The Influence of Job Characteristics on Organizational Commitment to Job Satisfaction of Foodservice Employees

The purpose in this study was to determine the relationship among job characteristics, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction of hospital foodservice employees. A 4-part questionnaire was developed including the 30-item Job Characteristics Inventory, 15-item Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, 6 items related to job satisfaction, and 7 demographic items. Separate written questionnaires were administered to 45 supervisors and 172 employees in dietary departments in 11 East Tennessee hospitals. Data from school and university setting was collected from previous studies.

The reliability for the instruments (Cronbach's alpha) was .89 for employees and .87 for supervisors. Multiple regression analyses were used to test research hypotheses with a significance level of p < .05.

There was a positive relationship between job characteristics (variety, autonomy, identity, feedback, dealing with others, and friendship opportunities) and organizational commitment for both supervisors and employees. For supervisors, autonomy was the only individual job characteristic related to commitment. For employees, variety and feedback were significant.

There was a significant difference between job characteristics of supervisory and non-supervisory employees in hospital, school lunch, or university foodservice settings. For both supervisory and non-supervisory employees in all settings, variety, autonomy, dealing with others, and friendship opportunities were significantly different. For each of these job characteristics, supervisory employees rated their jobs higher than did nonsupervisory employees. School foodservice employees consistently rated their job higher than employees in the university and hospital settings on the job characteristics of autonomy, identity, feedback, and friendship opportunities.

A positive relationship was found between job characteristics and job satisfaction for all employees. For both supervisors and employees, variety and feedback were significant. Supervisors had higher job satisfaction scores than employees. For all job characteristics, with the exception of identity, supervisors rated their jobs higher.

Demographic variables did not predict commitment for supervisors. For all employees, age was the only demographic variable significantly related to organizational commitment. For non-supervisory employees, older employees were more committed than younger employees. Job satisfaction is not related to any of the demographic variables.

Understanding the relationship among job characteristics, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction could be useful in job design for foodservice employees. Incorporating variety and feedback into both supervisory and non-supervisory employees jobs may increase organizational commitment and job satisfaction.