| Numerous studies have been performed to identify the antecedents and consequences of organizational commitment. Historical research has placed significant focus on the relationship between job characteristics and organizational commitment, typically through instruments such as the Hackman and Oldham (1975) Job Diagnostic Survey. Though findings continue to show a relationship using this means, the nature of job characteristics have been altered dramatically over time. Included in this change is the dramatic impact of information technology, particularly in high-tech industries. This research extended the typical job characteristic study on affective organizational commitment by investigating the impact of the extent to which the organization provides IT tools that correspond to the employee's job characteristics, thereby allowing individuals to be successful in their jobs.; The study group employed for this research included 151 employees of technology integrators and manufacturing firms in high-technology geographical regions. Employees of these companies depend heavily on IT for the performance of their daily tasks and, hence, are more likely to derive a sense of commitment from the availability of suitable tools.; The results of this study indicate that a significant difference in affective organizational commitment can be deciphered between employees who feel that they are provided with the appropriate IT tools to perform their assigned work and those who do not. In particular, employee concerns regarding the accuracy of the data provided, the compatibility of the various IT systems, the ease with which the data can be located, the accessibility of the data, the clarity of meaning of the data elements, the ease-of-use of the systems and the presentation of the data to the user all represent items that relate to affective organizational commitment. To the contrary, however, the sufficiency of the level of detail provided, the degree of assistance available, the reliability of the systems, the currency of the data and the level of confusion associated with various systems demonstrated no identifiable significant impact on affective organizational commitment. |
