ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

Department of Business Management

Faculty of Management Studies

Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka

Group Members

Name Reg. No

01. H. Y. C. Perera 07/MS/069

02. P. K. N. Pathirana 07/MS/188

03. S. T. T. Sinthika 07/MS/220

04. H. D. C. Shyamalee 07/MS/219

05. S. A. R. P. Sooriaaarachchi 07/MS/090

ABSTRACT

"Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but

no plans"

Peter F. Drucker

Organizational commitment is very important subject of organizational Behavior. Its very

important for managers to study about organizational commitment because alongside with factor

such as job satisfaction its influenced highly on job performencesperformances of employees.

Its very important to organizations because highly commited employee can identify the value

and goals of organization, and understand the potential of organization to develop, further highly

commitedcommitted workers can bring organizations to continuous success and

commitedcommitted employees can be the solution for number of problems which managers

faced like high employee turnover, poor performance, high absenteeism etc.

In this booklet we hope to define the organizational commitment, and discuss about the three

dimensions of organizational commitment, dependent and independent variables of

organizational commitment.

Job Attitudes

In the field of OB we are coming to interact with conceptwith concept of job attitudes.

To get a clear understanding about job attitudes we have to identify what are attitudes?

According to the Stephen P Robbins, “Attitudes are evaluative statements concerning or

judgments concerning objects, people or events.”

Simply attitudes are the way we perceiving things we interact in our lives, attitudes can be

different from person to person.

There were are three major components of attitudes.

Cognitive component

The opinion or beliefs segment of an attitude.As examples some people values working hard.

Affective component

The emotion or feeling is a segment of an attitude.

As examples we believe working hard, we develop a liking towards our job.

Behavioral component

An intension to believe in a certain way toward someone or something.

For an example if we like our job, high performance, low employee turnover.

Social psychology and attitude research

Beginning in the 1950’s, social psychologists studied areas such as:

o How the attitudes are formed.

o How attitudes are changed.

o How attitudes relates to behavioral intensions-what people intend to do

o How attitudes relate to behaviors themselves- what people actually do.

Job attitudes: three related components

“The job attitude is the middle component in a belief evaluation- behavior chain:

01. Beliefs about aspect of the job.

“My work has long stretches with nothing to do”

02. The evaluative component, i.e., the attitude itself.

“I am dissatisfied with my job”

03. Work-related behavioral intentions that follow from the attitude.

“I’m intending to quit my job”

(Society for industrial and organizational psychology)

Job Attitudes and Actual Behavior

The beliefs, attitudes and intension is a part of a same chain of concepts which

eventually influenced our actual behavior,

As examples if we believe that my job is not suited to my qualification I may feel

unsatisfied about my job. I will become fed of my job and intent to quit. Some time

actually we quit the job due to those attitudes.

Work related job attitudes

According to experts there was aare four work related job attitudes. They are job

satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship

behavior. In this report we will cover the concept of organizational commitment. are

identified. As

Job Satisfaction

A pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job

experience.

Job Involvement

Identifying with the job, actively participating in it, and considering performance

important to self worth

Organizational Commitment

Identification with a particular organization and its goals, and wishing to maintain

membership in the organization

Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicit recognized by the

formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of

the organization.

Over the years managers, professionals and employers think that the job satisfaction and

job performance have very strong relationship.

But from researches conduct for many decades it discovers that job satisfaction is not

only thing affecting to the job performance, but the many other things alone with factors

mentioned in above.

Mentioned as a 3rd of job related attitude, organizational commitment is what we.

going to discuss in here.

Organizational commitment

Organizational commitment sometime called job commitment reflects an individual’s

identification with and attachment to the organization.Organizational commitment has

an important part in study of organizational behavior. This is in part due to the vast

number of works that have found relationships between organizational commitment and

behavior in work place. A highly committed person will probably see herself as a true

member of the firm (for example referring to the organization in personnel terms such as

“we make high quality products) overlook minor sources of dissatisfaction and see

herself remaining a member of the organization. In contrast a less committed person is

more likely to see himself as another. (Ex: referring to the organization in less personal

term like “they don’t pay their employees very well) to express more dissatisfaction

about things and to not see himself as a long-term member of the organization.

Organization can do few definitive things to promote satisfaction and commitment but

some specific guidelines are available. For one thing if the organization treats its

employees are more likely be satisfied and committed. Allowing employees to have a

say in how things are done can also promote these attitudes. Designing research suggests

that Japanese workers may be more committed to their organization than are US

workers. Other research suggests that some of the factors that may lead to commitment,

including rewards, role clarity and participative management are the same across

difference culture.

Definitions Organizational Commitment

In studying organizational commitment we found so many definitions given by so many

professionals, here we highlight some of very important definitions

01. Organizational commitment in the fields of Organizational Behavior and

Industrial/Organizational Psychology is, in a general sense, the employee's psychological

attachment to the organization. ...

(wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational commitment - Definition in context)

02. Multiple definitions of organizational commitment are found in the literature. Bateman

and Strasser state that organizational commitment has been operationally defined as

“multidimensional in nature, involving an employee’s loyalty to the organization,

willingness to exert effort on behalf of the organization, degree of goal and value

congruency with the organization, and desire to maintain membership”.

(Mowday, Steers, and Porter ,1979,P.95)

03. The degree to which an employee identifies with a particulars organization and wishes to

maintain membership in the organization Stephen P. Robbins, (p-69)

04. “Organizational Commitment is typically measured by items tapping respondents’

willingness to work hard to improve their companies, the fit between the firm’s and the

worker’s values, reluctance to leave, and loyalty toward or pride taken in working for

their employers” (Maume, 2006, p. 164).

Organizational commitment refers to the strength of an employee’s involvement in the

organization commitment characterized by,

Support of and acceptance of the organizational goal’s and values.

A willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization and

A desire to remain with the organization.

Organization commitment goes beyond loyalty to include an active contribution to

accomplishing organization goals or commitment than satisfaction because it applies to

the entire organization rather than just to the job further commitment typically is more

stable than satisfaction because day today events are less likely to change it.

Source of commitment

As within job satisfaction the sources of organizational commitment may vary from

person to person. Employees’ initial commitment to an organization is determined

largely by their individual characteristics

(Personality and attitudes) are how well their early job experiences match their expectations.

Later Organization commitment continues to be influenced by job experiences with many of the

same factors that lead to job satisfaction also contributing to Organization commitment or lack

commitment: pay, relationship with supervisors and coworkers, working conditions,

opportunities for advancement and so on, overtime, tends to become stronger because

1. Individual develop deeper ties to the organization and their coworkers as they

spend more time with them.

2. Seniority often brings advantages that tend to develop more positive work

attitudes

3. Opportunities in the job market may decrease with age, causing workers to

become more strongly attached to their current job.

organizational commitment are related to

a. Employees behaviors and performance effectiveness

b. Attitudinal, affective, and cognitive constructs such as job satisfaction

c. Characteristics of the employees job and role, such as responsibility

d. Personal characteristics of the employee such as age, job tenure

Organizational commitment has been studied in public, private and nonprofit sector, and

more recently internationally.

The organization commitment attitude is determined by a number of personal and organizational

variables. There are

personal characteristicsrole and job characteristics, structural characteristics and job experience

and work place within this area.

Mowday, Porter and Steeers defined personal factors within two subgroups: demographic

Characteristics and work factors.

Demographic factors are analyzed within gender, age, marital status,educational level, income

level, status, and individuals’ psycho-social characteristics.

Work factors are analyzedaccording to the desire for success, participant values and cumulative

values.

A role and work characteristicconsists of the job validity, coverage, role conflict and vagueness

in the job.

Structural characteristics are related with structure of the organization. The size of the

organization, control degree, unionization level, imageof the organization, practice of total

quality management, flexible working hours, payment system and carrieropportunities and

perception on practices related with important ethics issues.

Work experience and work environment generally indicate socialization process of employees,

relationship between personnel and managers, organizational climate, customer oriented

organizational atmosphere, trustworthiness of the organization.

Because of multi dimensional nature of Organizational commitment there is support for a

three component model proposed by Meyer and Allen. The three dimensional are as follows

Affective commitment, Continuance commitment and Normative commitment.

1. Affective Commitment

Affective commitment is defined as the emotional attachment, identification, and

involvement that an employee has with its organization and goals.(Mowday et al, 1997, Meyer&

Allen, 1993; O’Reily& Chatman).Characterize affective commitment by three factors,

(1) “Belief in and acceptance of the organization’s goals and values

(2) A willingness to focus effort on helping the organization achieve its goal’s

(3) “A desire to maintain organizational membership”.

Affective commitment is “when the employee identifies with a particular organization

and its goals in order to maintain membership to facilitate the goal” (p.225). Meyer and Allen

(1997) continue to say that employees retain membership out of choice and this is their

commitment to the organization.

2. Continuance Commitment:

Continuance commitment is the willingness to remain in an organization because of the

investment that the employee has with “nontransferable” investments. Nontransferable

investments include things such as retirement, relationships with other employees, or things that

are special to the organization (Reichers, 1985). Continuance commitment also includes factors

such as years of employment or benefits that the employee may receive that are unique to the

each organization. further explain that employees who share continuance commitment with their

employer often make it very difficult for an employee to leave the organization.

3. Normative Commitment

Normative commitment is the commitment that a person believes that they have to the

organization or their feeling of obligation to their workplace. In 1982, Weiner discusses

normative commitment as being a “generalized value of loyalty and duty”. Meyer and Allen

(1991) It is argues that normative commitment is only natural due to the way we are raised in

society. Normative commitment can be explained by other commitments such as marriage,

family, religion, etc. Therefore when it comes to one’s commitment to their place of employment

they often feel like they have a more obligation to the organization. Normative commitment is a

relatively new aspect of organizational commitment having been defined by Bolon in 1993.

Although there are almost as many ways to build organizational commitment the following

activities are most prominent,

Fairness & satisfaction- The most important ingredients for a loyal workforce are positive &

equitable work experiences. New employees must believe that company is full filling its

obligations. Organizational commitment seems to suffer when people face increased work loads

in companies with record profits & senior executives earning lucrative bonuses. Other companies

have built commitment by sharing profits & distributing company shares to employee.

Job security- lay off threats are one of the greatest blows to employee commitment, expend

among those whose jobs are not immediately at risk. Building commitment doesn’t require

lifetime employment guarantees but employees should have enough job security to feel some

permanence & mutuality in the employment relationship.

Organizational Comprehension_ Affective commitment is a person’s identification with the

company so it makes sense that this attitude is strengthened when employees have solid

comprehension of the company. Employees feel disconnected when they don’t know what’ s

going on this uncertainty calls for improved communication process as well as opportunities to

work in various parts of the organization. It also requires more social interaction, particularly

where employees are often separated from each other.

Employee involvement- Employees feel that they are part of the organization when they make

decisions that guide the organizations future through participation; employees begin to see how

the organization is a reflection of their decisions. Employee involvement also builds loyalty

because giving this power is a demonstration of the company’s trust in its employees.

Trusting employees- Trust occurs when we have positive expectations about another party’s

intentions & actions toward us in risky situations. Trust means putting faith in the 0ther person or

group. It is also a reciprocal activity to receive trust, you must demonstrate trust.Trust is most

important for organizational commitment because it touches the heart of the employment

relationship. Employees identify with & feel obliged to work for an organization only when they

trust its leaders.

Out comes of organizational commitment

As a result of job satisfaction, we can have the organizational commitment.some support of a

positive relationship between organizational commitment and desirable outcome such as high

performance, low turn over and low absenteeism. There is a positive relationship between

organizational commitment and desirable outcomes. supportive organizational climate and

culture highly affect to the commitment.. Readson studies have identified moderating effects on

the commitment performance relationship as well as differences deriving from the focused of the

commitment. Another study found that commitment to supervisors was more strongly related to

performance than was commitment to organization. These and a number of other studies indicate

the complexity of an attitude such as commitment. On balance however most researches would

agree that organizational commitment attitude as define here is a somewhat better predictor of

outcome variables is job satisfaction. Relation to the job behavior Managers are interested in the

relationship between Organization commitment and job behavior because the lack of

commitment often leads to turnover. The stronger an employees commitment is to the

organization the less likely the person is to quite. Strong commitment also is often correlated

with low absenteeism and relatively high productivity. Attendance of work (being on time and

taking time off) is usually higher for employees with strong Organization commitment.

Moreover committed individual tend to be more directed and waste less time while at work

which has a effective management can faster increased committed and loyalty to the organization

as the above managing self competency features indicates.

References

01. MC Shane S. L and Glinow M.V, Organizational Behaviour. 2nd Edition.

02. Moorhead and Griffin (2001), Organizational Behaviour. 5th Edition.

03. Luthans (1998), Organizational Behaviour.

04. Meyer J. P, Allen N. J and C. A. Smith, Organizational Behaviour. 12th Edition,