Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling To Illustrate Industry And Group Effects On Organizational Commitment In A Sales Context

摘要

Businesses are best described as multi-level organizations: individuals are nested within management teams, teams are nested within respective departments, departments are nested within organizations, and organizations are nested within industries. Due to this hierarchical structure, data obtained from organizations require multi-level analysis. A statistical technique, hierarchical linear modeling, can be used as an empirical method for multiple-level organizational data. This study demonstrates the conceptual and statistical benefits of hierarchical linear models over ordinary least square (OLS) regression by examining salespeople's organizational commitment. Data were obtained from 660 sales agents working in 60 agencies of a large insurance company. The implications of the findings are discussed.