Employee Commitment in the Organization - Literature review Example

Employee Commitment in the Organization EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT IN THE ORGANIZATION Introduction Management plays a critical role in ensuring the effective functioning of the organisation, which is highly dependent on the commitment of employees to the firm and the ability of management to encourage this commitment. There are various ways to define employee commitment with Klein et al (2014: p15) noting that, generally, commitment is a psychological bond tying employees to their workplace through the processes of internalisation, identification, and/or compliance. Meyer et al (2012: p5) similarly propose a model of employee commitment composed of three main components, with are affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment. Findings from these researchers both point to the increased importance of employee commitment to the organisation, especially as competition for talent increases across multiple sectors. Indeed, several studies show the dramatic impact that employee commitment has on organisational performance with Klein et al (2014: p16), for instance, noting that the committed employee identifies more with the firm’s values and goals, leading to a greater will to be part of the firm and display enhanced organisational citizenship behaviour. This paper seeks to explore the management styles, practices, and policies that organisations wishing to encourage commitment would use, as well as the benefits of encouraging employee commitment to the organisation. Encouraging Commitment through Management Styles, Practices, and Policies If an organisation that regards its human resource function as its greatest asset, it follows that a committed workforce would be its biggest competitive advantage. Wallace et al (2013: p167) note that the role of ensuring a committed workforce lies with the organisation’s management and its choice of management style, organisational practice, and organisational policy. One style of management that specifically seeks to encourage employee commitment to the organisation is participatory or participative management, which actively encourages employee involvement in decision making, as well as in problem analysis, strategy development, and implementation of identified solutions. By inviting the employees to take part in setting goals, making suggestions, and determination of their work schedules, employees are more likely to identify with the organisation. The participatory management style also enables job enrichment through additional employee responsibility and solicitation of employee feedback, which, in turn, enhances the employee’s bond to the organisation (Wallace et al, 2013: p167). In its most extreme form, participatory management encourages employee commitment by enabling direct ownership of the organisation by employees. The commitment-based approach of HR is best achieved, according to Angelis et al (2011: p572), when strategic human resource management is progressively implemented. Commitment-basis management style helps to shape the attitudes and behaviours of employees, specifically through creation of an environment that allows high involvement of employees in accomplishing the organisational vision and goals. Using this management style helps to increase productivity and effectiveness, relying on conditions that encourage employee identification with organisational goals and their fulfilment. The primary goal of the pacesetting management style, for example, is to complete tasks and projects to high excellence standards, which enhances the employee’s attachment to the organisation. This is achieved because the manager performs most of the tasks in person, leading by example and motivating the staff by setting high performance standards and allowing employee self-direction (Angelis et al, 2011: p573). This management style is specifically effective in improving commitment if the employees are already highly competent and motivated, while needing only minimal coordination or direction. However, where the organisation’s employees are motivated but need skill development, the coaching management style may be used to encourage employee commitment. The main objective of this management style is to enhance the employees’ long term professional development. In this case, employees could form stronger attachments with the organisation as they are motivated by the professional development opportunities to improve their performance and develop their strengths, thus increasing chances of employee retention (Angelis et al, 2011: p573). Finally, in diverse organisations where there is a high possibility of conflict, the affiliative management style could help encourage employee commitment. Since the main objective of this style is to enhance harmony among diverse employees, as well as between the employees and the management, the resulting emphasis on good personal relationships creates a feeling of togetherness. An affiliative manager may provide office amenities, fringe benefits and job security to keep the employees satisfied, in turn strengthening their bonds to the organisation (Angelis et al, 2011: p574). In relation to workplace management policies that organisations may use to encourage employee commitment, Su and Wright (2012: p2070) note that employee commitment is strongly associated with the outcomes that are valued most by the organisation. Therefore, organisations should implement policies that enhance employee commitment, both in the short term and the long term. One of the short term policies that organisations seeking to encourage employee commitment can implement is ensuring the treatment of employees with consideration and respect, which makes them feel appreciated and valued. In addition, organisations may also implement customer-oriented policies because its employees are more likely to identify with organisations that show respect to them along with its customers. Moreover, management policies that clearly define the responsibilities and duties of individual employees through precise communication by management to employees on outcome expectations and what is to be done gives employees a sense of ownership and commitment to the organisation (Su & Wright, 2012: p2070). Another short term policy involves organisations actively designing stimulating tasks and projects, which could allow the employee to utilize their talents, judgment, professional knowledge, and skills (Su & Wright, 2012: p2070). This, in turn, offers employee autonomy and job enrichment that contribute substantially to enhanced employee commitment. Finally, short term policies aimed at providing quality information about the activities and plans of the organisation to employees also encourage employee commitment. Such a policy is especially essential for organisations that are undergoing change or crisis because the employees may feel uncertain and unsure about their future at the organisation. On the other hand, organisations seeking to encourage employee commitment may also pursue long-term policies through HR policies that will be valid for a longer time period. For example, the organisation may implement recruitment and selection policies that identify desirable commitments in the employees, such as ensuring that employees know about the negative and positive aspects of the job prior to accepting it (Bergmann et al, 2011: p124). Such a policy would ensure that employees are able to determine whether they can commit to specific roles and tasks required in the job. Long-term policies that enhance training and socialisation of employees also provide opportunities for organisations to encourage commitment, specifically by ensuring that all employees feel that the environment is supportive. Training policies that focus on professional development may lead employees to perceive the organisation’s value for their efforts as individuals, thus creating a stronger sense of affective commitment (Bergmann et al, 2011: p125). Moreover, training policies that identify the types of skills that employees must learn also lead to continuance commitment, specifically since they ensure that the employee possesses skills that are only valuable to the particular organisation. In addition, long-term policies that set out promotion and assessment criteria may help to improve the employee’s perception of fairness in the promotion and assessment proves, in turn improving their affective commitment where the employee feels they want to be part of the organisation. Finally, policies that set out benefits and compensation for employees over the long term also help organisations encourage employee commitment. Where the benefits and compensation are viewed from a purely financial perspective, employees may feel the need to be attached to the firm, while employees’ perception of these rewards as fair may increase affective commitment (Bergmann et al, 2011: p125). Finally, organisations seeking to encourage employee commitment may also implement specific HR practices, one of which is the provision of career development opportunities. Strategic ways for increasing commitment, especially for top talent, is by enabling them to have cross-functional work related and job-for-job satisfaction (Bergmann et al, 2011: p126). Generally, employees are more committed if they are offered independence, career development, and work experience. These practices allow employees to visualize a clearer career path within the present organisation, increasing their commitment. In addition, practices that provides great opportunities for career development, such as adding content to employee tasks and creation of a social workplace environment increases employee satisfaction and subsequent commitment. Another practice that may encourage employee commitment involves the implementation of effective talent management strategies. Talent management and employee retention practices contribute significantly to effective recruitment, employee engagement, and employee retention. This, in turn, creates a positive employer brand, which enhances affective and continuance commitment. Finally, practices that enhance work-life balance and provide emotional support to employees encourage employee commitment and retention in the relevant organisations (Bergmann et al, 2011: p126). Some of these practices include flexible working arrangements and hours, presence of workplace role models, norms for working hours, and effective talent recruitment and training. Organisational Benefits of Encouraging Employee Commitment As part of the workplace-related attitudes concepts alongside job involvement and job satisfaction, employee commitment has continued to attract significant attention from organisational researchers and academics. Defined generally, employee commitment refers to a form of attachment and loyalty to the organisation, differing from job involvement and job satisfaction because it relates to the employee’s individual attitude to the entire organisation, rather than their department, job, or career (Meyer et al, 2012: p9). Within the organisational context, employee commitment is developed through three distinct processes that portended incremental benefits for the firm, which are compliance, identification, and internalisation. During the compliance stage of employee commitment development, the employees begin to recognise other workmates and their influence since they expect to get something tangible from them. The influence stage, on the other hand, sees the employee accept this influence to maintain a self-defining, satisfying relationship. Finally, the employee identifies the organisation’s values as congruent with their personal values, which entails internalisation. As the employees go through the three stages, their motives come into alignment with the motives of the organisation, thus providing for a high-performance organisation (Meyer et al, 2012: p9). Employee commitment is important to organisations because there is a higher likelihood that committed workers will not be absent often, while they also perform better. While evidence does not lend clear support to these expectations and beliefs of the employer, including the influence of commitment on performance, Farndale et al (2011: p118) find that the strongest commitment behavioural outcome is a reduction in turnover of employees. There are several hypothesised antecedents of employee commitment, including work experiences, personal characteristics, and structural-organisational characteristics. In general, it may be argued that organisations with a highly committed staff are able to attain improved competitive performance. Indeed, employees that are highly committed to their organisation also tend to exert more effort in completing their tasks and projects. Moreover, employees with high levels of commitment are also more likely to want to stay associated with a particular organisation, which means that they are less likely to look for alternative employment. To the organisation, the highest form of employee commitment is employee retention, specifically because it ensures continuity and enhanced performance (Farndale et al, 2011: p118). Therefore, there is a significant association between the extent of commitment by employees and job tenure. This positive association also ensures a positive return on investment in employee recruitment, training, and development. Still, Maltin et al (2012: p26) notes that low turnover of working staff is not always good for the organisation, especially when the organisation is undergoing crisis and change, in which case the organisation may need new ideas, new staff, and diverse thinking. In such a case, the organisation may choose to only keep the most committed employees to help incoming employees settle in and buy into the organisation’s vision and values. There is a further positive correlation between affective employee commitment and average work attendance. Particularly, highly committed employees are less likely to be absent from work under ‘suspicious circumstances’ since they are more motivated and eager about their job and dedicate effort and time to accomplish required tasks (Maltin et al, 2012: p26). In turn, this benefits the organisation by increasing employee productivity, while also reducing lost man-hours and costs of delayed project timelines. Organisations also benefit from higher employee commitment because it improves in-role job performance, especially where affective commitment is concerned. In this case, the underlying presumption is that a highly committed employee tends to work harder in accomplishing their tasks compared to employees with weaker organisational commitment (Gavino, 2012: p672). Such assumptions are further supported by the positive association between work-related effort and organisational policy adherence. Therefore, an organisation may seek to enhance employee commitment in order to ensure that employees are motivated to adhere to the policies and goals of the organization, as well as to increase their effort in accomplishing these goals. Organisations may also benefit from employee commitment, especially affective and continuance commitment, through improved extra-role behaviour among the employees. In this case, employees with high organisational commitment are more likely to take part in citizenship behaviour, especially in comparison to organisations with weak employee commitment (Gavino, 2012: p672). Organisations may also expect highly committed employees to exercise self-control or responsible autonomy, which removes the need for supervisory staff and subsequent efficiency gains. Moreover, organisations may seek to encourage employee commitment because such employees enable the firm to move towards employee contracts and away from the traditional ‘fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay’ psychological contract (McClean & Collins, 2011: p352). Contracts ensure that employees are able to motivate themselves towards putting in more effort in completing tasks and projects, which provides the organisation with a competitive advantage in the service sector. By encouraging strong employee commitment, the organisation can also provide employees with an environment of positivity through a structured compensation and promotion policy that also has implications for reduced employee stress levels and increased productivity. Organisations may also encourage commitment in order to quality service delivery, specifically because organisational commitment strategies reduce role ambiguity and improve teamwork, which are antecedents in enhancing service delivery (McClean & Collins, 2011: p353). The organisation may also wish to encourage employee commitment because it increases employee enthusiasm about tasks and projects involved in their jobs, which, in turn, improve the employees’ efficiency, effectiveness, and work productivity. Committed employees also show significant more interest in their roles and responsibilities as compared to weakly committed employees, which means that they enjoy their work more and are more satisfied with their work environment. Hill (2012: p760) writes that employee satisfaction is positively correlated to employee commitment and, therefore, organisational commitment ultimately leads to talent retention. As a result, employee commitment saves organisational costs related to recruiting and hiring new employees due to high employee turnover. Moreover, highly committed employees are also highly motivated, which means that the organisation may not have to keep increasing financial compensations and rewards for the employees’ work. However, this does not necessarily indicate that employees should not be rewarded financially (Hill, 2012: p760). Instead, the organisation’s expenses may decrease as employees move up the aforementioned three stages of commitment. Performance benefits are perhaps the biggest reason why organisations encourage employee commitment. Some of these benefits include increased total shareholder returns, increased performance in the workplace, increased satisfaction with the job, decreased turnover of employees, and increased sales (Klein et al, 2012: p144). Additional benefits include decreased workplace absenteeism, as well as decreased employee intentions to look for alternative employment. As a result, organisational commitment must be considered as a necessity in all business operations. If an organisation has problems replacing and retaining competent employees, it will be more difficult to optimise their performance. Not only does a new recruitment process portend immediate expenses for the organisation, but it also costs the organisation in terms of lost productivity and management time as new employees acclimatise to their new work environment. Therefore, organisations encourage commitment because it leads to self-initiative and self-direction by employees in completing their tasks, nominal supervision, regular attendance, increased workplace-related effort, and increased loyalty (Klein et al, 2012: p144). On the other hand, organisations that fail to encourage employee commitment may suffer several negative outcomes. For instance, low employee commitment may undermine the normal organisational functioning and considerably decrease work effectiveness (Kinnie & Swart, 2012: p25). In addition, low levels of employee commitment affects other employees in their tasks, especially in teamwork, while also leading to overall deterioration of the organisation’s performance. Weakly committed employees also have lower interest in their roles and responsibilities, which may lead them to working worse than they would otherwise have worked. Consequently, low commitment decreases employee and organisational productivity and effectiveness, specifically since the employees have little interest in their duties and their outcomes (Kinnie & Swart, 2012: p25). As a result, organisations seek to increase employee commitment in order to help its employee’s impact positively on the firm’s performance. Conclusion In conclusion, this paper has identified the importance of encouraging employee commitment for organisations. To begin with, organisations seeking to encourage employee commitment should use selected management styles, such as participatory, affiliative, coaching, and pacesetting styles, which increase employee motivation and satisfaction depending on the type of organisation. There are also practices and policies that such organisations may implement, such as compensation and promotions, investing in training and development, and organisation-specific recruitment and selection practices, which increase employee commitment. Organisations may also seek to encourage employee commitment for various reasons, including performance benefits, lower employee turnover, and increased employee productivity, among others. References Angelis, J., Conti, R., Cooper, C., & Gill, C. (2011). Building a high-commitment lean culture. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 22(5), 569-586 Bergmann, T. J., Lester, S. W., De Meuse, K. P., & Grahn, J. L. (2011). Integrating the three domains of employee commitment: An exploratory study. Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR), 16(4), 122-129 Farndale, E., Van Ruiten, J., Kelliher, C., & Hope‐Hailey, V. (2011). The influence of perceived employee voice on organizational commitment: An exchange perspective. 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The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(10), 2065-2086 Wallace, E., de Chernatony, L., & Buil, I. (2013). Building bank brands: How leadership behaviour influences employee commitment. Journal of Business Research, 66(2), 165-171 Read More