The relationship between demographic features, career satisfaction, and organisational commitment
: evidence from the Kuwaiti banking sector

  • Nizar Baidoun

Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis

Abstract

This study investigates issues related to career satisfaction and organisational commitment. The research was conducted within the Kuwaiti banking sector with the important feature of Kuwaitisation forming a key aspect. Grounded in social cognitive career theory, career theory, and cross-cultural comparison theories, this study specifically examines the relationship between demographic features, career satisfaction, and organisational commitment within the Kuwaiti banking sector. A systematic review of the empirical literature was undertaken which revealed that these issues are underresearched. The majority of previous studies in these fields have been conducted in different cultural contexts, and research in Kuwait has been lacking to date.
The research approach is a quantitative one. During July 2015, a self-report questionnaire was distributed to employees working in all business departments at a large conventional bank (Alpha Bank) in Kuwait. Mean scores rank ordered, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA test, and structural equation modeling were employed to analyse the data. The findings suggest that age and promotion are related to career satisfaction while gender and tenure are not. In addition, the findings suggest that career satisfaction is positively related to affective, normative, and continuance commitment.
Within the Kuwaiti geographical and cultural context, this study contributes to the existing literature on career satisfaction and organisational commitment as follows. First, it provides empirical data regarding the relationship between demographic features, career satisfaction, and organisational commitment within the Kuwaiti banking sector. Second, prior studies have assumed career satisfaction to be a unitary construct and limited attention has been given to its comprising aspects. Consequently, this research has examined these aspects in relation to age, gender, tenure, and promotion to provide a deeper understanding of the aspects of greatest meaning in the Kuwaiti context. Third, it extends support to the relevance and applicability of traditional approaches to explaining career phenomena. Fourth, it contributes new knowledge about normative and continuance commitment as components of organisational commitment, in relation to career satisfaction.
Date of AwardOct 2018
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • University of Portsmouth
SupervisorValerie Anderson (Supervisor)

Cite this

'