High levels of organisational commitment are found in the ëhappiestí countries

The level of commitment from employees to their employers (organisational commitment) across the globe varies between nations and cultures, and is closely linked to the overall happiness of a population, new research from Cass Business School, City of London, shows.

Dr Garry Gelade studied national differences in organisational commitment in a sample of 49 countries, and looked at whether the economy, national personality, or cultural values had the most impact. Dr Gelade found that Brazil, Israel and Cyprus were ranked as the countries with the most committed employees, and at the other end of the scale, Russia, Japan and Hong Kong had the lowest. The UK was ranked 34th, preceded by Estonia and followed by the province of Taiwan. Australia, the Netherlands and Switzerland were ranked as the happiest, while Latvia, Bulgaria the Russian Federation were the least happy.

Dr Gelade found that commitment is high in countries where the population is ëextravertí, and low in countries where the population is ëneuroticí, that is, more prone to negative tendencies, such as anxiety. As a result, commitment is also high in countries where the population is happy. Socio-economic conditions have a marginal influence on commitment, which is slightly higher in countries with lower unemployment and economically robust, but is unrelated to per capita national income.

Few studies have attempted to account for national differences in commitment levels. At the organisational level, a highly committed workforce is associated with high company performance. At a national level, however, this is not the case; countries with the highest levels of commitment are not necessarily the most economically successful.

Dr Gelade comments: ìWith an increase in corporate employment in many parts of the world, many corporations operate cross-nationally and employ an international workforce, especially in London. This study will have practical implications for organisations seeking to maximise commitment levels among an eclectic workforce.î

1 Neuroticism, extraversion, and happiness are terms as defined by Eysenck, H.J., Dimensions of Personality (1947); and revised by Inglehart, R., World Values Survey (2005); Veenhoven, P., World Database of Happiness, Catalogue of Happiness Queries (2005).