Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios
Date of Award
11-14-2007
Document Type
Dissertation
Granting Institution
Lynn University
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PHD)
Degree Program
Global Leadership - with a specialization in Corporate and Organizational Management
Department
College of Business and Management
First Advisor
Ralph Norcio
Second Advisor
John Pickering
Third Advisor
James Miller
Abstract
With a population of 1.2 billion, mainland China has become a major target country for many foreign companies looking to expand their businesses because of its inexpensive labor and its large market. Since 1987, many manufacturers in Taiwan have moved to mainland China to reduce labor costs. In 2006, there were 70,256 companies from Taiwan operating in mainland China with fiscal expenditures exceeding US $42.8 1 billion dollars (Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, 2006). If Taiwan's foreign direct investment (FDI) and offshore investment expenditures were included, Taiwan would have had the second largest FDI in mainland China (Department of Investment Services Ministry of Economic Affairs, 2006).
The purpose of this correlational (explanatory), causal comparative (exploratory) study is to investigate the relationships among personal characteristics, job characteristics, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, and the mediating effects of job characteristics on job satisfaction and organizational commitment of Taiwanese expatriates working in mainland China. The entire accessible population of 6,156 Taiwanese expatriates was invited to participate by e-mail - resulting in a valid sample of 389 responses. The survey was translated into Traditional Chinese. To answer the research questions and examine the hypotheses, all responses obtained through the online survey were analyzed by the Statistical Package from Social Sciences (SPSS) version 14.0. The methods of data analysis used in this study consisted of exploratory data analysis (EDA), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), internal consistency reliability, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post hoc comparison tests, two-tailed independent t-tests, hierarchical regression, and moderated multiple regression (MMR).
Findings indicated that (a) the variables of job characteristics, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment were significantly different according to variables of personal characteristics; (b) personal characteristics, job characteristics, and job satisfaction were significant explanatory variables of affective commitment, normative commitment, and continuance commitment; (c) job characteristics mediated the positive impact of intrinsic job satisfaction on affective commitment; (d) job characteristics mediated the negative impact of extrinsic job satisfaction on affective commitment and normative commitment. Further study to replicate the research in different countries in order to explore the relationships among personal characteristics, job characteristics, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of expatriates was recommended.
Recommended Citation
Liu, S. W. (2007). Personal Characteristics, Job Characteristics, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment of Taiwanese Expatriates Working in Mainland China [Doctoral dissertation, Lynn University]. SPIRAL. https://spiral.lynn.edu/etds/208
