The Factors That Affect the Organisational Commitment of Employees in a Rural Local Municipality in Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

Every organisation whether in the private or public sector cannot attain its vision, maximise profit or sustain itself without human capital. Today human resource managers face difficulties over the failure to retain long-term employees within the same organisation, leading to increased employee turnover and organisational memory loss. Employees who are committed to their organisations are likely not to turnover and to work hard to promote organisational productivity. This article is based on a study that explored employees’ organisational commitment in a local municipality in Limpopo Province. The study looked at the three-component conceptualisation of organisational commitment. It employed a quantitative approach, which focussed only on permanently employed employees of the selected local municipality. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection and data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists. The results of the study revealed that the surveyed employees had a higher affective commitment as compared to both continuance and normative commitment. The findings further suggest that given better employment options out there, the employees are likely to leave the municipality. This article recommends that to encourage employee organisational commitment employers should assess individual employee rewards and incentives as well as training and development needs, promote an environment that is conducive to healthy employee relationships and support programmes that enhance work-life balance.