Although studies on commitment are prevalent in the education literature, most of
these studies generally focused on commitment as a unidimensional concept.
Recent studies provided evidence that commitment is multi-dimensional (Meyer
and Allen, 1990, 1991, 1997), but received little attention from researchers.
Acknowledging that commitment is multi-dimensional in nature, this study was
undertaken to use a three-component commitment model, proposed by Meyer and
Allen's (1990) to examine professional commitment. The study also examined the
extent to which professional commitment can be predicted by perceived principal
support, collegial support, role states and job characteristics.
Data were collected from 120 randomly selected technical school teachers in
Sarawak, using self-administered questionnaires. Overall, the study concluded that
technical school teachers were highly committed to the teaching profession. They reported relatively high levels of affective, continuance and normative
commitment.
Results obtained from the correlation analysis revealed that teachers who perceived
high levels of principal support, collegial support and job characteristics were more
committed to the teaching profession. However, teachers who perceived high levels
of role states were relatively less committed. Principal support, collegial support
and job characteristics were also strongly related to affective, continuance and
normative commitment. Role states were negatively related to affective
commitment but positively related to continuance commitment.
Results from a series of regression models revealed that overall professional
commitment was predicted by principal support (emotional support), collegial
support and job characteristics (feedback) but not role states. These three predictors
explained 46.1% of the variance in professional commitment.
Separately assessing each of the three components of professional commitment, it
was found that affective, continuance and normative commitment were predicted
by different clusters of factors. Specific results showed that affective commitment
was highly dependent on emotional support, role conflict, skill variety, task
significance and feedback. These predictors explained 38.3% of the variance in
affective commitment. Only skill variety was significant in explaining continuance
commitment, which contributed 1 1.7% of the variance in continuance commitment.Normative commitment closely resembled the pattern of results found in
professional commitment, with emotional support, collegial support and feedback
as significant predictors. These predictors explained 39.9% of the variance in
normative commitment.
The results of this study highlighted the importance of recognising that professional
commitment be viewed as a multi-dimensional concept. Therefore, more studies
should look into the multi-dimensional aspect of commitment to gain a more
comprehensive understanding of the true nature of professional commitment. Based
on the statistical results, implications of the findings were discussed in the context
of understanding professional commitment of teachers. Suggestions on how to
increase professional commitment and avenues for hture research were also
provided in this dissertation
