Organizational Commitmment Essay Research Paper Organisational CommitmentWhat

Organizational Commitmment Essay, Research Paper

Organisational Commitment

What is organisational commitment.

Why should manager want it in their workforce.

Is there any cost effective way to secure it.

The concept of organisational commitment (OC) is not easy to describe. By studying the literature on OC it becomes apparent that there is little consensus as to the meaning of the term.

As the area has grown and developed, researchers from various disciplines have ascribed their own meaning to the topic. This is one of the reasons why defining OC is difficult. One definition is “Giving all of yourself while at work” (Martin and Nicolls). This definition is not very specific nor is it precise. A second definition says that work commitment come into being “When a person, by making a side-bet, links extraneous interests with a consistent line of activity.” (Becker, 1960) This definition focuses mainly on activities and behaviour in OC. A third definition explains OC as “an attitude or an orientation towards the organisation which links or attaches the identity of the person to the organisation.” (Sheldon, 1971)

The two last definitions differ from each other in their understanding of OC. The second focuses mainly on behaviour while the third is more based on attitude and identification. A good definition should cover the attitudinal-behavioural dichotomy and one definition that does that is Richard T Mowday et al’s (1982) definition:

This definition represents something more than the previous because it says that OC goes beyond mere passive loyalty to an organisation. It sees commitment to an organisation as an active relationship with the organisation such that individuals are willing to give something of themselves in order to contribute to the organisation’s well being. Mowday’s definition can be characterised by at least three factors:

+ A strong belief in and acceptance of the organisation’s goals and values

+ A willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organisation and

+ A strong desire to maintain membership in the organisation

Mowday’s definition also has some weaknesses. Firstly it is important to notice that this definition does not prelude the possibility that individuals will also be committed to other aspects of their environment. It simply asserts that regardless of these other possible commitments the organisationally committed individual will tend to exhibit the three characteristics identified. Secondly, the definition doesn’t clarify the terms ‘identification with’ and ‘involvement in’. It can be discussed whether this is a good definition since the terms may be understood as ambiguous.

Although this is not an ideal definition of OC, it is a definition that gives a good understanding and explanation of what OC is.

Furthermore, Staw (77) differentiates between 2 different types of OC.

Attitudinal commitment: Refers to commitment rooted in an employee’s identification with the particular value system upheld by the co, and a desire to continue working there. Behavioural commitment on the other hand, comes about through a consistent pattern of action by an employee over a period of time, and the way in which s/he tends to become bound by this behaviour and hence reluctant to change.

The point made here is that attitudinal commitment should lead to behavioural commitment and behavioural to attitudinal. Understanding this, we will examine in part 3 possible ways managers in which look to initially generate OC.

There are several possible reasons why managers should want work commitment in their workforce.

Drennan suggest that most managers believe that with real commitment from staff the performance of their business could improve dramatically. Beside an increased performance the work will also be a better place to work.

The empirical studies carried out on the topic of OC represent a rich collection of findings with respect to both the antecedents and the consequences of the construct. Here is a short explanation of five possible outcomes that has been studied.

+ Job Performance:

Few important correlations have emerged in studies, although the correlations are consistently in a predicted direction and often reached statistical significance. (Mowday et al., 1974; Porter, Crampon, & Smith, 1976; Steers, 1977a) Therefore we should expect commitment to influence the amount of effort an employee puts forth on the job and this efforts should have some influence on actual performance.

+ Tenure:

Committed employees are desirous of remaining with the organisation. Highly significant, positive correlations have been found between increased tenure and increases commitment in Mowday 1974 and Steer 1977 studies.

+ Absenteeism:

Theory would predict that highly committed employees would be more motivated to attend so they could facilitate organisational goal attainment. Modest support can be found in several studies like F.J. Smith, 1977; Steers, 1977a, but this support is not entirely consistent (Angle & Perry, 1981).

When an employee’s commitments lie outside the organisation (e.g. hobby, family), less internal pressure would be exerted on the employee to attend (Morgan & Herman, 1976).

We could say that co

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