Journal of Managerial Psychology

Emerald Article: Affective organizational commitment of workers in Chinese

joint ventures
Yui-Tim Wong, Hang-Yue Ngo, Chi-Sum Wong

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Yui-Tim Wong, Hang-Yue Ngo, Chi-Sum Wong, (2002),"Affective organizational commitment of workers in Chinese joint ventures",
Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 17 Iss: 7 pp. 580 - 598
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Journal of
Managerial
Psychology
17,7
580
Received August 2001
Revised March 2002
Accepted May 2002

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0268-3946.htm

Affective organizational
commitment of workers in
Chinese joint ventures
Yui-Tim Wong

Department of Management, Lingnan University, Hong Kong,

Hang-Yue Ngo and Chi-Sum Wong

Department of Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,

Hong Kong
Keywords Commitment, Trust, Job security, Joint ventures, China
Abstract This study examines the factors affecting joint venture employees' affective
commitment in the Peoples' Republic of China. Three theoretical frameworks (i.e. the justice
framework, the job security framework and the trust framework) are employed to study the
antecedents and the consequence of workers' affective commitment. The proposed mediation
model includes: distributive justice, procedural justice and perceived job security as the
antecedents of affective commitment; trust in organization as the mediator; and turnover
intention as the outcome variable. The results supported this mediation model. It has been found
that trust in organization mediates the relationships between distributive justice, procedural
justice, perceived job security and affective commitment. In addition, perceived job security and
affective commitment have significant effects on the turnover intention of workers. Finally, the
theoretical and practical implications of the present study are discussed.

Journal of Managerial Psychology,

Vol. 17 No. 7, 2002, pp. 580-598.
# MCB UP Limited, 0268-3946
DOI 10.1108/02683940210444049

Introduction
Organizational commitment has been studied extensively over the last three
decades. Tremendous research efforts have been devoted to understanding the
nature, antecedents, and consequences of organizational commitment. In
particular, the construct of organizational commitment has been demonstrated
to be an important predictor of certain organizational outcomes such as in-role
job performance, extra-role behavior, turnover intention, and actual turnover.
However, most of the past studies on organizational commitment were
conducted in Western countries; few studies were conducted elsewhere. A
systematic investigation of the meaning and outcomes of organizational
commitment across cultures is needed in order to assess the generalizabilty of
research findings (Meyer and Allen, 1997). In view of its unique cultural
traditions (Earley, 1989; Warner, 1993) and sweeping economic reforms during
the past two decades, China provides a good research setting in which to study
workers' organizational commitment.
Joint ventures have become a major form of foreign investment in China
since the country adopted its open-door economic policies. There are several
characteristics of joint ventures in China. First of all, the creation of joint
ventures is subject to government pressures and often includes the government
as a partner. Joint ventures are often formed with partners from ethnically
related countries, such as Taiwan and Hong Kong (Beamish, 1993). Second,

most of them have adopted human resources practices that are different from
those traditionally adopted in China's state-owned enterprises (Warner, 1997).
For example, a performance-based reward system has been widely used in joint
ventures to motivate workers. Moreover, redundancies and dismissals are also
practiced in joint ventures (Warner, 1997). It has been noted that the
employment conditions and the job security of workers in joint ventures differ
significantly from those in state-owned enterprises. Joint ventures also have a
high job turnover due to both voluntary and involuntary decisions (Chow et al.,
1999, 2001).
Previous studies of Chinese joint ventures have focused on the strategic,
legal and management issues involved in setting up and running foreign joint
ventures in China (e.g. Beamish, 1993; Pearson, 1991). These issues are
important to organizational effectiveness and performance. Equally important
are the job attitudes and work behaviors of employees in joint ventures. Yet
few studies have been conducted so far to identify the factors that affect
employees' job attitudes and how job attitudes affect their turnover intentions.
This study tries to fill such a research gap by investigating the determinants
and outcomes of the organizational commitment of joint venture employees in
China.
In this study, we combine three theoretical frameworks (i.e. the justice
framework, the job security framework and the trust framework) together to
develop a mediation model. The proposed model considers trust in organization
as a mediating variable between the three independent variables (i.e.
distributive justice, procedural justice and perceived job security) and affective
organizational commitment. Additionally, the model further suggests that
organizational commitment will affect the turnover intention of workers. A
data set consisting of 295 employees in four joint ventures in Guangdong
Province of China was used to test the hypotheses empirically. We try to shed
light on the antecedents and consequence of the affective commitment of
workers employed in joint ventures.
Affective commitment
Blau and Boal (1987) defined organizational commitment as a psychological
state in which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its
goals and desires to maintain membership with the organization. In fact, there
are several different definitions of organizational commitment, but these
various definitions and measures share the common theme that organizational
commitment should be considered as a bond or a linking between the
individual and the organization.
Meyer and Allen (1991) summarized the major definitions of organizational
commitment provided by different theorists and categorized them under three
broad themes. These include the affective orientation theme, the cost-based
theme, and the obligation or moral responsibility of commitment theme. The
most prevalent theme is through the affective orientation, in which
commitment is considered as an affective or emotional attachment to the

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organization. This orientation is used by the work of Mowday and his

colleagues (e.g. Mowday et al., 1982). In their studies, they defined affective
organizational commitment as ``the relative strength of an individual's
identification with and involvement in a particular organization'' (Mowday et
al., 1982, p. 27). We follow this definition in the present study.
A wide range of antecedents of affective commitment has been identified.
These include organizational characteristics, personal characteristics, and
work experiences (Mowday et al., 1982). Examples of organizational
characteristics are corporate culture (Lau and Ngo, 1996) and some
organization-level policies, such as specific policies governing drug testing
(Konovsky and Cropanzano, 1991) and pay (Schaubroeck et al., 1994).
Significant positive correlations have been reported between perceptions of the
fairness of organizational policies and affective commitment. Indeed,
perceptions of justice seem to play an important role in the formation of
affective organizational commitment. As regards personal characteristics,
research evidence has focused on both demographic variables (e.g. gender, age
and job tenure) and dispositional variables (e.g. personality traits and values).
It has been shown that relations between demographic variables and affective
commitment are either inconsistent or weak (Aven et al., 1993; Mathieu and
Zajac, 1990).
On the other hand, strong and consistent correlations have been found
between work experience variables and affective commitment across studies.
For instance, affective commitment has been positively correlated with job
challenge, degree of autonomy, and variety of skills used by the employees in
different samples of employees (Colarelli et al., 1987; Dunham et al., 1994).
Many studies (see Mathieu and Zajac, 1990) have shown that affective
commitment is low among employees who suffer from role ambiguity or role
conflict. Another key variable that affects affective commitment is trust in
organization. Geyskens and Steenkamp (1995) found a positive association
between trust and affective commitment in a marketing channel setting. The
study by de Ruyter and Wetzels (1998) also provided evidence that there is a
positive relationship between trust and affective commitment in auditor-client
relationships.
The consequences of affective commitment have been examined by
numerous researchers. Affective commitment has been found to be associated
with in-role job performance, extra-role behavior, and job satisfaction. In
particular, this construct has consistently been shown to correlate negatively
with turnover intention or actual turnover (Konovsky and Cropanzano, 1991;
Meyer et al., 1993). Chen and Francesco (2000) reported a strong negative
relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intentions
based on a survey of Chinese employees.
Chinese culture and organizational commitment
From a cultural perspective, the Chinese culture has been characterized by
collectivism, Confucianism with an emphasis on harmony, reciprocity and

loyalty (Earley, 1989; Warner, 1993). All these cultural characteristics have a
positive impact on employees' organizational commitment. It has been
suggested that Chinese workers are group-oriented (Wang, 1990). Leung and
Bond (1984) also pointed out that Chinese people are concerned with enhancing
in-group harmony. Moreover, it has been argued that despite Maoism (which
emphasizes egalitarian values), many Confucian values (which emphasize a
hierarchical structure and paternalistic authority) remain strong in today's
China (Bond and Hofstede, 1989). The Confucian traditions of social duty and
obligation might well lead to an emphasis on respect for authority and loyalty
at work. These values and beliefs have important bearings on the development
of trust and commitment in the workplace in China.
Hypotheses
Antecedents of affective commitment
Because of the enterprise reforms in China, the traditional ``iron rice bowl
system'' in which workers could expect lifelong employment has been
supplanted and greater autonomy in human resources management has been
granted to Chinese enterprises (Chow et al., 1999). As a result, employees
receive different amounts of compensation under different reward systems (e.g.
the individual reward system, the team reward system, and the performancebased reward system). Chen (1995) found that Chinese employees were
economically oriented and preferred to invoke differential rules (i.e. those that
result in unequal distribution of rewards) for the allocation of material rewards
(e.g. pay and bonuses). It is worth noting that the performance-based rewards
system has been widely implemented in joint ventures (Warner, 1998).
Distribution principles and procedures for the allocation of material rewards
based on fairness have also been used. Under such a work setting, employees in
joint ventures are likely to have higher levels of perceptions of distributive
justice (i.e. the fairness of allocation of material rewards) and of procedural
justice (i.e. the means used to determine these rewards). According to the justice
literature, positive perceptions of distributive justice and procedural justice
should be associated with higher levels of organizational commitment.
In a survey of more than 2,000 employees, Alexander and Ruderman (1987)
found that trust in management an important aspect of trust in organization
(Ashford et al., 1989) was an outcome of distributive justice (Alexander and
Ruderman, 1987). It is plausible that Chinese joint ventures that adopt nonconventional and results-oriented HRM practices would have fair and rational
distribution principles for the allocation of material rewards, and this in turn
would foster workers' trust in organization. In view of the above, we
hypothesize that:
H1. Employees in joint ventures with higher levels of perception of
distributive justice will have higher levels of trust in organization.
Alexander and Ruderman's (1987) study also found that procedural justice
showed substantial unique effects on trust in management. Folger and

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Konovsky (1989) reported that procedural justice affected an employee's

organizational commitment. Procedural justice has been shown to affect the
evaluation of the organization and its authorities (Cropanzano and Folger, 1991;
Sweeney and McFarlin, 1993), and thus it may exert some effects on trust in
and commitment to the organization. Based on the justice literature, it is
reasonable to expect that employees will have a high level of trust in
organization, if they are guaranteed fair procedural treatment. As joint
ventures in China tend to have fair and open procedures in allocating material
rewards, a higher level of the perception of procedural justice among workers
would increase their trust in organization. Thus, we hypothesize that:
H2. Employees in joint ventures with higher levels of the perception of
procedural justice will have higher levels of trust in organization.
Workers of different employment types in Chinese joint ventures face different
situations in terms of job security. Zhu (1995) noted that local employees in
foreign-invested enterprises are typically blue-collar workers. Most of them are
employed either as contract workers or temporary workers. For that reason,
they tend to have lower levels of job security. As stipulated by government
regulations, joint ventures are allowed to dismiss their workers and to
terminate employment contracts upon expiration. Workers who fail to fulfil job
requirements in joint ventures face a high risk of layoffs and they are likely to
have job insecurity problems. This may have a negative impact on their trust in
organization.
The positive relationship between job security and trust in organization is
theoretically grounded in the psychological contract literature. Since employees
have implicit expectations about job security (Shore and Tetrick, 1994), a
perceived threat to job security implies a possible violation of the psychological
contract. Since perceived violations of the psychological contract trigger
reassessment of the contract, psychological distancing can be manifested in
terms of a reduction in trust between the parties (Parks and Kidder, 1994).
Ashford et al.'s (1989) study also showed that the greater the perceived job
insecurity, the lower the level of trust in organization. Based on the above
arguments and research findings, we posit the following hypothesis:
H3. Joint venture employees' perceived job security will be positively
associated with their levels of trust in organization.
As discussed above, some Chinese cultural values such as collectivism, social
duty and obligations, loyalty and respect for authority are expected to exert
significant impacts on employees' affective commitment. Traditional Chinese
culture also supports the norm of reciprocity and emphasizes harmony and
stability in the workplace. A long-term and stable employment relationship is
regarded highly by both employers and employees alike. Based on the social
exchange theory (Blau, 1964), trust is more likely to develop between employers
and employees and between subordinates and supervisors under the
circumstances of long-term and stable relationships. Employees' trust in

organization will further reinforce employees' affective commitment to the

employing organization.
Moreover, during the economic reforms, the team approach has become a
major strategy in organizing workers and has integrated group responsibility
and authority with team interests (Wang, 1988). This approach has been widely
practiced in joint venture factories (Warner, 1998). This congruence between
the Chinese collectivistic culture and human resources practices meets the
expectations and needs of workers who value social relationships and in-group
harmony (Leung and Bond, 1984). It follows that such management practices
would contribute to the development of employees' trust in joint ventures.
According to Rempel et al. (1985), trust is associated with a sense of integrity
and the reduction of uncertainty, and thus can be considered as an antecedent
to affective commitment. Gilbert (1995) found that organizational trust is a
significant predictor of organizational commitment. Other studies have also
reported a positive association between trust and affective commitment
(Geyskens and Steenkamp, 1995; de Ruyter and Wetzels, 1998). It seems to be
logical to expect that employees' trust in organization will affect their affective
commitment, and thus we hypothesize that:
H4. Joint venture employees' levels of trust in organization will be positively
related to their levels of affective commitment.
Mediating effects of trust in organization
The organizational justice literature (e.g. Alexander and Ruderman, 1987;
Konovsky and Pugh, 1994; McCauley and Kuhnert, 1992) and the trust
literature (e.g. Cropanzano and Folger, 1989; Geyskens and Steenkamp, 1995;
Gilbert, 1995) suggest that trust in organization mediates the relationship
between distributive justice and affective commitment as well as the
relationship between procedural justice and affective commitment. We expect
that the mediating role of trust in organization should also hold in the Chinese
context. Alexander and Ruderman (1987) found that trust in management was
related to distributive justice. In addition, Gilbert (1995) found that
organizational trust was a significant predictor of organizational commitment.
Other researchers reported similar findings (Geyskens and Steenkamp, 1995; de
Ruyter and Wetzels, 1998). Based on the referent cognitions theory, Cropanzano
and Folger (1989) argued that when distributive justice is low and the
procedures used by decision makers are perceived to be unfair, resentment is
likely maximized in an organization and the organizational commitment of
employees is adversely affected. Taken together, these studies and arguments
support the prediction that trust in organization mediates the relationship
between distributive justice and affective commitment. Hence, we hypothesize
that:
H4a. Joint venture employees' trust in organization mediates the
relationship between distributive justice and affective commitment.

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In their study, Alexander and Ruderman (1987) found that trust in

management was affected substantially by procedural justice. McCauley and
Kuhnert (1992) found that the perception of the fairness of an organization's
performance appraisal system explained additional and unique variance in the
trust in management. Gilbert (1995) also noted that organizational trust was a
significant predictor of organizational commitment. According to Ogilvie
(1987), secrecy and vague communication practices tend to leave room for
perceptions of bias, inequity and, thus, lower commitment. That is to say,
employees who have greater knowledge or information about their
organization (i.e. procedural justice) are likely to experience stronger
commitment than employees who have unclear information about the
organization. In line with the above studies, we offer the following hypothesis:
H4b. Joint venture employees' trust in organization mediates the relationship
between procedural justice and affective commitment.
The job (in)security literature and the trust literature suggest that trust in
organization mediates the relationship between job insecurity and affective
commitment. For instance, Ashford et al. (1989) found that the greater the
perceived job insecurity, the lower would be the trust in organization.
Moreover, empirical studies in different settings have provided evidence for a
positive relationship between trust and affective commitment (e.g. Geyskens
and Steenkamp, 1995; de Ruyter and Wetzels, 1998). Previous research findings
also showed that job security is positively correlated with organizational
commitment (e.g. Greenhalgh, 1985). Based on these studies, we hypothesize
that:
H4c. Joint venture employees' trust in organization mediates the relationship
between perceived job security and affective commitment.
Consequences of affective commitment
Tett and Meyer (1993, p. 262) suggested that turnover intention should be
considered to be ``a conscious and deliberate willfulness to leave the
organization''. This is often measured with reference to a specific interval (e.g.
within the next six months) and has been regarded as the last in a sequence of
withdrawal cognitions, consisting of a set of thinking of quitting and an intent
to search for alternative employment (Tett and Meyer, 1993). The turnover
literature suggests that organizational commitment mediates the relationship
between perceived job security and turnover intention. For instance, Steers and
Mowday (1981) proposed that work-related expectations (particularly job
security) directly affect psychological responses (e.g. organizational
commitment), and reductions in organizational commitment can be represented
as attempts to psychologically withdraw (Davy et al., 1991). Past research
findings showed that turnover intention is negatively, significantly, and
consistently related to affective commitment (Allen and Lee, 1993; Konovsky
and Cropanzano, 1991). There is also ample evidence that job security is
negatively correlated with the intention to quit (Arnold and Feldman, 1982;

Ashford et al., 1989). These arguments support our prediction that affective
commitment mediates the relationship between job security and turnover
intention.
Since the economic reforms and the open-door policies in China, many new
job opportunities have been made available to workers, including those
provided by joint ventures, foreign-invested enterprises, and private
businesses. Chinese workers now enjoy greater job mobility than before.
Although workers employed in joint ventures have more job choices, their
turnover intention is also influenced by such factors as their own skills,
alternative working opportunities in the region, and their own perception of job
prospects and job security. Their affective commitment to the employing
organization is likely to affect their turnover intention. Hence, we hypothesize
that:
H5. Joint venture employees' levels of affective commitment will have a
significant and negative impact on their levels of turnover intention.
Previous research findings have shown that job security is negatively
correlated with the intention to quit (Arnold and Feldman, 1982; Ashford et al.,
1989). Today, Chinese employees no longer enjoy the so-called ``iron rice bowl''.
For instance, a joint venture manager has the right to lay off workers whose
performance is poor or whose position is considered redundant. The manager
can also fire undisciplined workers or those who have committed offences. As
such, job security has become a main concern for workers employed in Chinese
joint ventures. Since most of them are contract and temporary workers (Zhu,
1995), they are likely to perceive that they have less job security as compared
with permanent workers in other types of enterprises. This in turn would
reduce their loyalty to their employer and increase their turnover intention.
Hence, we hypothesize that:
H6. Joint venture employees' perceived job security has a negative impact on
their levels of turnover intention.
Method
Sample
The sample for this study was composed of 295 employees in four joint venture
factories. Data were collected from production officers, front-line supervisors,
technical workers and clerks in four factories in Guangdong Province, a
southern province in the People's Republic of China that has witnessed
considerable economic growth in the past two decades. These four factories
manufacture handbags and wallets. The sample of employees was 36.6 percent
male and 63.4 percent female with a mean age of approximately 25 years. A
total of 62 percent of the sample was married. The average job tenure for the
sample was 28 months. Short job tenure is typical of the region because many
of the factories have just recently been established. In this sample, 19.3 percent
of the employees were local workers, 15.3 percent came from other cities in
Guangdong, and 65.4 percent came from other provinces.

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Procedures
Data collection involved a number of personal trips by one of the authors to
each data collection site. During the first two trips, the production managers,
production officers, supervisors and technical workers in the four factories in
the sample were interviewed in order to gain a better understanding of the
factories and workers under study. This was done to ensure that a
questionnaire relevant to the sample would be created. After designing the
questionnaire, a pilot test consisting of 20 subordinates was conducted in the
four factories with the aim of determining the appropriateness of the contents,
the proper use of words, the ease of understanding by the subjects and any
modifications needed. During the following trips, the principal investigator was
present along with two local members of the factory staff to collect the
questionnnaire. We deemed that this was essential after learning from previous
experience that collecting quality research data in China often requires the
presence of research professionals. Based on the name lists of all staff and
workers in the four factories, the respondents were identified in advance by
systematic sampling. Questionnaires were distributed personally to each
respondent. To assure all respondents that their individual responses would
not be revealed to members of their working unit, the questionnaires were
collected immediately after completion. The participants were assured that
their questionnaires would be kept confidential.
The survey questionnaires were written in Chinese. To ensure equivalence
of the measures in the Chinese and the English versions, back-translation from
Chinese into English was first performed (Brislin, 1970). The two translations
revealed no substantial differences in the meanings of the items. Two local
research assistants with university degrees in English from Guangdong
Province then personally reviewed all Chinese translated items to ensure that
they would be meaningful to Chinese participants. Finally, the Chinese version
of the questionnaire was examined by two Chinese scholars in Hong Kong. All
items were modified to fit into the five-point Likert-scale format (i.e. 1 =
extremely disagree and 5 = extremely agree).
Measures
Affective commitment. Eight items from the affective commitment scale (Allen
and Meyer, 1990) were used to measure the employees' affective commitment in
this study. This measure employs a five-point scale in Likert format; the higher
scores indicate stronger commitment. The coefficient alpha of this sample was
0.74.
Procedural justice/formal procedures. The four items used by Balkin and
Gomez-Mejia (1990) were modified and adopted. An example of an item is:
``Managers at all levels participate in pay and performance appraisal decisions''.
The coefficient alpha of this sample was 0.71.
Perceived distributive justice. Five items from the Distributive Justice Index
(Price and Muller, 1986) were modified and adopted. An example of an item is:

``Fairly rewarded considering the responsibilities''. The coefficient alpha of this

sample was 0.88.
Perceived job security. The four items used by Caplan et al. (1975) were
modified and adopted. The responses were obtained on a five-point Likert scale
ranging from extremely certain (5) to extremely uncertain (1). An example of an
item is: ``How certain are you about your job security in this factory?'' The
coefficient alpha of this sample was 0.72.
Trust in organization. The employee's trust in the organization was
measured with the two-item scale developed by Ashford et al. (1989) and the
six-item scale developed by Cook and Wall (1980) with some modifications to
render the scales more appropriate for the context of Chinese joint ventures.
There were two reasons for combining these two scales in this study. First, the
concepts and measurement of trust in organization and trust in management
are often used interchangeably in the trust literature (e.g. Ashford et al., 1989;
Cook and Wall, 1980). Second, after discussions with Chinese workers at the
research sites, it was found that the workers often consider their trust in
management and trust in organization as nearly the same and cannot
distinguish between the two clearly. An example of an item is: ``I trust this
organization to look out for my best interests''. The coefficient alpha of this
sample was 0.79.
Turnover intention. The three-item measure of intention to change jobs from
Camman et al. (1979) was modified and adopted in this study. The three items
are: ``I often think about quitting'', ``I will probably look for a new job in the next
year'', and ``If I may choose again, I will choose to work for the current
organization''. The coefficient alpha of this sample was 0.74.
Analytical strategy
LISREL 8.14 (Joreskog and Sorbrom, 1993) was used to test the proposed
mediation model. Due to the limited sample size in this study, the measurement
and structural models could not be examined simultaneously. Therefore, the
single indicator method used in past research (e.g. Anderson and Williams,
1992; Wong and Kung, 1999) was adopted. By this method, the parameters of
the measurement models are estimated from the variances and the reliability
coefficients of the measures. To set the measurement parameters for the single
indicator model, the factor loadings were set equal to the square root of the
reliability, whereas the error variances were set equal to the variance of the
measure multiplied by the reliability coefficient subtracted from one. Since
most of the measures are well-established scales with acceptable reliability, it is
reasonable to fix the measurement by this method. In addition, data collected
were used to test the hypotheses of the proposed model and the coefficient
alphas of this sample for all measures were similar to past research.
Specifically, H1 and H2 were tested by path coefficients between distributive
justice and trust in organization, and between procedural justice and trust in
organization respectively. H3 was tested by the path coefficient between

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perceived job security and trust in organization. H4 was tested by the path
coefficients between trust in organization and affective commitment.
The following regression equations are estimated to examine the mediating
effect of trust in organization in the proposed model (i.e. H4a, H4b and H4c):
first, regressing the mediator on the independent variable(s); second, regressing
the dependent variable on the independent variable(s); and third, regressing the
dependent variable on the both the independent variable(s) and on the
mediator. Separate coefficients for each equation were estimated and tested. In
addition, the nested model testing procedure was used to examine the
mediating effects of trust in organization in H4a, H4b and H4c. It should be
noted that two models are nested when they are identical in all respects except
that one of them has more structural paths than has the other. The baseline
model in this study was the mediation model. One submodel (i.e. the revised
model) was developed. The revised model was then nested with the mediation
model to examine how trust in organization mediates the relationship between
distributive justice and affective commitment, between procedural justice and
affective commitment, and between perceived job security and affective
commitment.
Since the employees' turnover intention was hypothesized as a consequence
of their affective commitment, H5 was tested by the path coefficient between
affective commitment and turnover intention in the baseline model. Perceived
job security was also hypothesized as an antecedent of employees' turnover
intention; H6 was thus tested by the path coefficient between employees'
perceived job security and turnover intention.
Results
The means, standard deviations and correlations between the variables for the
sample are reported in Table I. A preliminary examination of the correlations
Variable

Table I.
Means, standard
deviations and
correlations among
measures

1. Affective
commitment
2. Trust in
organization
3. Distributive
justice
4. Procedural
justice
5. Perceived job
security
6. Turnover
intention

Mean

SD

3.44

0.54

(0.74)

3.50

0.59

0.501** (0.79)

3.42

0.87

0.160*

0.313** (0.88)

3.29

0.76

0.136*

0.378** 0.421** (0.71)

2.99

0.75

0.356** 0.372** 0.115*

2.44

0.67

0.419** 0.346** 0.023

0.186** (0.72)
0.012

0.311**

Notes: Values in parentheses are Cronbach's alphas. n = 295; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01

(0.74)

indicates that affective commitment and most of its antecedents are

significantly correlated. For instance, the correlations between affective
commitment and distributive justice and procedural justice are 0.160 and 0.136
(both significant at the 0.05 level), and the correlations between affective
commitment and perceived job security and trust in organization are 0.356 and
0.501 (both significant at the 0.01 level). In addition, affective commitment is
negatively related to turnover intention (r = 0.419, p < 0.01). No significant
differences in the measures were found among the four factories and thus all
respondents were pooled together in the subsequent analyses.
Figure 1 shows the path coefficients for the mediation model from the
LISREL analysis. As Figure 1 indicates, distributive justice is significantly and
positively related to trust in organization ( = 0.15, p < 0.05) and procedural
justice is positively related to trust in organization ( = 0.29, p < 0.05). Thus,
H1 and H2 are supported.
H3 states that joint venture employees' perceived job security will be
positively associated with their levels of trust in organization. As Figure 1
shows, perceived job security is significantly and positively related to trust in
organization ( = 0.43, p < 0.01). This finding supports the hypothesis. Figure 1
also shows that trust in organization is significantly and positively related to
affective commitment ( = 0.66, p < 0.01). Thus, H4 is supported.
In the mediation model, we test three sub-hypotheses concerning the
mediation effects. It is necessary to meet the four conditions suggested by
Pedhazur (1982) in order to demonstrate a mediating effect. First, as shown in
Table II, distributive justice, procedural justice and perceived job security
significantly accounted for the variance in trust in organization (R2 = 0.262,
p < 0.05). Second, in accordance with condition 2, trust in organization
significantly explained affective commitment (R2 = 0.251, p < 0.05). Third, in
accordance with condition 3, distributive justice, procedural justice and
perceived job security significantly predicted affective commitment
(R2 = 0.142, p < 0.10). Furthermore, in accordance with condition 4, when
adding the trust variables to the equation containing two justice variables,

Organizational
commitment of
workers
591

Figure 1.
Path coefficients for the
mediation model

Table II.
Results of the path
analysis of the four
conditions for
mediation effects in the
mediation model

0.262**

2. Trust variables (Y)

Trust in organization
R2
0.501**
0.251**

0.142*

0.110*
0.027
0.338**

Condition 3 (X ? Z)
Affective commitment

0.448**
0.290**

0.033
0.084
0.201**

Condition 4 (X ? Y and
Y ? Z)
Affective commitment

Notes: Table showing the estimated standardized regression coefficients for the equations. n = 295; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01

0.173*
0.248**
0.306**

1. Justice variables and

security variable (X)
Distributive justice
Procedural justice
Perceived job security

Condition 2 (Y ? Z)
Affective commitment

592

Independent variables

Condition 1 (X ? Y)
Trust in organization

Dependent variables

Journal of
Managerial
Psychology
17,7

perceived job security and affective commitment, the contribution of trust in

organization was highly significant, whereas only one (i.e. perceived job
security) out of the three independent variables remained significant.
Taken together, these results satisfy the four conditions for a mediating
variable (Pedhazur, 1982) and suggest that trust in organization does mediate
the relationship between the two justice variables and affective commitment.
Therefore, H4a, H4b and H4c are all supported. The nested model testing
procedure is used to examine further the mediating effects of trust in
organization. However, when adding the trust variable to the equation
containing the justice variables, the job security variable and the commitment
variable, only perceived job security remained significant. This suggests that
trust in organization (TO) partially mediates the relationship between
perceived job security (JS) and affective commitment (AC). To further examine
this partial mediating effect, the path JS ? AC is added so that we have a
revised model (see Table III). The chi-square difference (
2 = 6.78; p < 0.05)
between the mediation model and the revised model is significant (Table III),
and the results confirm again the partial mediation of trust suggested by the
regression analyses.
H5 states that the joint venture employees' levels of affective commitment
will have a negative impact on their levels of turnover intention. As Figure 1
shows, affective commitment is significantly and negatively related to turnover
intention ( = 0.47, p < 0.01). This finding supports the hypothesis. In
addition, Figure 1 shows that perceived job security is significantly and
negatively related to turnover intention ( = 0.23, p < 0.01). Thus, H6 is
supported.
The proposed mediation model is revised according to the partial mediation
phenomenon, and its path coefficients are reported. The revised model includes
only significant direct and indirect effects and is shown in Figure 2. The path JS
? AC has been added in the revised structural model. Fit indices for the
final revised structural model are 2 (5) = 16.49, p = 0.0056; standardized
2 (df)

Standardized
RMR

GFI

CFI

IFI

2

Mediation model
(baseline model)

23.27 (6)

0.054

0.98

0.95

0.95

Revised model
(i.e. mediation model
adds the paths of
JS ? AC)

16.49 (5)

0.046

0.98

0.96

0.97

6.78*

Notes: Two models are nested when they are identical in all respects except that one of
them has more structural paths than the other. The two models can be tested by the change
in 2 . Standardized RMR = standardized root mean square residual; GFI = goodness of fit
index; CFI = comparative fit index; IFI = incremental fit index; AC = affective commitment;
JS = perceived job security. n = 295; * p < 0.05

Organizational
commitment of
workers
593

Table III.
Results of the nested
model testing

Journal of
Managerial
Psychology
17,7
594
Figure 2.
Revised structural
model for the mediation
model

RMR = 0.046; GFI = 0.98; CFI = 0.96; and IFI = 0.97. All path coefficients
depicted in Figure 2 represent standardized estimates. The revised structural
model suggests that trust in organization (TO) fully mediates the relationship
between distributive justice (DJ) and affective commitment (AC); trust in
organization (TO) fully mediates the relationship between procedural justice
(PJ) and affective commitment (AC); and trust in organization (TO) partially
mediates the relationship between perceived job security (JS) and affective
commitment (AC).
Discussion
The study of organizational commitment is important in China. However,
limited studies have been conducted so far, particularly on the impacts of
distributive justice, procedural justice and job security on organizational
commitment. It should be noted that Chinese employees put great emphasis on
trust in organization, which in turn significantly affects their affective
commitment toward their employing organization. It is expected that
employees' trust in organization is influenced by their perceived distributive
justice, perceived procedural justice, and perceived job security which are
derived from the actual working environment. Therefore, we investigate the
antecedents and consequences of affective commitment in the context of joint
ventures by proposing a mediation model that highlights the mediating role of
``trust in organization''. The proposed mediation model is supported in the
following ways:
.
perceived distributive justice, perceived procedural justice, and
perceived job security directly affect trust in organization;
.

in turn, trust in organization mediates the relationships between perceived

distributive justice and affective commitment, between perceived
procedural justice and affective commitment, between perceived job
security and affective commitment respectively; and

affective commitment is found to be both significantly and negatively

related to turnover intention. In addition, employees' perceived job
security is found to be both significantly and negatively related to
employees' turnover intentions.

This study endeavors to make both a theoretical and practical contribution to

the existing literature and it also suggests some implications for future
research. First, it enhances our understanding of the organizational
commitment of Chinese joint venture employees. In particular, it is the first
study that examines the relationships among employees' justice, perceived job
insecurity, trust, and affective commitment in the Chinese context. By doing so,
we can understand more about how Chinese culture, economic reforms, and
management practices in joint ventures affect employees' job attitudes. The
influences of all these contextual factors should not be ignored in the study of
organizational behavior in China. In the present study, we evaluated the
impacts of distributive and procedural justice, trust and perceived job
insecurity on affective commitment. We further found that trust in organization
serves as a mediator in the commitment process. Given this, trust in
organization should be considered as a potential mediator in future research on
work commitments in the Chinese context.
Practically speaking, knowing how the justice variables and the job security
variables could affect trust in organization allow managers to take appropriate
action to improve organizational design and human resources management in
Chinese joint ventures. It has been shown that higher levels of trust in
organization were experienced only when employees had higher levels of
perceived distributive justice, perceived procedural justice and perceived job
security. Thus, with these findings, management can adjust or redesign the
organization's policies and systems of justice and job security to achieve
desired outcomes.
Several limitations concerning this study need to be acknowledged. First of
all, common method variance is noted because all data were obtained from a
single questionnaire distributed to joint venture employees. Future studies
could lessen this problem by collecting data from multiple sources and by
using a longitudinal design.
Second, in this study, the affective commitment scale (Allen and Meyer,
1990), which was developed in the West, was used to measure organizational
commitment. Although its reliability was also found to be acceptable, it may
not fully capture the meaning of organizational commitment in the Chinese
setting because it is a non-indigenous scale. Future research may employ other
measures and dimensions of organizational commitment in order to offer a
better understanding of the construct.
Third, the majority of the subjects in this study were lower level workers
and most of these workers are not involved in decision making. They may not
have a complete understanding of the meaning of procedural justice, even
though the reliability of the scale in this study was found to be acceptable.

Organizational
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workers
595

Journal of
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596

Finally, the sample in this study comprised 295 employees in four joint
venture factories in Guangdong Province. The majority of them were workers
from other provinces and it is difficult for these short-term workers to develop
trust in organization and commitment to the organization because of their
geographical mobility. More future studies need to be conducted in other
provinces in China to see whether the findings can be generalized to other parts
of China.
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