Affective,Normative and Continuance Commitment: Can the ‘Right Kind’ of Commitment be Managed?

This study examines the multi-dimensionality of organizational commitment: affective, normative and continuance (including the sub-components of low perceived alternatives and high personal sacrifice), and how these are differentially related to a set of antecedents and consequences (i.e. turnover intentions, absenteeism and acceptance of change). The results, based on a sample of 505 Australian male fire-fighters, indicate that organizational commitment is best represented by the four-factors of affective, normative, low perceived alternatives and high personal sacrifice. In addition, employees experience different personal, job-related and environmental causes of commitment depending on whether they feel they want to, ought to, or need to remain with the organization. Further, not all facets of commitment enhanced organizational effectiveness, with affective being the most beneficial (i.e. employees are less likely to leave, be absent and are more accepting of change) and low perceived alternatives being the most detrimental (i.e. less accepting of change). The implications of these findings for the management of desirable forms of commitment are discussed.     

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.     

Predicting Retirement Upon Eligibility: An Embeddedness Perspective

Concern over the impact of baby‐boomers' retirement on needed skills and proprietary knowledge has stimulated an interest in identifying workplace factors associated with retirement upon eligibility. Drawing from embeddedness theory, the authors identify work‐based antecedents potentially underlying a related, but distinct, form of withdrawal—retirement upon eligibility. The authors generate and test hypotheses regarding the impact of fit‐, sacrifice‐, and links‐related antecedents using a prospective study design and a national probability sample of some 500 older individuals who, at the time of the initial interview, were within months of becoming—for the first time—eligible to receive such benefits. The findings indicate that, beyond the effects of person‐based antecedents (e.g., age, health, assets, expected retirement income), a combination of fit‐ (i.e., job challenge), sacrifice‐ (i.e., perceived organizational support), and links‐related factors (i.e., stability of close workplace peer relations) have a substantial influence on the decision to retire upon eligibility. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Employees' Nonwork Obligations and Organizational Commitments: A New Way to Look at the Relationships

The authors 1 adopted a family resource view of nonwork obligations and examined these obligations' relationships to dimensions of employees' organizational commitment. Complex interactions were found between employees' marital status, number of children, and having relatives nearby as related to the continuance dimension, but not the affective dimension, of commitment. In particular, results were strongest when the focus was on employees' perceptions of whether they would experience a high personal sacrifice if they were to leave their organizations. These findings are discussed in the context of developing family‐friendly human resource programs that may help employees feel less “trapped” in organizations. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Examining organizational citizenship behavior of Japanese employees: a multidimensional analysis of the relationship to organizational commitment

Although there is now considerable research concerning organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), little is known about the possibility of the transposition of such a research topic to a Japanese context. This study proposes and substantiates a three-dimension model of OCB in the Japanese context, comprising voluntary involvement, generalized compliance, and personal industry. Furthermore, the examination of the relationship between organizational commitment and OCB indicates that affective commitment is positively associated with voluntary involvement and personal industry. Also, continuance commitment is positively related to generalized compliance and, simultaneously, negatively associated with voluntary involvement. Finally, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Motivating Employees towards Sustainable Behaviour

Workers engaging in voluntary and unrewarded environmental actions that go above and beyond their job requirements in an organizational setting can crucially contribute to a reduced environmental impact of organizations. This research investigates some of the factors that may contribute to the emergence of such organizational citizenship behaviour directed towards the environment (OCBE). The hypotheses predicted employees' concern for the environment, employees' perceived organizational support for environmental efforts and organizational commitment as antecedents of OCBE. Employees from two organizations (n = 547) completed an online survey. Controlling for organizational tenure, a significant relationship between (a) employees' concern for their environment and OCBE, (b) perceived organizational support for environment efforts and OCBE and (c) organizational commitment and OCBE were found. Furthermore, organizational commitment mediated the relationship between perceived organizational support for environmental efforts and OCBE, but not environmental concern. This study's insights into the factors that can drive employees' engagement in small, voluntary environmental actions at work can guide organizations wishing to encourage such behaviours. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Human Resource Approaches to Retirement: Gatekeeping,Improvising, Orchestrating,and Partnering

This qualitative study examines the patterns in human resource (HR) approaches to retirement across 24 organizations to explore innovative practices as well as gain understanding of the differences in how firms are dealing with major changes surrounding retirement and workforce demographics. Using organizational adaptation theory and carrying out a thorough analysis of in‐depth interviews with HR managers, we identify three dimensions that differentiate organizations’ approaches to retirement: (1) actions and interactions of key stakeholders in the retirement process; (2) HR information gathering focus regarding workforce issues; and (3) HR posture around changes needed in retirement policies and practices. Based on organizational profiles on these dimensions, four distinct approaches to retirement emerge and are described in some detail: gatekeeping, improvising, orchestrating, and partnering. These different approaches also provide insight into how organizations differ in their adaptation to change. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Riding off into the Sunset: Organizational Sensegiving,Shareholder Sensemaking,and Reactions to CEO Retirement

We test hypotheses derived from resource dependence and sensemaking/sensegiving theoretical lenses in the context of CEO succession, focusing on an under‐researched yet prevalent type of executive turnover – CEO retirement. Using event study methodology and a sample of CEO retirements from S&P 1500 firms during the 2003–12 period, we find that, all else equal, shareholders’ perceptions of organizations’ capacity to serve their interests are adversely affected when a retirement related change occurs in the leadership structure. Specifically, in line with resource dependence theory, we find that CEO retirement disclosures typically generate negative abnormal returns. Furthermore, in line with the sensemaking perspective, we find that the magnitude of shareholders’ reactions is contingent on the lexical sensegiving cues contained in the organizational narratives that are released to capital markets via executive retirement announcements. Overall, our theory and results point to CEO retirement events as consequential in the eyes of shareholders, challenging an important assumption of extant succession research. Moreover, they suggest that shareholders’ interpretation of these events is influenced by organizational sensegiving, highlighting the important role of organizational communication around succession events.     

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.     

Improving corporate biodiversity management through employee involvement

This paper presents an empirical examination of the role of employee involvement in the internalization of corporate biodiversity management. A qualitative study in natural resource companies was conducted, based on semi‐directive interviews with managers, consultants, and experts in this area. The findings show that employee involvement is essential to improve biodiversity practices in natural resource companies, which largely rely on organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment. The role of tacit knowledge, voluntary initiatives, and prevention of harmful behaviors in the workplace are highlighted. The main obstacles to the internalization of biodiversity issues include their complexity, the lack of corporate commitment, the externalization of initiatives, and the lack of training for employees. The contributions to the literature on corporate environmental management, internalization of new practices, and organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment are explained. Managerial implications and avenues for future research are also provided.     

Why Do Employees’ Perceptions of their Organization's Change History Matter? The Role of Change Appraisals

In this article, we identify employees’ change history in an organization as a key antecedent of their appraisals about organizational change (i.e., threat, harm, and challenge). We argue that these change appraisals are associated with psychological contract violation, which in turn is associated with intentions to leave the organization, and, ultimately, with voluntary employee turnover. In 2009, we collected data over three measurement periods from 252 full‐time, permanent employees from a manufacturing organization in the Philippines that was just about to undergo an organizational‐wide restructuring. At Time 1 (T1, the change announcement), employees completed a survey assessing their change history in the organization and change appraisals. At Time 2 (T2, six months after the announcement), employees completed a survey assessing psychological contract violation and turnover intentions. Two years later (Time 3, T3), we collected data on voluntary employee turnover. Results suggest that a poor change history in an organization was negatively associated with challenge appraisals and was positively associated with threat and harm appraisals. Challenge and harm appraisals were significantly associated with psychological contract violation. These appraisals, in turn, were associated with turnover intentions and, ultimately, with voluntary employee turnover. In addition, T1 threat appraisals were directly positively associated with T3 voluntary turnover. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Crowding Out Reciprocity between Working Parents and Companies with Corporate Childcare

When the government and companies invest in childcare, both do it with good intentions. While politicians have the intention of enhancing fertility and well‐being of families, employers expect positive responses from working parents based on the norm of reciprocity. Since industrialized countries increase public family support year by year, the question arises as to whether this may trigger unanticipated consequences. If both the state and companies invest in substitutive services, they might unintentionally spark competition. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine whether public childcare may “crowd out” the reciprocity effects of corporate childcare on working parents. In Switzerland, state family policies vary among the 26 cantons, so we are able to compare cantons with a high and low number of cantonal childcare services. Using survey data taken from 414 working parents living in different Swiss cantons, we examined whether public childcare affects organizational‐related responses of working parents. First, our results support the expected level of reciprocity: working parents in companies with their own childcare services show higher organizational commitment than parents in companies without this support. Second, we find evidence for a crowding‐out effect: in family‐supportive cantons with numerous public childcare services, working parents’ commitment to companies with their own childcare services is lower than in less family‐friendly cantons. This finding reignites an old economic debate on the crowding out of voluntary private investments due to governmental policies. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Fine‐tuning what we know about employees' experience with flexible work arrangements and their job attitudes

Prior research has generally found positive relationships between flexible work arrangements (FWAs) and employee attitudes. However, we know relatively little about organizational contingencies that affect the strength of these relationships, as there is little multilevel, multicompany research on FWAs. This study explores three aspects of employees' experience with FWAs—perceived availability of the number of FWAs, different types of FWAs, and actual use of FWAs—and their corresponding effects on employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Using a large multicompany data set (1,799 companies, 17,895 workers), we found that employees who perceive more FWAs available to them have higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment, especially in organizations that report offering fewer formal FWA policies. Among different types of FWAs, perceived availability of flexible scheduling is more positively associated with job satisfaction than flexible location and hours, and both flexible scheduling and location are more positively associated with organizational commitment than flexible number of hours. We also found that employees who actually use flexible scheduling have lower job satisfaction and organizational commitment than those who have it available but do not use it. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The HRM Process Approach: The Influence of Employees’ Attribution to Explain the HRM‐Performance Relationship

In an experimental study and a field study, we studied whether high‐commitment human resource management (HC‐HRM) is more effective when employees can make sense of HRM (attribute HRM to management). In the experimental study (n = 354), employees’ HC‐HRM perceptions were evoked by a management case, and their attributions were manipulated with an information pattern based on the three dimensions of the covariation principle of the attribution theory: distinctiveness, consistency, and consensus. As expected, the results showed that the effect of HC‐HRM on affective organizational commitment was stronger when employees understood HRM as was intended by management. This experimental finding was confirmed in a cross‐level field study (n = 639 employees within 42 organizations): the relationship between HC‐HRM, on one hand, and affective organizational commitment and innovative behavior, on the other hand, was stronger under the condition that employees could make sense of HRM. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Benefits and Strategic Outcomes: Are Supplemental Retirement Plans and Safer Driving Related in the U.S. Trucking Industry?

We suggest that a firm's benefits can relate to important organizational outcomes that have strategic implications. We propose a number of mechanisms that could relate benefits to strategic outcomes, including the notion that benefits can help attract and retain the type of employees who are most likely to perform in ways consistent with the firms’ strategies. We illustrate this with the case of supplemental retirement benefits in an actual setting, the long‐haul trucking industry. We report positive organization‐level relationships associated with the management choice of offering these benefits. Our results show that firms offering supplemental retirement plans engage in significantly safer driving practices, as measured by the proxy of driver insurance costs, as hypothesized. These findings show that benefits can be related to outcomes that have strategic implications for the firm. By showing that retirement plans may be of value to organizations, we help to bridge the academic‐practitioner divide and provide motivation and guidance for additional work on this important but underresearched topic. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Conditional altruism: Effects of HRM practices on the willingness of host‐country nationals to help expatriates

The assistance of host‐country nationals (HCNs) both within the workplace and in the external environment plays a significant role in expatriate adjustment and work performance on international assignments. Extant research exploring antecedents of HCNs' attitudes and behaviors toward expatriates focuses on personal and intrapersonal factors but overlooks organizational contextual effects. In this study, we propose and test a model that HCNs' willingness to help expatriates is influenced by HRM practices in international subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Results of analyzing data collected from Chinese subsidiaries of South Korean MNEs showed that high‐commitment HRM practices directly and indirectly influence HCNs' willingness to help expatriates through the mediation of perceived organizational support (POS). Socially responsible HRM indirectly influences the criterion variable through the mediation of organizational identification. Moreover, POS and organizational identification sequentially mediate the effect of high‐commitment HRM on HCNs' willingness to help expatriates. These findings shed some light on organizational antecedents that go beyond personal and intrapersonal factors of HCN attitudes and behavior toward expatriates.     

Personality,self-efficacy and job resources and their associations with employee engagement,affective commitment and turnover intentions

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the extent to which personality characteristics influence employees’ psychological connection to their work beyond that predicted by job context factors. More specifically, using Job Demands-Resources theory, we examined the influence of HEXACO personality facets, self-efficacy, and job resources on engagement, affective commitment and turnover intention. We used structural equation modelling on data collected from 623 participants working in a variety of organizational settings to test a proposed and a re-specified model. The results showed that both job resources and individual differences factors had direct and indirect effects on engagement, affective commitment and turnover intention. The personality facet liveliness was positively associated with engagement; sentimentality was positively associated with affective commitment; and social boldness, diligence and sentimentality were positively associated with self-efficacy. The model explained 69% of the variance in engagement, 60% of the variance in affective commitment and 33% of the variance in turnover intention. Despite the stronger influence of job resources, the results suggest that both individual factors and job context factors influence employees’ psychological attachment to their work. Practical implications in terms of selection, engagement and organizational development interventions, and further research opportunities are identified.     

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.     

Making Good Things Last Longer: The Role of Savoring on the Relationship Between HRM and Positive Employee Outcomes

This work studies sales managers’ perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices, and the mediating and moderating processes through which these practices are linked with affective commitment. Specifically, we tested whether work engagement mediated the relationship between perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices and affective commitment using a sample of 117 sales managers from one large retail store. Furthermore, we tested whether managers’ savoring strategies would moderate the positive relationship between perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices and work engagement, and if the strength of the hypothesized indirect effects were conditional on the use of savoring strategies. Results showed that the relationship between perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices and affective commitment was mediated by work engagement. In addition, savoring strategies were found to moderate the relationship between perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices and work engagement, so that the highest levels of work engagement were found in individuals who reported high perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices and high use of savoring strategies. Finally, results support a conditional indirect effect of performance‐oriented HR practices on predicting affective commitment via work engagement when levels of savoring strategies were moderate to high, but not when their use was low. Altogether, these results demonstrated that work engagement and savoring strategies represent key elements in explaining how perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices are associated with affective commitment. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.