Organisational commitment is a multifaceted concept that has evolved in its definition over time (Cohen, 2007). The earliest understanding of the concept was developed by Porter and Lawler (1968), who viewed organisational commitment as an individual’s willingness to dedicate significant effort to the organisation, a deep inclination to remain with the organisation, and an endorsement of its principal goals and values, emphasising the psychological bond that exists between an organisation and its employees (Bakhsi et al., 2011).

During the 1980s, Meyer and Allen (1984) conceptualised organisational commitment as having two dimensions: affective and continuance. Meyer and Allen (1984, p. 375) viewed affective commitment as ‘positive feelings of identification with, attachment to and involvement in the work organisation’, and continuance commitment as ‘the extent which employees feel committed to their organisation by the costs that they feel are associated with leaving’.

Through further exploration, Allen and Meyer (1990) introduced a third dimension: ‘the employee’s feelings of obligation to remain with the organisation’ (i.e. normative commitment). Consequently, organisational commitment is described as a three-dimensional concept, comprising affective, continuance and normative dimensions (Meyer & Allen, 1991). Meyer and Allen’s (1991) conceptualisation of organisational commitment was used for this study.

Employees with higher levels of affective commitment are encouraged by their outlooks of association and connection to their place of work and regard their duties as a critical part of their identity. These employees are more bound to partake in behaviours that benefit the productivity of the organisation, such as going beyond their job scopes for example, and have been found to be less likely to resign from their job (i.e. they are easily retained) (Noraazian & Khalip, 2016). Employees tend to develop stronger affective attachments to the organisation when their experiences are consistent with their expectations and satisfy their basic needs (Meyer et al., 1993). Staff that possess higher levels of continuance commitment remain within the organisation because they believe they have invested considerable time and effort in their work and feel that resigning from their duties would impact the organisation considerably (Georges, 2020). It has been reported that staff with higher levels of normative commitment build a sense of compulsion to the organisation, resulting in remaining within the organisation even if they are dissatisfied with their work or the organisation at large. These individuals often have a sense of loyalty towards the organisation and perceive leaving as a means of betraying the organisation (Inam et al., 2023).

According to Meyer and Allen (2004, p. 2), employees who demonstrate a strong affective commitment stay in the organisation because they want to, those who demonstrate strong normative commitment stay because they feel they ought to, and those who demonstrate strong continuance commitment stay because they must do so. Using the TCM Employee Commitment Survey developed by Meyer and Alan (2004), organisations can be provided with a commitment profile for their organisation, department or unit (Meyer & Allen, 1991). Accordingly, management can devise strategies to enhance their workforce’s commitment, resulting in greater employee satisfaction, improved productivity, and enhanced human capital retention as mentioned earlier.

Organisational commitment is a vital notion in management and organisational behaviour. Determining the factors that impact organisational commitment is essential for businesses to understand, as this could significantly influence workers’ attitudes and behaviours, thereby affecting business performance (Manetje & Martins, 2009). The following factors are antecedents of organisational commitment:

Organisational commitment is a critical success factor for organisational productivity (Kumar et al., 2019). Hence, in terms of the outcome of organisational commitment, one should view the overarching objective of organisational commitment as business success (Phuong et al., 2023).

Organisations’ radical move to remote work, commonly referred to as WFH or telecommuting, has resulted in a series of changes in how businesses operate and how employees engage in their duties (Abilash & Siju, 2021). As a result, WFH has led to positive and negative implications for organisational commitment (Anwar et al., 2022).

On a positive note, WFH offers employees a greater sense of autonomy and control in the duties that they are engaged in. As a result of remote working often taking place within the vicinity of employees’ homes, because of the COVID-19 lockdown, employees have created workspaces conducive to their duties, resulting in enhanced productivity (Anwar et al., 2022). This enhances job satisfaction, as staff have tailored their environments to enhance the span of control over their work (Mohammed et al., 2022). The WFH model has also been found to offer employees greater flexibility and the ability to manage a work-life balance, allowing them to manage their personal lives more effectively (Mohammed et al., 2022). This decreases employee stress and burnout, enhancing worker morale and job satisfaction. Hence, in this instance, WFH positively affected organisational commitment (Abilash & Siju, 2021). For example, the academic fraternity of Bangladesh had implemented WFH as a solution to continued teaching and learning among higher education institutions. A study of more than 370 university faculty members of different universities revealed that WFH has positively impacted organisational commitment (and job satisfaction) as WFH fostered better working environments that resulted in greater attachments to their jobs (Ahmed & Singh, 2023).

However, WFH also harmed organisational commitment. Work from home is often denoted as a model that results in employees’ feelings of isolation and disconnection from colleagues and the organisation at large (Yang et al., 2022). Because of WFH, employees are no longer maintaining or having access to the physical relations they once had with colleagues, hence they feel less connected to their peers (Abilash & Siju, 2021). Employees may lose out on the social interactions and camaraderie connected with working in an office environment (Lal et al., 2021), which can also decrease organisational commitment. In addition, because of employees no longer having physical interactions with management, for example, there are often feelings of detachment and alienation from the company’s vision and goals (ILO, 2020). This could decrease organisational commitment, as staff feel less invested in company goals and less motivated to meaningfully contribute towards its success (NHS England, 2020).

Work from home has also been notorious for lacking clear directives and communication between employees and their immediate managers (ILO, 2020). Managers have experienced difficulty in communicating with employees remotely (ILO, 2020). Furthermore, employees working from home may be less likely to receive criticism and appreciation for their work, contributing to lower organisational commitment levels (Middleton et al., 2021). To mitigate the negative impacts of WFH, companies should devise deliberate strategies to enhance communication and collaboration among employees working from home (ILO, 2020). This could include, but is not limited to, strategies such as regular virtual meetings, programmes that assist employee collaboration, mechanisms to ensure constant feedback on work, and virtual social events, to mention a few (Abilash & Siju, 2021).

The results of previous studies, before the pandemic, have demonstrated that relationships exist between specific socio-demographic variables (gender, age, marital status, and nature of employment, among others) and organisational commitment; therefore, these and other associations were further explored during WFH within the COVID-19 pandemic in this study.

Previous studies showed that gender may affect organisational commitment. For example, studies conducted by Baba (2017), Jena (2015) and Martin and Roodt (2008) revealed that males showed higher organisational commitment levels than females.

Concerning age, a study by Yucel and Bektas (2012) discovered a meaningful relationship between age and organisational commitment. Specifically, their study highlighted that age was positively related to commitment, implying that the older the employees, the more committed they are to their organisation, and this was found to be attributed to factors such as job satisfaction and job security. Older employees believed that they had invested more in their careers and felt more secure in their jobs, making it harder to move to another position (Yucel & Bektas, 2012, p. 1601). Studies conducted by Anthun and Innstrand (2016) and Heymann (2010), confirmed a positive relationship between age and organisational commitment, where older employees demonstrated higher commitment levels. While the study conducted by Baba (2017) revealed that younger employees demonstrated higher commitment levels.

A study by Tikare (2015) found that regarding marital status, employees who were married showed higher levels of commitment than their counterparts. The study concluded that marital status should be regarded as an important factor affecting organisational commitment and further added that married individuals have greater financial burdens because of greater family responsibilities; hence, stability in employment is required. Jena’s (2015) research supports Tikare (2015) by indicating that marital status is positively related to commitment. Two years later, a study by Asrar et al. (2017) investigated the impact that managerial levels have on organisational commitment. They found that the managerial level was positively linked to organisational commitment where managers displayed lower levels of organisational commitment than non-managerial staff (Asrar et al., 2017).

In conclusion, the alteration to WFH was found to have both positive and negative effects on employee organisational commitment. On the one hand, WFH has led to heightened worker satisfaction and motivation, as employees have more sovereignty and self-control over their work settings, resulting in increased organisation commitment. On the other hand, WFH has led to feelings of separation and detachment, the absence of clear communication, and a break in trust between employees and their immediate managers, leading to decreased organisational commitment.

Four main research approaches are used in academic research: positivism, postpositivism, interpretivism, and critical theory. These approaches serve as an array of beliefs and ideas that shape the study process and advise on experiences and events on how the business world can be observed, measured, and understood (Bryman & Bell, 2018). This study utilised the positivistic research approach, which is based on the use of measurable data that allows researchers to analyse and categorise the information obtained through statistical methods and to search for patterns in the collected data and make generalisations about the sample under study (Bryman et al., 2021). This study employed a quantitative research methodology.

All the ethical considerations of research were given due diligence in this study, and the study was categorised as a low-risk study. Institutional approval was formally granted by the institution under study, advising the researcher of permission to conduct the study. Each respondent granted informed consent, as the survey requested the informed consent of respondents before the collection of data. Participants were advised on the study’s objective and their rights within the study. In addition, the anonymity and confidentiality of respondents were protected during data collection, analysis of data, and the reporting of findings.

An application for full ethical approval was made to the Economic and Management Sciences Research Ethics Committee (EMS-REC) on 25 February 2022. The ethics approval number is NWU-01253-21-A4.

Table 1 displays the socio-demographic information of the participants gathered through the survey.

The descriptive analysis revealed that all the respondents are South Africans. The respondents constituted a young working adult population, where more than 65% of respondents were between 20 and 39 years of age. In addition, all personnel surveyed have worked at varying lengths of service at the institution, ranging from 6 months to over 10 years, and most respondents were female (62.9%). The sample also represented all employment levels, including managers, academic faculty, and administrative and support staff. The demographic analysis showed that more support than academic staff responded. This could be attributed to South Africa’s higher education obligation to maintain a student-to-support staff ratio of 30:1 (Kosie, 2022). Most respondents held a first university or postgraduate degree (72%), and just under half (47%) were married. All respondents indicated that they had been working from home during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and although some staff (45) had returned to the office all the time, and others (30) partially returned to the office by the time the data were collected, they were still excellently positioned to provide valuable information about their work from home experience. There were no statistical differences (p ≤ 0.05) between the respondent groups who returned to their offices earlier and those who were still working from home (see Table 5).

Multivariate statistical analysis, such as CFA, is best suited when the number of factors is known, the data are not overly skewed or subject to kurtosis (preferably below ±2; but below ±4) and reliable (≥ 0.70), the sample is adequate (≥ 0.70), and suitable sphericity exists (p ≤ 0.05) (Field, 2017). The data are reliable (Cronbach’s α = 0.789) and have acceptable normality statistics (almost all the variables have skewness values above -2; three are above -2.8). The data are marginally negatively skewed at -0.58. All the variables are kurtosed less than +2. The sample is adequate per Kaiser’s criterion (KMO = 0.847) and significant as measured by Bartlett’s sphericity test. As these conditions were met, this study used CFA to validate the organisational commitment construct’s factor structure (affective, normative and continuous commitment) while also determining the model fit of three factors.

In addressing the aim of this study (to measure employees’ organisational commitment during working from home), this study reports explicitly on the commitment of private higher education employees during working from home. In this regard, the CFA results on the TCM of employee commitment showed that the p-value of one of the items in the continuance commitment scale, ‘One of the few negative consequences of leaving this organisation would be the scarcity of available alternatives’, was not significant. The item was removed and the CFA was repeated. The results revealed that the three-factor structure (affective, normative and continuous commitment) had a good fit with the data collected from the respondents, as shown in Figure 1. Six items loaded on affective commitment (ranging from 0.597 to 0.875), six items on normative commitment (ranging from 0.636 to 0.886) and five items on continuous commitment (ranging from 0.204 to 0.879). All of the factor loadings were observed to be statistically meaningful at the 0.05 level.

It should be observed that item Q13, ‘If I had not already put so much of myself into this organisation, I might consider working elsewhere’, had a low factor loading of 0.204. However, the item was retained because of its theoretical importance. Field (2017, p. 644) recommended that a factor loading of 0.3 is considered significant. In addition, for a sample size of 100 respondents, factor loadings ought to be greater than 0.5 for it to be meaningful. This item is suggested to be omitted from future studies if the factor loading remains below 0.3.

The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the three scales showed excellent reliability and internal consistency (affective commitment: α = 0.893; normative commitment: α = 0.900; continuous commitment: α = 0.745). Field (2017) suggests that Cronbach’s alpha coefficient should ideally exceed 0.7. The descriptive statistics revealed that the highest mean score was obtained for affective commitment (M = 5.19), followed by normative commitment (M = 5.05) and continuous commitment (M = 3.85) – see Table 2.

Three goodness-of-model-fit indices evaluated how well the sample data of the study fits the measurement model, namely the Chi-square statistic divided by degrees of freedom (CMIN/df), the comparative fit index (CFI), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). A CMIN/df ratio close to 1 is expected for accurate models (Bollen & Jackman, 1993). Scores below 1 indicate a poor fit between the sample data and the hypothetical model used (Shadfar & Malekmohammadi, 2013). Kline (1998) suggests that a CMIN/df ratio smaller than 3 indicates an acceptable fit, and values closer to 2 are considered a good fit. Shadfar and Malekmohammadi (2013) also notice that scores between 2 and 5 would be considered an appropriate fit. According to Bentler (1990), a CFI score of 1 represents a perfect fit, while scores below 0.95 typically indicate a poor fit. Bentler (1990) and Hair et al. (2010) suggest that a CFI score greater than 0.9 is a good fit between the sample data and the measurement model. For the RMSEA, a value of 0 indicates a perfect fit, whereas a value less than 0.05 is generally regarded as a good fit. Steiger (1990) stated that values between 0.05 and 0.08 are acceptable, while values above 0.10 indicate a poor fit. Table 3 shows the results of the goodness-of-model-fit indices. From the results, it is evident that the CMIN/df (3.465) indicates an acceptable fit, the CFI (0.770) a close fit and the RMSEA (0.154; 0.138 [low]; 0.171 [high]), not a good fit.

The association between the socio-demographic variables (gender, marital status, nature of employment, WFH scenario, age, highest qualification, tenure at the institution, and period working from home) and organisational commitment were explored to provide an understanding of how these variables might have influenced employees’ organisational commitment during WFH. It is postulated that strong associations could add more value in understanding the employees’ WFH leadership experience. An independent sample t-test was used to determine gender differences in organisational commitment (see Table 4). It is noteworthy that only one respondent preferred not to disclose his or her gender. This response was excluded from the analysis. (It was not analysed individually because it would be impractical to do so.)

The results revealed no significant differences in the mean scores of male and female respondents for affective commitment (p = 0.776; d = 0.41), normative commitment (p = 0.476; d = 0.15), and continuous commitment (p = 0.302; d = 0.21); the effect sizes ranged from small to negligible.

One-way ANOVAs determined significant differences between the population’s means of marital status, nature of employment, and WFH scenario on organisational commitment. Effect sizes indicated how meaningful the differences were. The results are reported in Table 5.

The results of the ANOVA revealed significant differences between the marital status categories for continuous commitment (p = 0.009), where the respondents that were Married (M = 4.05) scored higher on continuous commitment than the respondents that were Single or not in a relationship (M = 3.64; d = 0.71) and that are unmarried and in a relationship/Widowed/Divorced/Separated (M = 3.78; d = 0.48); the effect was medium to large.

Regarding the nature of employment, the ANOVA revealed significant differences between the categories for normative (p = 0.35) and continuous commitment (p = 0.046). The management (M = 5.50) respondents scored higher on normative commitment than the academic (M = 4.40; d = 0.75) and support (M = 5.19; d = 0.22) staff respondents; the effects were large and small, respectively. Furthermore, the support staff (M = 3.74) respondents scored lower on continuous commitment than the management (M = 4.04; d = 0.0.47) and academic (M = 4.04; d = 0.47) staff respondents; the effects were medium.

The ANOVA results indicated no significant differences between the categories of WFH situation; the p-values for all three factors were above 0.05. However, for continuous commitment, Cohen’s d-value showed a difference between respondents working a few days remotely (M = 4.01) and those working at the office most of the time (M = 3.75; d = 0.44); the effect was medium. A small difference was also evident between respondents working from the office all the time (M = 3.90) and those working at the office most of the time (M = 3.75; d = 0.26); the effect was small.

Table 6 presents Spearman’s rank-order correlation test results to determine the monotonic relationship between organisational commitment and age, highest qualification, years working at the university, and duration of working from home. Spearman’s rank order correlation coefficient (or Spearman’s rho) is a non-parametric statistic used when there is doubt that the data are not normally distributed (Field, 2017). In addition, it ‘can be used for ordinal data, and is relatively robust to outliers’ (Schober et al., 2018, p. 1763).

The results of Spearman’s rank-order correlation test revealed a medium positive correlation between age and continuous commitment (p = 0.00, r = 0.411), indicating that the older the employees, the greater they displayed a continuous commitment to the organisation.

Table 7 displays the results of Spearman’s rank order correlation test to establish the monotonic relationship between affective, normative, and continuous commitment.

The Spearman’s rank order correlation revealed significant medium to large positive correlations between affective commitment and normative (p = 0.00; r = 0.802) and continuous (p = 0.00; r = 0.444) commitment. This means that as employees displayed more affective commitment to their organisation (i.e., employees stay because they want to), they tended to stay longer within their jobs because of the associated cost of leaving (i.e., continuous commitment) as well as because it was believed to be the morally correct thing to do (i.e., normative commitment). In addition, a medium positive correlation was found between continuous commitment and normative commitment (p = 0.00; r = 0.380), indicating that as employees remained in their jobs because of the associated cost of leaving, they also remained in their portfolios because they felt they ought to.

The study set out to determine the influence of WFH on the organisational commitment of academic personnel within private higher education in South Africa.

The CFA confirmed the three-factor structure of the TCM of employee commitment. The goodness-of-fit indices suggested that the measurement model fit the sample data reasonably well (CMIN/df = Acceptable Fit, CFI = Close Fit, RMSEA = Not good fit). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the three scales showed excellent reliability and internal consistency.

Based on the descriptive statistical analysis, it was observed that the respondents demonstrated relatively high levels of affective (M = 5.19) and normative (M = 5.05) commitment during the WFH period; the mean scores were above the scale midpoint. This implies that, on average, all academic personnel feel a sense of moral obligation towards the organisation as they believe that remaining in their post is the right thing to do (i.e., normative commitment). They possess an emotional attachment to the institution as they are encouraged by their role within the institution (i.e. affective commitment). However, they were neutral on continuous commitment (M = 3.85), implying that they do not strongly believe their resignation would negatively affect the institution. Generally, the results showed that the respondents could adapt to the changes brought about by the WFH model, despite the significant and sudden disruptions in their usual work environment. The results suggest that the respondents could thrive and maintain acceptable levels of commitment despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the anxiety surrounding the WFH model. This view was also supported by recent studies conducted by Anwar et al. (2022, p. 195), Abilash and Siju (2021, p. 5) and Ahmed and Singh (2023) during the COVID-19 pandemic among employees working in higher education as referred to in the literature review. Additionally, Javadian et al. (2019) conducted a study among new mothers in the United States (US), Australia and the United Kingdom (UK) who worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that there is a direct relationship between WFH and their organisational commitment, as WFH has played a mediating role in occupational stress and job satisfaction (Javadian et al., 2019, pp. 24–26). Their study concludes that mothers, particularly new mothers, will remain committed to their roles within organisations during WFH and display effort towards achieving the organisation’s goals (Javadian et al., 2019, pp. 24–26).

The comparative statistical tests including t-tests, ANOVAs, effect sizes and Spearman’s rank-order correlation, showed that the organisational commitment levels of academic personnel were influenced by age, marital status and nature of employment.

Regarding age, the results found a medium positive correlation between age and continuous commitment. This means that the older the employees, the more they remain within the organisation as they believe they have invested considerable time and energy. Their resignation would be a significant cost to the company. Yucel and Bektas (2012) also found a strong relationship between age and organisational commitment. Specifically, age was positively related to commitment, where older employees displayed higher levels of commitment than younger employees. These researchers emphasised that the relationship between age and commitment was mediated by job satisfaction and job security, proposing that older employees felt more supported and secure in their jobs, felt more invested as they have served longer tenures and believed it would be difficult to move to another job, resulting in higher levels of organisational commitment (Yucel & Bektas, 2012, p. 1601). The results were also supported by Anthun and Innstrand (2016) and Heymann (2010).

Concerning marital status, the study results indicated that the married respondents scored higher on continuous commitment than those who belonged to the other marital status categories. This means that married academic personnel, like older employees discussed above, were more inclined to remain within their jobs as they believed their resignation would impact the organisation considerably. This result concurs with a study conducted by Tikare (2015), which discovered that employees in a marriage displayed higher levels of commitment than their unmarried colleagues and emphasised that marital status should be considered as a consistent predictor of organisational commitment (Tikare, 2015, p. 21). Tikare (2015) explained that this could be attributed to the fact that those who are in marriage show greater degrees of work maturity as they may have greater financial burdens because of greater family responsibilities. Hence, employment stability is required, thereby enhancing employees’ organisational commitment (Tikare, 2015, p. 21).

With regard to the nature of employment, the management staff scored higher on normative and continuous commitment than the academic and support staff, implying that management staff have a perceived responsibility as they believe that leaving the organisation would negatively impact the organisation (i.e., continuous commitment), as well as remain within their portfolios because they think it is the morally correct thing to do as they have built a sense of compulsion towards the organisation (i.e., normative commitment). While no study could be found to support this result specifically, a study conducted by Asrar et al. (2017) explored the effect that different job positions have on organisational commitment and found that managers showed lower levels of organisational commitment than non-managerial staff, indicating that job positions (managerial position specifically), is negatively correlated to organisational commitment, which opposes the finding of this study (Asrar et al., 2017, p. 61).

In conclusion, the empirical results of this study revealed that all academic personnel displayed acceptable levels of affective and normative commitment while being more neutral on their levels of continuous commitment. Generally, the results indicated that academic personnel could adapt to the radical change by WFH and maintain their commitment to the institution. The comparison tests, however, did reveal differences among the various demographics, particularly age, marital status and nature of employment regarding the commitment of academic personnel.

The study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding organisational commitment within a WFH context in private higher education by understanding how flexible work arrangements such as WFH may affect employees’ commitment. The study’s findings can be used, in particular, by the private higher education institution under investigation to inform workplace policies to support organisational commitment.

The study is focussed on a single private higher education institution within South Africa. While the findings could indicate how WFH affects organisational commitment within private higher education in South Africa, the study cannot be expanded to higher education in South Africa, nor can it be generalised to higher education globally.

Based on the literature review and empirical findings, the following recommendations are suggested: