Impact of Intrinsic Motivation on Organizational Commitment: Empirical Evidences From China

Abstract

Background: Intrinsic motivation and organizational commitment are closely related variables in organizational behavior (OB) studies. Literatures in OB have shown strong empirical support on this correlation based on the data from North America. But international empirical evidences are very limited, especially for the eastern cultural countries, such China. Objective: This study analyzes and compares the relation between intrinsic motivation and organizational commitment in two countries, the US and China. The three components of organizational commitment proposed by Meyer and Allen are examined separately. Method: 330 samples are collected in the US and China, and analyzed using partial least square (PLS) based structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of the SEM analysis are compared between the countries. Results: Intrinsic motivation is positively associated with affective commitment and normative commitment in both the US and China. Intrinsic motivation is also positively associated with continuance commitment in the US, but not in China. The PLS bestfitting curve also shows the relation between intrinsic motivation and the three components of organizational commitment are non-linear, and very different between the US and China. Conclusion: Employees motivated by the enjoyment of their job will have high levels of commitment to their organization. Unlike employees in the US, employees in China do not regard the loss of enjoyment of their job as a cost associated with leaving an organization.

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