The relationship between organizational commitment and demographic variables of physicians in public institutions

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to determine the levels of physicians’ organizational commitment and to find out whether the perceptions of organizational commitment change depending on certain demographic variables (gender, educational status, professional experience, age, marital status and institutional structure). The universe of the study was composed of physicians working in public institutions in 2017. Within the scope of the study, 309 physicians were reached and the required sample size was achieved. In data analysis, t test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and descriptive statistics were used. The results of the study demonstrate an organizational commitment level at 3.23, a continuance commitment level at 3.29, a normative commitment level at 3.28 and affective commitment level at 3.12. The study indicates a significant difference between organizational commitment and institution structure. In addition, it is also observed in the study that affective commitment level shows significant differences according to professional experience, institutions structure and age. As a result, the organizational commitment levels of family physicians were found to be higher than the organizational commitment levels of physicians working in public hospitals. It is also observed in the study that as the ages of physicians and their professional experience increased, affective commitment levels decreased.

KEYWORDS:

• Physicians
• affective commitment
• organizational commitment
• institutional structure
• personal characteristics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. Contributors: Both the authors participated in the study design and interpreted the results. Fedayi Yağar participated in acquiring the data, performed the analyses, and wrote results. Sema Dökme wrote the literature review. Fedayi Yağar and Sema Dökme wrote methods and conclusions of the manuscript. Both authors read, revised, and approved the final manuscript.

Notes on contributors

Fedayi Yağar graduated from Hacettepe University, School of Health administration in 2013. He holds a Master's degree in Healthcare Management from Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University (KSU). He is a PhD student in Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Healthcare Management at Marmara University. He is an Research Assistant in the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Healthcare Management at KSU. His research interests is a politics and organizational behavior subjects in healthcare.

Sema Dökme graduated from Hacettepe University, School of Health administration in 2014. He holds a Master's degree in Healthcare Management from Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University. Her research interests is a medical tourism and organizational behavior subjects in healthcare.