The study of impact of Psychological Capital on work attitude and commitment

Abstract

This project is the result of the study conducted on “The study of the impact of psychological capital on the employees work attitude and commitment.â€

 

In today’s ever-changing world, effective management of human resources is a necessity, but is accompanied with differing management philosophies and methods. This study addresses the growing body of psychological capital research, defined as a positive situation for personal development with the features of self-reliance while dealing with the challenges (self-efficacy), positive expectations for the future success (optimism), being full of determination (hope), and accomplishment in spite of obstacles (resilience).   Based on a review of pertinent literature and theory, this study aims to examine all Psychological Capital concepts with employee’s commitment towards to the organization. The greatest source of references is management literature   specifically related to Psychological Capital and its management.

 

Due to increasing psychological capital approach in organizations, the study aimed to evaluate the effects of psychological capital on organizational commitment. The study population consisted of employees from both the government sector as well as the private organizations located in Shillong, Meghalaya. The study population size is 200 people out of which the sample size used in the study is 165 people. The private organizations in which the study was conducted include Aircel (North East Circle) and Idea (Zonal Office). The Government sectors included in the study comprised of NEEPCO (North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd, MBDA (Meghalaya Basin Development Authority, Department of Fisheries, Department of Water Resources, Department of Labor and Employment and the Forest Department.

 

Respondents were across a range of demographics including gender, age, and nature of work, educational qualification and years of service to the organization. The questionnaire administered was a culmination of 5 standard questionnaires which measured the four constructs of psychological capital (Hope, Self-efficacy, Resilience and Optimism) and Employee’s Commitment towards the organization.

The primary objective of the study is to prove that there is a significant relationship between psychological capital and Commitment. The Psychological Capital was taken as the independent variable, whereas Commitment was observed as the dependent variable. Having determined the variables in the study, the hypothesis was formed. The study also included secondary objectives which focussed on finding a significant relationship for each respective psychological construct with overall commitment and analysis of data collected around the demographics of the sample and come to some conclusion with regards to psychological capital and overall commitment.

 

For the analysis, SPSS statistics software and Microsoft Excel were used. The analysis carried out included the test for reliability, the regression test and the correlation test. A reliability test was carried out to determine the internal consistency of the administered questionnaire. Here the Cronbach’s alpha showed a satisfactory value indicating a good reliability. To test the hypothesis, regression was used and from the results of the analysis it was observed that psychological capital had no significant relationship with employee’s commitment.

 

However, the results of the secondary objectives showed a different result. Here the analysis observed optimism as one of the psychological construct displaying a significant relationship with commitment. Also, when the individual components of psychological capital were analyzed with individual components of commitment, it was observed that Optimism and Self-efficacy displayed a significant relationship with normative commitment. For Continuance commitment, none of the four constructs showed a significant relationship with the dependent variable. For Affective commitment as well, all constructs except for optimism showed a significant relationship with Affective commitment.

 

However, the R square value was very low for all those factors that had a significant relationship with commitment indicating that a low percentage of change in the dependent variable can be attributed to changes in the independent variable. In some fields, it is entirely expected that R square values will be low, especially in fields that attempt to predict human behavior such as psychology as humans are simply harder to predict.