Predictors of organizational commitment in India: strategic HR roles, organizational learning...

Predictors of organizational commitmentin India: strategic HR roles, organizationallearning capability and psychologicalempowerment

Jyotsna Bhatnagar

Abstract Employee commitment continues to be one of the most exciting issues for bothpractitioners and academicians. Linkages in literature are found for HRM Practices,but there is a lacuna of research linking organizational commitment and strategic HRroles, psychological empowerment as well as organizational learning capability.The current study examines these linkages. Whether these variables predict organizationalcommitment in Indian managers or not, is also investigated. The sample size of the studycomprises of 640 Indian managers. Bivariate and multivariate analysis confirms thehypotheses drawn from the literature. The paper discusses the theoretical and practicalimplications of the findings.

Keywords Organizational commitment; strategic HR roles; psychological empower-ment; organizational learning capability; Indian strategic HRM.

Introduction

There has been a spate of research in organizational commitment globally, focusing on:organizational commitment as an explanatory factor of employees’ mobility; mentoringand organizational commitment; source of support; and target of commitment (Lin et al.,2005; Payne and Huffman, 2005; Stinglhamber and Vandenberghe, 2003). More recentlystudies have focused on the interconnection of job satisfaction and organizationalcommitment; interconnection between values, performance management, job satisfac-tion and organizational commitment (Rayton, 2006; Rosete, 2006), the influence ofculture and organizational commitment on performance (Rashid et al., 2005; Riketta,2002); the cross-cultural relationship between organizational commitment and humanvalues, cross-cultural effects of leadership style and organizational culture andcommitment, (Glazer et al., 2004; Lok and Crawford, 2004).

Further research literature has looked into the linkages of vision and organizationalcommitment (Dvir et al., 2004); HRM practices and organizational commitment in notfor profit organizations (Alatrista and Arrowsmith, 2004), as well as empowermentand organizational commitment (Laschinger et al., 2004). In India the influence of HRMpractices on organizational commitment among Indian software professionals, has been

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

ISSN 0958-5192 print/ISSN 1466-4399 online q 2007 Taylor & Francis

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

DOI: 10.1080/09585190701570965

Jyotsna Bhatnagar, Associate Professor, Human Resource Management Area, Management

Development Institute, Sukhrali, Gurgaon, India (tel: 124-491-560179; e-mail: jyotsnab@mdi.ac.in).

Int. J. of Human Resource Management 18:10 October 2007 1782–1811

investigated (Paul and Anantharaman, 2004). Some studies have focused on the linkage ofinnovative human resource practices and organizational commitment, (Agarwala, 2003).

Despite so much of work in the field, researchers still feel organizational commitmentis an important outcome variable which affects the retention of human capital of theorganizations and further work is required. In fact, Armstrong (2005: 197) comments,that: ‘employee commitment, and its reciprocal need for employee-sensitive practicesare not confined to national boundaries or particular organizations, but are worldwideissues and need further research.’

Further when we examine commitment literature, we find that most research has beenconducted on different aspects of performance, on the influence of leadership styles or onthe effect of HR practices, and there is a caveat in research linking human resource roles,psychological empowerment and organizational learning to organizational commitment.Research studies linking HRM practices, psychological empowerment, organizationallearning and organizational commitment have been undertaken but separately,(Bhatnagar, 2004b) like that of Bontis et al. (2002), Boselie et al. (2001), Brockbank(1999), Cleland et al. (2000), Ellinger et al. (2003), Goh and Richards (1997), Grattonet al. (1999, 2000), Guest (1987, 1999, 2001), Schuler and Jackson (2000), Legge (1995),Looise and Paauwe (2001), Mishra et al. (1998), Ostroff (2000), Paauwe (1994), Paauweand Richardson (1997), Schuler and Jackson (1999), Spreitzer (1995) and Ulrich (1997).There is a gap in literature where all the four variables are studied together.

Further with increasing change in the economic environment in India (Budhwar andBoyne, 2004; Krishna and Monappa, 1994; Rao, 1999), studies on commitment remainan important issue in talent retention and the development of human capital. The role ofHR for effective facilitation of organizational commitment by providing learningcapabilities and by psychologically empowering managers becomes an imperative.Again there is a lacunae of research studies linking the four variables together. Thecurrent research aims to study the empirical linkages between the developmental issues(through organizational learning capability), power/ control issues (through strategic HRroles and psychological empowerment) and effect issues (through organizationalcommitment) as suggested by Looise and Paauwe (2001).

The research objectives of the paper are two-fold. To establish the theoreticalframework of organizational commitment, strategic HR roles, psychological empower-ment, and organizational learning capability, is the first objective. The paper’s secondobjective is to determine whether the variables of strategic HR roles; psychologicalempowerment and organizational learning capability are predictors of organizationalcommitment or not. Such an investigation will be of interest to the field of HRM, as itwould establish the relationship of these variables to organizational commitment, as theyhave not been taken up by earlier research. The paper looks at Indian HRM and the needfor such a research, as the first section. This is followed by the theoretical framework ofthese variables and the research hypotheses. The next section focuses on the researchinstruments and methodology, which is followed by results and discussion. The paperconcludes with the discussion of practical and theoretical implications of the findings andsignificance of this study to Indian organizations.

Human resource management in India

The history of origin and evolution of HRM in India dates back to fourth century BC tothe period of Kautilya. In his treatise Arthasastra, Kautilya provides a systematictreatment of management of human resources (Shamasastry, 1956). According toSharma (1977), Arthasastra gave a detailed discussion on staffing and personnel

Bhatnagar: Predictors of organizational commitment in India 1783

management embracing job descriptions, qualifications for jobs, selection procedures,executive development, incentive system and performance evaluation. Yet, contempor-ary literature on Indian HRM certainly shows a strong influence of Anglo-Saxon thought(Akhilesh and Nagaraj, 1990; Venkata Ratnam, 1992). From independence in 1947 untilthe beginning of the 1990s, India was a state-regulated economy, and this influence waspresent. This reduced both entrepreneurship and global competitiveness. The Indianeconomy was performing very badly in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Budhwar andBoyne, 2004). To counter the challenges of a sick economy, a number of reforms wasmade in the Indian economy and in all industrial sectors, including both the public andprivate sectors (for details on Indian reforms see Budhwar, 2001; Venkata Ratnam, 1995;and the special issue of The Columbia Journal of World Business, 1994, Spring Issue).See Table 1 for the evolution of Indian HRM over the years.

More recently there has been a spate of studies that have looked at strategic HRMpractices (Kandula, 2001; Singh, 2003a, 2003b), Strategic HR roles (Bhal, 2002;Bhatnagar, 2006; Bhatnagar and Sharma, 2004, 2005); HRM practices andempowerment (Gupta, 2002; Iyer, 2000); psychological empowerment and commitment(Bhatnagar, 2005); organizational learning capability and HRD mechanisms (Bhatnagar,2004b; Bhatnagar and Sharma, 2005; Ramnarayan, 1993), commitment and HRMpractices in India (Agarwala, 2003; Paul and Anantharaman, 2004). There is a need tolook at all the variables and their inter-linkages. The basis for determining which HRMdimensions to examine, was derived from four closely related strands of theoretical andconceptual literature: i.e. the literature on HR roles, organizational learning capability,psychological empowerment and organizational commitment. There is a gap in theliterature where all these dimensions are studied together, for their empirical linkages, aspointed out earlier. Now let us look at the theoretical framework of organizationalcommitment and the Indian research focus on organizational commitment.

Theoretical framework of organizational commitment

Since the 1960s employee commitment continues to be one of the most exciting issuesfor both managers and researchers. Many studies have attempted to explore its effect onwork outcomes such as turnover and job performance. See Table 2, for a summary oforganizational commitment research literature in the Western context.

Research on organizational commitment conducted in separate national cultureshas shown that the meaning of commitment and predictors of commitment differ (Bar-Hayim and Berman, 1992; Bae and Chung, 1997; Knoop, 1994; Lincoln and Kallenberg,1985; Meyer et al., 1998; Pearson and Chong, 1997; Sommer et al., 1996; Tjosvold et al.,1998; Williams et al., 1998) and hence it becomes important to investigate predictorsof organizational commitment in the Indian context, which earlier studies havenot undertaken. The majority of the commitment studies have been conducted inWestern countries. ‘the models of commitment . . . have been developed and testedin Western countries. There is a need for more systematic research to determine whetherthese models apply elsewhere’ (Meyer and Allen, 1997: 218). Hence, we test the model ofAllen and Myer in Indian conditions.

Organizational commitment: the Indian research

Theoretically, Pareek (1993: 2.2), attempted to integrate the person–organizationdichotomy by analysing the role characteristics of job holders important for building ahealthy organizational culture. The facilitative conditions created by the organizationsadd to the sum total of awareness for learning together as a team in a given set-up

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Table 1 Evolution of HRM in India

Authors, years Key research findings Time period

Rao (1964); Monappa and Verma (1994); Mankidy (1993) The dual national goals of economic growth and social justice/worker

welfare were to guide business operations Trade Union Act of 1926;

Indian trade unions have gone through four main phases (cycles) of

growth

1920s

Pattanayak (2001) The Royal Commission Labour In India Abolished the ‘JOBBER

SYSTEM’ and appointed the labour officer

1931

Balasubramanian (1994, 1995) Factories Act of 1948 1940s

Birth of Indian Institute of Personnel (Calcutta) and Management and

National Institute of Labour (Bombay)

1950s

Venkata Ratnam and Shrivastava (1981) Transformed from Labour welfare role to Industrial Relations and

Personnel administration

1960s

1970s

Pareek and Rao (1981) Professional and Legalistic Era HRD Department in Larsen and Tubro 1970s

Amba-Rao (1994); Sparrow and Budhwar (1997); Rao (1992);

Saiyadain (1990); Balasubramanian (1995); Budhwar

(2000); Budhwar and Sparrow (1998); Parikh and Garg

(1990)

IIPM and NILM merged to form National Institute of Personnel

Management. Re-labelling of job titles from Personnel to HRD effect

on managerial responsibility for HR Practices as an example of value

dilemmas in Indian managerial roles

1980s

Rao and Abraham (1986); Rao et al. (1994); Silveria (1988);

Venkata Ratnam (1995); Abraham (1989); Pareek and Rao

(1981).

Discrepancies in strategic and operational levels in the area of HRM;

Series of round table conferences of Indian Society for Training and

Development, National HRD Academy, Academy of HRD, AIMA

on establishing the agenda for the HRM function, which is to pursue

employee empowerment, develop flatter organizations, focus on

team building, improve HRD climate, etc.

1990s

Ahluwalia (1994); Das (1996); Mathias (1994); Sodhi (1994);

Thyagi (1994); Krishna and Monappa (1994); The Columbia

Journal of World Business (1994)

Need for quality improvement, cost efficiency, corporate ethical

practices, employee development, motivation and team functioning,

strategic integration of the HRM function and greater involvement

of line management in HRM, with liberalization of the economy

Early–mid 1990s

Bhatn

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Table 1 (Continued)

Authors, years Key research findings Time period

Sparrow and Budhwar (1997); Monappa and Engineer (1999);

Saini (2000); Balaji, C. et al. (1998); Amba-Rao (1994a,

1994b); Budhwar and Sparrow (1997); Lawler et al. (1995);

Sahay and Walsham (1997); Sinha (1990); Sodhi (1994);

Sparrow and Budhwar (1997); Tayeb (1988); Virmani and

Guptan (1991); Budhwar (2001)

Liberalization and HRM-Restructuring-VRS, Change imperatives,

new perspectives in Indian HRM; empirical studies on HRM in

India relevant to the new environment Implications of HRM area due

to Indian reforms

Late 1990s

Singh and Bhandarker (2000); Bhatnagar and Sharma (2004);

Som (2003); Budhwar and Boyne (2004); Bhatnagar and

Sharma (2005); Saini (2005); Baruch and Budhwar (2006);

Saini and Budhwar (2004); Budhwar et al. (2006)

CII Summits and National HRD Congress look at the Strategic HR

roles, competencies and skill sets and linkage between Strategic HR

and Business Goals

Flexible, innovative and participative. Human resource policies; value-

based HR processes for the development of people, after

liberalization, competency based HRM Organizational capabilities,

the role of HR function in corporate change, recruitment and

selection, pay and benefits, training and development, employee

relations and emphasis on key HRM strategiesModerate Strategic

HR Roles in IndiaInstrumental Vs. Empowerment approach in

Indian HRM Cross-cultural trends in Indian HRSHRM practices in

new Economy sectors-ITES, BPO–KPO Sector

Early 2000–2005

and beyond

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Table 2 Summary of some of the Western organizational commitment research literature (not an

exhaustive list)

Authors, year Key research findings

Bateman and Strasser (1984) Organizational commitment, antecedents to job

satisfaction

Benkhoff (1997);

Baruch (1998)

key to ‘business success’

Carson et al. (1999) viability and suitability of organizational

commitment is questionable

Nadler, (1998); O Reilly (1997);

Lok and Crawford (2001)

research on commitment is important for

managers in the organizations

Lok and Crawford (2001)

examined commitment linkage to managerial

strategy driven by organizational culture and

Human resource Strategies. Also commit-

ment dependant on managerial strategy and

level of employee participation

Blau (1985); Brown (1996); Mowday et al.

(1982); Allen and Meyer (1990); Angle and

Perry (1981); Gordon et al. (1980); Jaros et al.

(1993); Mayer and Schoorman (1992, 1998);

Meyer and Allen (1984, 1991); O’Reilly and

Chatman (1986); Penley and Goud (1988)

commitment as a unidimensional construct or

multidimensional

Mowday et al. (1979); Allen and Meyer (1990);

Angle and Perry (1981); Gordon et al.

(1980); Jaros et al. (1993); Mayer and

Schoorman (1992, 1998); Meyer and Allen

(1984, 1991); O’Reilly and Chatman

(1986); Penley and Gold (1988)

Commitment as a multidimensional construct,

each accompanied by a recommended

measure or set of measures.

Mathieu and Zajac (1990); Meyer and Allen

(1991); Mowday et al. (1982)

Barling (1992); Gordon et al. (1980); Blau

(1985); Meyer et al. (1993);

Becker (1992); Hunt and Morgan (1994);

Campion and Lord, (1982) and Locke, et al.

(1988); Hall (1996)

Research on forms of commitment:

commitment to organizations

commitment to unions occupations and pro-

fessions teams and leaders goals personal

careers

Meyer and Herscovitch (2001) disagreement with regard to the dimensionality

of organizational commitment

Watson Wyatt (1999) human resource practices and trust in

management had the strongest impact

on building commitment

Armstrong (2001: 175–6) pluralist view of commitment, it can be

manipulated

Terrence et al. (2001) Job embededness and OC-Intention to stay-

relationship

Baird (2004) High commitment systems in country specific

contexts

Roca-Puig et al. (2005);

Payne and Huffman (2005);

Service firms as a context for Flexibility and

commitment

Bhatnagar: Predictors of organizational commitment in India 1787

(Pedler et al., 1991; Senge, 1990) in which individuals hold a substantial stake. Empiricalfindings showing a negative relationship between role-making behaviour (thatemphasizes) the individuals influence over the organizational system) and perception ofthe job-related strain confirm this theoretical assumption (Pandey, 1995; Pareek, 1993;Sayeed, 1985).This research wants to extend this model and suggests HR roles to be theintegrative point of organization with the outcome being enhanced organizationalcommitment of members of the organization. Kulkarni (1976) assessed the role of job-related factors in the individual’s involvement with the job. From the results obtained, itwas clear that the highest rank had been assigned by both high and low job-involvedgroups to pay. SeeTable 3, for a summary of organizational commitment research in India.

Although there have been attempts to study organizational commitment with variableslike employee satisfaction, turnover, conflict management, role stress, HRM practicesetc., none of the studies has attempted an empirical linkage with strategic HR roles,organizational learning capability and psychological empowerment which this studyattempts to explore. The next section looks at the development of hypotheses.

The strategic HR roles and organizational commitment

Role stress, role conflict and commitment have been well researched (Chatterjee, 1992;Hrebiank and Alutto, 1972; Rizzo et al., 1970; Singh et al., 1981). Morrow (1993),established the linkage between commitment in terms of overt indicators (e.g. behavioursthat exceed role expectation). Strategic HR roles have not been empirically investigatedthough, more recently, Agarwala (2003) found innovative HRM practices to bepredictors of organizational commitment. In systems of ‘high commitment’, humanresource practices increase organizational effectiveness by creating conditions whereemployees become highly involved in the organization and work hard to accomplish theorganization’s goals (Arthur, 1994; Wood and de Menezes,1998). It has been found thatthe there is a circular relationship between workers who feel that the organizationis committed to them and thus have a positive perception of HR practices and hence becommitted to the organization (Alatrista, and Arrowsmith, 2004; Eisenberger et al.,1990; Meyer and Smith, 2000). Though the relationship between commitment and HRMpractices havs been well established (Guest, 1999; Guzzo et al., 1994; Keep, 1989;Watson Wyatt, 1999) the relationship between strategic HR role and organizationalcommitment needs to be established. Ogilvie (1986) perceives HRM practices asconcrete, tangible programmes designed to develop commitment. HRM practicespromote, reinforce and influence commitment through selection, placement, develop-ment, rewards and retention (Paul and Anantharaman, 2004; Wimalasiri, 1995). Thelarge number of relationships for HRD orientation and practices broadly suggested thatHRD is the key variable likely to be influenced by the employees’ affective andcontinuance commitment (Sayeed, 2001: 114). Research suggests that affectivecommitment and, to a lesser extent, normative commitment are positively related to ‘inrole’ effort and performance (DeCotiis and Summers, 1987; Kim and Mauborgne, 1993;

Table 2 (Continued)

Authors, year Key research findings

Lin et al. (2005); Cabrera et al. (2006) Mentoring and OC, Turnover relationship

Employee mobility and OC inter-linkages;

Employee Engagement and OC

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Table 3 Summary of Indian organizational commitment research literature

Authors, year Key research findings

Mohan and Shrivastava (1986) Linkages of organizational commitment to

certain job attitudes in India

Sayeed (2001) Leadership orientation, power-sharing ten-

dency and organizational learning reflect-

ing a development thought process, could

also play a vital role in organizational

commitment

Amsa and Punekar (1985); Balaji (1986) Develop an organizational commitment scale

suited to Indian organizational, but did not

cover the full construct

Chatterjee (1992) Linkages between commitment, cognitive

appraisal and occupational stress

Vashishtha and Mishra (1999) Relationship between social support and

organizational commitment of supervisors,

using Meyer and Allen scale in manufac-

turing sector.

Dutta and Mukhopadhyay (1999) Linkages between organizational coping and

organizational commitment across organ-

izational hierarchies in heavy engineering

organizations.

Bhatia (1997); Correlates and predictors ofOC in IndianArmy

Sharma and Sharma (2002) the correlates of commitment in MNCs

operating in India, established

relationship between organizational com-

mitment, participative management, flexi-

bility and organizational learning.

Kaliyamoorthy and Mohan Kumar (2001);

Singh and Das (1978)

Linkage between organizational culture and

organizational commitment

Chandna and Krishnan (2003) Impact of transformational leadership and

five work-related beliefs (work ethic,

Marxist, organizational, leisure ethic, and

humanistic) on affective, continuance and

normative commitment

Sayeed (2001) Organizational commitment of organizational

members and their method of conflict

management helps improve healthy

organizational processes

Bhatnagar and Sharma (2004) Conceptual framework of strategic HR roles

and organizational learning capability

affecting organizational commitment

Agarwala (2003) Introduction of innovative human resource

practices by the organizations was the most

significant predictor of organizational

commitment

Paul and Anantharaman (2004) Insights into the relationship between the

organizational commitment of software

professionals and the organization’s HRM

practices.

Bhatnagar (2005) Psychological empowerment as an antecedent

to organizational commitment in Indian

managers

Bhatnagar: Predictors of organizational commitment in India 1789

Meyer et al., 1993). Indeed, because organizations are encountering dramatic changes(Kozlowsk et al., 1993) and are getting more decentralized, their visibility to employeesmay be more limited than in the past. In addition, employees’ trust in their employer mayhave diminished due to these changes (Butz et al., 2001). In this study the employees’commitment in relation to strategic HR roles of the employer side is focused. Only a fewstudies have explored the role of human resource practices in literature (e.g., Allen, 1992;Guzzo et al., 1994; Miceli and Mulvey, 2000; Whitener, 2001). More recently, Roehlinget al. (2005) state that the HR literature reflects a rigorous accent on the strategic role ofHR. Armstrong (2005: 195) and Cascio (p. 159) suggest that HR must do more thansimply partner with top management; they must actively drive business success. In orderto do so, Roehling et al. (2005: 212) state that HR role according to Gratton’s ‘Model forConsidering Ties’ (2005: 151) is what is required.

Briefly, Gratton focuses on the value-creation opportunities that occur when people work

cooperatively across boundaries to contribute to a critical organizational capability. In addition,

she proposes that HR has an essential role to play in fostering the development of appropriate

social ties within and across organizational groups. The pivotal point is between understanding

what success looks like in the eyes of the customer and translating that back into the

organization in the form of employment relationships and working practices that give

the organizations the edge. Thus it can craft the right people strategies both to support and to

take forward the strategic intent of the organization

Obviously here the role of HR focuses on facilitating organizational commitment of itsinternal customers. Wright and Snell (2005) further state that value creation by HR canfocus on strategic value, which is concerned with building an organization capable ofdelivering customer outcomes. The priorities of this value system consist of processes,technologies, culture, and the skills and commitment of the workforce. Thus it is positedthat:

Hypothesis 1: The strategic HR roles and organizational commitment will have apositive relationship.

Organizational learning capability and organizational commitment

The learning orientation of the organization is pertinent to the context of makingemployees committed (Sayeed, 2001). Pedler et al. (1991: 1) define the learningorganization as ‘an organization that facilitates the learning of all of its members andcontinuously transforms itself in order to meet its strategic goals’. According to Yanget al. (2004), 11 areas through which this occurs have been identified: a learningapproach to strategy; participative policymaking; informating; formative accounting andcontrol; internal exchange; reward flexibility; enabling structures; boundary workers asenvironmental scanners; inter-company learning; learning climate; and self-developmentfor everyone. This learning perspective provides comprehensive aspects of learning at allorganizational levels. The traditional elements of management are incorporated tosupport learning. This would entail that providing organizational learning capabilitiesthrough training interventions would increase the level of commitment of employees.In fact it has been found that training activities not only develop employees and improvetheir skills and abilities but also enhance their satisfaction with the job and theircommitment to the organization (Harel and Tzafrir, 1999; Kalleberg and Moody, 1994;McEvoy, 1997, Paul and Anatharaman, 2004). Career development strengthensthe psychological contract and motivates employees to have continued commitmentto the firm (Harel and Tzafrir, 1999). Committed employees, consequently, should accept

1790 The International Journal of Human Resource Management

as true that their organizations would constantly offer them prospects to develop andgrow in their career paths. Taking on this belief, they stay on and are more inclinedto deepen their commitment to the company if they are following promotion(Lin and Chang, 2005). Ortenblad (2002) developed a typology of the idea of alearning organization. He suggested that there are four understandings of the learningorganization concept. The first is the old organizational learning perspective, whichfocuses on the storage of knowledge in the organizational mind. Learning is viewed asapplications of knowledge at different levels. The second type is the learning at workperspective, which sees a learning organization as an organization where individualslearn at the workplace. The third is the learning climate perspective, which sees thelearning organization as one that facilitates the learning of its employees (Yang et al.,2004). Goh (2003: 217), on the other hand, gives the perspective of theorists which havedefined learning capability as, ‘the ability of the organization to implement theappropriate management practices, structures and procedures that facilitate andencourage learning’. While Ulrich et al. (1993: 60) define, organizational learningcapability, as, ‘the capacity of managers within an organization to generate andgeneralize ideas with impact’. Armstrong (2005) stated that HR builds value bydeveloping talent through careful selection, induction and continuous learning. Whilebuilding organizational learning capability leads to commitment (Ulrich et al., 1993).More recently, learning organization, knowledge management and commitment linkageshave been explored by Brooks (2002). However, no research has explicitly examined theimpact of commitment levels on knowledge-sharing attitudes and behaviours; thus suchconclusions require to be empirically tested (Hislop, 2003). Robertson and O’Malley-Hammersley (2000), in a consultancy firm found high levels of commitment can belinked to positive attitudes to knowledge sharing, (which is indicated throughorganizational learning capability of learning through horizontal and vertical boundaries,which is one of the sub-variables of OLC), as outlined in the current study. Given thisperspective there would be an organizational commitment linkage with organizationallearning capability which studies have not investigated. While there have been tentativesuggestions that organizational commitment may importantly influence the willingnessof workers to share their knowledge (Storey and Barnett, 2000; Scarbrough and Carter,2000), little work has been done on this area. It is posited thus, that:

Hypothesis 2: Organizational learning capability and organizational commitment willhave a positive relationship.

Psychological empowerment and organizational commitment

Agarwal and Ferratt (1999), found recognition, empowerment, distributive andprocedural justice, competence development, work-life policies and information sharingas the critical HR practices in the software industry in India. Further, Kanter’s (1997)‘structural’ empowerment has been found to predict job satisfaction (Laschinger et al.,2001), organizational commitment (McDermott et al., 1996; Wilson and Laschinger,1994). In contrast to Kanter’s focus on structural empowerment, Spreitzer (1995) hasfocused more on the psychological state of the employees who experience empowerment(or not). Psychological empowerment has four components: meaning, competence, self-determination and impact. In other literature, empowerment has been defined asperceptions (Parker and Price, 1994) and as commitment-based designs (Spreitzer,1996). It is related to socio-political support and participative climate (Sprietzer, 1996)and Spreitzer et al. (1997), relate psychological empowerment to work satisfaction and

Bhatnagar: Predictors of organizational commitment in India 1791

effectiveness. Whereas structural empowerment is the perception of the presence orabsence of empowering conditions in the workplace, psychological empowerment is theemployees’ psychological interpretation or reaction to these conditions. In other words,psychological empowerment represents a reaction of employees to structuralempowerment conditions, according to Laschinger et al. (2004). Robbins et al. (2002)propose that psychological empowerment reflects the ongoing ebb and flow of peoples’perceptions and attitudes about their work environment (both local and broaderorganization context) in relation to themselves. Thus, the more psychologicallyempowered a manager; the more would be the organizational commitment. Armstrong(2005), states that, HR can move beyond the business partner role by providingopportunities to employees to share extensive information about their organization and toparticipate and be heard in decision making, thus to be more psychologically empoweredto take part in decision making; Researchers have linked psychological empowerment toa variety of outcomes, including organizational commitment (Kraimer et al., 1999;Spreitzer, 1995). Thus it is hypothesized that:

Hypothesis 3: Organizational commitment and psychological empowerment will havea positive relationship.

Organizational commitment and its linkages with HRM, strategic HR roles,organizational learning capability and psychological empowerment

Finally, while some research has shown that HRM policies and practices can influencecommitment levels, and underpin attitudes towards knowledge sharing and organiza-tional learning capability, further research is required in this area, because, as outlinedearlier, much of the empirical work in this is based on limited empirical data (Hislop,2003). Guest (1997, 1999) has indicated how commitment is an essential outcome of welldesigned HRM practices, and leads to financial outcomes. Human resource practices areclassified as ‘control’ or ‘commitment’ practices (Arthur, 1994;Walton, 1999;Wood andde Menezes, 1998). Control approaches aim to increase efficiency and reduce directlabour costs and rely on strict work rules and procedures and base rewards on outputs(Arthur, 1994). Rules, sanctions, rewards and monitoring regulate employee behaviour(Wood and de Menezes, 1998). In contrast, commitment approaches aim to increaseeffectiveness and productivity and rely on conditions that encourage employees toidentify with the goals of the organization and work hard to accomplish those goals(Arthur, 1994; Wood and de Menezes, 1998). Whitener (2001) states that these practicesrepresent a high commitment strategy including sets of organization-wide humanresource policies and procedures that affect employee commitment and motivation.

They include selective staffing, developmental appraisal, competitive and equitablecompensation and comprehensive training and development activities (Ichniowski et al.,1997; MacDuffie, 1995; Snell and Dean, 1992; Youndt et al., 1996). Ostroff and Bowen(2000) relied on social exchange and the norm of reciprocity in developing hypothesesabout the relationships among human resource practices, attitudes and performance.They proposed that human resource practices shape workforce attitudes by mouldingemployees’ perceptions of what the organization is like and influencing theirexpectations of the nature and depth of their relationship with the organization.Employee attitudes and behaviours (including performance) reflect their perceptions andexpectations, reciprocating the treatment they receive from the organization. In theirmultilevel model linking human resource practices and employee reactions, they

1792 The International Journal of Human Resource Management

depicted relationships suggesting that human resource practices are significantlyassociated with employee perceptions and employee attitudes.

In the only study testing these relationships, Tsui and her colleagues (Tsui et al., 1997)found that employee attitudes (specifically employee commitment) were associated withthe interaction of human resource practices and perceptions. Academic researchconducted at the organizational level suggests that human resource practices affectorganizational outcomes by shaping employee behaviours and attitudes (Arthur, 1994;Huselid, 1995; Wood and de Menezes, 1998). More specifically, systems of ‘highcommitment’ human resource practices increase organizational effectiveness by creatingconditions where employees become highly involved in the organization and work hardto accomplish the organization’s goals (Arthur, 1994; Wood and de Menezes, 1998) – inother words, by increasing their employees’ commitment to the organization,organizational effectiveness increases.

The motivational processes of social exchange theory and the norm of reciprocity (e.g.Blau, 1964; Homans, 1961) may explain the relationships among human resourcepractices, trust-in-management and employee commitment (Eisenberger et al., 1990;Settoon et al., 1996; Wayne et al., 1997). Hislop (2003), reiterates that practicingmanagers and academicians have argued with equal force that for the requisiteentrepreneurial qualities such as risk-taking, sense of inner direction, time competencyand ability to empathize with others to take hold among managers (which is preciselywhat is meant by managerial development) an empowering and facilitating environmentshould be consciously created by the organization. For this to become a reality, adirectional thrust is extremely necessary until a level of maturity is reached in thedevelopment process. The best practice perspective assumes that it is possible to develop aset of HRM ‘best practices’, which facilitate knowledge sharing, and thus organizationallearning capability become important and that these practices will be universallyapplicable to all types of organization. According to Lipshitz et al. (2002), productiveorganizational learning is fairly rare because it requires two psychological states that aredifficult to maintain. The first state is psychological safety, without which people arereluctant to take the risks required for learning. The second state is organizationalcommitment, without which they are reluctant to share information and knowledge withothers. Pare et al. (2000) found that HRM practices such as recognition, empowermentand competence development had a significant positive effect on organizationalcommitment among IT. Based on the above discussion and literature review touched inthe earlier section, it is posited that:

Hypothesis 4: Strategic HR roles, organizational learning capability and psychologicalempowerment will be predictors of organizational commitment.

Research design

To carry out the present study, the survey research design has been used to gain insightabout the research issues explored in the study. In the first step, 50 Indian organizationswere chosen randomly from the national capital region of India. In the second step, outof these 50 organizations, 1,000 managers were randomly selected to fill in thequestionnaires. Six hundred and forty questionnaires were filled in from the samplingframe of 1,000 managers. The remaining 360 questionnaires were either incomplete orthe managers refused to oblige. The response rate to the survey was 64 per cent.The scope of the study has been limited to the managers of the industries in the nationalcapital region of India. The organizations, from which the managers responded, were

Bhatnagar: Predictors of organizational commitment in India 1793

found to span public sector, private sector and multinational companies. See Table 4 forother demographic details of the sample.

Research instruments

For measuring organizational commitment, the organizational commitment scale (Allenand Meyer, 1990), a 24-item scale, based on a seven-point Likert scale was administered,where 1 ¼ Strongly Disagree, 2 ¼ Disagree, 3 ¼ Partially Disagree, 4 ¼ Neutral,5 ¼ Partially Agree, 6 ¼ Agree and 7 ¼ Strongly Agree. It contains, items on threecomponents of: (a) affective commitment (AC, alpha ¼ 0.73); (b) normative commitment(NC alpha ¼ 0.71); (c) continuance commitment (CC alpha ¼ 0.71). The Cronbach alphawas found to be 0.78 for the entire scale. This has been run using the statistical package,SPSS (11.5 version). For measuring strategic HR roles, the Human Role AssessmentSurvey Questionnaire, was administered on the sample (Conner and Ulrich, 1996). Thishas 40 items,which have to be rated on afive-point Likert scale. On the scale, 1 representedlow and 5 represented high. Participantswere asked to refer to theHRprofessionals in theirbusiness entity and rate the current quality of each activity. The sub-variableswere the fourroles of: (a) strategic partner (SP, alpha ¼ 0.92); (b) administrative expert (AE,alpha ¼ 0.92); (c) employee champion (EC, alpha ¼ 0.94) and (d) change agent (CA,alpha ¼ 0.93). The business partner (BP, alpha ¼ 0.85) role is the summation of the fourroles. For measuring organizational learning capability, we selected the organizationallearning capability (OLC) questionnaire (Ramnarayan, 1996, 1998; Ramnarayan andNair, 1993). In the current study, the scale has been adapted to a 40-item scale. Therespondents were to rate their responses on a five-point Likert scale, where 1 ¼ does notmatch at all; 2 ¼ matches to a small extent; 3 ¼ matches to a moderate extent,4 ¼ matches to a large extent and 5 ¼ matches perfectly. The Cronbach standardized itemalpha was 0.87. The variables, which were measured by a 40-item scale, were: clear focuson objectives and plans for internal and vertical integration, (alpha ¼ 0.83). The other fivevariables were: sensitivity to people potential and needs (alpha ¼ 0.84); concern for long-term planning and success (alpha ¼ 0.53) support for learning from others and creativity(alpha ¼ 0.52); environmental scanning (alpha ¼ 0.63); concern for development of

Table 4 Demographic details of the sample

Age groups % of respondents

Less than 30 30.16

31–9 28.75

40–9 27.82

50–9 12.18

60 and above 1.09

Gender

Male 87.03

Female 12.97

Education

Graduates 44

Graduates – professionals 203

Post-graduates 154

Post-graduates – professionals 184

PhD 55

Note: N ¼ 640.

1794 The International Journal of Human Resource Management

capabilities (alpha ¼ 0.80) – see Bhatnagar (2006) for details. For measuringpsychological empowerment, we administered, the psychological empowerment scale(Spreitzer, 1995), a 12-item scale divided into four components of meaning(alpha ¼ 0.70), competence (alpha ¼ 0.70), self determination (alpha ¼ 0.70), andimpact (alpha ¼ 0.80), and is based on Likert’s six-point scale, where 1 ¼ StronglyDisagree, 2 ¼ Disagree, 3 ¼ Partially Disagree, 4 ¼ Partially Agree, 5 ¼ Agree, and6 ¼ Strongly Agree. Cronbach alpha for the entire scale was 0.80.

Results and discussion

Results indicate that there is a positive significant correlation between the sub-variablesof strategic HR roles and organizational commitment. All the correlations are significantat .01 level or .05 level with the exception of continuance commitment and change agentrole (.05), which is not significant at any level. Although the relationship is positive butthe correlation range of 0.09 to 0.18, reflects a weak relation, suggesting shades ofcorrelation, which support Hypothesis 1 (see Table 5).

Results support the studies of Arthur (1994); Guest (1997); Price (1997) and Walton(1999) and we find a positive relationship between strategic HR roles and organizationalcommitment. This may be attributed to the fact that an employee’s level of commitmentis less dependant on the external environment of strategic HR role and is more dependanton internal factors and personality factors, like locus of control, self-efficacy, etc.Further, keeping the liberalization of the Indian economy as the backdrop, the systemswithin the organizations may be assumed to be in a transitional mode, and hereinaccording to Walton (1999), it is a transition effect between control and commitment,which may explain the results.

Results indicate that there is a positive significant correlation (see Table 6) between thesub-variables of organizational learning capability and organizational commitment.The value of correlations between affective commitment and the sub-variables of OLC,range from 0.35 to 0.07. This suggests a positive relationship, though in terms of strengthranging from moderate to low, with affective commitment being moderately related toclarity of objectives and plans (0.35), and very weakly related to long-range planning.The latter suggests that long-term plans of the organization do not affect the affectivecommitment of the managers, and there may be extraneous variables of personality traits

Table 5 Correlation coefficients of strategic HR roles

Vs. SP AE EC CA AC CC NC OC BP_ROLE

SP 1

AE .82* 1

EC .79** .79** 1

CA .80** .83** .82** 1

AC .11** .10** .08* .092* 1

CC .10** .10** .08* .05 .19** 1

NC .20** .13** .15** .13** .43** .21** 1

OC .19** .16** .14** .12** .75** .67** .72** 1

BP_ROLE .92** .92** .92** .93** .10** .09* .17** .16** 1

Notes: **significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *Correlation significant 0.05 level (2-tailed); (BP _Role) with the

sub-variables of Strategic partner (SP); Administrative expert (AE); Employee champion (EC); Change agent

(CA) and Organizational commitment (OC) with the sub-variables of Affective commitment (AC), Continuance

commitment (CC) and Normative commitment (NC).

Bhatnagar: Predictors of organizational commitment in India 1795

Table 6 Correlation coefficients of OLC and the sub-variables

Vs. CL_OBJ HOR_INTE VER_INTE POT_NEED LONG_PLG CREATE ENV_SCAN DEVT_CAP AC CC NC OC OLC

CL_OBJ 1

HOR_INTE .71**VER_INTE .56** .60** 1

POT_NEED .24** .23** .26** 1

LONG_PLG 0.55** .07* .08* .62** 1

CREATE .18** .17** .13** .70** .57** 1

ENV_SCAN .22** .20** .18** .62** .47** .54** 1

DEVT_CAP .18** .17** .18** .77** .63** .68** .64** 1

AC .35** .27** .25** .21** .07* .14** .20** .22** 1

CC 2 .06 2 .08* 2 .18** .06* .13** .02 .08** .04 .19** 1

NC .12** .07* .09* .14** .09* .11** .10** .09** .43** .21** 1

OC .19** .12** .15** .19** .13** .12** .18** .17** .75** .67** .72** 1

OLC .57** .56** .51** .85** .58** .72** .70** .81** .32** .36** .15** .23** 1

Notes: ** significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed); * Correlation significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) Clear objectives (CL_OBJ); Sensitivity to people’e potential and needs

(POT_NEED); Concern for long-term planning and success. (LONG_PLG); Support of experimentation and creativity (CREATE); Environmental scanning; (ENV_SCAN); Concern

for development of capabilities (DEVT_CAP), and Organizational commitment (OC) with the sub-variables of Affective commitment (AC), Continuance commitment (CC) and

Normative commitment (NC).

1796

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and types, locus of control of managers, etc., that may be affecting the results, but are

out of the scope of the study. Further, continuance commitment is negatively related to

clarity of objectives, horizontal and vertical integration, suggesting that sharing of

information and clarity of objectives of the organization, denotes a negative effect on

the employee to continue within the organization. Correlation value of normative

commitment and the sub-variables of OLC denote a positive relationship but of a weak

nature (range from 0.07 to 0.14). All the correlations are significant at .01 level or .05

level with the exception of continuance commitment and clarity of objective (.06), which

is not significant at any level. When we look at the main variable OLC and OC

correlations it is found that the correlations are positive and significant at .01 level. The

correlations range from 0.12 to 0.36. The results partially support Hypothesis 2. Referring

to Hypothesis 3, which states that ‘Organizational commitment and psychological

empowerment will have a positive relationship’, we find the results significant but a very

weak relationship between the two variables. The results are shown in Table 7.Results indicate that there is a positive significant correlation between most of the sub-

variables of psychological empowerment and organizational commitment. The correlations

are significant at .01 level or .05 level with the exception of the correlation between

competence and affective as well as continuance commitment; and self-determination and

affective commitment (.01), which is not significant at any level. Overall organizational

learning capability and psychological empowerment correlations are positive and

significant at.01 level, they range from .01 to .81, proving that there is a positive relation

between the two variables, the results thereby partially support Hypothesis 3.These hypotheses support various earlier research studies. First they support the

conceptual theme of Koffman and Senge’s (1993: 6–7), communities of commitment.

They state ‘Thus the nature of the commitment required to build learning organizations

goes beyond people’s typical “commitment to their organizations”. It encompasses

commitment to changes needed in the larger world and to seeing our organizations as

vehicles for bringing about such changes.’ Next the case studies of Terziovski et al.

(2000) support both the hypotheses. Organizational commitment is the extent to which

organizational members identify with an organization’s goals and values and make no

distinction between promoting its interests and their own personal ones. Acknowledging

the relationship between organizational commitment and learning, British Petroleum’s

Table 7 Correlation coefficients of Psychological empowerment (PE) with the sub-variables of

meaning, Competence, self-determination and impact and Organizational commitment (OC) with

the sub-variables of Affective commitment (AC), Continuance commitment (CC) and Normative

commitment (NC)

Variables MEANING COMPTNC SELF_D IMPACT AC CC NC OC PE

MEANING 1

COMPTNC .55** 1

SELF_D .40** .47** 1

IMPACT .56** .33** .50** 1

AC .16** .05 .08* .16** 1

CC .08* .01 .06 .07* .19** 1

NC .11* .09* .12* .12* .43** .21** 1

OC .17** .06 .12* .16** .75** .67** .72** 1

PE .74** .71** .78** .81** .16** .07* .15** .18** 1

Notes: ** significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Bhatnagar: Predictors of organizational commitment in India 1797

John Browne observed that ‘for people to learn how to deliver performance and grow wehad to make them feel that, individually and collectively, they could control the destinyof our business’ (Prokesch, 1997: 157). Organizational commitment is particularlyimportant for counterbalancing the political considerations that inhibit managers fromproducing transparency, integrity or accountability. The power of organizationalcommitment is revealed in a study of the career tracks of Ford middle managers beforeand after undergoing a special training programme designed to stimulate the initiation offundamental changes (Spreitzer and Quinn, 1996). It was also found that organizationallearning is crucially dependent on people’s willingness to care for and share knowledgewith others (Lipshitz et al., 2002). Davenport and Prusak (1998) hinted at the importanceof organizational commitment as an inducement for people to share their knowledge.The literature on organizational commitment and high-involvement organizations showsthat organizational members just need to be committed to the organization and to feel thatthey work for the joint benefit of themselves, their fellow members, and the organization(Lawler, 1988; Popper and Lipshitz, 1998). Commitment to learning also may beexpressed in more subtle ways, such as the way organizations allocate time, state Lipshitzet al. (2002). In the study of five Australian case studies of Toyota Motor CorporationAustralia, Ramset Fasteners Limited, W.A. Deutscher Metal Products Group, SouthPacific Tyres, and Pacific Dunlop Bedding, Terziovski et al. (2000) found a directlinkage between organizational learning and organizational commitment. Based on thequalitative analysis in this research they concluded that the five cases are underpinned bya single principle: the sustained commitment to ‘learning’. Saini (2005: 11), reported thatin India, ‘Learning and innovation culture can be created only if the organization haspatience and can tolerate mistakes or even encourage people to commit mistakes andrespect dissent.’ At Mind Tree Consulting, making mistakes by employees is accepted asa part of growing and learning. Intel Technology India looks at innovation as one of itsseven core values; and believes that the only way to innovate is by questioning the statusquo. In fact, the company provides coaching to its employees for developing the skill ofconstructive confrontation.

There is a good amount of research to suggest that local management practices and thenature and style of supervision will influence psychological empowerment indirectlythrough their impact on employee commitment (see review by DeCotiis and Summers,1987; Zeffane, 1994). Management communication conveys the kind of information that isimportant to the commitment process (Allen, 1992), and positive supervisor–subordinateinteractions have been associated with higher levels of commitment (e.g. Daley, 1988; Lee,1971). More specifically, management practices, such as inspiring a shared vision andsupporting employee efforts, have been found to be positively related to commitment(Niehoff et al., 1990).These actions demonstrate concern and support for individualdevelopment and are, therefore, likely to lead to identification with management.The results further support the conceptual empoweringmodel of HR strategy (Saini, 2005).

Hypothesis 4 which states that strategic HR roles, Organizational learning capability,psychological empowerment will be predictors of organizational commitment isaccepted. It is found in step 3 that the b3 value (0.13, 0.13 and 0.19) and ‘t’ value (3.44,4.49 and 4.53 respectively) for PE, Strategic HR role(BP_ROLE) and OLC aresignificant at the .01 level (see Table 8).

This result is in consonance with earlier research and is also supported by Walton’s(1999) conceptual model, which hypothesizes that commitment work systemsoutperform traditional work systems in organizations. Traditional (control) worksystems are characterized by narrowly defined jobs, specialization of employees, closesupervision and monitoring of employees by management, hierarchical structure,

1798 The International Journal of Human Resource Management

centralization of power and a focus on cost-reduction strategies. In contrast, the

commitment work systems encompass broadly defined jobs, job rotation, evaluation by

peers, non-hierarchical structure, decentralization of power and a focus on differentiation

strategies. Hislop (2003), utilizes Guest and Conway’s (1997, 1999, 2001) model of the

psychological contract as this provides a useful framework for linking commitment to

other related concepts. Guest and Conway’s model of the psychological contract is

modified to link commitment with knowledge-sharing attitudes and behaviours.

The results of this study support the conceptual model.The emergence of commitment as an important topic of research is related to

contemporary changes in the nature of the employment relationship. The utilization of

employment practices aimed at inducing high levels of commitment, shows a significant

shift towards and not reality (Gallie et al., 1998; Shepard and Mathews, 2000). Academic

research conducted at the organizational level suggests that human resource practices

affect organizational outcomes by shaping employee behaviours and attitudes

(Arthur, 1994; Huselid, 1995; Wood and de Menezes, 1998). The motivational processes

of social exchange theory and the norm of reciprocity (e.g. Blau, 1964; Homans, 1961)

may explain the relationships among human resource practices, and employee com-

mitment (Eisenberger et al., 1990; Settoon et al., 1996; Wayne et al., 1997). A well-

established stream of research rooted in social exchange theory has shown that employees’

commitment to the organization derives from their perceptions of the

employers’ commitment to and support of them (Eisenberger et al., 1990; Hutchison

and Garstka, 1996; Settoon et al., 1996, Shore and Tetrick, 1991; Shore andWayne, 1993;

Wayne et al., 1997). The research suggests that employees interpret organizational actions

such as human resource practices (Settoon et al., 1996; Wayne et al., 1997) and the

trustworthiness of management (Eisenberger et al., 1990; Settoon et al., 1996) as

indicative of the personified organization’s commitment to them. They reciprocate their

perceptions accordingly in their own commitment to the organization.Davenport and Prusak (1998) hinted at the importance of organizational commitment

as an inducement for people to share their knowledge. Hislop (2003) further suggested

that if commitment is linked to knowledge-sharing attitudes, it reflects impediments for

the knowledge management initiatives. Lepak and Snell (2002), cite the research of Snell

and Dean (1992) and Ulrich and Lake (1990) in this context.

Table 8 Stepwise regression model of strategic HR roles, organizational learning capability and

psychological empowerment as predictors of organizational commitment

Model Variables Unstandardized

coefficients B

Std. error Standardized

coefficients Beta

t Sig

1* (Constant) 88.60 4.95 17.88 .000

PE .39 .08 .18 4.64 .000

2** (Constant) 82.85 5.18 15.98 .000

PE .33 .08 .15 3.89 .000

BP_ROLE 6.68 .01 .13 3.45 .001

3*** (Constant) 71.83 5.65 12.70 .000

PE .29 .08 .13 3.44 .001

BP_ROLE 6.08 .08 .13 4.49 .001

OLC .14 .03 .190 4.53 .000

Notes: * Predictors in the Model: (Constant), PE; ** Predictors in the Model: (Constant), PE, BP_ROLE;

** Dependent Variable: OC.

Bhatnagar: Predictors of organizational commitment in India 1799

The current study further supports the recent study of Paul and Anantharaman (2004),which found interesting insights into the relationship between the organizationalcommitment of software professionals and the organization’s HRM practices. They statethat work environment, which is the combination of both the physical and the socialenvironment, plays a significant role in enhancing organizational commitment. In factthe variables of strategic HR role, psychological empowerment and organizationallearning capability reflect the practices within the work environment of the Indianmanagers in the current study.

Conclusion and implications

To conclude, the results of the study contribute to the theory of organizationalcommitment. Indian managers perceive the presence of strategic HRM dimensions ofstrategic HR roles (Bhatnagar and Sharma, 2005), psychological empowerment(Bhatnagar, 2005), organizational learning capability (Bhatnagar, 2006) and organiz-ational commitment at a moderate level, and discern the value creation of these strategicHRM dimensions for internal stakeholders. Essentially the current research provesempirically that within a psychologically empowering climate, the strategic HR roles, of achange agent, and strategic partner along with administrative expert and employeechampion, facilitates organizational learning capabilities, which leads to highercommitment. The current study fills in the caveat of research on predictors oforganizational commitment in the Indian context and supports the earlier studies of theAsian work environment. Glazer et al. (2004) state that research on organizationalcommitment conducted in separate national cultures has shown that the meaningof commitment and predictors of commitment differ. Near (1989) found that freedompositively correlated with commitment for Americans, but not Japanese. Similarly manydifferent predictors were reported for Malaysian and Korean workforce. Practicalimplications lie in proactively investing in HR capabilities and competencies asmanagerial capabilities and to constantlymonitor these through an internal HR audit at thefirm level, for both the line and HR managers. Implications of the result for talentmanagement are strong. Organizations in order to be high performance workplaces mustprovide in their organizational climate, a strong psychological empowerment and anemphasis on learning capability enacted through strategic HR roles, thereby enhancingorganizational commitment, thus leading to talent retention, in this era of talent raids andtalent wars (Bhatnagar, 2004a). Thus strategic HR interventions like a learning audit,psychological empowerment audit and strategic HRM audit need more visibility andcredibility as internal learning mechanisms. Implications for a need for continuousenvironmental scanning – both internal and external – are high, to facilitate this processand to harness the power through ICT and the implementation of Human ResourceInformation Systems (HRIS), which will leave the HR and line managers for more long-term strategic thinking and action, and thus enhancing the business partner role of HR andline. Implications for an increasing employee engagement index (Gallop, 2005), also arestrong and knowledge of the predictors of OC become important for HR practitioners toaddress, specially to identify and retain highly engaged employees and protect them fromlikely talent raids.

Theoretical implications for the soft HRM school are also pertinent. The existence ofpsychological empowerment, which shares a positive and a significant relation with theother two dimensions, reflects a need to strengthen this further, with an emphasis on howthe challenging job providesmeaning, competence and how an employee feels he canmakea positive impact at the workplace. Organizational learning capability, not only links the

1800 The International Journal of Human Resource Management

development focus, but also implies a stronger need for active environmental scanning, notonly by the strategic apex but from the operating core as well. Organizational commitmentindicators, even in the context of employability, seem strong and imply the need for achanging psychological contract, which can be discerned as strong, indirectly.

Research is a continuous journey and the limitations serve as learning triggers.Limitations of the current research are that the generalizability of the results may beaffected by the sample, which was not homogenous in size from each industrial sector.Second, as is the case in all studies in which the same subject completes all instruments,method variance is an apprehension.Yet Podsakoff andOrgan (1986) argue that collectingdata at different points in time lessens the impact of method variance. Moreover, Spector(1987) argues that method variance may be more of a problem with single-item or poorlydesigned scales and less of a problem when well designed multi-item validated scales areadministered on the sample. Given the demonstrated reliability and validity of themeasures used in the current study, problems with common method variance should beaddressed to some extent. Some of the reliability alphas of the organizational learninginstrument were found to be lower than 0.70, this is acknowledged as a limitation of thestudy. Future areas of research may also focus on the changing psychological contract andhow it affects the strategic HRM dimensions, especially within the context of the Indianeconomic liberalization which has triggered a radical change in the Indian economicenvironment. Specifically, future studies may look into how organizational commitmentmay affect the employee engagement index in the much publicized talent wars in theIndian IT and ITES sectors (Budhwar et al., 2006). The impact on the psychologicalcontract of the ITES employees, whichmay bemoderated by organizational commitment,given the high nature of attrition this sector faces.

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the helpful comments of the reviewer on the earlier draftof the paper. Guidance of Prof. Anuradha Sharma, Thesis supervisor and Emeritus fellowIIT-D, is also acknowledged.

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