Employee commitment at Jabatan Hal Ehwal Agama Islam Negeri Sabah in Keningau : a study on permanent and contract staff / Haslineh Harimin

This study examined commitment levels of two groups of staffs; permanent staffs and contract stalfs at Jabatan Hal Ehwal Agama Islam Negeri Sabah in Keningau, Sabah. The respondent includes 54 staff where 27 respondents are permanent staffs and 27 of respondents are contract staffs. The focus was on organizational commitment by using Allen's (1991) Three-Component Model of OC. Affective commitment refers to the employee's emotional attachment to the organization. Employees with strong affective commitment remain with the organization because they want to do so. Continuance commitment refers to the extent to which the employee perceives that leaving the organization will be costly. Employees with strong continuance commitment remain because they have to do so. Finally, normative commitment refers to the employee's feelings of obligation to the organization and the belief that staying is the 'right thing' to do. The purpose was to determine the level of organizational commitment between two groups of staffs and to investigate if the work status associates with the level of organizational commitment. Findings indicated that both groups of employees did vary in commitment levels to various types of organizational commitment.