Contents

• Acknowledgements 1
• Table of Contents 2-5
• List of Figures and Charts 5
• Abstract 6-7
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• 1.1 Background of the Issue 8-9
• 1.2 Interest in the Subject and objectives of the research 10-11
• 1.3 Approach to the Dissertation 11-12
• 1.4 Organization of the Dissertation 12
• 1.5 Limitations of the Research 13
• 1.6 Major Contribution of the Study 13
• Chapter 2 Literature Review
• 2.0 Introduction to Literature Review 14-15
• 2.1 Background Information 15
• 2.2 Who are Part Time workers?-Definitions 15-17
• 2.2 Significance of Part timers in Retail Industry 17-19
• 2.3 What is the Profile of Part time workers in different sectors?
• 20
• 2.4 Irish retail market V Part time employment 20-22
• 2.5 Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and worker relationship 22-23
• 2.6 Definitions of commitment 23-24
• 2.7 Why commitment is important in an organization? 24
• 2.8 Who is Committed Employee? 24-25
• 2.9 What are the characteristics that would affect employee’s commitment? 25-27
• 2.10 Impact of perceptions of commitment 27-30
• 2.11 Employee empowerment and its dimensions 30-31
• 2.12 Factors affecting Employee’s Commitment 32-35
• 2.13 How time affecting the level of commitment 35-36
• 2.14 How Management’s perceptions towards Part timers affect their level of Commitment? 36-37
• 2.15 Factors those are likely to increase motivation levels 37-39
• 2.16 The importance of commitment level amongst employees in convenience retailing 39-40
• Chapter 3 Research Methodology and Methods
• 3.0 Research Methodology 41
• 3.1 Research Philosophy 42-44
• 3.2 Research Approach 44-45
• 3.3 Research Problem Area 45-46
• 3.4 Research Questions 46-47
• 3.5 Research Objectives 48
• 3.6 Research Hypothesis 48
• 3.7 Research Strategy 49
• 3.8 Methods of Data Collection 50
• 3.8.1 Primary Data 50
• 3.8.2 Secondary Data 50
• 3.8.3 Time Horizon 50
• 3.8.4 Types of Data 51
• 3.9 Questionnaire Design 51-52
• 3.10 The Delivery of the Questionnaire 52-53
• 3.11 Analysis of Data 54-55
• 3.12 Critical analysis of the process 55
• Chapter 4 Data analysis/findings
• 4.0 Data Analysis and Findings 56
• 4.1 Analysis of findings 57
• 4.1.1 Research Question 1 57-67
• 4.1.2 Research Question 2 67-72
• 4.1.3 Research Question 3 73-75
• Chapter 5 Conclusions
• 5.0 Conclusion and Recommendations 76
• 5.1 Findings related to question one 76-77
• 5.2 Findings related to research question two 77-78
• 5.3 Findings related to research question three 78-79
• Chapter 6 Reflection on Learning and Skill Development
• 6.0 Self Reflection on Learning 80-81
• 6.1 Learning types and styles 81-84
• 6.2 Initial Self Assessment 84-85
• 6.3 Learning and Skills Development in MBA International Course 85-87
• 6.4 Future application of Learning and Skills Development 87
• Bibliography 88-99
• Appendix A- Questionnaire 100-103
• Summary based on the Full-Time Employees 104-105
• Summary based on the Part-Time Employees 106-107
• Appendix B- How employee see their growth in the organization 108
• Appendix C- Satisfaction Level of employees against the work done by them 109
• Appendix D- The employee’s commitment 110
• Appendix E- Enjoyment while working in current organization 111
• Appendix F- Main reason for working at the organization VS Salary Reduction 112
• Appendix G- Employee Commitment VS Two Hours over-time working for free 113
• Appendix H- Employee Commitment VS Reason for working in the organization 114
• Appendix I- Standard deviation based on the employees rating regarding the treatment that they receive in return from their effort at work 115
• Appendix J- Commitment Level of employees VS Time spent in the organization 116
• Appendix K- Reason for working in organization VS Time spent in organization 117
• Appendix L- Employee attitude regarding working over-time for free VS Time spent in the organization 118
• Appendix M- Career objectives VS Enjoying the work in the organization 119
• Appendix N- Time spent in the organization VS Employee’s attitude regarding career within the organization n 120
• Appendix O- Response received of questions from various employees 121-123
• Appendix P- Mean hourly earning Full time/Part time 124
• List of Figures Page
• Figure-1: Peripheral Model 17
• Figure-2: The Commitment Effect Model 25
• Figure-3: Three Component Model of Commitment 28
• Figure-4: Factors influencing Employee’s Commitment 32
• Figure-5: Need Satisfaction Model 37
• Figure-6: The Research Process Onion 42
• Figure-7: Kolb’s (1984) Learning Style 82
• List of Charts
• Chart 1: How the reason for working in the organization affects the reaction to salary reduction among the Part time employees . 61
• Chart 2: How the reason for working in the organization affects the reaction to salary reduction among the Part time employees . 61
• Chart 3: Employee Commitment VS their willingness to work over time for Unpaid (Full time Employees.) 63
• Chart 4: Employee Commitment VS their willingness to work over time for Unpaid (Part time Employees) 63
• Chart 5: Employee rated commitment VS reason for working in the organization (Full time) 65
• Chart 6: Employee rated commitment VS reason for working in the organization (Part time) 65
• Chart 7: Commitment VS Time spent in the organization (Full time Employee) 68
• Chart 8: Commitment VS Time spent in the organization (Part time Employee) 68
• Chart 9: Reason for working in organization VS Time Spent in the organization (Full time Employees) 69
• Chart 10: Reason for working in organization VS Time Spent in the organization (Part time Employees) 70
• Chart 11: Time Spent in the organization VS working over time for Unpaid (Full time Employees) 71
• Chart 12: Time Spent in the organization VS working over time for Unpaid (Part time Employees) 71
• Chart 13: Two Factors to increase employee commitment (Part time) 73
• Chart 14: Two Factors to increase employee commitment (Full time) 73

Description

The concept of commitment is a traditional area of HRM concern and “indeed, the whole rationale for introducing HRM policies is to increase levels of commitment so that other positive outcomes can ensue” (Guest, 1998, p. 42). It is this assumption which underlies the common employer declaration that “people are our most valuable resource.”
Employees in modern “learning” organizations are increasingly expected to display effort, motivation and initiative. The success of an organization depends not only on how the organization makes the most of human competences, but also how it stimulates commitment to an organization. Employee commitment, together with a competent workforce, seems to be of decisive importance for an organization to be able to compete in quality and to go along with changes (Cited by Wim et al, 1998).
This dissertation is focusing on the subject concerning to commitment theories and its application to both part time workers and full time workers within the retail industry. The research hypothesis addressed in this study -“Part time workers are less committed than Full time workers towards their work place.”
The following research questions have been made in order to move on further into this subject:
 Are part time workers less committed than full time workers towards their workplace?
 Does the amount of time spent working in the same organization affect the level of commitment?
 What would be the main factors that would affect the level of commitment of a worker?
The research methodology applied in this dissertation includes research philosophy, research approach, and research strategy, sampling design and data collection methods. Primary data was collected with the help of research methodology includes questionnaires designed with quantitative questions. This helped the researcher to collect sufficient data to come out a conclusion.
In order to make the research more specific this research is carried out amongst workers at convenience retail store in Dublin City Centre. The questions used in questionnaire were based on likert scale and findings were made by cross-tabulate the results from questions and calculate the mean, median, mode and standard deviation.
The concluding results from this research were more or less defending the literature review stated by various authors except for the second research question i.e. ‘affect of time spent in the same organization on employee’s commitment where the findings completely contradicted with the statements of various authors.