Implementation of organisational identification - Essay Example

?Implications of organisational identification Table of contents Introduction Literature review 2 Organizational identification and organizational commitment 2 Organizational identification and turnover intention 3 Organizational identification and identification with work group and profession. 5 Organizational identification and corporate social responsiveness 6 Analysis 7 Conclusion 8 References 10 Introduction Organizational identification is, according to Gemmiti (2008, 6), “an individual’s knowledge of belonging or membership to a group of members of the organization.” This knowledge of belonging to a particular organization is heavily based on emotions and has a great influence on an individual’s behavior. The identification comes with an employee’s understanding and realizing of how their personal goals and values are aligned with the goals and values of the organization. Finally, as such goals, norms and values are aligned, the employee adds that group membership to their overall self-concept (Meyer, Becker, and Van Dick 2006). Therefore, it can be said that organizational identification refers to whether an employee associates themselves with the organization in which they work and whether an employee views themselves as a part of the organization. According to Van Dick, Grojean, Christ, and Wieseke (2006), the concept of social identity can help to determine how organizational identification is related to organizational citizenship (Van Dick, Grojean, Christ, and Wieseke 2006). The two concepts, according to the researchers (Van Dick, Grojean, Christ, and Wieseke 2006), are positively related because individuals’ self-concepts are formed on the basis of belonging to certain organization. The stronger the feeling of belonging is, the more effort a person is willing to devote to the development of that organization. Therefore, in an organization, the more organizational goals and norms are in line with those of the individual, the more devoted that individual is to the organization. So, organizational commitment is also related to organizational identification. Organizational commitment is very important for employers because it determines the level of employee performance, job satisfaction, absenteeism and other productivity-related factors. This paper critically examines the concept of organizational identification, and analyzes how it is related to organizational performance, individual performance, job satisfaction and productivity. Literature review Organizational identification and organizational commitment An empirical study conducted by He and Mukherjee (2008) examined how organizational identification was related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The research was conducted with Chinese salespeople and showed that organizational identification represents a link between job satisfaction and job commitment. Job satisfaction was divided by the researchers into intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic job satisfaction referred to how employees viewed their particular jobs. Extrinsic job satisfaction included employee’s satisfaction by their working conditions, such as pay, environment, and management. The two different types of job satisfaction related differently to both organizational identification and organizational commitment. In particular, as He and Mukherjee (2008, 2) outline, ”extrinsically motivated job satisfaction has a stronger relationship with organisational identification than intrinsically motivated job satisfaction.” The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire was used by the researchers to measure job satisfaction. An Organisational Commitment Questionnaire was used for measuring organizational commitment. Finally, an Organizational identification measure designed by Ashforth and Mael (1992) was used to measure organizational identification of 438 Chinese salespeople representing real estate industry. The results showed that extrinsic job satisfaction had a positive influence on organizational identification, while intrinsic job satisfaction had very little effect on organizational identification. Organizational identification was shown to have a great impact on normative and continuance commitment (He and Mukherjee 2008). At the same time, it showed no influence on affective commitment. In general, the research results show that organizational identification serves as a link between organizational commitment and job satisfaction (ibid). However, as the researchers admit, this study presents reliable results for the sales management field only as results in other areas may differ. Furthermore, the study was conducted in China, so it is possible that results would be different in other cultural settings. Western cultures are very different, so the relationship between organizational identification and job commitment may show change. Organizational identification and turnover intention In 2006 Cole and Bruch conducted a study to determine the major differences between organization identity, organizational identification and organizational commitment in relation to employee turnover. 10,948 employees at a steel manufacturing company participated in the research. The results suggest that hierarchical levels of employees did not influence their constructs of organizational identity, organizational identification and organizational commitment (Cole and Bruch 2006). However, turnover intention of managers and regular employees were shown to be different (ibid). Therefore, the researchers conclude that “perceptions of a strong organizational identity, organizational identi?cation, and organizational commitment may in?uence employees’ turnover intention in unique ways, depending on their hierarchical level within the organization” (Cole and Bruch 2006, 585). While the study was based on a relatively large sample population, it should be remembered that the research was conducted in Asia, just like that of He and Mukherjee (2008), so the results for Western countries may differ due to differences in cultures. In addition, as the researchers suggest, though the study has shown that organizational identity, identi?cation and commitment have an influence on turnover intention, such intention depends on particular employee’s hierarchical level in the organization (He and Mukherjee 2008). So, additional research is needed to clarify the psychological processes that influence employees’ turnover intention since the link between organizational identification and turnover intention seems to be rather blurry. It should also be remembered that turnover intention may depend on organizational commitment, job satisfaction, motivation and many other factors. All of them are not so easy to measure. Furthermore, turnover intention may result from a combination of organizational identification, job commitment and satisfaction. Therefore, it is difficult to identify a direct link between organizational identification and turnover intention. Organizational identification and identification with work group and profession. The study conducted by Pate, Blaumont and Pryce in 2009 was based on the need to identify how employees rethink their relationships with employers in terms of commitment, loyalty and organizational identification. The researchers noticed that psychological contract that entails employees’ being loyal and committed in exchange to job security and development, was gradually becoming less efficient, as people’s relationships with employers were becoming less affective with time (Cappelli 1997). The study was conducted on the basis of a large British public sector organization with more than a thousand employees, many of whom were knowledge workers. The results showed that organizational identity has a positive relation to work group and profession identities – their levels fluctuate synchronously. The researchers also found out that there is no relation between strength of identity and employee’s level in the organization (Pate, Blaumont, and Pryce 2009). However, this study had certain limitations. First of all, all the participants were from one organization that had a very distinct mission and structure. Employees had different promotion opportunities within the company, so there was less competition as is the case in many commercial organizations. This may have contributed to the finding that strength of organizational identity is not influenced by the person’s level in the organization (Pate, Blaumont, and Pryce 2009). This result is different from that of Cole and Bruch (2006), who claimed that there is no direct relation between organizational identification and hierarchical levels of employees. Hierarchical levels, however, do have an influence on people’s perceptions of organizational identity, organizational identi?cation, and organizational commitment (Cole and Bruch 2006). Organizational identification and corporate social responsiveness Much of the literature suggests that organizational identification is strongly related to corporate social responsiveness. In particular, Black (2005) presents qualitative evidence proving that identity has a great influence on corporate social responsiveness which, in turn, has a great influence on organizational identification. Two Australian companies participated in the study. They were Westpac Banking Corporation and BHP Billiton (BHP). In the 1990s both companies faced a crisis. Due to financial constraints both organizations stopped supporting social and environmental development projects. As a result, the public claimed the businesses were behaving unethically (Black 2005). Black suggested that the problems of low social responsiveness were caused by the fact that companies’ management chose to cooperate with internal stakeholders. This showed that their organizational identification was low (Black 2005). Having realized their mistakes the companies had to rethink their identities and strategies. As a result, both organizations determined and clarified their identities and re-shaped their strategies accordingly. New social responsibility programmes became the basis for strengthening the organizational identification of the employees (Black 2005, 4). So, on the basis of qualitative evidence Black concludes that organizational identity has a direct impact on corporate social responsiveness and that corporate social responsiveness is strongly and positively related to organisational identification (Black 2005, 5). Therefore, well-designed organizational identity impacts on corporate social responsiveness which, in its turn, influences organisational identification through increased self-esteem of employees and their values’ being aligned with those of the organization. Analysis As the above discussion suggests, organization identification is an important topic since it is related to such aspects of organizational behaviour, employee productivity, job satisfaction, corporate citizenship, and turnover intent. All of these aspects have an influence on organizational productivity and, consequently, the effectiveness and success of the organization. For that reason the significance of organizational identification should not be underestimated. Though scientific studies present multiple suggestions and sometimes controversial data – more research should be conducted in this area, because it can still be concluded that organizational identification has a great influence on employees’ job commitment and transforms, in some sense, organizational commitment into job satisfaction (He and Mukherjee 2008). Furthermore, organizational identi?cation and organizational commitment have some influence on employees’ turnover intention (Cole and Bruch 2006), organizational commitment and loyalty (Pate, Blaumont, and Pryce 2009). Since organizational identification takes place when employee’s self-perception is actively related to organization’s identity (Elsbach 1999), and considering how important organizational identification is for a company, it is recommended that organizations devote more attention and effort into building strong organizational identities that will result in stronger organizational identification (Black 2005). Time and effort invested into strengthening organizational identification will result in improved organizational performance (Kramer 1993,) since employees’ levels of commitment, satisfaction and cooperation will increase. As such, organizational identification can even become a competitive advantage of an organization. This will entail company’s developing a strong organizational identity that will support corporate social responsiveness, corporate citizenship behaviour and, finally, organizational identification. Strong organizational identification is beneficial for any organization because it leads to employees’ taking favourable for the company decisions. Loyal employees act in the company’s interests since their decisions and actions are aligned with the goals and values of the organization. As a result, their decision-making processes are guided by the organisation’s values and goals (Schrodt 2002). So, it can be recommended that organizations enhance the levels of employees’ organizational identification with the help of strong organizational identity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. Both organizational identity and CSR initiatives tend to improve employees’ perception of the organization and of their own roles in those organizations. As a result, the company will enjoy better employee performance, lower turnover rates, and higher overall productivity of the organization. Conclusion This paper has critically reviewed the concept and importance of organizational identification, as well as presented an analysis of how organizational identification is related to organizational performance, individual performance, job satisfaction and productivity. It has shown that organizational identification has a great value to organizations, because it determines how productive individual employees and the whole organization are. Furthermore, organizational identification is strongly and positively related to organization’s identity and corporate social responsiveness. As for job satisfaction, commitment and motivation, additional research should be conducted in order to clearly determine the relationship between employees’ performance and organizational identification. While existing studies suggest that satisfaction, commitment and motivation are positively influenced by organizational identification, it is not clear whether this relationship will work in all of the organizational and cultural settings. In addition, there are a number of variables, such as employees’ age, social status, and number of years working for a particular company, that have not been taken into account in the studies examined in this paper. However, such variable may affect employees’ organizational identification. It can be concluded that the goal of the assignment has been achieved effectively – the paper has presented the concept of organizational identification and its implications in relation to employees’ performance, job satisfaction and productivity, as well as to overall organizational performance. Strengths and weaknesses of some existing studies have been identified and recommendations for organizations have been drawn upon the literature analysis. 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