The Effect of Intrinsic Motivation and Transformational Leadership on Organizational Commitment with Job Satisfaction as Mediator of Firefighters in Taiwan

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(1)The Effect of Intrinsic Motivation and Transformational Leadership on Organizational Commitment with Job Satisfaction as Mediator of Firefighters in Taiwan. by Yao-Chieh Tsai. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Major: International Human Resource Development. Advisor: Tony, Cheng-Ping Shih. Ph.D.. National Taiwan Normal University Taipei, Taiwan June, 2017.

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(3) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I must thank my dear thesis advisor Dr. Tony, Cheng-Ping Shih, who not only provided me the resources and information I needed to complete this research but is also a mentor who has taught me a lot. Secondly, I also want to thank all the faculty members and staff of the Graduate Institute of Human Resource Development at National Taiwan Normal University. Thirdly, I appreciate my peers and classmates with whom I spent two full years in this program, we became partners and grew together. Finally, I want to thank all the researchers’ whose knowledge contributed to the realization of this thesis.. Many researchers believed that the key to successfully motivate people is through monetary incentives. However, as time goes on and societies keep evolving, that old belief that we once had, has become outdated. As the time goes by, many things around us are changing unexpectedly. It is true that without money, few things can be accomplished. However, there are lots of things cannot be obtained through the use of money, like job satisfaction and the commitment towards an organization. In short, this study aims at improving firefighters’ benefits and working condition..

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(5) ABSTRACT This study aims at discovering the factors that are linked to firefighters’ job satisfaction and their commitment for the purpose of decreasing the turnover intention and reduce the possibilities of firefighters getting too much job stress. Taiwan often encounters natural disasters of typhoons, earthquakes, and so on, and firefighters are important heroes whose mission is protecting the society and its victims from harm and to rescue injured people. Nevertheless, firefighters are working under challenging and severe situations, and their job involves many potential dangers. This research is being conducted in hoping to explore the possible relationships between intrinsic motivation and transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. For the adaptability and fitness of the questionnaire adopted in this study, the researcher interviewed firefighters in order to understand their environment, difficulties, and current situation. After the questionnaire was designed, the questions were reviewed and revised according to experts’ opinions. Regarding to data collection, the researcher received samples by using both online-based and paper-based questionnaire. In the pilot test, 83 firefighters currently working for fire agencies or fire departments were included. To receive the final result, 290 samples were collected, and 275 of them were valid.. Keywords: intrinsic motivation, transformational leadership, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, firefighter. I.

(6) TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT …………….………………………………………………..I TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………..II LIST OF TABLES …………...................................................................IV LIST OF FIGURES …………………………………………………….VI CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ………………………………………..1 Background of the Study …………………………………………………............1 Problem Statement ……………………………………………………………….5 Purpose of the Study …………………………………………………………….6 Research Questions …………………………………………………………..….6 Significance of the Study ………………………………………………………..7 Delimitations …………………………………………………………………….7 Definition of Key Terms …...…………………………………………………….8. CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW …………….………………...13 Motivation Theory ……….……………………………………………………..13 Leadership Theory ……………...………………………………………………17 Job Satisfaction ………………………………………………………………...22 Organizational Commitment …………………………………………………...25 Hypothesis Development ………………………………………………………28. CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ……….……………………………33 Research Framework ……...……………………………………………………33 Research Procedure …………………………………………………………….34 Data Collection …………………………………………………………………36 Instrumentation …...…………………………………………………………….37 Data Analysis …………………………………………………………………...72. II.

(7) CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS …………..............77 Descriptive Statistics …………………………………………………………...77 Correlations Analysis …………………………………………………………..85 Partial Least Square Analysis …………………..................................................87 Findings and Discussion …………………………………………......................90. CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS …….103 Conclusions …………………………………………………………………...103 Limitations ……………………………………………………………………105 Recommendations for Practitioners …………………………………………..105 Recommendations for Future Research ………………………………………106. REFECENCES ………..………………………………………………107 APPENDIX A: PLS RESULT OF PILOT TEST ……………………..119 APPENDIX B: PLS RESULT OF MAIN STUDY …………………...121 APPENDIX C: DATA ANALYSIS RESULTS ………………………..125 APPENDIX D: QUESTIONNAIRE IN ENGLISH …………………..135 APPENDIX E: QUESTIONNAIRE IN CHINESE ………….……….141. III.

(8) LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Types of Leadership ….................................................................................17 Table 2.2 Leadership Style ………………..................................................................18 Table 3.1 Adaptations of Scales Used in this Study for Instrumentation ....................40 Table 3.2 Reliability of the Adopted Measurements ……….......................................40 Table 3.3 Coding and Scales for the Construct of Intrinsic Motivation ……..............41 Table 3.4 Coding and Scales for the Construct of Transformational Leadership …....41 Table 3.5 Coding and Scales for the Construct of Job Satisfaction …………............43 Table 3.6 Coding and Scales for the Construct of Organizational Commitment ........43 Table 3.7 Reliability of the Research Instrument ………............................................45 Table 3.8 Validity of the Research Instrument ………................................................46 Table 3.9 Reliability and Validity Test of Pilot Test via PLS ……..............................49 Table 3.10 Pilot Result via PLS Algorithm and Bootstrapping ...................................49 Table 3.11 Mean, Standard Deviation, Reliability, and Correlation of Pilot Test …...51 Table 3.12 KMO and Bartlett’s Test of Intrinsic Motivation ......................................52 Table 3.13 EFA Result of the Construct of Intrinsic Motivation …………………….52 Table 3.14 KMO and Bartlett’s Test of Transformational Leadership ………………53 Table 3.15 EFA Result of the Construct of Transformational Leadership ….……….53 Table 3.16 KMO and Bartlett’s Test of Job Satisfaction …………………….............54 Table 3.17 EFA Result of the Construct of Job Satisfaction …..…………………….54 Table 3.18 KMO and Bartlett’s Test of Organizational Commitment ……….............54 Table 3.19 EFA Result of the Construct of Organizational Commitment …..……….55 Table 3.20 Summary of Goodness-of-Fit Criteria …………………………...............56 Table 3.21 CFA Result of the Construct of Intrinsic Motivation ……………………60 Table 3.22 CFA Factor Loading of each item of Intrinsic Motivation ………………60 Table 3.23 CFA Result of the Construct of Transformational Leadership ………..…63 Table 3.24 CFA Factor Loading of Each Item of Transformational Leadership ….…63 Table 3.25 CFA Result of the Construct of Job Satisfaction …...……………………66 Table 3.26 CFA Factor Loading of Each Item of Job Satisfaction …..........................67 Table 3.27 CFA Result of the Construct of Organizational Commitment …...………70 Table 3.28 CFA Factor Loading of Each Item of Organizational Commitment …….70 Table 3.29 Reliability Test Result of Main Study …………………………………...71 Table 4.1 Demographic Information of the Participant of this Study ……………….78 Table 4.2 Minimum, Maximum, Mean, and Standard Deviation of the Data ……….79 Table 4.3 Mean and Standard Deviation of Items of Intrinsic Motivation ……….….80 Table 4.4 Mean and Standard Deviation of Items of Transformational Leadership ...80 Table 4.5 Mean and Standard Deviation of Items of Job Satisfaction ……...……….82 IV.

(9) Table 4.6 Mean and Standard Deviation of Items of Organizational Commitment ....83 Table 4.7 Correlation Analysis of Main Study ……………………...……………….85 Table 4.8 Mean, Standard Deviation, Reliability, and Correlation of Main Study ….86 Table 4.9 Measurement Model Result via Smart PLS 3.0 ………….……………….88 Table 4.10 Compare Means of Marital Status on Job Satisfaction ………………….90 Table 4.11 Compare Means of Marital Status on Organizational Commitment …….91 Table 4.12 Structural Equation Modeling Regression via Smart PLS 3.0 …………..95 Table 4.13 Mediating Effect of Job Satisfaction on IM and OC …………………….98 Table 4.14 Mediating Effect of Job Satisfaction on TL and OC …………………...100 Table 4.15 Results of Hypotheses Testing ………………………………………….101. V.

(10) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 A tripartite model of intrinsic motivation ..................................................15 Figure 3.1 Research framework ……………………………………………………..33 Figure 3.2 Research procedure ………………………………………………………35 Figure 3.3 CFA model of intrinsic motivation model 1 ..............................................57 Figure 3.4 CFA model of intrinsic motivation model 2 ……………………………..58 Figure 3.5 CFA model of transformational leadership model 1...................................60 Figure 3.6 CFA model of transformational leadership model 2 ……………………..61 Figure 3.7 CFA model of job satisfaction model 1 …………………………………..63 Figure 3.8 CFA model of job satisfaction model 2 …………………………………..64 Figure 3.9 CFA model of job satisfaction model 3 …………………………………..65 Figure 3.10 CFA model of organizational commitment model 1 ……………………67 Figure 3.11 CFA model of organizational commitment model 2 ……………………68 Figure 4.1 Framework of the main study ……………………………………………85 Figure 4.2 PLS result of the main study ………………………………………………87 Figure 4.3 Test of mediating effect of job satisfaction on IM and OC step 1 .................94 Figure 4.4 Test of mediating effect of job Satisfaction on IM and OC step 2 .............94 Figure 4.5 Test of mediating effect of job Satisfaction on IM and OC step 3 .............94 Figure 4.6 Test of mediating effect of job Satisfaction on IM and OC step 4 .............95 Figure 4.7 Test of mediating effect of job Satisfaction on IM and OC step 1 ……….96 Figure 4.8 Test of mediating effect of job Satisfaction on IM and OC step 2 ……….96 Figure 4.9 Test of mediating effect of job Satisfaction on IM and OC step 3 ……….96 Figure 4.10 Test of mediating effect of job Satisfaction on IM and OC step 4 ……...97. VI.

(11) CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION This chapter presents an overall description of this study, and it includes the background of the study and problem statement, followed by the purpose of the study, which guides readers to the purposes of this research, the research questions, delimitations and finally definitions of the key terms that are applied in the study.. Background of the Study. Global warming is currently a global threat, which could lead to climate change and create disasters; causing loss of properties and risk personal safety (World Health Organization, 2014). During natural or man-made disasters, the emergency response team is vital, firefighters play an important role to mitigate the consequences. With regard to firefighters, their job is putting themselves at risk in every mission to relief disasters and save people. Therefore, it is necessary to be concerned with firefighters’ personal safeties and to decrease citizens’ loss of lives and properties. Nowadays, firefighters are requested to work under strict and challenging situations because of several complex disasters caused by climate change (Withen, 2015). Hence, to handle those challenges, training lessons are essential for firefighters to acquire professional knowledge to prevent and relief disasters (Butler et al., 2013). Deciding to take this job as their career, most of them are strongly driven by their intrinsic motivation, which is an important factor that pushes firefighters to execute their missions (Thompson & Bono, 1993). Apart from intrinsic motivation, leadership is another key factor to coordinate team members to effectively achieve goals and achieve higher levels of satisfaction amongst the firefighters (Kastros, 2013). As firefighters are satisfied with their job, they will be more committed to their fire agencies or departments and this 1.

(12) will help them to accomplish their tasks (Abu-Shamaa, Al-Rabayah & Khasawneh, 2015). Since few studies in the past discussed motivation, leadership, satisfaction, and commitment in fire agencies, this study will be a profound and pioneer research in understanding the work conditions in this profession.. Typhoons, the meteorological natural disaster which often take place in Asian countries, like Taiwan, Japan, and China, will happen more frequently because of climate change (Rozynski, Hung, & Ostrowski, 2009). Although the east coastline of China encounters many tremendous typhoons and other disasters, the local citizens can be evacuated to other inland areas due to the huge national land area. However, in comparison, the land area of Taiwan and Japan are relevantly smaller, which can result in serious consequences when natural disasters strike the islands. For instance, victims of typhoons in Taiwan may lose their lives because many of them live in mountain areas where landslides are very common. Taking Japan as an example, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was not directly caused by 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, but by the following tsunami that destroyed the generators which incurred in overheating (Yoichi & Heizo, 2011). Ultimately, many citizens were killed in this accident and all the survivors in Fukushima were forced to leave their hometown. If the firefighters had received related trainings and acquired knowledge for handling compound crisis, the evacuation procedures could have been better and more lives could be saved. After the event, Japanese government is devoting effects to educating firefighters and the public.. When facing disasters, firefighters have to be capable to conquer all challenges, otherwise victims and even firefighters themselves may lose their lives. Taking an example in Taiwan, in 2000, four workers were trapped by a strong flood when they were doing construction at the riverbed of Bajhang River. They stood on a rock and 2.

(13) waited for rescue, but were ultimately washed away. The reason of this incident can be observed from four perspectives. The firefighters did not have relevant knowledge to rescue the workers in that condition, the communication was ineffective and inefficient, the leader did not properly make a decision, and they were not provided with critical equipment such as rescue helicopter for executing the rescue mission (Wikipedia, 2016).. To conduct an effective rescue, training is needed for preventing negative outcomes. Intrinsic motivation of firefighters (O’Reilly & Caldwell, 1980) and leaderships (Aydin, Sarier, & Uysal, 2013) also play important roles for firefighters to learn and be committed to achieve their goals. Using the SWOT analysis tool to analyze the firefighters in Taiwan, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are the following. For the strengths, they are driven by their intrinsic motivation, they also consider their job as meaningful and challenging, they believe in the value of helping people in need, and involve with other team members. In terms of the weaknesses, the shifts are long and extra hours are added when emergent incidents happen. Due to the job, firefighters are forced to sacrifice the time they should be spending with family, friends, and loved ones. As for the opportunities, besides receiving stable and fair salary, they have opportunities to receive on-job trainings that allow them to acquire diverse abilities and skills. Moreover, the rescue missions involve landslides, floods, earthquakes, fires, gas explosions, and nuclear radiation, and sometimes the emergencies take place across borders and across cultures, so they have opportunities to obtain international knowledge and skills and to become global and t-shaped talents. Regarding to the threats, under the limited budgets, they do not have enough access to professional equipment, and their personal safeties are at risk of compound disasters that are in many times unpredictable. They are work in dangerous situations, risking getting injured and facing concerns of personal safety. 3.

(14) To conclude, disasters can involve very complex elements and become more complicated with climate change. Therefore, firefighters are not only requested to be on duty for long working shifts but also require to diversely expand their professional knowledge and skills to handle compound disasters caused by this phenomenon (Day, 2014). Hence, the commitment of firefighters toward fire agencies or fire departments is considered important in this study, because by improving their commitment, firefighters may have lower turnover intention and will be more committed to execute their mission. Sometimes they work under pressure with twenty-four hours shifts and they are required to perform their tasks without any mistake (Institute for Career Research, 2006). To retain talents, research has it noted that organizational commitment is a negative predictor of turnover intention (Zhang, Zhang, & Xie, 2015). In addition, workers who are committed to their organization are more willing to devote themselves to their job and make efforts in contributing to better performance (Ingram, Lee, & Skinner, 1989). With increasing organizational commitment, firefighters are more likely to learn more job-related skills and decide to stay in fire agencies. Kvaløy, Nieken, and Schottner (2015) found that human beings are not only motivated by tangible benefits at work. Therefore, the main objective of the study is looking for factors that have a relationship with firefighters’ organizational commitment towards fire departments for the purpose of achieving that the best talents in fire agencies become more committed to their organizations and fulfill the missions of helping residents in need.. 4.

(15) Problem Statement. The researcher arranged interviews with firefighters hoping to discover current problems that firefighters face. From the interviews, some problems were stated and reported by firefighters while others were observed by the researcher. First of all, compared to firefighters in countries with a high level of development such as United States and Germany, firefighters in Taiwan are required to work longer hours. In comparison, they have less days-off and their salary is lower, which means firefighters in Taiwan have to work more but earn less. Secondly, under the culture of the environment in Taiwan’s fire departments, junior firefighters are requested to take more tasks because the senior firefighters and supervisors tend to deliver their own duties to freshman firefighters. It not only makes the work distributed unequally but also causes junior firefighters to work under surplus burden and pressure. Thirdly, the system of the fire agency does not provide many motivators to drive firefighters at work. For instance, firefighters have to complete many tough and challenging missions, and they are not actually offered much bonus or compensation. Additionally, the opportunities for promotion are mainly based on education level, and without a fare education degree, one cannot easily be promoted regardless of how hard he or she works on their position. Many firefighters that took the job as their career are not motivated by the benefits that they receive, but driven by their own intrinsic motivation toward this job. Unfortunately, they revealed that as their tenures increases, they actually lose their motivation. Finally, firefighters are needed by this island; especially because Taiwan is a country that suffers from many different kinds of natural disasters. It is important to retain those talents by improving their commitment so that they can be more willing to devote themselves to fire agencies. 5.

(16) Purpose of the Study. The purpose of this study is to measure the factors’ relationships by analyzing the collected data with IBM SPSS 23.0, SPSS Amos 24, and Smart PLS 3.0 software in order to test the positive or negative correlations:. Purpose 1: Measure the relationship between intrinsic motivation and job satisfaction. Purpose 2: Measure the relationship between perceived transformational leadership and job satisfaction. Purpose 3: Measure the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Purpose 4: Measure the relationship between intrinsic motivation and organizational commitment. Purpose 5: Measure the relationship between perceived transformational leadership and organizational commitment.. Research Questions. Question 1: Will the job satisfaction of firefighters increase when firefighters are more intrinsically motivated by the value of their job? Question 2: Will the job satisfaction of firefighters increase when the firefighters perceive their supervisors as transformational leaders? Question 3: Will the firefighters be more committed to fire departments when they have higher job satisfaction? Question 4: Will the firefighters be more committed to fire departments when they have higher levels of intrinsic motivation? 6.

(17) Question 5: Will the firefighters show higher levels of commitment to fire departments if they perceive their supervisors as transformational leaders?. Significance of the Study From the previous studies, past research practitioners in human resource research field focused their research objective on making profits or improving organizational performance, and few took their concerns on firefighters. In governmental organizations, the salary inflation is stable and fixed. Does money motivate people? Many may believe so, but motivation is not only driven or affected by monetary benefits (Gagné & Deci, 2005). Instead, researchers like Richard Ryan, Edward Deci, Sam Glucksberg, Dan Ariely, Robert Eisenhower and other analysts from London School of Economics suggest that extrinsic motivators can lead to negative effects on performance (Mirabela-Constanta & Maria-Madela, 2011). Therefore, in this study, the researcher focused the study on intrinsic motivation and leadership hoping to examine how the factors can be associated with job satisfaction and organizational commitment.. Delimitations. This study has two delimitations that helped setting the scope of this research. Delimiting the scope is necessary to make the research more feasible. The first delimitation is that the current study only targets Taiwanese firefighters. Secondly, only full-time firefighters are taken into consideration.. 7.

(18) Definition of Key Terms This section explains the definitions of the four variables: intrinsic motivation, transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Firstly, the adopted definition and description of each term will be clarified and then the researcher will account the specific definitions of the key terms under each construct of this study.. Intrinsic Motivation. Intrinsic motivation is defined as motivators that are related with personal enjoyment, satisfaction, interest rather than collective goals or sense of involvement, and other extrinsic rewards or punishment. Intrinsic motivation also implies inherent satisfactions received when doing certain activities instead of focusing on the consequences (Ryan & Deci, 2000). It can also be defined as the degree that individuals are intrinsically directed and fascinated or interested in a specific task, and engage in it because of the task itself (Utman, 1997).. Operational Definition: In this study, the researcher defines intrinsic motivation as the motivator that drives firefighters to learn techniques that are related to their job, to successfully achieve their missions, and finally, to experience stimulations from the job.. 8.

(19) Transformational Leadership. The present study adopted the definitions of transformational leadership by Bass & Riggio (2005). Transformational leadership is defined as leaders who inspire and stimulate followers to perform extraordinary, to improve the outcomes by developing potentials and abilities of the followers and their own leadership capacity during the process. Transformational leadership includes inspiring people to commit to a certain vision, it also involves making individuals share a collective goal, either for a unit or an organization, to achieve that, individuals must be challenged to become innovative problem solvers, transformational leadership also involves the development of followers’ abilities, this is usually achieved through mentoring, coaching, and providing them support and constant challenge.. Operational Definition: The leaders in fire departments are those who lead the team to achieve and accomplish tough missions. They are also responsible for training firefighters in the field with job-related techniques and physical development that are important skills to finish each challenging mission. A transformational leader is defined as someone who considers each individual’s difference, can motivate and stimulate firefighters to learn and to complete tasks, and can act as an idealized role model for their subordinates.. Job Satisfaction. Job satisfaction was earlier defined as a positive emotional response that results from the appraisal of our job experience (Locke, 1976). It was then classified into 14 different facets: nature of the work, job conditions, fringe benefits, appreciation, 9.

(20) organization, security, promotion opportunities, personal growth, coworkers, supervision, communication, recognition, and policies and procedures. (Spector, 1997). The concept of job satisfaction was more recently defined as an individual’s emotional response towards the job, and the responses are multidimensional and they include three different components: affection, cognition, and behavior (Hulin & Judge, 2003).. Operational Definition: Job satisfaction is defined as participants’ perceived satisfaction of their supervisors’ leadership style and the communication channel and the way information and knowledge are disseminated in their fire departments. Besides, it includes their perceived satisfaction of the joy and meaning from the nature of work.. Organizational Commitment. Benkhoff (1997) defined organizational commitment as employees’ psychological or emotional attachment toward their organizations, indicating that organizationally committed people are willing make sacrifices for contributing to and benefiting the organization’s well-being (Pradhan & Pradhan, 2015). This study adopted Meyer and Allen’s model of commitment. They articulated that commitment has three different components corresponding to different emotional status. The model was created based on two reasons (Meyer & Allen, 1991): 1. Aid in the interpretation of existing research 2. To serve as a framework for future research.. Mercurio (2015) developed this model by reviewing the empirical and theoretical studies on organizational commitment, and they stated that emotional or affective commitment is the core essence of organizational commitment. 10.

(21) Operational Definition: Organizational commitment is defined into three dimensions, firstly, as the psychological attachment that firefighters have towards their fire departments, secondly, as the accumulated commitment increased because the cost of resignation increases with their tenure, and thirdly, as their personal concept and perspective of the obligation to be committed to one’s organization.. 11.

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(23) CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents a brief review of the literature that is relevant to the study and helped creating its research framework. It offers an overview of the definitions used in this research, and then describes the relationship between variables. The chapter proceeds to describe previous research that has been done on intrinsic motivation, transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.. Motivation Theory. Motivation can be used to explain behaviors and it is a theoretical construct. It is referred to the reasons that explain an individual’s desires, needs, and actions. Motivation is also defined as an individual’s predilection to certain behaviors or what leads an individual to desire repeating a specific behavior (Elliot & Thrash, 2002). Motivation can be classified in to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation according to the different producing sources (Moldovan, 2014). Hauser (2014) gave a more clear definition for extrinsic motivation separating it into two dimensions: natural and artificial extrinsic motivators. The first one indicates the motivation without direct costs such as feedback, compliments, congratulations, special tasks, recognition, and smiles; whereas the latter one represents the motivation with direct costs such as salary increases based on merit, compensation, refreshments, pleasantly furnished offices, and cash bonuses. Fire departments and agencies are affiliated with the government and external motivators such as compensation and bonus cannot flexibly be adjusted. Hence, extrinsic motivation will not be discussed in this study.. 13.

(24) Intrinsic Motivation. Intrinsic motivation can be defined as the degree that individuals are intrinsically directed, and fascinated with or interested in a specific task, and engage in it because of the task itself (Utman, 1997), and it also implies inherent satisfactions received when doing certain activities instead of focusing on consequences (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Nowadays, though more researchers and managers are aware of intrinsic motivation, some interesting facts are found. For instance, in Dr. Moldovan’s research (2014) of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation to Primary School Children, she targeted elementary school students to study their motivation of learning. In this research, in Class I, only 10% of the elementary school students are learning for intrinsic motivations, and 90% of them are learning because they don’t want to upset their mother or teacher, or they want to obtain material rewards, go on the weekend trip, and obtain approval for playing on the computer. In Class IV, 20% of the students are learning for fulfilling intrinsic motivation. Although the results may not be applicable to adults, it can be inferred that even if the importance of intrinsic motivation is recognized, children studying hard are doing it for extrinsic motivation instead of their personal desire. Ryan and Deci (2000) stated that intrinsic motivation is doing something that is interesting and enjoyable. This study adopted the definition of intrinsic motivation from Toward A Tripartite Model of Intrinsic Motivation, in which Carbonneau, Vallerand, and Lafreniere (2012) classified intrinsic motivation (IM) into IM to know, IM toward accomplishment, and IM to experience stimulation. For the measurement scale, Toward a New Measure of Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, and Amotivation in Sports: The Sport Motivation Scale (Pelletier & Tuson, 1995) is applied.. 14.

(25) Figure 2.1. A tripartite model of intrinsic motivation. Adapted from Carbonneau, N., Vallerand, R. J., & Lafreniere, M. K. (2012). Toward a tripartite model of intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality, 80(5), 1147-1178.. IM to Know. Berlyne (1971) indicated that intrinsic motivation to know includes the activities of satisfaction and pleasure of exploring and understanding new things. Brophy (1987) refers to intrinsic motivation as learning something. Lloyd and Barenblatt (1984) added intrinsic intellectuality to intrinsic motivation to know, and it is also defined as interest in learning and as an internal motivator that motivates people seeking for chances to learn a certain thing (Boekaerts & Boscolo, 2002).. IM toward Accomplishment. Intrinsic motivation towards accomplishment is connected with the pleasure and satisfaction acquired in the process of accomplishing activities and when transcending oneself or taking initiative to accomplish or create something. In this dimension, people are pursuing the goal of accomplishing something rather than the final results. Intrinsic motivation towards accomplishment is involved with effectance motivation (White, 1959), mastery motivation (Kagan, 1972), intrinsic challenge (Harter, 1981), and creativity (Amabile, 1985). People with IM toward accomplishment receive satisfaction 15.

(26) from mastering new skills and developing their competence (Ames, 1992).. IM to Experience Stimulation. IM to experience stimulation is when people engage in any kind of activity that stimulates their excitement or enjoyment. IM to experience stimulation was not recognized as a study target until recently. Berlyne (1971) associated intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation with aesthetic experiences, Zuckerman (1979) refers to it as sensation seeking, Eisenberger et al. (2010) considered it as the motive for sensory pleasure, McInman and Grove (1991) recognized it as peak experiences.. 16.

(27) Leadership Theory. Robbins and Judges (2015) noted transformational leadership as a leader’s capacity to inspire a group of followers to achieve a shared vision or collective goals. Categorized by its styles, leadership has several different theories.. Table 2.1. Types of Leadership Type of Leadership. Trait Theories. Behavioral Theories. Definition. Description. Characteristics and qualities that. Leaders who have some special. belong to each person, and that. traits can be identified as leaders. differentiate non-leaders from leaders. without telling their followers. Different behaviors that allow. Leaders who have some special. identifying leaders and non-leaders.. behaviors can be identified as leaders. without. telling. their. followers. Contingency. The effect on group performance its. Whether an organization will. linked to the proper match of the. succeed or not depends on neither. leader’s style and the degree of. the leader nor the employees, but. control that he has over the situation. on the situation. Charismatic. When certain behaviors are observed,. Leaders with personal charisma. Leadership. followers will create attributions of. can use their personal advantage to. extraordinary leadership abilities. lead their subordinates. If leaders are able to inspire their. Leaders who instead of using a. followers, and help them transcend. rewards and punishment system,. their self-interest this will lead to. provide expectations and visions. profound an extraordinary effect on. to their subordinates. Theories. Transformational Leadership. followers. Authentic Leadership Leaders who know what they believe. The value and style of leaders that. in, what they value and act according. involve issues like whether the. to those beliefs and values, leaders. leaders are ethical and whether the. that know who they are.. leaders have trust with their subordinates.. (Continued) 17.

(28) Table 2.1. (continued.) Type of Leadership. Definition. Description. Mentoring. A leader that supports subordinates. Whether a leader is willing to. Leadership. that have less experience. teach or support his or her subordinates. Note. Adopted from Robbins, Stephen P. & Judge, Timothy A. (2015). Organizational behavior (16th ed.) Pearson, 362-392. In the past leadership theories mostly concerned traditional, individualistic views of leaders, based on distinguishing the key characteristics of successful leaders, the autocratic or democratic leadership, directive or participative leadership, task-oriented or relation-oriented leadership and other related exchange theories of leadership that ignored the effects of the sharing of vision, symbolism, imaging, and sacrifice on leader-follower relations (Bass, 1997). Afterwards, Avolio (1999) developed more leadership qualities on different aspects.. Table 2.2 Leadership Style Type of Leadership Intellectual Stimulation Individualized. Definition Encouraging followers to question for problem solving Understanding the needs of each follower. Consideration Contingent Reward Active Management-By-. Expectations from followers and how they are rewarded in response Monitoring the tasks closely to maintain performance. Exception Passive-Avoidant. React only after arising serious problems & take corrective action. Leadership. Note. Adopted from Avolio, B. (1999). Full Leadership Development: Building the Vital Forces in Organization. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.. 18.

(29) Firefighters are working with other members as a team. Transformational leadership are considering intellectual stimulating, motivating, and inspiring, and to act as role models for each individual in the team. The researcher adopted transformational leadership approach (Bass, 1985) to conduct this study.. Transformational Leadership. In the definition based on Bass’s theory (1985), transformational leadership transcends and surmounts the transactional incentives for desired performance, and it is more about stimulating, developing, and inspiring followers to target a vision, mission, or collective purpose instead of targeting their personal interests. The idea of this type of leadership was developed together by Burns (1978) and Bass (1985). Rather than rewarding goal achievers and punishing those who fail, a transformational leader motivates followers to be aware of the importance of the tasks that they are doing and inspires the followers to put self-interests after the organization (Lehmann-Willenbrock, Meinecke, Rowold, & Kauffeld, 2015). In the same study, they found that transformational leadership style can have a positive effect on team members’ solutionfocused communication. Transformational leaders create meaning in doing tasks and activities that positively reinforce their followers’ commitment towards the organization’s goals. If a transformational leader can build a mutual trust relationship with his or her employees, employees will be more willing to change when some contingency situations happen. For leadership styles, there are a lot of things worthdiscussing. For example, followers are more likely to feel job satisfaction if they perceive their leader as authentic (Rahimnia & Sharifirad, 2015) and that loyalty to supervisors has a positive effect on job performance (Wu & Wang, 2012). The transformational leadership and the transactional leadership style are often compared 19.

(30) to each other. Transactional leaders focus on schemes to achieve specific operational targets goals (Wofford, Goodwin, & Whittington, 1998), and in exchange of those efforts, these kinds of leaders provide extrinsic rewards to their subordinates (Li, Sheldon & Liu, 2015). Under transformational leadership style, group members hold greater attentions and respond better to motivational inspiration, individual consideration behaviors and intellectual stimulation provided by the leader by improving the cognitive reconstructions prompted by these behaviors. Hence, transformational leaders enhance the cognitive efforts of the members of the group that are engaged and involved with a collaborative learning task (Kahai, Jestine, & Huang, 2013).. Individualized Consideration. Individualized consideration has been previously defined as the degree that a leader considers the need of each individual, and spends time teaching and coaching. Besides, this type of leader plays a mentor role and pays attention to his follower's needs and concerns. The leader steps into other people’s shoes, provides supports, encourages communications, and locates challenges before the followers. The leader also recognizes and appreciates the contributions made by the subordinates. Followers who work under this type of leader will have a stronger will in developing themselves and doing their job intrinsically.. Intellectual Stimulation Intellectual stimulation is the extent that a leader takes risks, asks for opinions from the followers, and challenges assumptions. Those leaders who perform the 20.

(31) intellectual stimulation style encourage and stimulate creativity in their followers. They inspire and encourage independent thinking. Rather than escaping from dynamic and unexpected scenarios, this kind of leader sees difficulties and challenges as opportunities to learn and the leader inspires the followers to ask questions and seek improved methods to complete their duties.. Inspirational Motivation. Inspirational Motivation implies the extent that a leader declares attractive and inspirational visions to his/her supporters. Leaders that possess inspirational motivation engage their follower’s trough high standards; they also put a lot of efforts to share their optimism in regards to future goals, and remind them of the meaning and value of the functions they perform. Being motivated to act, the followers will have stronger sense of achieving common goals. Inspirational leaders instill purpose and meaning of the job that generates energy and motivation, driving a group to move forward. The visionary aspects of leaders conduct effective communication and create a vision that is understandable, powerful, and precise so that followers will engage in the tasks that they are doing. The followers have stronger motivation that will translate to higher levels of effort in their duties; they will be inspired and will demonstrate an optimistic attitude towards the challenges ahead believing in their abilities and skills.. Idealized Influence Idealized influence is a leader’s status that is recognized as a role model presenting ethical behavior and pride. The followers respect and trust them because the leader is considered moral, trustful, and honorable. Leaders with idealized influence inspires admiration, trust, respect, and loyalty, and they articulate the importance of having a 21.

(32) purpose, an objective, commitment, a common sense of mission, and shared values. Avolio and Bass (1995) divided idealized influence into idealized attributes and idealized behaviors, respectively represents a leader’s internalized characteristics and externalized behaviors.. Job Satisfaction. Smith, Kendall and Huh (1969) viewed job satisfaction as the degree to which employees, through positive attitude and affective orientation, achieve positive results related to the work, either in precise personal aspects or in general. Gruneberg (1979) considered job satisfaction as the individual’s psychological responses toward a specific job or more specifically as one’s attitude towards a job, whether we like it or dislike it. Later Spector (1997) essentially defined job satisfaction as the degree that an individual likes his/her job, and as the positive or negative feeling of the level of satisfaction for the job. An individual can be satisfied with a job intrinsically and extrinsically. Intrinsic satisfaction refers to growth opportunities within an organization; whereas extrinsic motivation is relevant with pay, promotion, and other external motivators (Schwepker, 2001). A more recent definition of the concept of job satisfaction is from Hulin and Judge (2003), who have defined job satisfaction as responses that include multidimensional aspects with three different components: affection, cognition, and behavior. It was also defined as how a person perceives a job, and the extent to which one likes a job. In the work environment, if the employees’ needs and values are taken into consideration by the organization, the employees’ level of satisfaction towards their job will be higher (Abraham, 2012). Regarding to the positive effect of job satisfaction, previous studies had already examined how important job satisfaction is and the role it pays towards work engagement, and Nobuo, Hirofumi, and Nobuyuki (2004) found a 22.

(33) positive relation between job satisfaction and the extent of self-determination.. Job satisfaction is the feeling that individuals have about their job and that comes after evaluating its characteristics (Robbins & Judge, 2015), job satisfaction of employees occupies an important place in the list of main concerns of human resources management department (Sabri, Ilyas & Amjad, 2011). Job satisfaction is the attitude individuals hold towards one specific job and it is a response to experiences in that job (Mottaz, 1987). This research adopted Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1997) as the instrumentation for measuring firefighters’ job satisfaction for two reasons:. 1. Spector correctly makes the point that some of the other scales are expensive to obtain and score. In contrast, the JSS is given in its entirety in an appendix and made available for research purposes at no charge. Therefore, the reliability and validity of this instrumentation is openly and transparently reviewed and examined. (Larwood & Trentham, 1998). 2. The design of the questionnaire contains 9 dimensions (contingent rewards, nature of work, communication, coworkers, pay, operating conditions, fringe benefits, promotion, and supervision) with 36 items, which can be properly adapted to different studies according to the need and the objectives of the study. For example, the dimension contingent reward is not discussed in this study; the research does not include this sub-dimension into the construct of job satisfaction.. 23.

(34) Satisfaction of Supervision. Satisfaction of supervision indicates a subordinate’s satisfaction of his or her immediate supervisor. Evaluating to which extent subordinates perceive that their supervisor is fair, shows interest in their feelings and competencies in the job.. Satisfaction of Communication. Satisfaction of communication is our satisfaction about the communication within the organization, people are satisfied because they know clearly about the goal, what tasks have to be completed, and the work related assignments are fully explained.. Satisfaction of Nature of Work Nature of work refers to the job itself. Satisfaction of nature of work is defined as the perceived satisfaction of how much one likes the job and recognizes it as meaningful. Besides feeling the job is enjoyable, individuals also feel proud of the job they are doing.. 24.

(35) Organizational Commitment. Porter, Steers, Mowday, and Boulian (1974) considered organizational commitment as the extent to which an individual identifies and engages in a certain organization. Meyer and Allen (1991) later recognized organizational commitment as Three-Component Model, specifically classifying organizational commitment in three dimensions: affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment. Organizational commitment indicates that people who are committed to the organization will be willing to make sacrifices and give a part of them for benefiting and contributing to the organization’s well-being (Pradhan & Pradhan, 2015). Meyer and Allen (1991) viewed affective commitment as the “desire” component of organizational commitment. An affectively committed employee strongly identifies with the organizational goals and desires to stay as one of the members of the organization. Continuance commitment is the perceived or calculated cost of leaving the organizational; whereas normative commitment implies the value of being obligated to be loyal toward their organization. Continuance commitment is not broadly discussed because differently from other important factors, it accumulates with employees’ age and tenure. In most of the literatures related to organizational commitment, instead of focusing on three types of commitment, they talk more about affective commitment. Meyer and Allen (1991) indicates affective commitment is the degree that a person identifies and is involved with the organization and they have articulated that affective commitment and normative commitment can be the predictors of performance. Therefore, I have selected affective commitment and normative commitment as subdimensions for organizational commitment. Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky (2002) also states that affective commitment is critical because it is intimately linked with employee turnover, absenteeism, organizational citizenship 25.

(36) behavior, and job performance. Besides, the definition of organizational commitment by Meyer and Allen, Benkhoff (1997) and Mathieu and Zajac (1990) recognized organizational commitment as employees’ psychological or emotional attachment to their organizations and employee engagement, cooperation, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment largely affect the organizational performance (Ajibade & Ayinla, 2014). Some researchers (Wahab, Fuad, Ismail, & Majid, 2014) also call affective commitment “emotional commitment”. With regard to normative commitment, normatively committed individuals believe that they are obliged to remain with the organization that supports their value and feel obligated to remain in or stay with their organization (Allen & John, 1990). Meyer et al. (2002) detected a positive relationship between affective commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. Garg and Rastogi (2006) argued that if an individual is committed towards the organization, he or she will engage in flexible behaviors that are not within the scope or requirements of the role, such as, cooperating, and sharing resources. Mowday, Porter, and Steers (1982) mentioned that organizational commitment reflects the extent to which members believe in and accept the values and the goals that the organization has, and are willing to devote abundant efforts toward their organizations. Mowday et al. (1982) also defined organizational commitment as a solid desire to remain in the company.. Affective Commitment. Affective commitment, also known as affective attachment, is the most prevailing approach to organizational commitment in the literature. It is recognized as an individual’s emotional or affective attachment toward the organization. People who are strongly committed to their organization identify themselves as members of it. 26.

(37) Continuance Commitment. Continuous commitment implies the perceived costs of staying in an organization and it is seen as a tendency to engage in consistent with the organization because one recognizes the serious costs if one discontinuous staying with the organization (Becker, 1960).. Normative Commitment. Normative commitment refers to personal value and the perception towards obligation. It implies how a person considers that commitment is the responsibility individuals have to the organization. Wiener (1982) recognized normative commitment as the totality of internalized normative pressures or values of being obligated to act accordingly with the goals of the organization and its interests because those normatively committed employees think that it is the right thing to do.. 27.

(38) Hypothesis Development Before developing the research framework for this study, relationships between variables have to be identified in order for the framework to be based and supported by previous studies.. Intrinsic Motivation and Job Satisfaction In measuring work motivation factors, research has it found that higher motivation leads to lower turnover intentions (Ertas, 2015). Employees’ motivation is associated with the work process, that closely represents a significant job satisfaction determinant (Djordjević, Petrović, Vuković, Mihailović, &, Dimić, 2015) Intrinsic motivation describes how a person is satisfied with opportunities of learning or acquiring new things or knowledge, with opportunities of achieving certain things that are worthwhile, with opportunities of doing something that satisfies them. In contrast, the group with lower intrinsic motivation has lower satisfaction with the promotion policies and practices at the organization (Dave, Dotson, Cazier, Chawla, & Badgett, 2011). Brown and Huning (2010) targeted 364 university students to examine the relationship between intrinsic motivation and job satisfaction, and the result showed that intrinsic motivation is positively related to job satisfaction.. Hypothesis 1: Firefighters’ intrinsic motivation has an effect on their job satisfaction.. 28.

(39) Transformational Leadership and Job Satisfaction. Tesfaw (2014) conducted a study on the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction at a government secondary school in Ethiopia. He recognized that principals’ transformational leadership behavior is associated with the level of teachers’ job satisfaction. Wahab, Fuad, Ismail, and Majid (2014) also studied on this relationship between headmasters’ transformational leadership and teachers’ job satisfaction, and they found it is positive and significant. In Shibru and Darshans’ (2011) research, both hypotheses of the relationship between transformational leadership and subordinates’ job satisfaction and that between the components of transformational leadership and subordinates’ job satisfaction are supported. Besides, transformational leadership can increase employees’ job satisfaction and with higher levels of satisfaction, cooperative conflict resolution inside an organization will improve (Yang, 2014).. Hypothesis 2: Perceived transformational leadership behavior has an effect on job satisfaction of firefighters.. Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment Leite, Rodrigues, and Albuquerque (2014) studied job satisfaction on two aspects: satisfaction with rewards and satisfaction with interpersonal relations. They found that the dimensions of satisfaction measured in this study have a positive effect on organizational commitment, and satisfaction with interpersonal relationships has greater impact on commitment than satisfaction with rewards. Abu-Shamaa, AlRabayah, and Khasawneh (2015) also discovered the relationships between job 29.

(40) satisfaction, work engagement, and organizational commitment. In Raina and Roebucks’ research (2016), they examined that job satisfaction has 55.8% r-square change on organizational commitment with the collected samples.. Hypothesis 3: Firefighters’ job satisfaction has an effect on their organizational commitment.. Intrinsic Motivation and Organizational Commitment From previous studies, the relationship between intrinsic motivation and organizational commitment has been recognized. It was noted that the levels of affective, continuance, and normative commitment increase when teachers are intrinsically and extrinsically motivated (Çınar & Saraçlı, ,2015), and the finding indicates that intrinsic motivation and organizational commitment are significantly correlated, suggesting that whatever an individual has experienced in the job can predict the commitment and supporting the hypothesis that intrinsic decision factors and commitment have a positive relationship (O’Reilly & Caldwell, 1980).. Hypothesis 4: Firefighters’ intrinsic motivation has an effect on their organizational commitment.. Transformational Leadership and Organizational Commitment. According to the results from past research, followers’ perceived transformational leadership and their organizational commitment are positively (Mert, Keskin, & Bas, 2010) and significantly (Tseng & Kang, 2008) correlated with each other. Previous studies have presented that the followers will be more committed to their organization 30.

(41) when the leaders are performing or demonstrating transformational leadership style. Rai and Sinha (2000) conducted an empirical study in India, and the case indicated the relationship between transformational leadership and subordinates’ organizational commitment. Wahab et al. (2014) also studied on the relationships between headmasters’ transformational leadership and teachers’ commitment, and they found the correlation is positive and significant. Aydin, Sarier, and Uysal (2013) reported that transformational leadership has a large effect on organizational commitment, and the study showed that as the transformational leadership behavior of school principals increases, teachers’ organizational commitment increase.. Hypothesis 5: Perceived transformational leadership behavior has an effect on organizational commitment.. 31.

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(43) CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY. In this chapter, the researcher presents an outline of the research method used for the study, including research framework, hypotheses, research procedure, data collection, instrumentation, reliability and validity of instruments and data analysis. Before continuing to the data analysis process of the main study, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis will be conducted to test the model fit and exclude items that do not reach the criteria.. Research Framework. Based on literature review, the dimensions under each construct were defined in the previous chapter. The researcher developed the research framework for this study according to the relationships that have been discovered in other studies. The framework of intrinsic motivation, transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment (Figure 3.1) is used to address the purpose of study. The framework shows the hypotheses being tested and the variables under study.. Figure 3.1. Research framework 33.

(44) Research Hypotheses. Based on the framework presented in Figure 3.1 and the research questions, the following hypotheses are developed:. Hypothesis 1: Firefighters’ intrinsic motivation has an effect on their job satisfaction. Hypothesis 2: Perceived transformational leadership behavior has an effect on job satisfaction of firefighters. Hypothesis 3: Firefighters’ job satisfaction has an effect on their organizational commitment. Hypothesis 4: Firefighters’ intrinsic motivation has an effect on their organizational commitment. Hypothesis 5: Perceived transformational leadership behavior has an effect on organizational commitment of firefighters.. Research Procedure. Figure 3.2 illustrates the procedure of this research. To explain the procedure, the steps can be categorized into 7 main stages: select topic, focus question, design study, collect data, analyze data, interpret data, and inform others. The researcher has already finished the proposal meeting, and this thesis is being submitting after the process of final defense and review.. 34.

(45) Background of Study. Conduct Pilot Test. Review of Literature. Review of Instrument. Identify Problems. Data Collection. Identify Research Questions. Data Coding. Develop Framework. Data Analysis. Develop Research Method. Conclusion and Suggestions. Develop Instrument. Report Completion. Expert Review. Final Defense. Proposal Meeting. Revision. Thesis Submission. Figure 3.2. Research procedure. 35.

(46) Data Collection. For this study, the targeted population will be composed of firefighters who work in fire agencies as full-time workers and chose this job as their career. Population and sampling issue is explained first, followed by instrumentation that indicates the measuring tools of this research. In the section of reliability and validity test, the criteria for the items are listed. The researcher conducted the tests using the collected samples to examine how appropriate the measurements adopted for the participants on this study were.. Population and Sampling. According to Taiwan National Fire Agency (2015), the total population of fulltime firefighters is 13,511 in total. For the pilot test, the researcher reached his acquainted firefighters to answer the questionnaire, and require them to deliver the questionnaires to other firefighters. 83 samples were collected for pilot test. After the data analysis for the pilot test was conducted, the researcher contacted with fire stations to receive more samples and 290 samples were collected for the main study.. From the collected samples, 290 samples were received by means of paper and online questionnaires. The researcher excludes invalid questionnaires in which the respondents scored all items at the same scale and he also deleted duplicated samples. Out of 290 samples, 275 valid questionnaires were retrieved.. 36.

(47) Instrumentation. This is a questionnaire-based or questionnaire-oriented research conducted in hoping to figure out the factors that have effect on organizational commitment. The questionnaire for this study was designed with five parts including the demographic or background information. In avoidance of the bias due to respondents’ tendency when they fill out the questionnaire, the arrangement of the questionnaire was designed to respectively examine each construct in the order of job satisfaction, transformational leadership, organizational commitment, and intrinsic motivation. The instrument consists of 4 variables, 14 sub-dimensions, and 68 questions in total:. Intrinsic Motivation. Pelletier & Tusons’ (1995) Toward a New Measure of Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, and Amotivation in Sports: The Sport Motivation Scale is adopted in measuring participants’ intrinsic motivation working as firefighters. The adopted items are extracted from IM to know (IMK), IM toward accomplishment (IMA), and IM to experience stimulation (IMS). Each item is with 5 point Likert’s scale. The Cronbach’s alpha value is .80 for IM to know, .80 for IM toward accomplishment, and .74 for IM to experience stimulation. This questionnaire was designed for measuring people’s intrinsic motivation in doing sports, and the researcher adopted the items to measure firefighters’ intrinsic motivation. The adopted items were reviewed by senior firefighters and modified according to their advices to fit the questions with the working condition.. 37.

(48) Transformational Leadership. Transformational leadership is defined as perceived transformational leadership behavior of firefighters’ supervisors. To measure leadership behaviors, the most widely accepted instrument to measure transformational leadership was applied, which is the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Bass, Avolio, Jung, & Berson, 2003). In this questionnaire, 4 items are used to assess each dimension. It includes Leader Form for self-evaluation of leaders and Rather Form for evaluation of leaders by subordinates. In this study, Rather Form was adopted to evaluate firefighters’ perceived transformational leadership behavior of their supervisors because the targeted participants are firefighters and Rather Form can avoid self-reported bias.. Job Satisfaction. Job satisfaction survey (JSS) by Spector (1997) was adopted for this study. 4 items are provided to measure each dimensions, and 3 dimensions (satisfaction with supervision, satisfaction with communication, and satisfaction of nature of work are applied. 12 items in total were used in this questionnaire. Out of the 12 questions, 6 questions were originally designed as reverse questions with inverted wordings, which are used to verify the validity of the questionnaires, in which respondents answered the questions carefully and properly. For the reliability and validity issue, the researcher found an article that mainly focuses on examining JSS scale, and all dimensions used for this study have Chrobach’s Alpha above .7 (Astrauskaite, Vaitkevicius, & Perminas, 2011).. 38.

(49) Organizational Commitment. This study adopted three-component model of commitment (Allen & Meyer, 1990) as the scale to measure firefighters’ organizational commitment. The questionnaire consists of 24 questions and each dimension has 8 questions. In each dimension, 3 reverse questions are used to examine how participants pay attention to answering the questionnaire. In this study, commitment toward organization is defined as firefighters’ commitment toward their fire agencies or fire departments. Some wordings were modified to make this scale fit with firefighters’ condition, and questions were reviewed and paraphrased according to experts’ opinions.. Control Variables. The research focus is organizational commitment of firefighters in Taiwan, and during the literature review process, many studies indicated that organizational commitment is accumulated with age and tenure (Brimeyer, Perrucci, & Wadsworth, 2010), especially continuance commitment. Besides, some studies have been conducted in measuring the effect of gender and marital status on organizational commitment, and the results shows the positive relationships are in-between (Çoğaltay, 2015). In this study, gender is coded: (1) male, (2) female. Marital is coded: (1) single, (2) married, Age is coded: (1) 18~25, (2) 26~30, (3) 31~35, (4) 36~40, (5) 40 and above years old. Tenure is coded: (1) 0~1 (2) 2~3 (3) 4~5 (4) 6~7 (5) 8~9 (6) 10 and above years. Control variables will be tested during data analysis, and the research will use SPSS hierarchical regression technique to examine the effect of control variables on organizational commitment. 39.

(50) Table 3.1. Adaptations of Scales Used in this Study for Instrumentation. Variable. NO. of Items. Coding. Adapted From. Intrinsic Motivation. 12. IM. Pelletier & Tuson (1995). Transformational Leadership. 20. TL. Avolio & Bass (1995). Job Satisfaction. 12. JS. Spector (1997). Organizational Commitment. 24. OC. Allen & Meyer (1990). Table 3.2. Reliability of the Adopted Measurements Construct. Dimensions. Cronbach’s Alpha. Source Reference. Intrinsic Motivation. IM to know. 0.80. IM toward accomplishment. 0.80. Pelletier & Tuson (1995). IM to experience stimulation. 0.74. Idealized Attribute. 0.97. Idealized Behavior. 0.97. Inspirational Motivation. 0.97. Intellectual Stimulation. 0.97. Individualized Consideration. 0.97. Satisfaction of Supervision. 0.82. Satisfaction of Communication. 0.71. Satisfaction of Nature of Work. 0.78. Astrauskaite, Vaitkevicius & Perminas (2011). Affective Commitment. 0.89. Yucel (2012). Continuance Commitment. 0.71. Normative Commitment. 0.78. Transformatio nal Leadership. Job Satisfaction Organizational Commitment. 40. Bass, Avolio, Jung & Berson, 2003.

(51) Constructs Coding and Scales. Table 3.3. Coding and Scales for the Construct of Intrinsic Motivation Code IMK1 IMK2 IMK3 IMK4 IMA5. Items For the pleasure it gives me to know more about the job that I do. For the pleasure of discovering new working techniques. For the pleasure that I feel while learning working techniques that I have never tried before. For the pleasure of discovering new performance strategies.. IMA6 IMA7 IMA8. Because I feel a lot of personal satisfaction while mastering certain difficult working techniques. For the pleasure I feel while improving some of my weak points. For the satisfaction I experience while I am perfecting my abilities. For the pleasure that I feel while executing certain difficult achievement.. IMS9 IMS10 IMS11 IMS12. For the pleasure I feel in having exciting job experiences. For the excitement I feel when I am really involved in the job. For the intense emotions I feel doing a job that I like. Because I like the feeling of being totally immersed in the job.. Note. IM=Intrinsic Motivation, K=to know, A=toward Accomplishment, S=to experience stimulation.. Table 3.4. Coding and Scales for the Construct of Transformational Leadership Code TLIC1 TLIC2 TLIC3 TLIC4. Items My direct supervisor spends time teaching and coaching. My direct supervisor treats others as an individual rather than just as a member of a group. My direct supervisor considers an individual as having different needs, abilities and aspirations from others. My direct supervisor helps others to develop their strengths. (Continued) 41.