Positive Results and Antecedents of Affective Organizational Commitment - Literature review Example

Organizational Commitment al Affiliation) Organizational commitment refers to having the will to stay as an organizational member; put efforts for the business, and the explicit confidence in, and acceptance of organizational values and goals (Mowday et al., 2008 p.147). Organizational commitment reflects the attitude of the employees through exhibiting loyalty to the business. Employees of a company express their concern for the business and its continued success and wellbeing (Fred, 2008 p, 147). There are several challenges in most organizations that include fear of downsizing, irresistible changes in technology, stress of having to do more in order to develop a spirited workplace that can ignite employee commitment.There is also the fear of losing a job due to a reduction in job security. From such challenges, it seems pertinent to know and understand more about the organizational commitment. According to RT. Mowday (1982), “a strong want to stay an associate of a particular business, a willingness to put efforts for business success, and recognition of business principles and objectives means organizational commitment. In this case, organizational commitment involves three clear patterns of behavior. When an employee exhibits these patterns of behavior, they are attributed to something called responsibility where the individual is totally dedicated to the organizational course. These behaviors can also be referred to as organizational citizenship behaviors. There are three components of commitment that include identification, long-term membership and extra part performance. The first is the identification and involves employees identifying with goals and mission of the business through having pride in the organization and defending the organization. The second performance in this definition of organizational commitment is Long-term membership. An employee has committed himself to the business for the long term and intends to stay in the business for the unforeseeable future. It can also be referred to as loyalty. The third performance is having High levels of extra role performance. It refers to employees have the attitude of performing beyond the required performance levels. It can also be called citizenship behavior or a pro-social behavior. The second definition is by Robbins, Judge and Sanghi, and they provide ‘organizational commitment refers to the identification with on business and its targets, and wishes to sustain membership in the group (Stephen et al., 2008 p.91). Employees by which organizational participants articulate their interest for the business and its continued success and well-being. Another definition for Organizational commitment by Meyer and Herscovitch (2002) defined responsibility as the drive that guides actions towards the targets. Theory provides that the commitment is multidimensional construct and antecedents correlate with results of organizational commitment in varying dimensions (Meyer et al., 2002 p 20-52). Most researchers have historically focused on employee retention.The idea is that employees who show both high organizational responsibility, as well as high job involvement, are least likely to quit their organizations. On the other hand, employees with low organizational commitment are less involved in their jobs and have greater chances of leaving the organization willingly (Steven et al., 1978 p380-396). There have been varying concepts on organizational commitment. The most general definition of employee commitment is that it is a mental state that represents the connection of the employee with the company and determines the decisions of the employee decision on staying in their particular organizations (Meyer & Allen, 1993 p 538-551). Therefore, organizational commitment shows how employees feel devoted to their tasks in the business and how they think and perceive the tasks as personally relevant. The three-component model on organizational commitment is vital in the prediction of significant business results that may include contextual performance, job satisfaction, as well as task performance, (Meyer et al., 2001; Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002; Meyer et al., 1990). The definitions have four features that include Permanence, Preference, Identification and Performance. According to Becker (1960), permanence is where an individual has performed and pursued a steady line of activity though a sequence of varied situations." In Myer’s view (1998), dedicated labor force is established when worker does not have to focus on their industrial employment as temporary." Lambert (1963) used “the purpose to stay in factory employment’ as a guide for responsibility to factory employment." Porter and others (1976) meaning of organizational commitment include a strong desire to sustain organizational membership as among the three main factors characterizing organizational commitment. Therefore, these definitions advocate for permanence or willingness for continued membership into the organization as the definition of organizational commitment. The second concept shows that the organizational commitment implies preference for one’s business over others. Sheldon (1971) has used a level to which one positively evaluates one’s business as an index of such preference. Such preference takes place after an individual evaluates their business as better than similar other organizations. This is owing to positive evaluation The third involves the Identification: employees are said to be committed after their agreement and internalization the goals and principles of the company. Morris (1960) holds that the responsibility involves both performance and acceptance of the action appropriate to the industrial way of life. Throughout this description, the centre of attention is committing to the industrial way of life, it can be transferred to commitment to the business. “Linking employee distinctiveness with the business” (Sheldon 1971) and powerfully believing in and appreciating organizational goals and values. (Porter and others 1974) provided other ways in which this identifications” has been expressed as the meaning of organizational commitment The forth is Performance: The term ‘organizational commitment’ has also been used to indicate ‘performance. Morris definitions (1960) regard performance relevant to the industrial way of life. Kanter 1968 regards employee commitment as the readiness of social actors to offer their effort, as well as loyalty to the business. Sheldon’s, description (1971) include a plan to perform towards business goals and targets as a facet of organizational commitment Porter and other’s (1974) include “a willingness to put substantial effect on the companys behalf as a major attribute of organizational commitment." Types of organizational commitment The Three Component Model has three types of commitments that are different in nature and the connection between employees and their companies thus decreases employee turnover. As described by Allen and Meyer (1990, p. 3): “Employees with strong affective commitment stay because they need to, continuance commitment because they need to, and normative commitment because they think they ought to do so." Three features are worth mentioning when considering the supposed common theoretical opinion for three mechanisms. To begin with, all the three components are hypothetical to reflect a “mental state” of an employee vis-à-vis the business, making Allen and Meyer (1990) to articulate of attitudinal forms of responsibility. Secondly, the three responsibility states are believed to communicate to the business, reflecting the view that organizational commitment is an approach with the company being the object. Finally, the three states could be simultaneously present in the business. Hence the conceptualization in terms of ‘components’(Allen & Meyer, 1990 p 1-18) and the idea that the resulting total organizational commitment should be a “net sum” of these three emotional states. In order to completely appreciate the concept of organizational responsibility, it is essential to internalize the motive of employees who are dedicated to their businesses. According to Meyer, Allen and Gellatly, there are three bases of organizational commitment through developing a multidimensional construct known as the Three-Component Model. Types of commitment include affective, continuance, as well as normative commitment (Meyer, Allen, & Smith 1993 p 538-551). Affective commitment involves emotional attachment to the business. Continuance commitment involves perceiving costs related to leaving an organization while normative commitment involves perceiving an obligation for staying put in a particular company (Meyer et al., 2001p 20-52). The first organizational commitment is Affective commitment. It refers to the employee’s emotional attachment, recognition and participation with the business. Affection to the business occurs when employees start to feel strong emotional attachments to their business, and their tasks in the business. It makes the employee identify with the organizations goals and values. Enjoyment of the work leads to a feel-good factor and job satisfaction. In turn, the increased job satisfaction leads to affective commitment. Affective committed employees want to stay more at their business. They identify with business goals, fit into them and feel valued. They act as their businesses ambassadors and are valuable assets for their businesses (Iverson, & Buttigieg, 1999 p 307-333). The second organizational commitment is Continuance commitment: it refers to the employee’s motive to carry on with the business, because leaving may be costlier, and he/she may not be able to afford to it. The employee weighs the pros and cons of leaving their current business. They may decide to stay in the business as leaving could lead to a loss that is greater than the benefit of the new part. Perceived loss are mostly monetary; that is a loss of salary and benefits; professional such as loosing the seniority and role-related skills acquired for many years; or social that include losing friendships and allies. For example, employees may fail to leave the business because of the loss of the seniority for promotion. The severity of "losses" increases with experience. The experience of Continuance commitment is through having a long established and successful role in an organization where the employee has had several promotions in that particular business. Having employees that are continuance committed is important for the business, however; it can lead to negative effects if they become dissatisfied and disengaged with work unwilling to depart the company. The third organizational commitment is normative commitment: it refers to the responsibility of employee’s moral obligation to stay with the business. Employees sense an obligation to their business. They may be unhappy in their role and may even want to seek new and challenging opportunities they think that they need to stick with their business, since it is the right thing to do (Meyer et al., 1991 p 61-89). Many factors affect Normative commitment. Firstly, employees may think that the company has heavily invested in them in terms of money and time inn training. Other reasons may include company rewards in advance that include funding of employee college tuition. The family can also be a factor in normative commitment as they may stress the person to be loyal to their business. Therefore, normative committed employees fear for the disastrous consequences to the business and have a sense of guilt on their possibility of leaving. They do not want to create a void in skills and knowledge in the company’s workforce skills, however; this may negatively influence the performance of these working employees in their companies (Porter et al., 1974, 603-609). Therefore, employee commitment determines the period employees stays in their companies. Organizations and specifically, the human resource managers should recognize the different types of responsibility within their employees so that they can develop strategies that encourage affective commitment. Positive results of "affective" organizational commitment The first case is job satisfaction, however; there may be mixed results of organizational commitment. Both early and more recent research summarizes do show support of a positive relationship between Affective organizational commitment and attractive results such as high performance, low turnover and low absenteeism. There is also an indication that effective employee commitment is associated to other desirable outcomes, such as an understanding of warm, supportive organizational climate and being and a goal team member willing to help Yet, as with satisfaction there are some studies that do not show strong relationships between commitment and outcome variables and other where there are moderating effects between organizational commitment and performance (Meyer, 2002 p 20-52). For example, a study shows that the affective commitment is positively related to job performance for employees with low monetary needs than with higher ones. More research findings show that the more tenure the employees had on the work and with the employer and the organization, the less impact their commitment had on performance. Another study also proofs that that the responsibility to supervisors was more strongly related to performance than was commitment to the organization. Therefore, these studies have indicated the complexity of attitude such as commitment. However, most researchers would concur that the organizational commitment approach as defined here may be a better forecaster of desirable variables than job satisfaction and thus deserves management’s attention. One significant positive result of affective commitment to the business is a reduction of employee turnover. Employees that are psychologically attached to the company and to their work find it very difficult to leave their current positions, and the business enjoys from retaining its skilled personnel. Today business environment is very competitive and, therefore; it is important to keep employees for the success of the company. Business views Employees as one of the most valuable assets and in particular the service-based businesses such as the hotel industry due to the repayment of delivering exceptional performances (Evans et al., 2003: 71). The hotel industry is labor-intensive and depends on good quality employees for delivery of quality services, operations and management of tourist products for competitive advantage and survival in the business. For a business, employees that have affective commitment provide service quality and excellence. They also make satisfied and loyal customers to the business as they have positive attitudes, performance as well as behavior. Therefore, Organizational support is a vital for organizational commitment and keeping employees in the company, since organizational support is a key factor in increasing job satisfaction and the organizational commitment of employees. On the other hand, organizational commitment as well as job satisfaction are equally important to customer satisfaction (Lam and Zhang, 2003). Service-oriented companies such as airlines and hotels recognize that satisfied and fully motivated can increased customer satisfaction as well as loyalty in the long term (Robbins & Judge, 2009: 123). Affective commitment by employees also has the result of positive public reputation for the company. Employees that evaluate their positions in the market compare the companies and trends in future job position with other companies and positions of similar stature (Kanaga and Browning, 2007). It is a mental process that affects perception on the company and their support. Affective commitment answers the questions that employees are getting what they expect from their companies and, therefore, the company offers support to its employees. This responsibility should that employees feel that they are highly important in the business. Affective commitment also results into high Expectations on the employee’s mind. They expect results such as being considered well by the company, gaining appreciation from the business as well as sharing common values with the company. Employees develop an expectation of supported by their company since they think relevant for their commitment and loyalty in the companies. The main result from the feeling of organizational value and appreciation is job satisfaction and attachment to the organisation. There are many studies showed indicating that affective commitment leads to organizational support and job satisfaction to the employees (Buchanan, 1974; Task and Cohen; 2001). Other studies have also demonstrated that organizational commitment has other positive results such as development of positive attitudes and employee behaviors, due to affective and normative commitment (Rhodes and Eisenberger, 2002). Affective commitment also results into high growth and development for both employee and the company. Skilled employees that are effectively committed to the company are strong preference innovation and from a high value of the company’s intellectual capital. They are dedicated more to their companies than their career and this result to improved organizational results. Overall, affective commitment leads to positive employee perceptions on the business and bringing positive organizational results. Antecedents of affective commitment Antecedents and outcomes on commitment are shown in the model by Mowday, Porter and Steer, 1982. Conceptually, affective organizational commitment has certain causes and effects. The antecedents of affective commitment can be classified as variable associated to the business and those related to the employee. Affective commitment has different effects on the business as well as to the employees. There are diverse research findings that have discovered a number of employee background experiences, as well as results of organizational commitment. Studies designed to ascertain the antecedents of affective business commitment have identified two sets of variables namely: Organizational and Personal (Steer, 1977 p 46-56). Organizational variables: There is focus and attention on discovering the association of organizational commitment and business related variables. The recognized business related variables include; Task identity, and work challenges. Other are feedback, task autonomy, job involvement and skill variety (Buchanan1974, steers, 1977). Organizational variables such as business structure features are also important. They include span of control, centralization, formalization and functional dependence (Stevens, Beyer and Trice 1978). Onother variable in the business is Interpersonal variables. It includes as team work and group attitudes (Steers 1977); business climate features such as decision making, communication, leadership, motivation and goal setting; Organizational process as participation in decision making; and Rewards (Rhodes and Steers 1981 p 1013-1035). Individual factors There are many factors that differ between different employees and different organizations. The variable relate to commitment to the business. Sufficient person-related variables have also been found to be connected to business commitment. Three frameworks are used in studying the relationship of organizational commitment with the individual variables. They are an investment, exchange and value notions. Investments notion denotes that the better the stake one has in the business, the better one is likely to be dedicated to the business. Investments will create affective commitment to the association, in spite of other attributes between the employee and the business (Sheldon 1971). Ther are other Variables studied under the investment idea and they include are age, tenure, education, marital status, number of dependants and gender (Porter et al., 1974). Another concept called exchange concept provides that employees with potential met have a great commitment to the business course. There are expectations that include the need for achievement, as well as personal importance (Cohen 1992, Steers, 1977 p 46-56). Value theory provides that high work ethics employees will always show high moral commitment. It competes includes aspects of Work values and professionalism. Value theory also argues that employees with affective dedication have their personal ethical objectives that drive their calculative commitment (Kidron 1988 p239-247). There are other individually related variables include; age, sex, marital status and professional educational. Career factors may include such as the selection, the years of employment, job tenure in the company as well as , number of working years in the present job. promotion, number of organizations employed before joining the present organization ans well as management level of one’s present position in the hierarchy is also important (Angle and Perry 1981). Overall, in antecedents and outcomes of organizational commitment, age and tenure in the company are positively related with affective commitment. Organizational employees lowly affectively committed choose to quit their business, during employees that are highly effectively committed stay in their companies for longer periods since they believe in the values and mission of the company. Personal features as well as perceptions on the role, work and the organization itself are important in influencing organizational responsibility and leading to desirable organizational results. In conclusion, organizational commitment is based on employee behavior. It is essential to determine what drives the behaviors. Firstly the behaviors are exhibited due to employees’ personality and or things in their disposition. Organizations that ascribe to this view spend most of their time and energy looking to hire "dedicated" employees. While it can be argued that individual differences (dispositions) are influential in determining employee’s organizational commitment levels, it is important to consider that employees are only "dedicated" to the business if there is a stable and positive interaction and relationship with the business for maximum "dedicated" into the business. Therefore, the view also provides that responsibility is a result of carefully designed strategies in human resource that become efficient and effective over time for the relationships between employees and the organization and establishment of organizational commitment. References Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. 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