Effects of personal characteristics on organizational commitment: evidence from Brazil's oil and gas industry

In 1997, Brazil's major energy company faced a loss of its monopoly as part of the country's structural reform. Many of its employees were recruited by new entrants to the oil and gas industry. In order to retain employees, the company initiated a multiyear planning process which included a redesigned human resource management model oriented to organizational commitment. This study examines the long-term influence of five employee personal characteristics (type of employment, job level, gender, education level and service time) on the affective, normative and continuance components of organizational commitment. The research was conducted in one of the company refinery and involved a questionnaire survey of all employees and interviews with senior managers. It was found that type of employment (company staff or contractor) had the greatest impact on affective and normative commitment, while service time and education level are the most significant contributors to continuance commitment. Gender and job level were found to have limited implication for commitment. The results demonstrate that the company response to structural reform had the long-term positive effect of binding employees to the organization.