Non-regular professionals' dual commitment in South Korea: antecedents and consequences

Abstract

There is a growing concern with whether nonregular professionals are concurrently committed to both the organization and their profession and whether such commitments are beneficial to that organization. This article seeks to investigate the relationship between organizational justice variables and the dual commitment of nonregular professionals via perceived organizational support (POS) and the subsequent effect of the dual commitment on organizational citizen behavior. Hypotheses are developed and then tested through structural equation modeling with data collected from a total of 1143 part-time instructors at South Korean universities. The findings of this study reveal that the perceptions held by nonregular professionals of organizational justice constructs concurrently influence organizational commitment and professional commitment via POS and that both commitments are positively associated with altruistic behavior. The findings advance our understanding of the dual commitment of nonregular professionals and provide universities with managerial implications as to how to manage effectively part-time instructors. Limitations, directions for future research, and conclusions are presented.

Keywords:

• dual commitment
• nonregular professionals
• organizational citizenship behavior
• part-time instructors
• perceived organizational support

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Editor, Professor Michael Poole, and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments on the earlier draft of the manuscript. This research was supported by Yeungnam University research grants in 2007.