Equal opportunities climate and work attitudes and behaviors: A study in the Italian military context

Equal opportunity (EO) climate refers to individuals’ perceptions of likelihood concerning discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Despite the importance of this concept, to date little research has been devoted to investigating the relationships between EO climate and central work attitudes, especially in the Italian military context. In the present study we tested a mediational model. We hypothesized that the effects of EO climate on turnover intentions, job satisfaction, absenteeism and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) were partially mediated by organizational and occupational commitment, mainly by both the affective components. Italian Army personnel (N = 296), employed either in the national context or in an international conflict area, were asked to answer a cross-sectional survey. We measured EO climate by considering a five factor structure plus a factor of general perception (Dansby & Landis, 1991). A series of structural equation modeling with LISREL was used to test the hypotheses. Findings supported the hypothesized mediational model. Additionally, the presence of direct unmediated effects of the factors of EO climate emerged particularly on intentions to leave and absenteeism. Differential command behaviors and racist-sexist behaviors were found to be the EO variables with the greater number of unmediated effects.Our findings suggest that perceptions of EO climate have a great impact on work attitudes and job related outcomes, and should be considered when developing strategies to reduce inequalities and to ameliorate the general workplace climate and conditions and