on the production area facing work stress issues (Martinez & Chang, 2011).
Therefore, it can be concluded that work stress is a really important aspect especially on the employees of this industry who are facing work stress issues which means that their commitment toward their job is lower. Hence, this might affect the productivity and outcomes on the production area.
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A high role conflict level tends to reduce the employees’ organizational commitment
Based on the results of this study the employees’ role conflict highly affects on a negative way the commitment that they have toward their organization. This is an important aspect that the managers of the production area should consider because having employees who have to satisfy their own responsibilities and other extra demands from the managers or co-workers can creates confusion and conflict leading to reduce their organizational commitment. Hence, the managers on this area need to take into count that if they reduce the role conflict on their workplace this will lead to improve and encourage the employees to be more committed with what they have to do.
This conclusion is support by a previous study on the Maquila Industry in Honduras where shows little evidence on the role conflict that middle managers face because of the high amount of pressure that they face due to the fact that everybody has high expectations on their functions and they have to satisfy the expectations from the whole staff of the production department (Martinez & Chang, 2011).
The employees facing role ambiguity issues can still have a high organizational commitment for their organizations
This finding rejects the hypothesis previously set for this study. Hence, even though the employees are not completely clear regarding what the organization expects from their work they can still show a strong commitment toward their job position.
The role overload tends to reduce the employee’s organizational commitment
Based on this result it can concluded that the more the employees feel overload at their work positions the lower is the commitment that they feel toward their organization. On the other hand, a previous study on women that work at the production area in the Maquila in Honduras gives evidence that they have an intense work rhythm due to the fact that they have to reach high production goals. (Ledesma, Pulido & Villegas, 2009). Moreover, another study by Martinez and Chang (2011) on the middle managers at the production department in the Maquila Industry found that these employees face an elevated work rhythm and that the amount of work that they
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have is high as well. Therefore, based on the findings and the previous research it can be concluded that the role overload at the production department in the Maquila Industry is a key issue.
Thus, it can be concluded that the HR department have to create and execute different measures that can allow these employees to reduce the overload at their workplace and as a result this will be translate in more committed and productive employees.
The employees that are facing stress at their job positions have a lower affective commitment towards their work
According to this result the employees facing work stress will tend to have a lower affective commitment for their organization which means that they will be less attached and emotionally connected to their jobs.
On previous research affective commitment has shown to be negatively correlated to turnover and absenteeism at the workplace (Schmidt, 2007). Therefore, it is important for the organizations, specially the HR department to pay attention to support the employees with stress management interventions that can help them to reduce the work stress at their positions and this will lead to have employees with higher affective commitment toward their jobs. Moreover, as it was mentioned before this can also, create other benefits as better results and productivity improvements and also the reduction of the turnover levels and absenteeism.
The employees’ work stress tends to reduce their continuance commitment
This result shows that the more work stress the employee faces the lower will be his continuance commitment. In conclusion, this means that the high work stress the employee has, it will cause a reduction on the importance and appreciation that this one has for the job benefits like salary and rewards that receives from his organization. Therefore, it can be conclude that if the work stress level is too high the employee would not be aware anymore of any costs and it would be easier for him to move to another organization.
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The work stress does not affect the employees’ normative commitment
Based on the regression analysis result work stress does not has a determinant or high significant influence on the employees’ normative commitment.
Conscientiousness has an effect on the relationship between work stress and organizational commitment
According to the results of this study personality acts as a moderator on the relationship between work stress and organizational commitment. Though, from the five personality traits only conscientiousness presented a significant effect on that relationship. Hence, the rest of the personality traits did not show a significant influence according to the hierarchical regression results.
Based on this result the individuals who are persistent, organized and responsible tend have an effect on the way they handle the work stress and the organizational commitment.
Implications
The results of this study provide important information for the HR practitioners and managers of the Maquila Industry in Honduras because they can use this analysis as a tool to understand the real situation of the employees on this area and use it as a guideline to make improvements on the efficiency of the production department. Below the implications are described:
1. The work stress has a significant influence on the commitment that the employees have toward their organization. Therefore, these organizations should give more attention to this aspect and implement stress management interventions to help the employees to reduce the levels of stress. This will help them to have more committed and productive employees.
2. The managers have to set clearly their subordinates responsibilities and to who they have to report their results consequently this will help them to reduce the role conflict on the production area. Hence, this can lead to increase their organizational commitment and their results at the production area.
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3. The work stress really affects the employees’ feelings toward their job and this can be translated into bad performance, inefficient employees which will cause that the production department does not present improvements on its results and quality of their products.
Suggestions for Further Study
This study was focus on employees that work at different levels of the production department at the Maquila Industry in Honduras. However, for future research it can also be study the production area but center in a more specific position for example basic level, middle managers and general managers. Moreover, it can also be analyzed the other departments of these organizations in the Maquila Industry at Honduras.
Another suggestion would be to use a shorter questionnaire to examine these three variables due to the fact that some questionnaires had missing data and they were included on this study. On the other hand, futures studies can also examine other aspects of this industry in Honduras because despite of the importance that it has for the country’s’ economy and employment levels still there is not too many research focus on HR issues specifically on the Maquila Industry in Honduras.
Research Limitations
The questionnaires for this quantitative study were collected with workers of the production department at the Maquila Industry in Honduras and the majority of them were gathered through snowball sampling and as a result the sample was not random. Moreover, also because of the length of the questionnaire some participants did not complete different questions which made various questionnaires to be incomplete consequently these ones were not included on this study. On the other hand, another limitation is that due to the time and access to the sample this study was mainly focus on only two sectors of the Maquila Industry: textile/clothing and car harness/electronics. Though, these two sectors are the ones that generate the highest number of jobs at the Maquila Industry in Honduras. Finally, on the result of the pilot test few variables did not reach the standard 0.70 Cronbach alpha. However, based on the expert and peer
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review analysis and evaluation it was decided to keep them on the final questionnaire in order to have a better comprehension of the study.
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APPENDIX A. QUESTIONNAIRE ENGLISH/SPANISH VERSION
This questionnaire has different questions divided into four parts. Your responses will be strictly confidential and it will be used anonymously only for academic purpose. Thank you for taking time to fill this questionnaire; your input is very valuable for my thesis project.
I. For this section, choose the answer that best describes you.
1. Gender: Male Female
2. Age: 18-23 24-28 29-33 34-38 39-more
3. Education: High school Bachelor Degree Master Degree Ph.D 4. How many years do you have of working experience in this industry?_____ years.
5. Maquila sector where you work: Car harness/electronics Textile/clothing Others_____
II. The second part provides a series of phrases that describe different emotions that you may have experienced in their work during this past month. Please mark with an X the box that indicates how frequently identified with each.
Items Never Seldom Sometimes Often Always
1. I have to do things that should be done differently.
2. I am knowledgeable of what is expected of me at work.
3. I feel overburdened in my role.
4. I work under incompatible polices and guidelines.
4. I work under incompatible polices and guidelines.