Personal Values, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment: An Empirical Investigation in the Tunisian Banking Sector
Purpose: This study investigates the influence of employees' personal values on two critical organizational attitudes job satisfaction and organizational commitment within the Tunisian banking sector. Design/methodology/approach: Grounded in Rokeach's (1979) value theory, Kahle's (1993) List of Values (LOV), and Meyer and Allen's (1991) three-component model of organizational commitment, this study adopts a quantitative hypothetico-deductive research design. Data were collected through a structured self-administered questionnaire distributed to 150 employees of Attijari Bank, Tunisia. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested using multiple and simple linear regression analyses. Findings: Results reveal that personal values collectively explain 33.7% of the variance in job satisfaction. With respect to organizational commitment, personal values account for 35.9% of their variance, with fun and enjoyment in life (β = 0.390), being well-respected (β = 0.373), and self-respect (β = 0.351) identified as significant positive predictors. Most strikingly, job satisfaction proves to be the strongest predictor of organizational commitment (β = 0.719; p < 0.001), explaining 51.4% of its variance. Practical implications: These findings highlight the critical role of social recognition, self-esteem, and belonging in shaping employee loyalty within collectivist organizational cultures. They call on HR practitioners to move beyond purely financial retention strategies and to invest in values-aligned recognition programs, inclusive team cultures, and person-organization fit assessment tools. This study contributes to the growing body of research on entrepreneurial and organizational management in emerging economies, with actionable implications for talent retention in the Tunisian banking sector. Originality value: Despite a rich international literature on these constructs, empirical evidence from North African organizational contexts remains scarce, motivating the present contribution.