Employee organizational commitment: the influence of cultural and organizational factors in the Australian manufacturing industry

The importance of enhancing employee organizational commitment (EOC) is highlighted by the extensive literature revealing its positive impact on employees' job performance, reducing absenteeism and turnover rates, and improving employees' adaptability to organizational change. This study provides an insight into how EOC levels can be enhanced by examining the contextual factors that can influence EOC. Specifically, the study examines the association between cultural, organizational, and demographic factors with the level of EOC in the Australian manufacturing industry. Data were collected by a survey questionnaire from a random sample of 500 managers with the results revealing that two cultural factors (outcome orientation and stability) and three organizational factors (organizational size, perceived organizational support and job satisfaction) were found to be significantly associated with the level of EOC. Further analysis provides a preliminary insight into how to enhance the EOC of specific managers with different cultural and organizational factors found to be associated with the EOC of managers at different levels in the organizational hierarchy. The findings have important implications for practitioners attempting to improve the level of EOC of their employees with the subsequent enhancements in the level of EOC likely to contribute to improvements in productivity and growth in the Australian manufacturing industry.     

Employee commitment in MNCs: Impacts of organizational culture,HRM and top management orientations

This article tests a model of organizational commitment in multinational corporations (MNCs). According to the model, organizational culture and human resource management (HRM) affect employee commitment directly as well as indirectly through top management team orientations. Szpecifically, we examined the effect of top management team global orientation and geocentric orientation, which are seen as contributing uniquely to employee commitment in MNCs. The model was tested on a sample of 1664 core employees working in 39 affiliates of 10 MNCs. We found strong overall support for the model. In particular, organizational culture characterized by high adaptability and a HRM system characterized by high performance work practices were found to have a significant and direct effect on employee commitment. In addition, we found that the effect of these traditional elements of the human organization is partially mediated through top management orientations, specific to international firms. The validity and generalizability of these results are reinforced by the control of a set of demographic variables as well as nationality of parent company.     

How High‐Commitment HRM Relates to Engagement and Commitment: The Moderating Role of Task Proficiency

In a multisource field study, we examine the relationship between employee perceptions of high‐commitment human resource management (HRM), task proficiency, work engagement, and organizational commitment. Based on conservation of resources (COR) theory, we first propose that work engagement mediates the relationship between high‐commitment HRM and organizational commitment. Second, we propose a mediated moderation model in which employees’ task proficiency moderates the relationship between high‐commitment HRM and work engagement, which in turn affects organizational commitment. Results indicate that the relationship between high‐commitment HRM and organizational commitment was fully mediated by work engagement. Results also supported the mediated moderation model. A significant indirect effect was found from high‐commitment HRM to commitment via engagement for low task proficiency, but not for high task proficiency. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

ORGANIZATIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL COMMITMENT: KNOWLEDGE WORKERS IN LARGE CORPORATIONS*

Previous discussion of knowledge work and workers tends to overlook the importance of contextual knowledge in shaping the organizational form of knowledge workers who are employees in large corporations. This paper proposes a model to understand the way knowledge base and organizational form are related to the work commitment, effort and job satisfaction of knowledge workers. The model is derived from (1) a critical examination of the market model of knowledge work organization, and (2) the results of empirical research conducted in two large corporations. We argue that contextual knowledge is important in the relationships between the corporation and knowledge workers. A dualistic model and an enclave organizational form are suggested to examine the relationships between the commitment, work effort and job satisfaction of knowledge workers. We noted from our empirical cases that enclave‐like work teams enhanced the expertise and job autonomy of knowledge workers vis‐à‐vis management. These work teams together with the performance‐based pay system, however, led to unmet job expectations including limited employee influence over decision‐making and careers, and communication gaps with senior management. Under these circumstances, and in contrast to the impact of occupational commitment, organizational commitment did not contribute to work effort. The study highlights the importance of management’s strategy in shaping the organizational form of knowledge work. The paper concludes by noting general implications of our study for the management of expertise and for further research.     

Employee acceptance of organizational change:the role of organizational commitment

This study tests a causal model that predicts the acceptance of organizational change using a sample of 761 employees from a large public hospital in the state of Victoria, Australia. The LISREL results indicate that employee acceptance of organizational change is increased by organizational commitment, a harmonious industrial relations (IR) climate, education, job motivation, job satisfaction, job security and positive affectivity, and is decreased by union membership, role conflict, tenure and environmental opportunity. Organizational commitment was found to act as both a determinant and mediator in the change process. Implications for the management of organizational change using human resource (HR) strategies and policies are discussed.     

The effect of environmental regulations,top management commitment,and organizational learning on green product innovation: Evidence from automobile industry

This paper proposes and empirically examines a model to investigate the effect of environmental regulations, top management commitment (TMCO) and organizational learning toward green product innovation (GPI). The proposed theoretical model, grounded in dynamic capabilities view (DCV) and upper echelons theory, is analyzed by Partial least squares (PLS) method using the data from Indian automotive manufacturing firms. The findings indicate the importance of TMCO and organizational learning for implementing GPI (in response to regulations), and achieve desired performance. Further, organizational learning fully mediates between commitment of top management and GPI. The findings can be useful for managers in automotive manufacturing firms who are interested toward implementing GPI. The paper contributes to green innovation literature by empirically examining the role of TMCO and organizational learning for GPI.     

Using profit sharing to enhance employee attitudes: A longitudinal examination of the effects on trust and commitment

The ability of profit sharing to increase organizational performance via positive changes in employee attitudes has yielded mixed results. Drawing on principal agent, expectancy, and organizational justice theories, we assess how perceptions of profit sharing (capacity for individual contribution and organizational reciprocity) alter organizational commitment and trust in management using longitudinal data provided by 141 engineering employees. Favorable perceptions of profit sharing served to increase organizational commitment while only organizational reciprocity predicted trust in management. The relationship between organizational reciprocity and commitment was partially mediated by trust in management. Implications for the design of profit sharing initiatives are noted. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Unit-level linkages between employee commitment to the organization,customer service delivery and customer satisfaction

Service profit chain and service climate research identifies the importance of employee attitudes and employee service behavior as mediating between organizational practices and customer satisfaction. While the importance of employee attitudes and customer service performance are acknowledged, there are calls to more precisely specify proximal mediators between employee attitudes and customer satisfaction. We propose a model in which the relationship between unit-level organizational commitment and customer attitudes is not direct but mediated via employees' customer service delivery including queuing time, serving time and service quality. We conducted a longitudinal unit-level analysis (N = 39) aggregating employee (N over 893) organizational commitment and customer (N over 1248) satisfaction data, and customer service behavior drawn from organizational records. Our model received reasonable support from basic tests of the predictive associations between unit-level organizational commitment, customer-relevant employee behaviors and customer satisfaction; however, organizational commitment was not found to be an important predictor in more rigorous change analyses. The findings as a whole therefore suggest that organizational commitment is a feature of units delivering fast, quality service, but its causal role is as yet unclear.     

Mentoring in family businesses: Toward an understanding of commitment outcomes

Drawing from the mentoring and organizational commitment literatures, this paper addresses the relationship between mentoring and organizational commitment within the family business context. While there is a clear connection between mentoring and organizational commitment in the broader literature, the relationship takes on added complexity in family businesses. In this paper, we develop arguments and offer propositions suggesting that mentoring in family firms results in different commitment outcomes depending on the familial status of the members in the mentoring dyad. While mentoring is most often linked to affective commitment, our propositions extend theory by suggesting that the unique mentoring relationships present in family firms can foster normative and continuance commitment in many circumstances. Propositions regarding mentoring and the various facets of organizational commitment are presented. Implications for theory and human resource management are also discussed.     

Observations on the organizational commitment of Chinese employees: comparative studies of state-owned enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises

Although recent research has begun to touch upon the organizational commitment of Chinese employees, most studies have been limited to the transposition of Western methodology to a Chinese context. This paper examines two groups of Chinese employees, those working in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and those working in foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), and compares the organizational commitment of each group. In order to reflect Chinese characteristics more accurately, the present study used a questionnaire incorporating items drawn from previous Chinese and Western studies. The various multidimensional structures of organizational commitment put forward by both Eastern and Western researchers to date have been re-examined using a sample of 1,232 industrial employees. Results indicate that a five-factor component model, including affective commitment, active continuance commitment, passive continuance commitment, normative commitment and value commitment, fits the data best. The key findings of this study are that SOE employees have higher levels of active continuance commitment and passive continuance commitment, and a lower level of value commitment, than employees of FIEs. It can be inferred from these differences that, in contemplating appropriate measures designed to foster the commitment levels of Chinese employees, management should recognize that the measures required to achieve such a goal will vary according to form of economic ownership (SOEs vs. FIEs). Implications for human resource management in both SOEs and FIEs are discussed.     

The Impact of Management Development Practices on Organizational Commitment

Social exchange theorists argue that organizations that provide developmental assignments raise employee commitment. But such assignments may also undermine commitment by increasing the recipients’ value in the external labor market. We compare the effect of developmental assignments on organizational commitment with that of other development practices: coaching, mentoring, training, and support from the direct superior and senior management. We also test whether synergies arise when developmental assignments are combined with the other development practices. Using a sample of 312 highly skilled professionals working in over sixty countries, in a variety of industries and firms of various sizes, we find that developmental assignments are the strongest driver of organizational commitment, together with support from senior management. The positive relationship between developmental assignments and organizational commitment is weaker in the presence of other development practices. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The role of organizational culture in the relationship between leadership and organizational commitment: an empirical study in a Greek organization

The aim of this paper is to explore the nature of relationships between organizational culture and leadership behaviours in affecting employees' commitment to their work organization. Building on organizational commitment literature, this study used a survey methodology. Empirical evidence was obtained from 300 employees working in a large Greek service company. The analyses indicated that the culture orientations examined served as mediators in the relationship between leader behaviour and followers' affective and normative commitment to the organization. The findings also indicated that continuance commitment is a two-dimensional construct; the ‘personal sacrifices’ dimension was found to be related to organizational culture and transactional contingent reward. This research paper has key messages for practitioners contributing to the fields of commitment, organizational culture, leadership and human resource management.     

Strategic human resources management is irrelevant when it comes to highly skilled professionals in the Canadian new economy

The goal of this paper is to explain the commitment behaviour of highly skilled professionals in Canadian business-to-business (B2B) technology services companies that do not have a formal and explicit managerial commitment strategy and to emphasize the need to take the organizational context into consideration when developing a theory that seeks to account for differences in employee's organizational commitment. Our contribution is to reappraise the relevance of the traditional organizational commitment definition in this organizational context, a new organizational form. We demonstrate that in the companies which are different from the traditional bureaucratic organizational forms and which employ highly qualified professionals, the employment relationship is based on a psychological contract that is not accounted for in the strategic HRM theory.

Indeed, the basic principles of strategic HRM dictate that an organization's most valuable asset is its employees; it is therefore incumbent on management to do whatever is necessary to retain its workforce, readily described as a key resource, and to use human resources management (HRM) practices as tools to elicit commitment. In a study of highly skilled workers in Canadian business-to-business (B2B) technology services companies belonging to the so-called ‘new economy’, we observed that although the competitive advantage enjoyed by these companies depends to a large degree on the creativity and innovativeness of their workforce, these companies barely have any official HRM policies, and the HR department plays a very unobtrusive role. Yet, no one could say that the employees in these firms are not committed – on the contrary! This situation has several implications in terms of career for these professionals, in terms of HR practices for the employers.

Nevertheless, until now, existing theoretical models of organizational commitment have shown little interest in highly skilled workers in general and even less in new economy professionals.     

企业组织沉默对组织承诺影响的实证研究

以组织沉默作为组织承诺的前因变量、组织承诺作为组织沉默的后果变量来构建组织沉默各维度对组织承诺各维度影响的结构方程模型,在运用结构方程模型的分析方法并运用相关软件处理调查研究数据的基础上,从实证的视角检验了组织沉默各维度对组织承诺各维度的负向影响效应。     

Linking high performance organizational culture and talent management: satisfaction/motivation and organizational commitment as mediators

Relying on strategic human resource management and organization development systemic principles, this theory-building study tested the validity of a new talent attraction and retention model which focused on the under-researched effects of organizational culture and employee attitudes. The analysis was based on data gathered from two large organizations representing two different countries and industries. Structural equation modeling results ascertained that talent attraction and retention were predicted by high performance organizational culture. This effect was also found to be mediated by the employee attitudes of satisfaction/motivation and organizational commitment. More specifically, this study found talent attraction and retention to be highly associated with the extent to which the organization is perceived to have a change-, quality-, and technology-driven culture, and characterized by support for creativity, open communications, effective knowledge management, and the core values of respect and integrity. This study concluded that strategically aligned and ethical high performance organizational cultures have strong effects on talent attraction and retention and are also highly conducive to the development of high commitment and motivating work systems.     

Commitment in the workplace: toward a general model

It is now well recognized that employees can develop multiple work-relevant commitments, and that commitment itself is a multidimensional construct. Unfortunately, there remains considerable disagreement, both within and across work commitment literatures (e.g., organizational, occupational, union), about what commitment is, its dimensionality, how it develops, and how it affects behavior. We argue that commitment should have a “core essence” regardless of the context in which it is studied, and that it should therefore be possible to develop a general model of workplace commitment. We propose such a model based on the propositions that commitment (a) is a force that binds an individual to a course of action of relevance to a target and (b) can be accompanied by different mind-sets that play a role in shaping behavior. We demonstrate how this model helps to explain existing research findings and can serve as a guide for future research and for the management of workplace commitments.     

The predictability of normative organizational commitment for turnover in Chinese companies: a cultural perspective

While many researchers have shown that affective organizational commitment is the most valuable predicator for organizational outcomes, such as job satisfaction, the value of normative organizational commitment in predicting working behaviour needs to be clarified. Additionally, indices of organizational outcomes used in prior studies were almost always the employees' perceptions of and attitudes towards organizations, rather than actual behaviour. The current research aims to investigate the impact of normative organizational commitment on an employee's turnover, rather than attitudes or perceptions. A total of 242 employees completed questionnaires including the Organizational Commitment Scale, the Organizational Satisfaction Scale, and the Idiocentrism and Allocentrism Scale, and reported the number of organizations they had worked for. Regression analysis revealed that the affective commitment was an important predicator for organizational satisfaction (p < .01) whereas the normative commitment was the most important predicator for employees' job-changing behaviour (p < .01). Idiocentrism and allocentrism had a slight moderating effect upon these relationships. Thus, the different dimensions of organizational commitments have different functions, and more attention should be paid to normative commitment than previously thought. These findings underline the importance of the normative commitment for predicating organizational behaviour, especially in collectivistic contexts. The implications for management are also discussed.     

物流企业员工关系管理策略对组织承诺的影响研究

运用员工关系管理和组织行为学的理论,在大量问卷调查的基础上,通过对我国物流企业员工关系管理策略与员工组织承诺之间关系的实证研究,揭示了不同员工个人特征对企业员工关系管理策略的认知和组织承诺的影响,更重要的是揭示了物流企业不同的员工关系管理策略对组织承诺有着显著影响。研究结果对企业员工关系管理策略的调整与改善有一定的借鉴意义。     

Linking job insecurity to well-being and organizational attitudes in Belgian workers: the role of security expectations and fairness

The aim of this study was to investigate how perceptions of job insecurity and fairness associate with individual well-being (job satisfaction and general health) and organizational attitudes (organizational commitment and turnover intention), under the condition that the psychological contract as perceived by the employee includes a promise on job security, or not. More specifically, we suggest that (H1) job insecurity is negatively related to individual well-being and organizational commitment and positively related to turnover intentions when job security is expected as part of the psychological contract, (H2) that job insecurity is negatively related to fairness perceptions when job security is expected as part of the psychological contract, (H3) that fairness associates positively with individual well-being and organizational commitment and negatively with turnover intentions and (H4) that the association between job insecurity, individual well-being and organizational outcomes is mediated by fairness under the condition that job security is expected as part of the psychological contract. Thus, we propose a model of mediated moderation. Results based on a sample of Belgian employees (N = 559) supported our hypotheses for organizational outcomes. For individual well-being, the mediation framework was not conditional upon a perceived promise of job security as part of the psychological contract. We conclude that employees' perceptions of job insecurity and fairness are important factors in employees' well-being and their attitudes towards the organization. More importantly, these perceptions can in part be shaped by organizational agents such as managers and supervisors. Additionally, the active utilization of the psychological contract in management strategies seems to have favourable results for the fostering of pro-organizational attitudes among employees.     

Organizational commitment and service delivery: evidence from an industrial setting in the UK

In this paper the links between organizational commitment and the delivery of service quality are explored. Using data from a survey of contact-level employees within an industrial service organization, the hypotheses that the antecedents to service quality do indeed drive the service delivery gap, that there is a relationship between organizational commitment and service delivery and that the antecedents of the service delivery gap are related to organizational commitment are tested. All three hypotheses are accepted, although the link between organizational commitment and service delivery is not very strong. However, it is found that organizational commitment is strongly tied to role ambiguity and teamwork as antecedents of the service delivery gap.