Job stress and organizational commitment among mentoring coordinators

Abstract

Purpose

This research aims to examine the impact of job stress on the organizational commitment of a random, representative sample of coordinators in the Israeli educational mentoring organization PMP. Organizational commitment, including affective, continuance and normative commitment, refers to worker relations in the organization, and how these relations influence the employee's well‐being, behavior and contribution to the organization.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used three questionnaires to investigate the influence of the stress variable and its cumulative effects to predict the coordinators' organizational commitment, among 131 PMP coordinators from six different PMP branches around Israel.

Findings

The findings revealed that stress hinders the coordinators' sense of emotional commitment. As the stress level rises, the coordinators' sense of belonging decreases. Another finding was that the stress in the coordinators' job does not influence their overall continuance commitment. Strong continuance commitment was found in two categories: role expectations that were not compatible with the role requirements, and the second, unwillingness to leave the job in the middle of the year. In addition, the research indicated that job stress is not related to the PMP coordinators' normative commitment. They felt loyalty to the organization based on the faith that this work is the right thing to do.

Originality/value

The importance of the research lies in the highlighting of stress as an essential factor influencing work and performance in organizations, together with the mitigating influence of organizational commitment. These results could help organizations to better understand the influence of organizational commitment and to manage its implications more effectively. It is suggested that further research should investigate whether those working in educational settings have greater normative commitment than workers in other fields.

Citation

Michael, O., Court, D. and Petal, P. (2009), "Job stress and organizational commitment among mentoring coordinators", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 266-288. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540910941766