Team culture, employee commitment and job performance in public sectors : a multi-level analysis

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of employee commitment into the relationship of team culture and job performance at multi-level, in the context of Ethiopian public sectors. Design/methodology/approach: In the adopted survey design, data were collected from two sources. In the rural development sector of Bale zone in Oromia regional state of Ethiopia, 108 randomly selected employees participated in the survey and also their corresponding 13 team supervisors. By using referent-shift consensus, the individual responses on team culture have been aggregated to team-level scores. In the multi-level modeling, the mediation effect of employee commitment was checked by using Monte Carlo simulation. Findings: The analysis reveals that employee commitment significantly cross-mediates into the relationship between team culture and job performance. In line with the extended model of team motivation, team culture was found to be significantly cross-related with individual job performance also. Practical implications: This paper contributes to the knowledge regarding the effects of team culture on employee commitment and job performance. Based on the competing values framework, the authors argue that the cohesion and strong camaraderie among members within a work team establishes a team culture within the organization culture itself. Originality/value: The novelty of this study lies in the fact that; it is the first study to see the indirect effect of team culture on job performance through employee commitment at multi-level.