F E AT U R E

The Relationship Between

Training and Organizational
Commitment: A Study in
the Health Care Field

Kenneth R. Bartlett

This study examines the relationship between employee attitudes toward

training and feelings of organizational commitment among a sample of
337 registered nurses from ve hospitals. Using social exchange theory as
a framework for investigating the relationship, the researcher found that
perceived access to training, social support for training, motivation to learn,
and perceived benets of training are positively related to organizational
commitment. Using a three-component model of organizational commit-
ment, the strongest relationships appear with the affective form of com-
mitment. The relationship between perceived access to training opportunities
and the affective form of organizational commitment is moderated by job
satisfaction but not job involvement. The ndings are discussed for their
theoretical and practical application to HRD, for the management of HRD
in health care settings, and for researchers interested in outcomes of HRD.

A recent text on training in organizations states that companies in the United

States expend more money annually on training than do all the public school
systems in the country combined (OConnor, Bronner, and Delaney, 1996,
p. 1). Based on gures from the organizations included in the 1999 Associ-
ation for Training and Development (ASTD) State of the Industry Report,
many U.S. companies are spending more than $2 million on training
annually (p. 5).
Despite the fact that the scope of training in industry is expanding (ASTD,
1999), there remains concern over the contribution of training to desired orga-
nizational outcomes. The expanded role of training places continued pressure

Note: I would like to thank my dissertation adviser, Tim Wentling, the HRDQ editors, and
four anonymous reviewers for their many helpful suggestions on this article.

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, vol. 12, no. 4, Winter 2001

Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 335
336 Bartlett

on human resource development (HRD) professionals to develop more

effective training methods, programs, and instructional systems, and to con-
duct evaluations that demonstrate a return to organizations from their training
investments (Rush, 1996).
This study explores a new way to evaluate the outcome of training in or-
ganizations, that is, by examining the relationship between training and
organizational commitment. Organizational commitment refers to a persons type
and strength of attachment to his or her organization (Arnold, Cooper, and
Robertson, 1998).

Problem Statement and Theoretical Framework

Training has been identied as an example of a human resource management
practice that contributes to gains in competitive advantage (Schuler and
MacMillan, 1984); some researchers have suggested that contributions to pro-
ductivity and organizational performance are the most dominant argument for
justifying training (Scott and Meyer, 1991). Yet there is little empirical support
for the notion that HRD positively affects organizational performance (Torraco,
1999). Given the challenges in measuring performance (see Bates, 1999), a
more productive line of inquiry may be to examine the relationship between
training and desired workplace attitudes, which in turn have been found to
relate positively to organizational effectiveness.
One of many work-related attitudes being examined for its relationship to
the management of employee behavior is organizational commitmenta con-
cept that is increasingly being considered an important variable in explaining
work-related behavior because of its assumed impact on performance
(Benkhoff, 1997). And as Swanson (1995) states, the bottom line for training
or for any HRD effort is to improve performance.
In general terms, organizational commitment can be thought of as the level
of attachment felt toward the organization in which one is employed. A use-
ful description of organizational commitment is presented by Meyer and Allen
(1997), who suggest that a committed employee is one who will stay with
the organization through thick and thin, attends work regularly, puts in a full
day (and maybe more), protects company assets, and who shares company
goals (p. 3).
Early researchers considered organizational commitment to be a unidi-
mensional construct (Mowday, Steers, and Porter, 1979). However, it is
now more widely acknowledged to be multidimensional (Meyer and Allen,
1997). Organizational commitment shares common elements with organiza-
tional loyalty, as well as commitment to the work group, supervisor,
job, career, and union. The focus of this article is on employees commitment
to the organization, which is noted as being the most maturely developed
of the work commitment family of constructs (Morrow and McEvoy,
1993, p. 1).
The Relationship Between Training and Organizational Commitment 337

Meyer and Allen (1991) dene the three constructs of organizational com-
mitment this way: Affective commitment refers to the psychological attachment
to the organization, continuance commitment refers to the costs associated with
leaving the organization, and normative commitment refers to a perceived obli-
gation to remain with the organization (p. 1). These three components of
commitment are alternatively described as the product of (a) emotional attach-
ments (affective commitment); (b) the costs of leaving, such as losing attrac-
tive benets or seniority (continuance commitment); and (c) the individuals
personal values (normative commitment) (Brief, 1998, p. 38). It should be
noted that it is more appropriate to consider affective, continuance, and nor-
mative commitment to be components rather than types of commitment
because an individual employees relationship with an organization may vary
across all three components.
Much of the interest in organizational commitment stems from reports of
positive consequences on employee behavior and desirable work outcomes
from organizational commitment. Meyer and Allen (1997) suggest that em-
ployees with strong commitment to the organization will be more valuable
employees than those with weak commitment. Randalls (1990) meta-analysis
notes positive relationships between organizational commitment and atten-
dance, coming to work on time, remaining with the organization, job effort,
and job performance. However, the correlations between organizational
commitment and job performance have traditionally been inconsistent and low.
More recent studies have found stronger relationships when performance has
been separated into in-role performance (performance on the required features
of the job) and extra-role performance (behaviors above and beyond what the
job requires) (Leong, Randall, and Cote, 1994; Meyer and others, 1989).
Therefore, the link between organizational commitment and desired workplace
outcomes is potentially of great use to HRD managers.
Some HRD authors have suggested that training should be designed to
achieve increased organizational commitment as an outcome (Lang, 1992).
However, the exploration of the relationship between organizational commit-
ment and training is in the early stages. In a study of U.S. Navy recruits, orga-
nizational commitment was found to increase following participation in
training (Tannenbaum, Mathieu, Salas, and Cannon-Bowers, 1991). Similar
results were found in a study of recently hired entry-level accountants (Saks,
1995). Both studies examined training as participation in a highly structured
program for new members to an organization. It is not known whether a sim-
ilar positive relationship between training and organizational commitment
exists in other occupations, or when training and development are more broadly
dened to capture HRD programs other than orientation, or in samples of
employees with a longer organizational tenure than new hires.
Although the focus of the present study is commitment as an outcome of
training, previous research has considered organizational commitment as a
variable that inuences training. More specically, greater organizational
338 Bartlett

commitment has been found to inuence motivation for (1) participation in

training (Tannenbaum and others, 1991), (2) levels of participant knowledge
following a training program (McEvoy, 1997), and (3) the transfer-of-training
process (Seyler and others, 1998).
Regardless of whether increased commitment is an objective of training
activities, organizational commitment is acknowledged as an inuence on the
training process (Meyer and Allen, 1997). This study demonstrates ways in
which trainings positive effect on organizational commitment can be
enhanced. Previous research shows that positive outcomes such as reduced
turnover, decreased absenteeism, and increased extra-role performance result
from increased levels of individual commitment to the organization. Therefore
the relationship between employees perceptions regarding training provided
by their employer and their level of individual commitment is potentially valu-
able in exploring the outcomes of training. If training is indeed related to the
development and maintenance of organizational commitment, many implica-
tions exist for HRD managers.
The theoretical framework that guided this investigation is centered on the
psychological contract and the employment relationshipa relationship
embedded in the context of social exchange theory (Blau, 1964; Homans,
1961). Psychological contracts describe individuals beliefs about their
employment relationship and guide employee beliefs about what they think
they are entitled to receive because of real or perceived promises from their
employing organization (Robinson, Kraatz, and Rousseau, 1994). It should be
noted that psychological contracts are dened by their perceptual and indi-
vidual nature, making them distinct from both formal written contracts and
implied contracts (Robinson and Wolfe-Morrison, 1995). Furthermore, they
concern both concrete (pay, working conditions) and abstract (security, chal-
lenge) elements of the give-and-take between employer and employee (Guzzo
and Noonan, 1994, p. 448).
It is argued that psychological contracts act as powerful determinants of
organizational behavior (Schein, 1980). Human resource management prac-
tices are acknowledged as affecting the psychological contract (Lucero and
Allen, 1994; McLean-Parks and Schmedemann, 1994); some theorists indicate
that a major function of HRM is to foster an appropriate psychological
contract (Rousseau and Greller, 1994, p. 385). More recently, Sparrow (1998)
has suggested that HRD managers have a role in dening and maintaining
employees psychological contracts. Training can be viewed as a management
practice that can be controlled or managed to elicit a desired set of unwritten,
reciprocal attitudes and behaviors, including job involvement, motivation, and
organizational commitment. In return for demonstrations of these behaviors,
employees have altered their view of what they feel is owed to them in return
for their labor. Many employees have come to view training as a right of mem-
bership (Scott and Meyer, 1991, p. 298) and as a benet of employment
(Ashenfelter and LaLonde, 1998).
The Relationship Between Training and Organizational Commitment 339

Nordhaug (1989) had earlier noted that HRD activities in work organi-
zations may have a substantial rewarding potential and are thereby an implicit
part of reward systems (p. 373). Therefore, training can be thought of as inu-
encing the work attitudes and behavior of individuals in organizations. To view
training from this perspective indicates that it is involved in the process of
social exchange operating within organizations and in the psychological
contract that exists between employee and employer.

Hypotheses
The question for this research was, To what degree are perceptions of training
related to organizational commitment? More specically, six research hypotheses
were tested because the development of attitudes toward training is inuenced
by many other variables.
One key determinant of attitudes toward training results from participa-
tion. Previous research found training participation to be related to the per-
ceptions that training is available and that the organization supports training
for career advancement (Tharenou, 1997). However, traditional measures of
training participation have relied on measures of frequency (how many train-
ing events) and duration (period of time for training events). Perceived access
to training was added as an alternative measure, as this has been shown to cor-
relate with actual participation (Tharenou and Conroy, 1994).
Perceived access to training can be thought of as the extent to which
employees feel that (1) they have access to the training opportunities required
for acquiring the knowledge, skills, and abilities they need for their current
position, and that (2) minimal organizational constraints limit their participa-
tion in training.

HYPOTHESIS 1a. There will be a positive relationship between participation in train-

ing, as measured by frequency, duration, and organizational commitment.
HYPOTHESIS 1b. There will be a positive relationship between access to training and
organizational commitment.

Perceived support for training from colleagues and senior staff has been
shown to inuence the decision to participate in training and development
activities (Noe and Wilk, 1993). Tharenou (1997) also identies social sup-
port and career encouragement as important indicators of training participa-
tion. Support from senior staff and supervisors, as well as from peers,
colleagues, and fellow workers, is considered important; social support may
play a role in the frequency and duration of training experiences that an indi-
vidual participates in, as well as in his or her attitudes about perceived access
to training.
340 Bartlett

HYPOTHESIS 2a. There will be a positive relationship between support for training
from senior staff and organizational commitment.
HYPOTHESIS 2b. There will be a positive relationship between support for training
from colleagues and organizational commitment.

Among the personal and dispositional attitudes that affect participation in

training, motivation to learn is frequently cited as being among the most
important determinants of training outcomes (Fleishman and Mumford,
1989). Highly motivated individuals are more likely to apply the skills they
developed in training back on the job (Cannon-Bowers, Salas, Tannenbaum,
and Mathieu, 1993).
Training motivation can be thought of in general terms as a level of
motivation toward participation in training and development activities. The
study of training motivation has important implications for how employees per-
ceive training-related variables such as access, benets, and support for train-
ing. Mathieu, Tannenbaum, and Salas (1992) found a signicant relationship
between training motivation and measures associated with reactions to training
and learning. Motivation to learn is composed of two components: (1) a global
measure of how motivated an individual is to learn, and (2) a more specic
component of how motivated the individual is to learn the material presented
at the training experiences to which an employee has access.

HYPOTHESIS 3. Employees with higher levels of training motivation will report higher
levels of organizational commitment.

The perceived benets of training have been found to affect participation

in and recall of past training. Nordhaug (1989) identies three types of bene-
ts that employees obtain from participation in training: personal, career, and
job-related benets. Those who reect positively on training benets are
thought to exhibit stronger feelings of commitment to the organization that
provided the training.

HYPOTHESIS 4. There will be a positive relationship between perceived benets of

training and organizational commitment.

The potential relationship between training and organizational commitment

is most likely moderated by other workplace attitudes. This study considers the
role of job involvement and job satisfaction as potential moderators. The analy-
sis for moderated relationships focused only on the affective form of organiza-
tional commitment, as this is potentially the most benecial for HRD managers.
Job involvement refers to the extent to which people are psychologically
attached to their jobs and the degree of importance that work holds in their
life (Lodahl and Kejner, 1965; Keller, 1997). Job involvement is a potentially
The Relationship Between Training and Organizational Commitment 341

important variable in this study, as it addresses the degree of focus and attach-
ment to the job and of work in general rather than commitment to the orga-
nization. Although prior research suggests that job involvement, organizational
commitment, and job satisfaction are consistently correlated, recent studies
conrm the discriminant validity for the three constructs, concluding that they
assess three distinct concepts (Keller, 1997; Mathieu and Farr, 1991). There-
fore, the relationship between the training and the affective form of organiza-
tional commitment may be moderated by the extent to which people feel
involved in their job and the degree of importance they place on their work.

HYPOTHESIS 5. The relationship between access to training and affective organiza-

tional commitment will be moderated by job involvement.

Job satisfaction remains one of the most studied work-related variables

(Spector, 1997). Job satisfaction is frequently dened as an individuals attitude
toward his or her job (Moorhead and Grifn, 1997). The association between
job satisfaction and organizational commitment is strong, although conict-
ing data exist on the causal direction of the relationship. Previous studies have
concluded that job satisfaction is an antecedent to organizational commit-
ment (Williams and Hazer, 1986); others have supported the idea that
commitment causes job satisfaction (Vandenberg and Lance, 1992).
Having reviewed these studies, Brief (1998) suggests that more research
is required to unmask the nature of the job-satisfactionorganizational-
commitment relationship. More agreement is found for job satisfaction having
potential effects on job performance (Iaffaldano and Muchinsky, 1985),
absence (Steers and Rhodes, 1978), and turnover (Mobley, Griffeth, Hand, and
Meglino, 1979). In addition, research has shown that job satisfaction has sig-
nicant moderating relationships with many important constructs, including
extra-role performance (Organ and Konovsky, 1989), turnover (Blau, 1993),
and physical health and psychological well-being (Spector, 1997). For the
purpose of this study, the author assumed that if a relationship between train-
ing and organizational commitment does exist, it is likely to be moderated by
job satisfaction.

HYPOTHESIS 6. The relationship between access to training and affective organiza-

tional commitment will be moderated by job satisfaction.

Method
The sections that follow describe the sample and procedures used.
Sample and Procedures. A self-administered questionnaire was used to
collect individual-level data on the perceived relationship between various phe-
nomena related to training and the level of organizational commitment. Even
though perceptions of training practices may have limits, Schneider, Ashworth,
342 Bartlett

Higgs, and Carr (1996) note that signicant correlations exist between
employee reports of the practices and procedures under which they work, and
judgments made by external observers. This suggests that employees are an
accurate gauge of HRD practices.
The target population was registered nurses (RNs) employed in public
hospitals. This population was selected for two reasons. First, health care pro-
fessionals (nurses in particular) have been used in previous research related
to organizational commitment (Hackett, Bycio, and Hausdorf, 1994; Knoop,
1995; Meyer, Allen, and Smith, 1993). Second, all members of this popula-
tion participate in HRD at varying levels, as the nursing profession requires
mandatory training for individual recertication and hospital accreditation
(Pearson and Chong, 1997). A sample of public hospitals was drawn from
the Directory of Hospitals, which is published by the Department of Public
Health in a midwestern state. A stratied approach was used for selection to
ensure variability in terms of organizational size, which was measured by the
number of beds and the number of full-time RNs employed, and whether
the hospitals served an urban or rural populationvariables that might inu-
ence the amount of training provided. Organization size was also used as a
control variable in the analysis reecting previous research that found that
organizations with more than one hundred employees provide more train-
ing (Brown, 1990). Based on a study by Brown (1990), hospitals in the
present study were considered large if they employed one hundred or more
full-time-equivalent RNs.
Surveys were distributed to all full-time RNs at three large hospitals located
in large cities and two small hospitals serving predominantly rural communi-
ties. Each hospital asked nursing managers to distribute the survey and an
attached cover letter to nurses in their units, along with a postage-paid enve-
lope so they could return the completed questionnaires directly to the
researcher. Completed and useable surveys were collected from 337 of the 1,530
RNs who received them, representing an overall response rate of 22 percent.
This rate of return is comparable to other surveys of RNs using a similar sam-
pling strategy (Omdahl and ODonnell, 1999). Follow-up with hospital human
resource administrators conrmed that the characteristics of respondents closely
reected the total employee population. As could be expected from a female-
dominated profession, the majority of respondents were women (n 319, or
94.7 percent). Almost half (49.6 percent) of the respondents had completed at
least a four-year college degree, had been an RN for an average of 14.84 years,
and had been employed as an RN at their current place of work for an average
of 10.52 years.
Measures. The variables under investigation in this study were divided
into three categories: (1) training-related variables, (2) organizational commit-
ment variables, and (3) moderating variables. Training was viewed as the inde-
pendent variable and was divided into six subvariables to reect the complex
role of and inuences on this HRD practice. A three-item scale was developed
The Relationship Between Training and Organizational Commitment 343

to measure perceived access to training ( .76). Other variables included in

the study were selected from well-established and validated scales. These
included four items to determine training participation based on frequency and
duration of training events (Tharenou and Conroy, 1994), a shortened six-item
scale from the perceived support for training from colleagues scale ( .83)
and the sixteen-item perceived support from senior staff scale (Noe and Wilk,
1993, .96), the eleven-item motivation to learn from training scale devel-
oped by Noe and Schmitt (1986, .87), and the fourteen-item perceived
benets of training scale (Noe and Wilk, 1993, .82).
Organizational commitment was measured by the nineteen-item affective,
continuance, and normative commitment scale (ACNCS) of Allen and Meyer
(1990, .86, .79, .89 respectively). An example from the seven-item
affective commitment subscale is as follows: This organization has a great
deal of personal meaning for me. The six continuance commitment subscale
items include I feel I have too few options to consider leaving this organiza-
tion now; examples from the six-item normative commitment subscale
include I would feel guilty if I left my organization right now and I owe a
great deal to my organization. The potential moderating variable, job involve-
ment, was measured by the six-item shortened form of the Lodahl and Kejner
(1965) scale ( .52), and the three-item Michigan Organizational Assess-
ment Questionnaire Subscale was used for job satisfaction (Cammann,
Fichman, Jenkins, and Klesh, 1979, .85).
The survey was developed and piloted in consultation with four RNs cur-
rently enrolled in a graduate-level HRD program. Item nonresponse was
treated as missing data; analysis revealed no underlying pattern of missing
responses. Data analysis employed bivariate correlations and stepwise multi-
ple regression analysis for the six hypotheses. Reliability analysis was used to
determine the reliability of all scales for comparison to the prepublished esti-
mates. Factor analysis was used to conrm the suitability of the researcher-
developed access to training scale.

Results
Means, standard deviations, and bivariate correlations among the study vari-
ables are presented in Table 1.
Training participation based on duration (hours spent in training)
was found to be signicantly and positively related to affective commitment
(p .01, r .15) and signicantly but negatively related to continuance
commitment (p .05, r .11). Training frequency (number of training
events) was signicant only with affective commitment, providing partial sup-
port for Hypothesis 1a, which predicts a positive relationship between partic-
ipation in training, as measured by frequency and duration and organizational
commitment. Perceived access to training shows a stronger relationship with
affective commitment at the p .01 level (r .44) and with normative
 Table 1. Means, Standard Deviations, Reliability Estimates, and Correlations for All Variables
Variable Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Training frequency 11.01 22.76

Access to training 13.08 4.52 .76 .10
Support for training
from colleagues 24.47 4.28 .83 .03 .22*
Support for training
from senior staff 55.26 14.91 .96 .04 .50** .37*
Training motivation 47.27 5.13 .87 .12* .07 .10 .15**
Personal-related
benets of training 18.46 3.42 .65 .01 .26** .24** .36** .61**
Career-related benets
of training 19.04 3.93 .71 .01 .28** .25** .36** .44** .72**
Job-related benets
of training 12.12 1.96 .69 .10 .11 .12* .17** .06 .25** .32**
Affective commitment 20.09 5.78 .86 .05 .44** .30** .64** .17** .33** .32** .11
Continuance commitment 21.57 6.14 .79 .11 .06 .04 .14* .05 .08 .19** .09 .08
Normative commitment 17.13 6.26 .89 .12* .41** .14** .58** .17** .34** .32** .16** .72** .21**
Job involvement 17.53 3.64 .52 .11 .22** .04 .28** .24** .28** .26** .12* .39** .14* .41**
Job satisfaction 16.23 3.95 .85 .07 .43** .35** .56** .11* .30** .33** .09 .68** .05 .62** .29**
*p .05; **p .01
The Relationship Between Training and Organizational Commitment 345

commitment (r .41), supporting Hypothesis 1b, which predicts a positive

relationship between access to training and organizational commitment.
The relationship between support for training from senior staff and orga-
nizational commitment was signicantly related to all three forms of commit-
ment, supporting Hypothesis 2a, which predicts a positive relationship
between support for training from senior staff and organizational commitment.
Hypothesis 2b suggests that a positive relationship would be found between
support for training from colleagues and organizational commitment. The
results for this analysis were more moderate than the results for support from
senior staff; signicant relationships with both affective and normative com-
mitment support Hypothesis 2b.
Results show a signicant positive relationship between motivation to
learn and organizational commitment among the affective and normative forms
of commitment. A negative but nonsignicant relationship exists between
motivation to learn and the continuance form of organizational commitment,
thus supporting Hypothesis 3, which states that employees with higher levels
of training motivation would report higher levels of organizational commit-
ment. The benets of training to an employees career were signicantly related
to all three forms of commitment, and personal benets were related to both
affective and normative commitment, whereas job-related benets of training
were related only to normative commitment. This provides partial support for
Hypothesis 4 in that a positive relationship was found between the three types
of perceived benets of training and organizational commitment, with only
job-related benets being related to the affective, continuance, and normative
components of organizational commitment.
As discussed earlier, the relationship between participation in training and
organizational commitment was most signicant with the access-to-training
variable. Therefore, duration and frequency of training were dropped from all
further analysis. A regression analysis using access to training to predict orga-
nizational commitment when moderating for job involvement was found to be
insignicant, providing no support for Hypothesis 5, which predicts that the
relationship between access to training and the affective form of organizational
commitment will be moderated by job involvement. However, Hypothesis 6,
which states that the relationship between access to training and affective com-
mitment will be moderated by job satisfaction was supported. Table 2 shows
that the model with the two-way interaction term was signicant (p 0.01),
with 51.7 percent of the variance explained. This suggests that, when control-
ling for organizational size and moderating for job satisfaction, those who feel
they have more access to training are more likely to exhibit higher feelings of
affective commitment. Those low in job satisfaction who feel they have low
access to training feel lower levels of affective commitment.
Overall, the ndings indicate that signicant relationships exist between
organizational commitment and hours spent in training, access to training,
motivation to learn, support for training from colleagues and senior staff, and
perceived benets of training. The affective form of organizational commitment
346 Bartlett

Table 2. Stepwise Regression Analyses for Main and Moderating

Effects: Access to Training and Organizational Commitment
Moderated by Job Satisfaction
Affective Continuance Normative
Variable Commitment SEM Commitment SEM Commitment SEM

Access to
training .22*** 0.34 .03 .04 .09 .13
Organizational
size .23* .02 .02 .01 .51 .19
Job satisfaction .19* .26 .08 .07 .25* .31
(.08)**
Interaction term .06** .74 .02** .02 .04** .45
R2 0.52 0.01 0.45
F 83.51*** .42 63.96***
Df 316 321 318
*p .10; **p .05 level; ***p .01

shows the most consistent relationships with these variables. Job satisfaction
(but not job involvement) moderates the relationship between access to train-
ing and affective commitment.

Conclusions and Recommendations

This research explored the relationship between variables related to training
and organizational commitment. Three measures were related to training par-
ticipation, with perceived access to training producing the highest correlations
with organizational commitment. The nding that access to training provided
a stronger relationship to organizational commitment than either the number
of training events participated in or the number of hours spent in training may
suggest that employees dont necessarily want to participate in a predetermined
number of training events or hours per year but do value the knowledge that
training is freely available.
However, caution should be exercised in interpreting this result, as the
access-to-training measure did not determine perceptions of relevance. Fur-
thermore, access to training does not imply participation in training, although
results show that a signicant positive relationship does exist between these
two variables. The results also imply that caution should be exercised when
seeking to establish benchmarks in terms of training participation.
Variables related to the motivation to learn, the benets of training, and
support for training from colleagues and supervisors have been shown in past
studies to inuence participation in training (Noe and Wilk, 1993; Tharenou
and Conroy, 1994; Tharenou, 1997); those conclusions were conrmed in this
study. It has been suggested that organizations interested in increasing the level
The Relationship Between Training and Organizational Commitment 347

of employee interest and involvement in training and development activities

should consider management action to ensure that employees develop and
maintain high levels of motivation to learn (Noe and Wilk, 1993). An earlier
study demonstrated that motivation to learn can be enhanced with informa-
tion and descriptions from management and supervisors on training opportu-
nities, content, and benets (Hicks and Klimoski, 1987).
The results suggesting that employees who expect benets from their par-
ticipation in training are likely to be more committed should encourage a more
strategic approach to linking outcomes of training to both individual and orga-
nizational benets. The nding for the relationship between perceived support
for training from colleagues and senior staff and organizational commitment
suggests that social support for training is an important component in the for-
mation and maintenance of commitment. This implies that employees take
cues from both their colleagues and their supervisors and managers with
regard to the importance of training, and these perceptions may inuence their
attitude and participation. Therefore HRD department personnel should strive
to create an environment in which training participation is strongly supported
by all employees, especially senior staff. The moderating inuence of job sat-
isfaction on the relationship between perceived access to training and organi-
zation commitment highlights the importance of job satisfaction as an
antecedent to organizational commitment and supports renewed calls for
research on job satisfaction (Brief, 1998).
The following conclusions can be made, based on the analysis of the data
in this study. First, organizational commitment is related to participation in
training. However, perceived access to training appears to result in a stronger
relationship than either the number of training events attended or the number
of hours spent in training during the past year. However, it must be stressed
that neither perceived access to training nor training frequency captures the
issue of relevance. Relevance of training is important for HRD practitioners, as
previous research has suggested that irrelevant training programs may nega-
tively affect organizational commitment (Ogilvie, 1986). Second, organizational
commitment is related to perceived support for training from senior staff and
colleagues, personal motivation to learn, and the perceived benets of train-
ing. The strongest relationships are with the emotional or affective form of
organizational commitment. Finally, the affective component of organizational
commitment is related to access to training when the moderating inuence of
job satisfaction is controlled for. However, job involvement does not seem to
inuence the relationship between access to training and organizational
commitment.
Limitations. The results of this research should be interpreted with recog-
nition of the studys limitations. The generalizability of the results is limited to
the degree to which other populations resemble the one studied. It is possible
that a sample of RNs may yield unique results in that nursing is a female-
dominated profession, has mandatory training, and experiences higher
348 Bartlett

turnover rates than many other professions. The sample was also limited to
ve hospitals in one state. In addition, as respondents were full-time RNs
employed in hospitals, the ndings may not apply to nurses in other health
care settings.
The survey nature of this study introduces limitations that are inherent
in the research design, including the possible ambiguity of individual ques-
tions, answers that cannot be claried, memory lapses, variations in individ-
ual motivation, and variations in the knowledge of respondents. This is noted
as being especially relevant for studies of the perceptions of work-related
practices (Schneider, Ashworth, Higgs, and Carr, 1996). The concern that all
measures were gathered from the same source in a single questionnaire raises
concerns of common method variance, although Crampton and Wagner
(1994) conclude that this issue is less problematic in organizational behavior
research than previously thought. However, more objective measures of HRD
participation and job behavior would serve to verify the various relationships
with organizational commitment.
Finally, it must be acknowledged that organizational commitment has mul-
tiple determinants. Future research should explore the use of organizational
commitment and other work-related variables as potential outcomes for HRD.
This type of research would be well suited to longitudinal studies employing
both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Ideally, studies would involve
larger samples and a wide range of organizations in both private industry and
public agencies. It is with such efforts that HRD can develop into a major force
in the continued search for a greater understanding of the role of developing
human resources for achieving organizational success.
Contribution to HRD Theory and Practice. These ndings have numer-
ous implications for those employed in management and administrative
positions within the health care eld and for HRD practitioners. It is suggested
that HRD practitioners consider desired work-related attitudes such as orga-
nizational commitment to be an additional outcome of training and develop-
ment activities. Results indicating that training can play a role in the
development and maintenance of organizational commitment should encour-
age managers to further explore the role of commitment and its relationship
to improvements in retention and productivity. This could also suggest that
HRD professionals adopt a broader perspective toward training outcomes.
The ndings of this study illustrate that HRD practitioners can play a
signicant role in establishing a positive perception toward training and
development within organizations. Employee attitudes toward access to train-
ing, perceived benets of training, and the social support for training from
peers and senior staff can all be inuenced by management action. The nd-
ing that these attitudes are related to commitment should encourage those
responsible for recruitment, selection, and initial socialization of newly hired
employees to add information on the amount and type of HRD provided and
the level of managerial support toward training and development.
The Relationship Between Training and Organizational Commitment 349

Even though organizational commitment is a diverse construct with a large

body of theoretical and empirical literature, HRD managers can focus on a few
key elements. First, it appears that affective commitment is most important to
foster within organizations. Second, HRD practitioners should concentrate on
the job-related antecedents to commitment rather than personal or situational
characteristics over which they have little control. By adapting the summary
of relevant job- and organization-related antecedents of high levels of affective
commitment from Pinks (1992), HRD managers could play a role in increas-
ing job challenge, role clarity, and participation in decision making about
training. They could also communicate that the organization depends on the
continued efforts of each employee.
Finally, it should be noted that HRD is one of many organizational
processes that can assist in the development and maintenance of organiza-
tional commitment. However, the relationship between training and commit-
ment explored in this study should not result in HRD professionals believing
that training alone has a relationship with organizational commitment. In fact,
these results highlight that HRD is one component of a complex set of man-
agement practices that together inuence the attitudes and behaviors of
employees. This study suggests that HRD professionals can capitalize on exist-
ing empirical work, as well as adopt new research methods to demonstrate to
organizational decision makers that training and development contributes
to desired workplace attitudes, including organizational commitment, which
may in turn inuence behaviors such as absenteeism and turnover.

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Kenneth R. Bartlett is assistant professor in human resource development at the

University of Minnesota.