بهبود رضایتمندی شغلی و تعهد سازمانی در سرویس دهی آمبولانس زمینی توسط ارتباطات سازمانی و رضایتمندی واسطه گری The effects of organizational communication on job satisfaction and organizational commitment in a land ambulance service and the mediating role of communication satisfaction

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide further insight into the relationship between internal communication practices, communication satisfaction, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. It is centered in the emergency services sector in general, and on land ambulance services in particular. The focus organization is a large urban land ambulance service with an operating budget of approximately $50 million and 468 employees. Design/methodology/approach – Only paramedics were eligible to participate in the study. In total, 91 (32.5 per cent) of the organization’s 280 paramedics participated. Data were collected using a questionnaire comprising pre-existing work-related psychometric measures. The measures included the Communication Audit Survey, the Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Affective Organizational Commitment Scale. Only quantitative data were collected. Findings – The data showed that internal communication practices explained 49.8 per cent of the variation in communication satisfaction, 23.4 per cent of the variation in job satisfaction, and 17.5 per cent of the variation in affective organizational commitment. However, these effects were fully mediated by communication satisfaction when job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment were regressed against both internal communication practices and communication satisfaction. Research limitations/implications – These findings have important practical and theoretical implications. Managers will not be able to foster job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment through internal communication practices unless they recognize and appreciate what information is valued by employees. Second, managers must have a clear understanding of both the quantity and quality of information desired by employees if they are to design internal communication systems that meet the information needs of employees. Finally, one must consider the possibility that, for employees, communication satisfaction represents a fundamental yardstick against which all of the organization’s activities and change initiatives are measured. This possibility is supported by research from the domain of change management. Originality/value – Given the present shortage of skilled and able emergency personnel, it is in the best interest of organizations to enhance job satisfaction and commitment of such critical employees. Keywords Communication, Communication processes, Job satisfaction, Paramedics Paper type Research paper The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1362-0436.htm Effects of organizational communication 29 Career Development International Vol. 14 No. 1, 2009 pp. 29-49 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1362-0436 DOI 10.1108/13620430910933565 Introduction Communication is central to the practice of management. Managers spend 75 per cent or more of their work time engaged in some form of communication. (Mintzberg, 1973, p. 38; Klemmer and Snyder, 1972). There is good reason for this. Evidence suggests that, to some extent, more is better when it comes to internal communication. Research by Yammarino and Naughton (1988) demonstrates a positive relationship between the amount of time spent communicating and important work outcomes such as the level of effort expended by employees and employee job satisfaction. As a result of these and similar findings, many organizations have invested significant financial and human resources toward developing effective and efficient internal communication systems to facilitate the communication of relevant and timely information to employees at all levels of the organization. The purpose of this study is to provide further insight into the relationship between internal communication practices, communication satisfaction, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Specifically, we intend to test the hypothesis that communication satisfaction acts as a mediator between an organization’s internal communication systems and two important job outcomes: job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. Our study is focused in the emergency services sector in general, and on land ambulance services in particular. The sample used in this study is a critical population, and we know from previous research that job satisfaction and organizational commitment are among the best predictors of turnover intentions. There is already a shortage of skilled and able emergency personnel and thus, it is the best interest of land ambulance organizations to find ways to enhance job satisfaction and organizational commitment of such employees. Paramedical personnel operate under pressure and communication practices that are ineffective and inefficient can increase their frustration with the organization. Managers of land ambulance service operations face several complex challenges in their efforts to foster communication satisfaction and efficiency amongst front-line staff. First, as an emergency service provider, land ambulance service operations must maintain “۲۴/۷/۳۶۵” response capabilities. This demands that paramedics work non-standard work hours. However middle and top managers generally maintain traditional office hours. This scheduling dichotomy gives rise to the possibility of a communication gap or “disconnect” between managers and their front-line staff. Second, land ambulance service operations operate with a high degree of spatial differentiation, “which refers to the degree to which the location of an organization’s offices, plants and personnel is dispersed geographically” (Robbins and Barnwell, 1998, p. 79). This minimizes the opportunity for meaningful face-to-face interactions between paramedics and managers at all levels of the organization. Third, the mobile nature of land ambulance service operations makes it difficult for managers to communicate with paramedic staff who are in transit between fixed posts. Finally, in many land ambulance service operations, high emergency call volumes keep paramedic crews busy for much of their shift making it difficult, if not impossible, for managers to communicate with employees who are busy tending to the sick and injured. All of these factors synergistically combine to minimize the extent to which paramedics can actively engage in meaningful internal organization communication. This could lead to a sense of isolation amongst paramedics from the rest of the organization (Cascio, 2000). CDI 14,1 30 Theory and hypotheses Research interest in the domain of internal communication dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Over the last hundred years, a large body of literature has emerged. Despite a century of enquiry, interest on the subject matter remains strong. This seems largely due to the increasing complexity of modern organizations, the dynamic and diverse environments in which they operate, and rapid advances in, and important experiences with, the information technologies they use to communicate and interact with employees (Be´langer and Watson-Manheim, 2006; Byrne and LeMay, 2006; Turner et al., 2006). While many relationships within the domain of internal communication have been examined, some of the more interesting involve those between employee perceptions of internal communication and work attitudes. This is because work attitudes are known to be related with significant and meaningful work outcomes at both the individual and organizational level. One of the most studied relationships between communication satisfaction and work attitudes is that involving job satisfaction. A more recent and less understood relationship is that between communication satisfaction and organizational commitment. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are perhaps the two most common attitudinal variables discussed in the academic literature. This is because an employee’s evaluation of his or her job and his or her commitment to the organization have been related with important job outcomes, including employee withdrawal (Cohen, 1993a), organizational citizenship behaviours (Ilies et al., 2006; Cohen, 1999), counterproductive work behaviours (Spector et al., 2006), and job performance (Carmeli and Freund, 2004).