Jafar Torkzadeh - Associate professor, educational administration and planning department, Shiraz University
Masoumeh Mohtaram - Educational Administration PhD Candidate, educational administration and planning department
Farahnaz Tavakolian - Educational Administration PhD Candidate, educational administration and planning department, Shiraz University
Maryam Vafayi - Educational Administration PhD Candidate, educational administration and planning department, Shiraz University

The goal of this study was to investigate the structural relationship between social capital, educational climate and students’ organizational commitment in an Iranian public university. Research population consisted of entire students of the University in 2014-2015 academic years; amongst 520 students of third semester onwards selected as samples which 508 of them answered scales completely. Field data was collected by using three questionnaires; the Social Capital Questionnaire, Educational Climate and Organizational Commitment. The validity and reliability of research tools were calculated by using confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha. The results showed that organizational commitment was predicted through social capital; that is there is a significant negative relationship between current social capital and organizational commitment. Hence Organizational commitment was predicted through educational climate; that is there is a significant positive relationship between current educational climate and students’ organizational commitment. Simultaneous insertion of Social capital and educational climate in the structural equation model indicated that students’ organizational commitment was predicted through social capital, but educational climate did not predict it. In this case, the social capital of academic department showed a significant negative relationship with organizational commitment. Nevertheless, the educational climate loses its predictive power in the presence of social capital.

Social Capital, Educational Climate, Organizational Commitment, University, Student