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2007 Annual International CHRIE Conference & Exposition
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go to work regularly, spend the day working, and protect the firm’s assets. The importance of organizational
commitment stems from the fact that it is negatively related to the intention to leave the organization (Allen and
Meyer, 1990; Bartlett and Kang, 2004). Moreover, organizational commitment is more important during times of
sectorial restructuring and organizational changes that may generate feelings of rejection or high levels of
uncertainty that entail organizational problems (i.e. absenteeism).
Many empirical studies identify job satisfaction as an antecedent of organizational commitment (e.g.,
Mueller and Price, 1990; Tett and Meyer, 1993; Wallace, 1995; Lum et al., 1998). Researchers who support that
idea implicitly assume that employees’ orientations to work necessarily precede their orientations to the organization
as a whole (Mowday et al., 1982; Mueller et al., 1996). Thus, the literature provides evidence that having satisfied
employees increases competitive success (García et al., 2003; Garrido et al., 2005); that the most satisfied
employees are usually the most productive (Appelbaum and Kamal, 2000), and that dissatisfied employees are more
frequently absent from work (Robbins, 2003) and are more disposed to leaving the firm (Lee, 1998).
A review of the literature reveals many empirical works that study the effect of different variables on
satisfaction, such as those that link satisfaction to the demographic characteristics of employees –sex, marital status,
level of education, age, work experience, etc.- (Agho et al., 1993; Morgan et al., 1995; García et al., 2003). Many
works also relate satisfaction to the work performed by the employee –working environment, the work in itself, the
characteristics of the tasks, etc.- (Leal et al., 1999; García et al., 2003). Finally, other works link satisfaction with the
working conditions provided by the firm –reward, promotion, job stability, etc.- (Morgan et al., 1995; Igalens and
Roussel, 1999; García et al., 2003). However, despite the number of works addressing the issue, there is still no
widely accepted definition of the satisfaction construct (Mumford, 1991). Satisfaction is seen as the extent to which
the employees like their work and to which it influences their working lives (Judge and Watanabe, 1993). Davis and
Newstrom (1999) provide one of the most used definitions of satisfaction when they suggest that satisfaction is a
multidimensional concept that combines various factors, the most significant of which are directly related to the type
of task to be performed and the conditions of the working context. Therefore, starting from the fact that satisfaction
can be broken down into various facets (Tansky and Cohen, 2001), this work approaches that concept from five
dimensions: satisfaction with the job conditions, satisfaction with the reward system, satisfaction with relations with
one’s superior, satisfaction with relations with one’s colleagues and satisfaction with corporate HR policies. In order
to achieve the objective of this work that analyzes the influence of job satisfaction on organizational commitment,
each of those five facets is addressed and the research hypotheses presented.
The physical working conditions refer to those aspects of the job environment (e.g., lighting, temperature)
that may affect the execution of allocated tasks. With regard to this dimension of satisfaction, Locke (1976) states
that employees generally prefer physical working conditions that are neither dangerous nor uncomfortable, and
indicates the two basic principles on which employees base their evaluations of working conditions: the wish for
physical comfort, based on the physical needs of the worker, and the wish for conditions that facilitate (and/or do not
hamper) the achievement of his/her work objectives. Kim (1999) reaches the conclusion that employees who are
exposed to dangerous working conditions are less satisfied, less committed to the organization and less likely to
remain part of it. Although few studies include satisfaction with physical conditions in the workplace as a variable
that stimulates the intention to stay in the organization, Kim (1999) proposes that a series of variables related to
inherent characteristics of the workplace, characteristics of the environment, and individual characteristics determine
continuance in, or resignation from, the organization, with job satisfaction, organizational commitment and the job-
seeking acting as mediating variables. Various studies show that job satisfaction, whose facets include satisfaction
with physical working conditions, generates employee commitment to the organization (Iverson and Roy, 1994;
Kim, 1999). On the basis of those arguments, we propose the following hypothesis:
H1: Satisfaction with physical working conditions exercises a direct and positive influence on the
employee’s organizational commitment.
In Human Resources Management, the reward of employees aims to motivate the accomplishment of
corporate goals, which entails rewarding workers for their contributions, which help maintain the organization. One
issue that arises in that respect refers to the extent to which the employee is satisfied with his/her reward. On that
line, while the literature has suggested that satisfaction with reward depends on the discrepancy between what one
believes one should receive and what one really receives, greater attention is currently paid to the design of a reward
that responds to the needs of the business (Heneman et al., 2002). This does not mean that needs of equity are
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