In light of the recent decline in perceived Organizational Commitment, which measures employees' willingness to put forth effort for the success of the organization and their perceived alignment of organizational and personal values, in public organiz...
In light of the recent decline in perceived Organizational Commitment, which measures employees' willingness to put forth effort for the success of the organization and their perceived alignment of organizational and personal values, in public organizations, there is a growing need for in-depth research on the management of Organizational Commitment and its influencing factors. In particular, employees with less than five years of service ranked the lowest in terms of Organizational Commitment, and the recent surge in retirements of low-seniority public servants and frequent turnover is a concern for the potential growth of the public sector. Based on this background, this study examined various factors influencing Organizational Commitment among employees of K Power Public Corporation, a representative public corporation among public sector organizations, and simultaneously analyzed the Generation Effect by adding generation as a variable. To this end, based on previous studies, independent variables were set as Public Service Motivation, Job Values, Perception of Organizational Justice, Perception of Work-Life Balance, whether they are Generation M or Generation Z, and dependent variables were set as affective commitment, continuance commitment, normative commitment. The analysis results of this study are as follows. First, it was confirmed that Job Values and Organizational Justice had a significant positive effect on affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. Through this, it was confirmed that the more the members' Job Values are met, the stronger their will to remain in the organization is, and the higher the perception of Organizational Justice, the more positively it has an effect on Organizational Commitment. Second, it was confirmed that only some hypotheses were supported according to the three dimensions of Organizational Commitment regarding Public Service Motivation and perception of Work-Life Balance. That is, in the case of Public Service Motivation, a significant positive effect was confirmed on affective commitment and normative commitment, but no significant relationship was confirmed on continuance commitment. In the case of perception of Work-Life Balance, a significant positive effect was confirmed only on normative commitment. Third, the analysis reported that there would be differences in the effects on Organizational Commitment depending on generational differences, but the generational effect on Organizational Commitment was not significant. This does not match the significance of generational differences claimed in existing generational studies, suggesting the need for a research approach from a different perspective than the generational differences generally claimed in many studies. Next, based on these research results, the following theoretical implications were derived. First, this study is significant as an empirical study on the factors influencing Organizational Commitment targeting public enterprise organizations. Most of the previous studies were conducted on civil servants, and most of them analyzed some of the various factors influencing Organizational Commitment by emphasizing some dimensions. This study expanded the research subject to public enterprise employees and composed independent variables at the individual and organizational levels to measure the factors influencing Organizational Commitment in a complex and balanced manner. Second, this study examined generation, an important variable in organizational management, in more detail and provided a rich discussion of generational theory in the field of public administration research. In other words, unlike previous studies, this study contributed to expanding generational research by assuming that there are generational differences within the MZ generation and analyzing them separately into the M and Z generations. Third, this study was able to confirm the positive effects of Job Values, perception of Organizational Justice, Public Service Motivation, and perception of Work-Life Balance on Organizational Commitment. However, in relation to the fact that Public Service Motivation did not significantly affect continuance commitment and that perception of Work-Life Balance did not significantly affect affective commitment and continuance commitment, the necessity of interpretation that fits the characteristics and context of the organization and its theoretical basis were presented. Fourth, this study attempted to confirm the effect of generational differences on Organizational Commitment, but the analysis results showed that the generational effect was not significant. In relation to this, based on meta-studies that emphasized that individual differences may be more important than generational differences, it was confirmed that it is important to understand individual differences within generations and consider social, cultural, and economic contexts rather than approaching the behavior of organizational members through the generally accepted generational division. Lastly, based on these research results, the practical theoretical implications were derived. First, since it was found that Job Values have a positive effect on affective commitment, affective commitment, and normative commitment, K Power Public Corporation needs to actively utilize Job Values at the organizational and personnel management level. At the same time, in relation to the fact that the factors of Job Values that the older generation and the MZ generation consider important are different, it is necessary to prepare customized management plans for each generation and take different approaches. Second, regarding the fact that the perception of Organizational Justice has a positive effect on affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment, and that the older generation and the MZ generation show statistically significant differences in all items of the sub-factors of Organizational Justice, such as Distributive Justice, Procedural Justice, and Interactional Justice, it is necessary to actively establish internal systems and implementation plans that can improve the perception of Organizational Justice. In other words, it is necessary to supplement the existing system and promote it in the direction of strengthening internal acceptance and Interactional Justice by securing procedural appropriateness, such as operating a fairness-based promotion system, improving the leadership enhancement program for upper-level positions, and expanding the channels for collecting employee opinions. Third, this study attempted to identify the factors affecting Organizational Commitment while confirming the generational effect, and to examine the differences by specifically dividing the MZ generation into the M generation and the Z generation. However, most of the generational effects were not found as a result, and in light of this, it was confirmed that it is reasonable to consider the individual context and experience of the organization members when understanding the members of the organization, rather than emphasizing the differences between generations or simply generalizing the differences between generations. Therefore, in order to improve Organizational Commitment at the organizational management level, it is necessary to establish an organizational management plan centered on important factors that affect Organizational Commitment, such as Public Service Motivation, Job Values, perception of Organizational Justice, and perception of Work-Life Balance, rather than generational differences. Keywords : Organizational Commitment, Public Service Motivation, Organizational Justice, Work Life Balance, Work Values, Generation effect Student Number : 2023-28816