Organizational Behaviour Comportement Organisationnel

norms.Hypothesis 5: Measures of continuance commitment and transactional obligations willcorrelate negatively with turnover intentions, and with the measures of the three criterionnorms.Employee Survey and ParticipantsMethodAlmost 3,000 permanent full-time and part-time, non-management employees (N=2,972)of a Canadian-based health-care organization served as the sample population. This particularorganization was comprised of a chronic-care facility and two comparable acute-care facilities.While the emphasis of a chronic-care facility is different from that of an acute-care facility(longer- versus shorter-term stays by patients), the occupational mix within the two types offacilities was similar, involving a range of non-management occupations such as registerednurses, nursing aids, housekeepers, kitchen helpers, maintenance workers, and administrativestaff. Approximately 90% of the sample population were unionized, and consequently, supportfor this project from local union leaders was critical. Surveys were distributed internally tomembers of the sample population, and returned directly to the researchers via Canada Post. Allemployees were informed that their participation in this study was voluntary and that theirindividual responses would remain confidential. In total, 607 surveys (20.4%) were returned andserved as the respondent sample. Missing data on the study measures reduced the final respondentsample to 583.MeasuresDemographic and Job-Context Characteristics. Each respondent was asked to providesome general information about themselves and the job environment in which they worked. Wewere given permission to assess each respondent’s age, sex, and how long they had worked at theorganization (tenure), and inquire if they were full or part-time and if they worked in a chroniccareor acute-care facility. The average age of respondents was 46 years. Approximately 86% ofrespondents were female and had been employed at this organization for an average of 11 years.A little over half of survey respondents (56%) were classified as full-time employees, androughly 80% of the respondent sample reported working in an acute-care facility. The abovementioneddemographic and job-context characteristics approximated the proportions observed inthe overall organization.Employees’ Perceived Obligations. We assessed this component of the psychologicalcontract by asking respondents to indicate the extent to which they made a number of personalobligations to their employer. Responses were made using a 5-point scale (1=minimally or not atall; 5=very large extent). Six items, reflecting transactional obligations, were averaged to form anoverall scale (alpha = .72). Two transactional sub-scales of three items each, Narrow (alpha =.74) and Short-term (alpha =.68), were computed by averaging responses to their respective items(see Rousseau, 2000). Six items, reflecting relational obligations, were averaged to form anoverall scale (alpha = .75). Two relational sub-scales, Loyalty (alpha =.72) and Security (alpha=.72), were computed by averaging responses to their respective items.Organizational Commitment.We assessed the three forms of organizational144