Impact of organizational culture, occupational commitment and industry-academy cooperation on vocational education in China: Cross-sectional Hierarchical Linear Modeling analysis

by Yang Lv, Min Wu, Roger C. Shouse

At a time when vocational education is seen as critical for national development, concern grows regarding how weak organizational culture and occupational commitment may threaten the production of quality graduates and teachers within the field. The failure of vocational institutions to effectively create human capital likely threatens the connections between Chinese industry and its educational institutions. This study thus explores how these connections are influenced by organizational and occupational factors. A multi-layer linear model is employed on data collected from 406 teachers from 69 Chinese vocational colleges and universities. Results suggest that organizational cultural positively influences industry-university cooperative behavior through the construction of strong occupational commitment and job involvement. This study not only enriches and expands new knowledge and academic perspectives, but also provides feasible policy suggestions to help guide educational administrators toward the improvement of vocational education.