| Abstract
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The intent of this study was to explore and attempt to identify significant influences on organizational commitment in Saudi public sector organizations. The selected independent variables were: (1) demographic variables (age, education, marital status, and number of dependents); (2) job and work related variables (experience, grade level, years at grade level, satisfaction, participation in decision making, job involvement, work motivation, role conflict, role ambiguity, advancement, autonomy, financial benefits, and work conditions); (3) organizational structure variables (centralization and formalization); (4) social interaction variables (supervisory behavior and relationship with co-workers). Organizational commitment was the dependent variable. Data collection was accomplished through one questionnaire which consisted of instruments or scales that were widely used and reported to have an acceptable level of reliability in the research literature. Two statistical methods--multiple regression and step-wise regression--were used to test four hypotheses and seven research questions. Multiple regression was used to assess the relative effort of each of the seventeen independent variables on the dependent variable (organizational commitment). Moreover, step-wise regression was used to determine the more significant predictor of the dependent variable (organizational commitment) for both middle level employees and low level employees. Results from this study showed that out of the total of 1,022 employees who participated in the study, 358 employees (35%) were found to be committed to their organizations, while 191 employees (18.7%) were found to be uncommitted. The majority of the participants, 473, or 46.3%, were found to be neither uncommitted nor committed to their organizations. The results of the multiple regression showed that the four dimensions have significant relationships with organizational commitment. Step-wise regressions were used to determine which variables have the most influence on the employees' level of commitment to their organizations in the four dimensions. Job satisfaction, advancement, job involvement, participation in decision making, education, job grade level, and work conditions of the employees were found to significantly influence organizational commitment (R2 =.55, p <.001). Recommendations for the improvement of organizational commitment and for future research were offered.
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