Organizational Commitment

Description of Organizational Commitment. Explanation.

Definition Organizational Commitment. Description.

Organizational Commitment is the psychological attachment and the resulting loyalty of an employee to an organization. The study of organizational behavior defines, explains and humanizes the reasons behind organizational employee commitment. Through the commitment and collaboration of employees with different backgrounds, cultures, values, norms, experiences and skill sets a company or organization gains growth, flexibility and global marketability.

Levels of Employee Commitment

The attachment and loyalty of employees can be present at a variety of levels: their job, profession, department, boss or (entire) organization.

Advantages of Organizational Commitment. Benefits

A highly committed employee will identify with the goals and values of the organization, has a stronger desire to belong to the organization and is willing to
display greater organizational citizenship behavior i.e., a willingness to go over and beyond their required job duties. Advantages of gaining employee
commitment have been perceived to be better employee retention (lower labor turnover, attrition), extra role behavior, better product quality and employee flexibility contributing to the firms’ competitive advantage.

If human resources are said to be an organization‘s greatest assets, then committed human resources should be regarded as an organization's competitive advantage (Ranya Nehmeh, What is organizational commitment, why should managers want it in their workforce and is there any cost effective way to secure it? ISSN 1662-761X).

Reasons for employee commitment. 3 Types of Organizational Commitment

Rosabeth Kanter argued in 1968 that different types of commitment result from different behavioral requirements placed on members by the organization:

Continuance commitment has to do with a member's dedication to the survival of the organization and results from having people make sacrifices for and investments in the organization.
Cohesion commitment is attachment to social relations in an organization; it can be enhanced by having employees publicly renounce previous social ties or engage in ceremonies that enhance group cohesion.
Control commitment is a member's attachment to the norms of an organization that shape behavior in desired ways. It exists when employees believe that the organization's norms and values are important guides to their behavior.

According to the Meyer and Allen Model of Commitment (Meyer, J P and Allen, N J (1991) - A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment: Some methodological considerations", Human Resource Management Review, 1, pp. 61-98), there are generally three 'mind sets' (reasons, motives) for an employee to be committed to an organization:

Affective Commitment: positive feelings of identification with, attachment to, and involvement in the work organization. The development of affective commitment is based on the exchange principle. The employees commit themselves to the organization in return for the rewards received or the punishments avoided.
Normative Commitment: the employees’ feelings of obligation to remain with the organization. Normative commitment develops as a result of beliefs that are internalized through socialization processes, both familial and cultural, that occur both before and after entry into the organization.
Continuance Commitment: the extent to which employees feel committed to their organizations by virtue of the costs that they feel are associated with leaving (e.g., investments or lack of attractive alternatives). Continuance commitment is expected to be related to anything that increases the cost associated with leaving the organization.

Components of Organizational Commitment

According to Porter et al (Organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover among psychiatric technicians. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1974, 59, 603-609.), organizational commitment consists of the following three components:

A strong belief in and acceptance of the goals and values of the organization.
A willingness to exert (display) considerable effort on behalf of the organization.
A definite desire to maintain organizational membership (belong to the organization).

How to enhance the commitment of employees to an organization

Here are some HR practices for enhancing organizational commitment:

Commit to people-first values. Put it in writing, hire the right-kind managers, and walk the talk.
Clarify and communicate your mission. Clarify the mission and ideology; make it charismatic; use value-based hiring practices; stress values-based orientation and training; build tradition.
Guarantee organizational (procedural) justice. Have a comprehensive grievance procedure; provide for extensive two-way communications.
Establish communities of practice. Build value-based homogeneity; share and share alike; emphasize barn raising, cross-utilization, and teamwork; getting people to work together.
Support employee development. Commit to actualizing; provide first-year job challenge; enrich and empower; promote from within; provide developmental activities; provide employee security without guarantees.

The more of these three factors an employee is showing, the larger his commitment to the organization is. A too large commitment to the organization can be caused by Presenteeism. Another interesting manifestation of commitment is the phenomenon known as whistle-blowing, or publicizing unethical, illegal, or immoral behavior. For the individual, whistle-blowing may be the last resort, the only step left open; for the organization it is extremely threatening when negative information reaches the press. Whistle-blowing may occur because the whistle-blower feels tremendously committed to the organization; it is, after all, borne of an impulse to reform an evil, and few people are willing to risk punishment to reform what they do not value.

Organizational Commitment Forum (6)

Dimensions of Employee Involvement. Reasons for Employee Commitment.
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More on InvolvementInvolvement in Change
Involvement in Quality
Involvement in Decentralization
Involvement of Clients
Involvement in Strategy
4 Leadership Styles (House)
Bottom-up Approach

According to the expectancy theory individuals have different sets of goals and can be motivated via these expectations. But according to Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, in their book 'Organizational Behavior' employee involvement is the situation in which the employee identifies himself with the organization and it's goals and wants to stay a member of the organization.
Employee involvement seems more or less a synonym of organizational commitment. Robbins and Judge give 3 dimensions of involvement of employees, which are almost identical to the three mind sets described by Meyer and Allen in the summary of organizational commitment:
1. Affective binding: an emotional attachment to the business and the employee believes in the values of it. An example could be the feeling of a volunteer working for Greenpeace.
2. Extrinsic (calculative) binding: the observed greater economic value to stay at a company than when an employee would leave. A person can feel connected because the employer pays well and a decrease of income would occur if he leaves the company.
3. Normative binding: an obligation to stay at a company for moral or ethic reasons. An employee that is a project leader of some important initiative could feel reluctant to leave his company, because he doesn't want to let his company down and doing so would make him feel like a deserter.
Do we all agree with these 3 bases for employee involvement? Or are we perhaps still missing one or two?"

Balance Command and Control (Discipline) with Organizational Commitment
""Employment at will" and "big stick" are factors coming under the command and control of an organization. While I agree that this aspect has to be there for every organization, it has to be balanced with organizational commitment towards the employee.
If I as an individual employee realize that command and control are part of the organizational requirement, but also that the organization respects me and my performance and provides me enough opportunities to grow, it is OK."

How to Obtain Employee Commitment?
"Employee commitment starts with the sincere commitment of top management to attain its vision. A mission should be appropriately sculptured.
Top management commitment is felt by the rank and file employees! It's not enough to just write the commitment down on a piece of paper. It should be written in the hearts of the employees.
The hearts of the employees vividly capture the sincerity of the vision the top managers have towards the employees.
Commitment ends where loss of trust / confidence begins..."

People Think That Their Relation with the Organization is Forever
"The most important relation in your life is also in need of care.
I have been working in organizational change for years. The truth is simple: people in organizations think that their relation with the organization is forever and ever a tidy and nice one. We do not consider it necessary at all to put care and attention into the organization we are spending half of our days in. We care about our car, about our house and garden, about family and friends and if we are really a good person into our private relation. In this we put the other half of our time.
The discussion is if a special department should take care of the wellbeing of our organization, certainly we do not have it on our day and week planning. Unfortunately a special department (the O from P, never ever blossoming in Europe) will never be able to maintain 'the organization' for us. Lately we tried with the controllers function in a work process controlling role. But that will also fail if care and attention is not coming from us all.
So put your organization, your work approach, your efficiency to deliver added value to your customers on your weekly task planning. And convince your manager this is the subject you would like to get supervision for."