SAJHRM SA Journal of Human Resource Management 1683-7584 2071-078X AOSIS SAJHRM-22-2266 10.4102/sajhrm.v22i0.2266 Original Research The relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction and employee retention of detectives in the SAPS in the City of Tshwane https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0680-5758 Moshabi Chuene S. 1 http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7048-7892 Schultz Cecile M. 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5741-1466 du Plessis Francisca 2 Department of People Management and Development, Faculty of Management Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa Department of Operations Management, Faculty of Management Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa Corresponding author: Cecile Schultz, schultzcm@tut.ac.za 19022024 2024 22 2266 07032023 16112023 © 2024. The Authors 2024 Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Orientation

Findings on the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and employee retention have been inconsistent.

 Research purpose

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and employee retention among detectives in the South African Police Service (SAPS).

 Motivation for the study

There has been little, if any, research on the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and employee retention among SAPS’s detectives and on job satisfaction as a mediating variable in this context.

 Research approach/design and method

A survey research design, as well as a cross-sectional research design within Positivism, was used in this study. The study followed a quantitative research method. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data.

 Main findings

There was no significant evidence for job satisfaction as a mediator between organisational commitment and employee retention. The results indicated some positive relationships between job satisfaction and organisational commitment as well as between job satisfaction and employee retention. There was no positive relationship between organisational commitment and employee retention.

 Practical/managerial implications

Should the SAPS management not take note of the relationship that organisational commitment has with job satisfaction, it could harm the way detectives perceive their payment, supervision, co-workers, workload, and communication.

 Contribution/value-add

New nuances of the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and employee retention were discovered.

 organisational commitment employee retention job satisfaction detectives South African Police Service City of Tshwane Funding information This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Introduction Background and contribution of the study

Fulfilling the South African Police Service (SAPS) mandate of creating a safe and secure environment calls for human, financial, and technological resources (Zethu, 2019). The SAPS is facing significant challenges in retaining its staff (Mukwevho & Bussin, 2021), which points to the need to evaluate its retention strategies. These strategies should address recognition, career development, rewards and benefits, compensation, and performance management. Job satisfaction and organisational commitment within the SAPS environment should be improved to drive performance and enhance life satisfaction (Lambert et al. 2021). Sila and Širok (2018) posit that job satisfaction is an important attitudinal variable to research because of its strategic importance for organisational functioning.

The academic contribution of the study lies in the discovery of new nuances of the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and employee retention. The practical contribution of the study is that it accentuates the importance of an employee retention strategy for the SAPS detectives in Gauteng.

 Research gap and aim

Employee retention is a mounting challenge for most organisations (Alhmoud & Rjoub, 2020). Data published by the SAPS revealed an increase in employee turnover, particularly at senior levels within the organisation and among highly skilled and/or specialist staff (Zethu, 2019). This seems to be reason for concern, based on the PERSAP 2.21.57 report on the resignation of detectives in the City of Tshwane, dated 24 October 2022 (SAPS, 2022):

2015 – 4 detectives resigned

2016 – 8 detectives resigned

2017 – 14 detectives resigned

2018 – 21 detectives resigned

2019 – 8 detectives resigned

2020 – 3 detectives resigned

2021 – 12 detectives resigned

2022 – 10 detectives resigned

According to Hon’ble Minister of Police, BH Cele MP when responding to the National Assembly on 20 February 2023, some of the reasons given by the detectives during their exit interviews are among others the following:

better remuneration elsewhere

personal reasons

age

bad health

own business

other occupation

domestic problems

further studies

nature of work

insufficient progression possibilities

housewife

emigration

marriage

unsatisfactory service

transfer (spouse).

The reasons for this high number of resignations in the report were not provided.

A significant relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and employee retention among detectives in the SAPS could not be found in the current literature. In addition, the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and employee retention has not been reported as consistent (Chan & Ao, 2019; Ekshan, 2019). This study, therefore, set out to investigate this relationship, specifically in the SAPS environment, in order to address this research gap.

 Literature review Organisational commitment, job satisfaction and employee retention

According to Crow et al. (2012), organisational commitment is the dedicated cognitive alignment of a worker with his or her employer; it can be depicted through a set of variables, for example loyalty to the organisation, taking a personal interest in what the organisation stands for and committing oneself to its strategic goals. Herscovitch and Meyer (2002) mention the three-component model (TCM) that includes affective, normative, and continuance commitment:

Affective commitment is based on the emotional bond the worker builds with the employer through beneficial work experiences.

Normative commitment refers to the perceived loyalty to the employer, finding its ground in the norms of reciprocity.

Continuance commitment is based on socio-economic predictions of when the employee will terminate employment.

The TCM has been used as a predictive tool for outcomes in other studies, including turnover, behaviours of employees, achievement of goals, truancy, and lateness.

Banjarnahor et al. (2018:872) describe job satisfaction as a ‘person’s sense of evaluation of his work, assessment of how well his job satisfies his needs’.

Spector (1985), who developed the Job Satisfaction Survey, states that employees should be satisfied with their payments, supervision, relationships with co-workers, communication, and workload. Chiedu et al. (2017) posit that when employees are satisfied with their jobs, they do not want to leave the organisation, hence their commitment to the organisation. Furthermore, the results of their study revealed that job satisfaction and organisational commitment were critical elements of employee retention, indicating that employees who are less committed and satisfied with their jobs are more likely to leave the organisation. Siddiqui (2018) defines employee retention as a mutually beneficial process where an employer induces an employee to remain with the organisation for an extended period through attractive offers and benefits.

Soenanta et al. (2020) found that job satisfaction had a positive impact on employee retention and organisational commitment. Soenanta et al. (2020) state that when employees are not satisfied with their jobs, it negatively affects their organisational commitment and ultimately increases the desire to leave the organisation. Wangui (2015) argues that employee retention affects the relationship between organisational commitment and job satisfaction in the sense that job satisfaction and organisational commitment may be affected negatively if employees no longer want to work at the organisation.

 The relationship between organisational commitment and job satisfaction

According to Hedayat et al. (2018), there is a strong relationship between organisational commitment and job satisfaction, highlighting the need for supervisors to promote job enrichment and organisational support to employees for the improvement of performance. Larkin (2015) argues that there has not been any significant agreement on the correlation between job satisfaction and organisational commitment and cites Perrachione et al. (2008) as well as Weiner and Gehman (1977), to the effect that while in some studies job satisfaction was found to be the causal effect of organisational commitment other studies established that the inverse was true.

Furthermore, Larkin (2015:47) quotes Rusu (2013a & 2013b) to the effect that while some researchers found a significant positive relationship between the constructs, others failed to confirm this: ‘there is no basis to assert that job satisfaction is a predictor of organisational commitment and that commitment does not entail any work satisfaction’.

In a study by Seema et al. (2021), job satisfaction showed an increased positive influence on the construct of organisational commitment. Lima and Allida (2021) found a significant positive relationship between job satisfaction and affective commitment, signifying that as job satisfaction improves, so does organisational commitment. There was also an insignificant positive relationship between normative commitment and job satisfaction, and increased job satisfaction in employees led to higher affective and normative commitment. Ogunlana et al. (2016) found that both normative and affective commitment correlated with job satisfaction notwithstanding the different skill sets, employee progression within levels, and supervision; while on the other hand, continuance commitment correlated with employees’ progression levels and supervision.

The relationship between organisational commitment and job satisfaction is posed as the following hypothesis:

H1 Organisational commitment (affective, continuance and normative) positively correlates with job satisfaction (payments, supervision, relationship with co-workers, communication and workload).

 The relationship between job satisfaction and employee retention

Biason (2020) posits that there is a significant and direct relationship between employee retention and job satisfaction, with employees’ contentment with compensation, job content, promotion opportunities, and good relations with fellow employees playing a critical role in the relationship. According to Larkin (2015), job satisfaction influences employees’ decisions to stay with or leave an organisation. Employees who have the tendency to move from one job to another or experience multiple problems at work are more likely to leave the organisation. Zanabazar and Jigjiddorj (2018) found that an increase in employees’ job satisfaction was reflected in a concomitant desire to remain with the organisation, leading to improved competitiveness and performance by the organisation. They conclude that identifying and addressing factors affecting job satisfaction are key to retaining employees. Kutprem and Vongurai (2015) found a moderate correlation between employee retention and job satisfaction.

The relationship between job satisfaction and employee retention is posed as the following hypothesis:

H2 Job satisfaction (payments, supervision, relationship with co-workers, communication and workload) positively correlates with employee retention.

 The relationship between organisational commitment and employee retention

External retention factors such as compensation, training and development, supervisor support, work-life balance and career opportunities have a strong relationship with organisational commitment, while internal retention factors such as a sense of belonging to the organisation, work autonomy, job security, and creative freedom seem less studied (Talib & Mitra, 2017). Larkin (2015) found that when employees’ expectations were not satisfied, their commitment to the organisation could not be guaranteed.

According to Ahmad (2018), employees’ assessment of both the internal and external parts of their jobs influences their organisational commitment and job satisfaction. Furthermore, Ahmad (2018) posits that a positive assessment of their jobs promotes employees’ commitment to the organisation and intention to stay with the organisation for longer periods. According to Gorde (2019), there are five basic principles of employee retention, that is, a conducive environment for employees to perform optimally; career progression; compensation (salary, medical aid, bonus scheme and retirement benefits); a cordial relationship with managers and peers; and finally, support in terms of work and life balance. Show (2015) found that affective commitment was a great predictor of employee retention, that continuance commitment did not have a strong relationship with employee retention and that there was a weak relationship between normative commitment and employee retention.

The relationship between organisational commitment and employee retention is posed as the following hypothesis:

H3 Organisational commitment (affective, continuance and normative) positively correlates with employee retention.

 Job satisfaction as a mediator between employee retention and organisational commitment

Crow et al. (2012) indicate that job satisfaction plays a key role as a mediator variable in an employee’s decision to be committed to an organisation. Chan and Ao (2019) found that job satisfaction and organisational commitment mediated employee retention. Hendri (2019) established that job satisfaction had a positive mediating effect on organisational commitment and employee performance, which might in turn influence employee retention. Dinc et al. (2018) found that job satisfaction was the mediator between organisational commitment and job performance. Loan (2020) determined that the strength of the relationship between organisational commitment and job performance was significantly reduced when job satisfaction was added to the model, suggesting the mediating role of job satisfaction. In the light of the findings, it is suggested that a positive relationship between organisational commitment and job performance by itself may not automatically achieve the desired outcome – job performance. Jawaad et al. (2019) found that job satisfaction mediated the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and organisational commitment. Job satisfaction as a mediator between organisational commitment and employee retention is posed as the following hypothesis:

H4 Job satisfaction mediates organisational commitment and employee retention.

The hypothesised model is illustrated in Figure 1.

Hypothesised model.

 Research design Research design and methodology

A survey research design, as well as a cross-sectional research design within Positivism, was used in this study. The study followed a quantitative research method. The questionnaire comprised four categories, namely demographic information, organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and employee retention.

 Sample

The population consisted of 336 detectives in the City of Tshwane. It was appropriate to conduct this study in the City of Tshwane because it is the executive capital of the Republic of South Africa and houses the head office of the SAPS Detective Services division as well as all the national government departments. It was also convenient for the researcher because they resided and worked in the City of Tshwane. Convenience sampling was used and a total of 196 respondents completed the questionnaire. The response rate was therefore 58.3%.

 Measuring instrument

Existing questionnaires were used to measure the three variables of the study: the Employee Retention Questionnaire (Sinha & Sinha, 2012), the Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1985), and the Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (Allen & Meyer, 1990). These measuring instruments were readily available for the use by the researchers.

Previous studies’ indicators of the reliability of the Organisational Commitment Questionnaire of Allen and Meyer (1990) will now be discussed. Kutprem and Vongurai (2015:21) used 30 sets of questionnaires to test the job satisfaction of employees in the hotel business in Bangkok; the Cronbach’s alpha scores of all the variables were higher than 0.9, indicating strong reliability of the questionnaire. In the study of Anis and Fatwa (2020:397), organisational commitment had a composite reliability of 0.875 and Cronbach’s alpha of 0.818, indicating that it could be repeated elsewhere with the same results, thus confirming reliability. Furthermore, Anis and Fatwa (2020) cite the study of Syauta et al. (2012), which resulted in a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.825 for organisational commitment, also confirming reliability.

Cronbach’s alphas of previous studies using the Job Satisfaction Survey of Spector (1985) were as follows. In Batura et al. (2016) study, the Cronbach’s alpha of job satisfaction had an overall value of 0.78, which is acceptable in terms of testing consistency. In Serhan and Tsangari’s (2019) study, the Cronbach’s alpha of job satisfaction in the retention of young graduates had a value of 0.782, confirming reliability and consistency.

Cronbach’s alphas of studies using the Employee Retention Questionnaire of Sinha and Sinha (2012) were as follows. Magnus et al. (2016) found that employee retention had a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.585, which is not acceptable. The study of Imna and Hassan (2015) had an employee retention Cronbach’s alpha of 0.956 for the variables of the employee retention questionnaire, which is a very high value that confirms consistency and is therefore acceptable.

A principal component factor analysis was conducted for job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and employee retention. This resulted in the following factors:

Job satisfaction (5 factors):

Payments (Paym)

Supervision (Super)

Relationship with co-workers (Cowo)

Communication (Comm)

Workload (Work)

Organisational commitment (5 factors):

Affective commitment 1 (Affe1): Strong job affection

Affective commitment 2 (Affe2): Weak job affection

Continuous commitment 1 (Cont1): Fear of loss

Continuous commitment 2 (Cont2): Loyal to the organisation

Normative commitment (Norma): Obligation to stay

Employee retention (ER): unidimensional meaning; there were no factors identified.

The Cronbach’s alpha for all the above factors was above 0.6, except for communication which was 0.5; according to Clark and Watson (1995), it can be accepted.

 Data collection

The respondents were briefed about the purpose of the study and the consent form was read and explained to them before they were asked to complete the questionnaire; the questionnaire was then hand-delivered to them. Separate sealed boxes were used for depositing the informed consent forms and the completed questionnaire to ensure confidentiality.

 Data analysis

After the data collection process, the information was captured on the computer as raw data and analysed through partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), which has arguably more potential than covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM). Structural equation modelling is an advanced multivariate statistical process with which a researcher can construct theoretical concepts; assess their measurement reliability; hypothesise and test a theory about their relationships; consider measurement errors; and consider both direct and indirect effects of variables on one another (Malaeb et al. 2000).

 Measurement model evaluation

Measurement model evaluation aims to assess the consistency and validity of the manifest variables. Consistency evaluations are conducted through individual manifest and construct reliability tests. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to assess grouped indicators about the corresponding latent construct (Sanchez, 2013) or to test the internal consistency among the grouped variables. According to Sanchez (2013), the acceptable figure for Cronbach’s alpha is 0.70. Sanchez (2013) considers Dillion-Goldstein’s Rho as a better option for the measurement of composite reliability than Cronbach’s alpha, as it considers how far the constructs describe the indicators in a certain group. Table 1 depicts the results of the composite reliability.

Final model: Revised assessment of internal consistency and convergent validity.

Block Cronbach’s alpha Dillon-Goldstein Rho Average variance extracted
Affective commitment 1 0.700 0.817 0.527
Affective commitment 2 0.749 0.857 0.662
Communication 0.482 0.743 0.469
Continuance commitment 1 0.728 0.848 0.649
Continuance commitment 2 0.705 0.836 0.628
Co-workers 0.611 0.837 0.700
Normative commitment 1 0.677 0.806 0.508
Payment 0.616 0.796 0.561
Retention 0.905 0.924 0.605
Supervision 0.685 0.809 0.511
Workload 0.6985 0.816 0.526

According to Hair et al. (2017), convergent validity is the degree to which the readings correspond favourably with the readings of the same constructs. On the convergent validity, the average variance extracted (AVE) must also be above 0.5. Only one reading was less than 0.5, which is communication at 0.469. As the value was not very far below the cut-off point, the value was kept. The reading of all the other variables was above 0.5, so convergent validity was confirmed.

 Results

In terms of gender, 30.69% (58) of the 189 respondents indicated that their gender was female, while 69.31% (131) were male. Some respondents (7) did not indicate their gender. In terms of age, 30.10% (59) of the 196 respondents were below 36 years of age. Those in the age groups 36–40 years, 41–45 years and 46 and older, constituted 29.08%, 18.88% and 21.94% of the respondents, respectively. Most of the respondents, that 36.98%, had a length of service of 6–10 years; a small percentage (0.52%) had less than a year’s service and 22.4% had more than 21 years of service. After at least 4 years in a rank and a Grade 12 qualification, officers qualify to apply for a promotion, which might explain the high percentage from 6–10 years. Most of the respondents (27.47%) had National certificates (27.47%); a tiny minority (0.55%) had Intermediate certificates. A high number of the respondents (57.89%) were constables; colonels constituted the lowest percentage (1.05%). This may be because of the fact that the higher the detectives go in rank, the more they assume supervisory and management duties rather than investigative responsibilities.

Respondents’ profiles.

Demographic Classification N n %
Age (in years) 18–25 189 1 0.51
26–30 - 15 7.65
31–35 - 41 21.94
36–40 - 55 29.08
41–45 - 36 18.88
46+ - 41 21.94
Highest qualification National certificate 189 52 27.47
Intermediate certificate - 1 0.55
Higher certificate - 38 20.33
General certificate - 26 13.74
Elementary certificate - 2 1.10
Diploma or advance certificate - 29 15.38
Honours or Post graduate - 13 6.59
B Degree or Advance Dip - 28 14.84
Gender Male 189 131 69.31
Female - 158 30.69
Service in years Less than 1 189 1 0.52
1–5 - 14 7.29
6–10 - 70 36.98
11–16 - 40 21.35
16–20 - 22 11.46
More than 21 - 42 22.40
Rank Constable 189 108 57.00
Sergeant - 37 19.47
Warrant Officer - 22 11.58
Captain - 16 7.89
Lt Colonel - 4 2.11
Colonel - 2 1.05
Former security or Military force Bophuthatswana Police 189 3 1.69
Gazankulu Police - 2 0.85
Lebowa Police - 2 0.85
Venda Police - 3 1.69
SA Police Force - 158 83.90
SA Defence Force - 8 4.24
Mkhonto Wesizwe - 2 0.85
Other - 11 5.93

B Degree, bachelor’s degree; Dip, Diploma.

 Structural equation model results

The SEM was used to determine the relationships between the variables as well as the mediating relationship.

The results in Table 3 showed a considerable correlation between affective commitment 1 (strong job affection) and job satisfaction: payment (β = 0.28864, confidence interval (CI) (0.10989, 0.4506), supervision β = 0.33968, CI (0.16996, 0.5206), co-workers β = 0.25953, CI (0.07386, 0.4155), workload β = 0.33478, CI (0.18913, 0.5214) and communication β=0.27848, CI (0.11382, 0.4599), which means that when affective commitment 1 (strong job affection) increases, job satisfaction increases. The results showed a notable positive correlation between affective commitment 2 (weak job affection) and workload, β = 0.18215, CI (0.04218, 0.3257) and between affective commitment 2 (weak job affection) and communication β = 0.21915, CI (0.06012, 0.3681). The results showed no considerable positive correlation between continuance commitment 2 (loyal to the organisation) and supervision β = 0.19271, CI (0.01252, 0.3513). The results indicated a positive relationship between normative commitment (obligation to stay) and workload, β = 0.1645, CI (0.1202, 0.3223). This means that when normative commitment (obligation to stay) increases, work also increases. The relationship between normative commitment (obligation to stay) and all the other job satisfaction constructs was negligible.

Direct and indirect relationships between the variables.

Original Original Mean Boot β Std. Error perc.025 perc.975
Affe1 -> Paym 0.28875 0.28864 0.0868 0.10989 0.4506
Affe1 -> Supe 0.34215 0.33968 0.0969 0.16996 0.5206
Affe1 -> Cowo 0.26258 0.25953 0.0873 0.07386 0.4155
Affe1 -> Work 0.33621 0.33478 0.0839 0.18913 0.5214
Affe1 -> Comm 0.27069 0.27848 0.0933 0.11382 0.4599
Affe1 -> Rete 0.14115 0.14187 0.0715 −0.00894 0.2666
Affe2 -> Paym 0.02945 0.02638 0.0777 −0.13970 0.1753
Affe2 -> Supe 0.11616 0.12786 0.0730 −0.02408 0.2766
Affe2 -> Cowo 0.06600 0.06732 0.0726 −0.06752 0.1846
Affe2 -> Work 0.18604 0.18215 0.0731 0.04218 0.3257
Affe2 -> Comm 0.19777 0.21915 0.0799 0.06012 0.3681
Affe2 -> Rete −0.00843 −0.00644 0.0579 −0.10715 0.0950
Cont1 -> Paym 0.11616 0.11497 0.0944 −0.07336 0.2931
Cont1 -> Supe −0.10221 −0.09441 0.1013 −0.29116 0.105
Cont1 -> Cowo −0.10542 −0.10207 0.1174 −0.31805 0.105
Cont1 -> Work 0.00398 0.01439 0.0896 −0.15949 0.1957
Cont1 -> Comm −0.11055 −0.11144 0.0861 −0.28303 0.0567
Cont1 -> Rete 0.01780 0.01698 0.0878 −0.15543 0.1866
Cont2 -> Paym 0.10820 0.10982 0.0851 −0.06179 0.2839
Cont2 -> Supe 0.18765 0.19271 0.0870 0.01252 0.3513
Cont2 -> Cowo 0.12040 0.11305 0.0969 −0.08986 0.2796
Cont2 -> Work 0.05306 0.05642 0.0652 −0.0804 0.1755
Cont2 -> Comm 0.07322 0.08030 0.0858 −0.06544 0.2388
Cont2 -> Rete −0.01430 −0.01224 0.0640 −0.13655 0.1184
Norma1 -> Paym 0.02957 0.04438 0.0997 −0.13941 0.2279
Norma1 -> Supe 0.01097 0.01286 0.0925 −0.15746 0.1873
Norma1 -> Cowo 0.02922 0.03551 0.0970 −0.17499 0.2095
Norma1 -> Work 0.16861 0.16450 0.0834 0.01202 0.3223
Norma1 -> Comm 0.11172 0.09428 0.1060 −0.13829 0.2675
Norma1 -> Rete 0.03471 0.03870 0.0694 −0.09875 0.1597
Paym -> Rete 0.16353 0.16014 0.0679 0.05266 0.2845
Supe -> Rete 0.37103 0.36810 0.0551 0.25806 0.4673
Cowo -> Rete 0.02012 0.03006 0.0625 −0.08524 0.1563
Work -> Rete 0.07442 0.07534 0.0624 −0.06150 0.1901
Comm -> Rete 0.23735 0.23040 0.0725 0.09779 0.3736

Paym, payments; Supe, supervision; Cowo, co-workers; Comm, Communication; Work, Workload; Rete, retention; Affe, Affective commitment; Cont, Continuous commitment; Norma, Normative commitment.

There was a positive relationship between payments and employee retention β = 0.16014, CI (0.05266, 0.2845), as well as between supervision and employee retention β = 0.3681, CI (0.25806, 0.4673) and between communication and employee retention β = 0.2304, CI (0.09779, 0.3736).

There was no positive correlation between organisational commitment and employee retention. In terms of mediation, the results did not show job satisfaction as a mediator between organisational commitment and employee retention.

 Structural equation model assessment

The model was critical for providing clarity on the hypotheses about relationships between constructs. Its clarity was measured through the coefficient of determination of the square root of R, its usefulness, and how well it coincided with what was happening.

 The goodness of fit

The goodness of fit (GoF) is a generic assessment of how well the model does both internally and externally. It aims to give a holistic picture of how well the model can produce results.

The only concern is that it does not provide a limit in terms of how far it can go in extracting valuable information, which can be used for statistical purposes. The GoF does not even recommend a digit or symbol, which can be used to determine what is acceptable or unacceptable in terms of how well the model is performing.

Goodness of fit can also be viewed as a forecast of how the model will generally perform. As there is no threshold attached to any value, this will not always be true, but as an example, it can be presumed that a GoF value of 0.78 could translate to 78% in terms of the strength of the model. In practical terms, the greater the number, the stronger the measurement. The GoF value that is greater than 0.7 is generally accepted among researchers. In this study, the GoF value was 0.72.

 Discussion Organisational commitment (affective, continuance and normative) positively correlates with job satisfaction (payments, supervision, relationship with co-workers, communication and workload)

The results showed a considerable correlation between affective commitment 1 (strong job affection) and job satisfaction: payment, supervision, co-workers, workload and communication, which means that when affective commitment 1 increases, job satisfaction increases. The results showed a notable positive correlation between affective commitment 2 (weak job affection) and workload, and between affective commitment 2 (weak job affection) and communication. The results showed no considerable positive correlation between continuance commitment 2 (loyal to the organisation) and supervision. The results indicated a positive relationship between normative commitment (obligation to stay) and workload.

Lima and Allida (2021) also found this in their study. This means that when normative commitment (obligation to stay) increases, workload also increases. The relationship between normative commitment (obligation to stay) and all the other job satisfaction constructs is negligible. According to Hedayat et al. (2018), Larkin (2015) and Seema et al. (2021), there is a strong relationship between organisational commitment and job satisfaction, as also partially found in this study. Anis et al. (2011) state that if organisational commitment is high, job satisfaction tends to also be high. This concurs with the finding of this study.

Anis et al. (2011) assert that compensation and supervisory support play a critical role in employee commitment. Loan (2020) concludes that organisations need to improve employees’ performance to increase job satisfaction, arguing that job satisfaction is influenced by organisational commitment.

 Job satisfaction (payments, supervision, relationship with co-workers, communication and workload) positively correlates with employee retention

There was a positive relationship between payments and retention, as well as between supervision and retention and communication and retention.

According to Larkin (2015), job satisfaction influences employees’ decisions to stay with or leave an organisation and this concurs with the finding of this study. Reukauf (2018) found that even if employees did not contemplate leaving the organisation, it did not mean they were satisfied with their jobs. In Ismail’s (2012) study, employee’s organisational commitment had no positive association with job satisfaction or dissatisfaction; these findings contradicted those of Lok and Crawford (2001), namely that the variable that had a correlation with organisational commitment was job satisfaction. Kutprem and Vongurai (2015) found that there was a moderate correlation between employee retention and job satisfaction. A study by Yang et al. (2012) revealed that job satisfaction was a critical link between communication and supervisor–employee relations, leading to employees’ willingness and/or commitment to stay with the organisation.

 Organisational commitment (affective, continuance and normative) positively correlates with employee retention

There was no positive correlation between organisational commitment and employee retention.

According to Anis et al. (2011), if organisational commitment is high, employee retention tends to also be high. This contradicts the findings of this study. Larkin (2015), Ahmad (2018), and Show (2015) found a positive relationship between organisational commitment and employee retention, which deviates from the finding in this study.

 Job satisfaction mediates organisational commitment and employee retention

In terms of mediation, the results did not show job satisfaction as a mediator between organisational commitment and employee retention. Crow et al. (2012) indicate that job satisfaction plays a key role as a mediator variable in employees’ decision to be committed to an organisation.

This finding deviates from the result of Chan and Ao (2019), namely that job satisfaction and organisational commitment mediated employee retention. Hendri (2019) also found that job satisfaction had a positive mediating effect on organisational commitment and employee performance, which might in turn influence employee retention. Jawaad et al. (2019), Loan (2020), and Dinc et al. (2018) found job satisfaction to be a mediating variable; these findings contradict the finding of this study where job satisfaction was not a mediator.

A summary of the outcomes of the hypotheses is presented in Table 4.

Outcomes of the hypotheses.

Hypotheses Accepted or Rejected
H1: Organisational commitment (affective,continuance and normative) positively correlateswith job satisfaction (payments, supervision, relationship with co-workers, communicationand workload). Partially accepted
H2: Job satisfaction (payments, supervision, relationship with co-workers, communication and workload) positively correlates with employee retention. Partially accepted
H3: Organisational commitment (affective,continuance and normative) positively correlateswith employee retention. Rejected
H4: Job satisfaction mediates organisational commitment and employee retention. Rejected
Practical implications

If the SAPS management does not take note of the relationship that organisational commitment has with job satisfaction, it could have a negative impact on the way detectives view their payment, supervision, co-workers, workload, and communication. This negative impact may result in feelings of inequity, low morale, and low motivation. Furthermore, feelings of despondence, disillusionment, worthlessness, and a lack of commitment to work may arise to the detriment of the SAPS and its organisational goals. Detectives will be loyal to the SAPS if they perceive their supervisors to be fair. The workload of the detectives could affect their sense of obligation to stay. Supervision, communication and the payment of the detectives could impact their retention.

 Recommendations

It is recommended that an employee retention strategy should be developed for the SAPS detectives in Gauteng. This recommended retention strategy should value transparency and empowerment, and should aim to create a workplace that is conducive to commitment through enhancing job satisfaction. An engagement strategy should also be developed to obtain the views of the detectives regarding their payment, supervision, co-workers, workload, and communication.

Further elaboration should be provided on who will be responsible for developing the retention strategy, will it be the Human Resource (HR) Department alone or they will work with key stakeholders in the organisation as identified by senior management. The HRM: Division within the organisation will have to work with the Components: Organisational Development and Strategic Management to develop and implement the strategy in collaboration with managers within the Division: Detective Servies.

 Future research

A similar study can be conducted among SAPS detectives in other provinces to compare the data. This study necessitates repeated longitudinal research to obtain generalisable results. A qualitative study can be conducted to obtain rich data about the views of the detectives on organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and their retention.

 Limitations of the study

Although this study yielded some interesting results, there are limitations that could negatively impact its generalisability. The study only reflects the views of detectives working in the SAPS in Gauteng. In addition, a cross-sectional research design was used and the results can therefore not be generalised to all SAPS detectives.

 Conclusion

The general observation from the results is that there was no significant evidence for job satisfaction as a mediator between organisational commitment and employee retention. The results did, however, indicate some positive relationships between organisational commitment and job satisfaction, as well as between job satisfaction and employee retention. There was no positive relationship between organisational commitment and employee retention. An employee retention strategy should be developed for the SAPS detectives in Gauteng.

 Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Ms Magriet Engelbrecht who assisted with the language editing.

Competing interests

The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.

 Authors’ contributions

C.S.M. conducted this research and C.M.S. and F.d.P. were the supervisors.

 Ethical considerations

A permission letter was sourced from the SAPS and ethical clearance was obtained from the Faculty of Management Sciences Research Ethics Committee at Tshwane University of Technology (FCRE2017/FR/12/004-MS [2]). Sealed boxes were used to ensure confidentiality, and the respondents’ names did not appear on the questionnaire to ensure anonymity.

 Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, [C.M.S.].

 Disclaimer

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors, and the publisher.

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How to cite this article: Moshabi, C.S., Schultz, C.M., & Du Plessis, F. (2024). The relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction and employee retention of detectives in the SAPS in the City of Tshwane. SA Journal of Human Resource Management/SA Tydskrif vir Menslikehulpbronbestuur, 22(0), a2266. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v22i0.2266