A study of the relationship between person-organization fit and the organizational commitment of attending physicians

Objectives: In order to explore the relationship between value congruence and the organizational commitment, this study used a survey to collect attending physicians' expected and perceived value for their working hospital from six selected medical centers in the Taiwan area. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between person-organization fit and the organizational commitment of attending physicians. Methods: This study selected two medical centers each from three separate types of ownership of hospital-public hospitals, corporate hospitals, and religion corporate hospitals. 1529 full-time attending physicians from six hospitals were selected and mailed questionnaires. 239 valid questionnaires were returned. The response rate was 15.7%. Results: Two value factors were retrieved through performing factor analysis. They were named "respect to employees" and "hospital growth and perpetuity". The value gap in "respect to employee" was positively associated with organizational commitment. That is, organizational commitment would be high when physicians perceived this real value was ranked as more important than an ideal one. The value gap in "hospital growth and perpetuity" was negatively associated with organizational commitment. That is, organizational commitment would be low when physicians perceived this real value was ranked as more important than an ideal one. After controlling for employee and hospital characteristics through performing multiple regressions, this study still suggested the same result. Conclusions: When hospitals placed more emphasis on "respect to employees" than employees' expectations, the organizational commitment of attending physicians was higher. When hospitals placed more attention on "hospital growth and perpetuity" than employees' expectations, attending physicians' organizational commitment was lower. Therefore, this study suggested that hospitals placed more attention to improve what employees expected, and communicated what and why they were necessary to carry out in order to survive. Better understanding enhanced the organizational commitment.