Climbing the ladders of job satisfaction and employee organizational commitment: cross-country evidence using a semi-nonparametric approach

ABSTRACT

Satisfied and committed employees play a major positive role in business performance in today’s globalized and competitive landscape. This paper contributes to the literature on the empirical determinants of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, drawing on a rich micro dataset for 36 countries, using a flexible semi-nonparametric approach, which nests and outperforms the standard ordered probit model. The findings indicate that job satisfaction and organizational commitment can be fostered by instruments which can be controlled by management. Our results shed timely light on how managers can improve job satisfaction and organizational commitment and address implications of the Great Resignation. However, despite the ever-increasing pace of globalization and expanding role of multinationals across the globe in shaping work environments, our results uncover that significant cross-country differences in job satisfaction and organizational commitment do exist, even after controlling for a plethora of job-and-workplace manageable attributes and individual (including religious dimensions) related characteristics.

KEYWORDS:

• Job satisfaction
• employee organizational commitment
• cross-country differences
• great resignation

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Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15140326.2022.2163581

Additional information

Funding

This paper/research is financed by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., project number UIDB/00685/2020.

Notes on contributors

José A. C. Vieira

José A. C. Vieira is a Professor of Economics at the School of Business and Economics of the University of the Azores, in Portugal. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Amsterdam, in Netherlands. His main research areas include tourism and labour economics. He is a member of the editorial board of Tourism Economics.

Francisco J. F. Silva

Francisco J. F. Silva is an Assistant Professor of Operations Research at the School of Business and Economics of the University of the Azores, in Portugal. He holds a Ph.D. in Management from the University Pompeu Fabra, in Spain. His main research areas include operations research and tourism economics.

João C. A. Teixeira

João C. A. Teixeira is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the School of Business and Economics of the University of the Azores, in Portugal. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance from Lancaster University, in the United Kingdom. His main research areas include banking and corporate finance.

António J. V. F. G. Menezes

António J. V. F. G. Menezes is an Associate Professor of Economics at the School of Business and Economics of the University of the Azores, in Portugal. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Boston College, in the U.S.A. His main research areas include labor economics and transportation economics.

Sancha N. B. de Azevedo

Sancha N. B. de Azevedo is a manager in the marketing area. She holds a MSc in Economics and Business Sciences and an undergraduate degree in Economics at the School of Business and Economics of the University of the Azores, in Portugal.