Conflict between affective versus continuance commitment among casino dealers

Published date07 April 2015
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-12-2013-0039
Pages46-63
Date07 April 2015
AuthorAngus C.H. Kuok,Robert J. Taormina
Subject MatterHR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM
Conflict between affective versus
continuance commitment among
casino dealers
Angus C.H. Kuok and Robert J. Taormina
Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities, Psychology Department,
University of Macau, Macau, China
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the extent of the reported low
affective commitment compared to continuance commitment of Chinese casino dealers, to discern if
there is a significant difference between the two types of commitment, and to identify factors that could
explain the difference between them.
Design/methodology/approach Questionnaire data were obtained from 247 Chinese casino
dealers working for the three major casino groups in Macau. Correlations and regressions were used
to analyze the data.
Findings Dealersaffective commitment was si gnificantly lower than their continuance
commitment, suggesting dealers do not like their jobs but do not leave them, which indicates they
have cognitive dissonance about their jobs. Organizational socialization, organizational support, and
supervisor integrity were positively correlated with affective commitment; while value of money, pay
satisfaction, and neuroticism, were positively correlated with continuance commitment. Organizational
support was the strongest predictor of affective commitment, while the value they place on money was
the strongest predictor of continuance commitment.
Practical implications Casino managers could improve dealersaffective commitment by
facilitating their organizational socialization, especially training and rewards for their work, providing
greater organizational support, and fair and supportive treatment from their supervisors.
Originality/value This is the first study to provide evidence of the difference between affective
and continuance commitment in Chinese society, and identifies factors that influence each type of
commitment, and may help resolve the employeesdilemma about their jobs, which is an important
concern for Chinese managers.
Keywords Organizational psychology, International human resource management,
Organizational behaviour, Work engagement and commitment
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
About one-fourth of all people working in Macau are employed in the gaming and
hotel industries, including about 25,000 casino dealers. The latter constitutes the
largest group of employees in casinos (Macau Statistics and Census Service, 2011a).
However, it has been found that casino dealers in Chinese society burnout easily and
are disinclined to work there, yet their turnover remains low (Taormina and Kuok,
2009). This trend stands in sharp contrast to developments in the United States, where
turnover of casino dealers is high because they often quit and go to work at other
casinos (Frey and Carns, 1987).
This is a dilemma both for dealers and managers. Casino dealers in Chinese society
are conflicted between their desire to leave the job (low affective commitment) as
working in a casino contradicts the norms of Chinese culture (Taormina, 2009),
and their need to stay to earn high salaries (high continuance commitment). These
incongruent feelings are a type of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957), and pose a
Evidence-based HRM: a Global
Forum for Empirical Scholarship
Vol. 3 No. 1, 2015
pp. 46-63
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2049-3983
DOI 10.1108/EBHRM-12-2013-0039
Received 28 December 2013
Revised 1 March 2014
Accepted 6 March 2014
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2049-3983.htm
46
EBHRM
3,1
critical question for management. That is, since work engagement (high affective
commitment) is antithetical to burnout (Maslach and Leiter, 2008), the question arises:
how extensive is the disparity between dealersdesires to stay and to leave their jobs?
If the discrepancy is significant, it becomes a concern for management as regards what
can be done to reduce it. Therefore, it is critical to understand this dilemma, which
affects dealers and managers who must resolve it.
The commitment question is important for casino management to answer because,
apart from studies on gambling addiction, relatively little research has been conducted
on casino employees from a managerial perspective. To this end, we arrive at three
objectives of this study: to assess the extent of dealersaffective and continuance
commitment; to discern if there is a significant difference between the two types
of commitment; and to investigate the factors related to each type of commitment and
to assess what casino managers might do to strengthen dealerscommitment.
2. The nature of the casino dealerswork
The casino dealersdilemma is that dealers in Macau earn high salaries that do not
require an education above secondary school level (Taormina and Kuok, 2009), while
the job is seen as easy: sit at a table and deal some cards. How ever, work is also
demanding because dealers must make no mistakes in determining who wins and
who loses, and in disbursing winnings and collecting losses (Tate, 2001). In addition,
dealers must also endure the stress of job insecurity, and face managers who become
angry if they lose games and players who become angry if the dealers win (Frey and
Carns, 1987).
2.1 Dependent variables
2.1.1 Affe ctive organizational commitment. This refers to how emotionally attached
dealers are to working in the casino. Allen and Meyer (1990) stated that employees
with strong affective commitment remain with the organization because they wantto
(p. 3). Previous research has indicated that affective commitment could be influenced
by a variety of factors. For example, Shore and Wayne (1993) found affective
commitment to be positively and significantly related to perceived organizational
support (POS). Thus, affective commitment was selected because it could be a critical
variable to clarify the extent of the desire casino dealers have toward staying with their
organization, and to identify factors that could be related to the desire to stay.
2.1.2 Continuance organiza tional commitment. This refers to whether dealers feel
they must continue working in casinos. Meyer and Allen (1984) described this as the
extent to which employees feel committed to their organizations by virtue of the costs
that they feel are associated with leaving (e.g. investments or lack of attractive
alternatives)(p. 375). In Beckers (1960) side-bettheory, as applied to commitment,
individuals make investmentswhen they take actions (at work) that increase the
costs associated with quitting. In other words, employees are bettingtheir time
and energy on mastering a job skill (in the casino) that may not be transferred easily to
other organizations. Thus, to winrequires continued employment in the casino rather
than changing jobs. Therefore, the likelihood that dealers will stay in the casino would
be positively related to the investments they perceive they made in their job.
2.1.3 The comparative strength of the two types of commit ment. With regard to the
relative strength of these types of commitment among casino dealers, the difference
could be related to several variables. Continuance commitment may be influenced by a
47
Affective
versus
continuance
commitment

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT