Analysis of Antecedents Determining Employee Loyalty and Commitment in the South West Region of Cameroon

Loyalty in management signifies a person's devotion or sentiment of attachment to a particular object, which may be another person or an organization. It expresses itself in both thought and action and strives for the identification of the interests of the loyal person with those of the organization. Employee loyalty in the other hand can be defined as employees being committed to the success of the organization and believing that working for this particular organization is in their best option. Organizational commitment is a psychological state that characterizes the employee's relationships with the organization, and has implications for the decision to continue working in that organization. This paper is based on an exploratory study with a purpose to gain an understanding on the antecedents determining loyalty and commitment in the business environment. The aim of this empirical study was to gauge antecedents for employee loyalty and commitment in the South West Region of Cameroon. The research was conducted in this Anglophone region of Cameroon among lower and middle managers of both public and private organizations. The respondents' were purposely chosen to ease the research during a cross-sectional study. Data was collected from 300 employees with the age ranging from 25 to 50 years. Questionnaire was administered using five point likert scale. Result shows that the correlational and stepwise regression analyses revealed a number of significant relationships between the main variables. In addition, the covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) and partial least squares SEM (PLS-SEM) used matched statistical techniques for estimating structural equation models showed that there are a number of antecedents impacting employees loyalty and commitment in the work place. Finally, recommendations were made for an effective and efficient policies aiming at reaching employees commitment and loyalty in the workplace