Relationships among organizational learning culture, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment in Chinese state -owned and privately owned enterprises

This empirical study was designed to fill the gap in existing literature regarding relationships among organizational culture, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment in native Chinese enterprise settings. Based on well-defined western concepts and instruments, this study addressed three questions: (a) the contextual applicability of the integrated Chinese questionnaire derived from the MSQ, the ACNCS, and the DLOQ; (b) the demographic differences and corporate differences between Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately-owned enterprises (POEs); (c) and the relationships among organizational learning culture, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.;A survey was conducted in nine companies with 4 SOEs and 5 POEs located in the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong, China. Using a non-proportional stratified sampling, 1300 employee participants were chosen, and 919 responded with a usable response rate of 71%. Six statistical techniques (CFA, descriptive, ANOVA, t-test, correlational, and SEM) were used to analyze the data collected.;The results suggested that, while the Chinese version of Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire and Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire showed acceptable psychometric evidence, the Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment Scales displayed unacceptable estimates of reliability and construct validity. Extensive revisions are needed in order to make it sufficiently applicable in the Chinese context. The findings further indicate that: (1) Chinese employment dynamics have become similar to those in the western context; (2) demographic characteristics in age and education level have significantly different influences on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational learning culture; and (3) the POEs have stronger competitiveness than the SOEs in terms of learning capacity and employees' morale. Finally, this study yields the conclusion that there are positive interrelationships among organizational learning culture, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment; specifically, organizational learning culture serves as a predictor for the other two constructs, and job satisfaction serves as a mediator between the other two constructs.;As an exploratory research effort for indigenizing western constructs and methods in Chinese contexts, despite the limitations of culture nuances and narrowly concentrated sampling, this study contributes several important findings and expands substantial knowledge on the three topics. Implications, recommendations for practice and research are also discussed.