A RESEARCH ON MEDIATING ROLE OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT
2020
Dergi:
Business & Management Studies: An International Journal
Özet:
LITERATURE RESEARCH SUBJECT, PURPOSE AND IMPORTANCE An organization needs to succeed in obtaining qualified human capital as well as being able to efficiently and effectively use it in a sustainable competitive environment. At this point, organizational commitment explained as employees’ perceiving the goal and values of the organization, by exhibiting all his/her capacity in order to reach the organizational goals and his/her desire to stay as a member of the organization and to be identified with it, become more of an issue. When the importance of human capital, especially in-service industry, is considered, commitment to the organization becomes even more critical. It has been confirmed by the studies that performance increases with the increase in organizational commitment. In order to create an organizational commitment, a few premises are needed in both personal and organizational sense. In the literature, the importance of perceived organizational support as one of the factors affecting organizational commitment is emphasized. Perceived organizational support can be described as recognizing the efforts of employees, respecting and welcoming their contributions. The studies have supported it that as organizational support perceived by individuals increases, organizational commitment enhances as well (Yoon and Thye, 2002; Allen et al., 2003; Makanjee et al., 2006; Piercy et al., 2006; Zhang et al., 2012; Ersoy, 2014). On the other hand, the work-life balance of human capital should be ensured so that it creates value for the organization. The findings of the studies show that as the organizational commitment of individuals experiencing work-life conflict decreases, efficiency and effectiveness also declines accordingly. At the same time, studies are supporting that as the perceived organizational support increases, work-life conflicts of individuals decrease (Foley et al., 2010; Vallone and Ensher, 2001; Aycan and Eskin, 2005; Foley et al., 2005; Akın, 2008; Önderoğlu, 2010). This study aims to examine the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational commitment with its sub-dimensions in the framework of social change theory, reciprocity theory and side-bet theory. The study was conducted in the aviation industry in the service sector in Turkey. To determine the mediating role of work-life balance with its sub-dimensions in the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational commitment is also in the content of this study. The sample of the study is composed of cabin attendants, whose work-life balance becomes vital due to the nature of their work. In the light of findings obtained as the result of this study, it is aimed to develop suggestions for managers in the aviation sector and contribute to the literature as well. CONTRIBUTION of the ARTICLE to the LITERATURE First of all, there is no sufficient number of studies in the literature investigating the mediating role of work-life balance and its subdimensions in the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational commitment. This study contributes to the literature by examining these relationships in the context of social exchange theory, reciprocity theory and side-bet theory. Second, the concepts of perceived organizational support, organizational commitment and work-life balance are critical issues from the perspective of the aviation industry when the dynamics of this industry is considered, particularly in the case of cabin crew members. In this context, this research aims to help aviation sector managers and human resources department officials understand the importance of work-life balance in the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational commitment. Accordingly, this study will contribute to practitioners to generate strategies that will handle related problems. DESIGN AND METHOD RESEARCH PROBLEM The research problem is as follows: Do the organizational support perceptions of cabin attendants working in a corporate and well-known airline company affect their work-life balance and organizational commitment? DATA COLLECTION METHOD In this study, a questionnaire was developed to collect data and test the hypotheses. The questionnaire form consists of three sections. In the first section, a 5-point Likert type of perceived organizational support scale consisting of 8 items was used (Eisenberger et al., 1997). In the second section of the questionnaire, the organizational commitment scale, composed of three sub-dimensions as emotional, normative and continuation commitment, was used with 18 items on a 5 point Likert type of scale (Meyer, Allen and Smith, 1993). In the third section, a 5-point Likert type of work-family life conflict and family-work conflict scale consisting of 10 items were used (Netemeyer, Boles and McMurrian, 1996). All items on this scale are reverse coded. The work-life balance scale is divided into two dimensions as work-family life balance and family-work balance. The sample of the study is composed of 258 cabin attendants working in a corporate and well-known airline company. QUANTITATIVE / QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS In the study, the responses of the participants were evaluated on a Likert type of scale from 1: strongly disagree to 5: agree, and the obtained data were analyzed with the IBM SPSS-25 statistical program. In order to determine which analysis to be applied, whether the data is normally distributed or not is examined first. Since the kurtosis and skewness values remain between +2 and -2 in three scales, it is concluded that the distribution is normal then parametric tests are applied. In this context, exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis are performed for observing the structure and consistency of the questionnaire, whereas correlation and hierarchical regression analysis are used for testing the research model. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES H1: There is a significant and positive relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational commitment, (a) emotional commitment, (b) normative commitment and (c) continuous commitment. H2: There is a significant and positive relationship between perceived organizational support and work-life balance, (a) work-family life balance and (b) family-work balance. H3: There is a significant and positive relationship between work-life balance ((a) work-family life and (b) family-work balance) and organizational commitment. H3a: There is a significant and positive relationship between work-family life balance and (a1) emotional commitment, (a2) normative commitment and (a3) continuous commitment. H3b: There is a significant and positive relationship between family-work balance and (b1) emotional commitment, (b2) normative commitment and (b3) continuous commitment. H4: Work-life balance has a mediating role in the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational commitment. H5: Work-life balance has a mediating role in the relationship between perceived organizational support and sub-dimensions of organizational commitment. (H5a) Work-family life balance, (H5b) Family-work balance has a mediating role in the relationship between perceived organizational support and emotional commitment. (H5c) Work-family life balance, (H5d) Family-work balance has a mediating role in the relationship between perceived organizational support and normative commitment. (H5e) Work-family life balance, (H5f) Family-work balance has a mediating role in the relationship between perceived organizational support and continuous commitment. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Findings show that perceived organizational support has a significant and positive effect on organizational commitment. These findings support the current literature (Settoon et al., 1996; Eisenberger et al., 2001; Yoon and Thye, 2002; Allen et al., 2003; Özdevecioğlu, 2003; Bishop et al., 2005; Makanjee et al., 2006; Piercy et al., 2006; Zhang et al., 2012; Altınöz et al., 2013; Ersoy, 2014; Galletta et al., 2016; Afif, 2018; Karadirek, 2020). Also, it was concluded that perceived organizational support had a significant and positive effect on emotional, normative and continuation commitment. These results are compatible with the research findings in the literature (Pare, Tremblay and Lalonde, 2001; Özdevecioğlu, 2003; Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002; Makanjee et al., 2006; Aube, Rousseau and Morin, 2007; Marique et al., 2012; Woo and Chelladurai, 2012; Özkan, 2017; Dinç and Birincioğlu, 2020). W the relationship between work-life balance and organizational commitment is examined, it is seen that work-life balance positively affects organizational commitment. These results are consistent with the literature (Vatansever, 2008; Sakthivel and Jayakrishnan, 2012; Gupta and Gupta, 2013; Azeem and Akhtar, 2014; Korkmaz and Erdoğan, 2014; Nayak and Sahoo, 2015; Dhammika, 2016; Wijaya ve Dewi, 2017; Oyewobial., 2019; Hutagalunga, Soeltonb and Octavianic, 2020; Kesumayani et al., 2020; Wardana et al., 2020).gain, according to the findings of the study, it is seen that work-life balance is sufficient on emotional, normative and continuation commitment. The literature supports these findings (LaMastro, 2000; Dockel, Basson and Coetzee, 2006; Norton 2009; Casper et al., 2011; Agarwala et al., 2014; Ferreira, 2014; Tayfun and Çatır, 2014; Biwott, Kemboi and Goren, 2015; Biwott, Kemboi and Goren, 2015; Choo, Desa and Asaari, 2016; Choo, Desa and Asaari, 2016; Wayne et al., 2017; Choi et al., 2018; Shabir and Gani, 2019). Among the findings of the study, work-life balance is also significantly affected by perceived organizational support, and these results are consistent with the current literature (Vallone and Ensher, 2001; Aycan and Eskin, 2005; Foley et al., 2005; Akın, 2008; Önderoğlu, 2010; Turunç and Çelik, 2010; Ulukapı, 2013; Fitria, Yuki and Linda, 2019). Similarly, it was concluded that the relationship between perceived organizational support and the sub-dimensions of a work-life balance was positively significant. These results are in line with the literature (Ulukapı, 2013; Yang and Islam, 2020). When the mediating role of work-life balance in the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational commitment is examined, it is revealed that work-life balance has a partial mediating role in this relationship. However, there is no study in the literature on whether the dimensions of work-life balance have a mediating role in the effect of perceived organizational support on the sub-dimensions of organizational commitment. CONCLUSION AND LIMITATIONS 4.1. RESULTS of the ARTICLE The results show that sub-dimensions of work-life balance (work-family life balance and family-work balance) have a partial mediating role in the relationship between perceived organizational support and sub-dimensions of organizational commitment (emotional, normative and continuous commitment). In this sense, this study makes contributions to the current literature by examining these relationships in the context of social exchange theory, reciprocity theory and side-bet theory. The results also draw attention to the importance of work-life balance for managers in airline companies to be able to reconsider the related current problems and to generate strategies in order to handle these problems. 4.2. LIMITATIONS of the ARTICLE One of the main limitations of the study is that the study was limited to cabin attendants working in an airline business in the aviation sector. Another limitation of the study is that only a well-recognized airline company was selected, no other airline companies in the private sector were involved. Besides, while organizational commitment variable is limited by continuous, normative and emotional commitment, work-life balance is limited by work-family life balance and family-work balance. By the purpose of the study, it is assumed that the prepared questionnaire form is fully understood by the airline company cabin attendants within the study. Accordingly, they responded with sincerity and objectivity. It is also assumed that the selected sample represents the universe.
Anahtar Kelimeler: