A key Aspect of the Management - Term Paper Example

 «A key Aspect of the Management» 1. Introduction The development of organizational activities worldwide is highly depended on the employees’ willingness to participate in the relevant projects. In fact, it seems that the role of employees in the achievement of organizational goals is critical; however, the involvement of employees in the schemes initiated by their organizations is not standardized nor guaranteed. Employee commitment is a term used in order to express the engagement of employees to the realization of their organization’s plans. Despite its importance for the success of organizational projects, employee commitment is not adequately supported – referring mostly to the teams that manage the organizations’ strategic plans. The role of management in securing employee commitment to the organization is explored in this paper. Because of the complexity and the importance of issue under examination, the structure of the paper has been based on specific principles: a) a critical approach has been used for analyzing the material retrieved through the research developed on the particular issue, b) a generic to specific approach has been also used – the general aspects of the issue under examination are identified and analyzed; then, emphasis is given to the various aspects of the study’s subject, c) each of the paper’s sections is autonomous – in terms of its structure and content; however, appropriate text has been used in linking the paper’s sections aiming to support the paper’s integration. Under these terms, the paper is divided into three major parts: the introduction, the main body and the conclusion. In the introduction an overview on the subject is provided – the scope/ reasoning of the paper is also presented; moreover, the structure of the paper is explained justifying the structure/ content of the following sections. The main body has been divided into four major parts, as follows: a) in the first section the concept of commitment is explained, b) the definition and the characteristics of employee commitment are provided in section two of the paper’s main body, c) the factors that influence employee commitment are presented and analyzed aiming to explain why the role of management in securing employee commitment (as follows in section d) is highlighted. Employee commitment is a key requirement for the success of organizational plans; despite the fact that the above concept has been explored in the literature, not all its aspects have been made clear. In fact, the research developed for this paper revealed that little emphasis has been given to the role of management in securing employee commitment to the organization. Under these terms, this paper aims to contribute in the understanding of the relationship between management and employee commitment especially in regard to the form and the value of the support provided by the former to the latter. 2. Management and employee commitment to the organization 2.1 The framework of commitment Employee commitment to the organization is of critical importance for organizations in all industrial sectors; thus, the identification of the elements and the requirements of organizational commitment should be carefully developed setting specific criteria: a) organizational commitment is not only related with the organization; it also reflects the personal perceptions and experiences of employees as individuals, b) organizational commitment is likely to be differentiated in organizations worldwide under the influence of organizational culture; the quality of employee relationships in each organization is also likely to affect employee commitment – either in the short or the long term, c) organizational commitment is not standardized – in terms of its level and quality; it can be improved through appropriate intervention schemes; it is at this point that the role of organization’s management team becomes important – along with the willingness of employees to participate in their organization’s initiatives. The interaction of employee commitment with the organizational environment is analytically explained below – referring to the theories developed in the particular field. As for the interaction of employee commitment with the employees’ personal experiences and perceptions, this would be better understood by referring to the concept of ‘commitment’ as an aspect of human behaviour. The term commitment is likely to be used in order to show the engagement of an individual to a particular activity or social group. In accordance with Gemmiti (2008, p.5) ‘commitment describes the attachment a person has to a target’; through a similar approach, Jones (1999) notes that ‘commitment has to do with the consistent pursuit of a line of action over the long run’ (Jones, 1999, p. 126). An important issue highlighted by Jones (1999) is the fact that the definition of commitment is likely to be highly differentiated in accordance with the conditions (personal, social, economic or political) to which the specific term refers. In order to indicate the different aspects of commitment, Jones (1999) refers to the three forms of commitment described by Johnson (1991): the ‘personal, moral and structural commitment’ (Jones, 1999, p.126). Within the organization, the framework of commitment will be further changed – responding to the characteristics of the organizational environment – in the context described below. 2.2 Employee commitment, definition and characteristics The forms of commitment within organizations can be differentiated; however, its key elements remain the same; commitment in organizations reflects the willingness of employees to respond to the needs of their role within their organization. In the empirical research, the commitment of employees to their organization has been distinguished by the employees’ commitment to their client organization (or else to the customers); moreover, it has been proved that the level of the employees’ commitment to their organization can be the basis for evaluating the potential level of the employees’ commitment to their client organization (Coyle-Shapiro et al., 2006, p.416); it is made clear that the effects of employee commitment can be important for the development of organizational activities. Therefore, it would be important for the specific concept to be explored and analyzed. The understanding of the aspects and the role of employee commitment requires the presentation of its definition; at the next level, its elements and forms can be identified and evaluated. Mullins (2008) defines employee commitment as ‘an individual’s psychological bond to the organization’ (Mullins, 2008, p.499). On the other hand, Purcell (2008) views employee commitment as the response of employees to their organization’s human resources policies (Purcell, 2008, p.17). Moreover, Martocchio (2008) noted that employee commitment is related with the set of organization’s benefits as priority (Martocchio, 2008, p.105); other aspects of employees’ behaviour within their organization have been also interpreted by Martocchio (2008) as employee commitment – for example, the lack of opportunism, the lack of empathy and so on (Martocchio, 2008, p. 104-105). In the literature, the aspects of employee commitment have been thoroughly examined setting the terms under which employee commitment can be effectively monitored and supported by the management team. In accordance with Vandenberghe et al. (2007) employee commitment can have two different forms: organizational commitment and client commitment; each of these forms is independent – meaning that the existence of one of them does not require or conclude the existence of the other. Moreover, the effects of these forms of commitment can be differentiated; through the study of Vandenberghe et al. (2007) it was proved that ‘contrary to affective organizational commitment, affective commitment to customers enhanced service quality’ (Vandenberghe et al., 2007, p. 1177). Atak et al. (2010) use a different approach on employee commitment to the organization; the above researchers suggest that organizational commitment can have three different forms: it can be ‘an emotional, normative or continuation commitment’ (Atak et al., 2010, 3472); at the next level, it is noted that the organizational commitment - as described above – can interact with the learning organization. The relationship between the learning organization and the organizational commitment leads to the following assumption: employees with high organizational commitment should be preferred compared to employees who are not likely to be committed to the organization; the highly-committed employees are further expected to understand easier the organizational goals and visions and support more effectively the various organizational plans. The characteristics of employee commitment are likely to be differentiated among organizations with different culture, structure and goals. If the management team of a particular organization wishes to support employee commitment it has to identify the characteristics of employee commitment – as formulated within the specific organization; the factors that are likely to influence employee commitment – as described below – should be also taken into consideration. 2.3 Factors that influence employee commitment to the organization The development of employee commitment within modern organizations seems to be related with various events and conditions; an indicative example of the above fact is presented by Kuvaas (2003) who tried to identify the potential relationship between ‘the preferences of employees regarding an ongoing share ownership plan and their organizational commitment’ (Kuvaas, 2003, p. 193); their research led to the conclusion that ownership can affect employee commitment but the level of this interaction is depended on the personal perceptions of employees on ownership. A critical factor in regard to the employee commitment to the organization seems to be the employees’ well-being; the specific view is supported by Meyer et al. (2010) and is based on the following theories: ‘the three-component model of commitment (Meyer and Allen, 1997) and the self determination theory of motivation (Deci and Ryan, 1985)’ (Meyer et al., 2010, p. 323); it is not clearly explained thought whether the concept of well-being – as a factor influencing employee commitment to the organization - is more related with the employees’ personal life or with their professional life (conditions in the workplace); it is assumed that both these aspects of employees’ life are likely to influence their well-being in the workplace and to affect their commitment to the organization. One of the key issues when evaluating the employee commitment to the organization is to examine whether the working conditions in the particular conditions actually support organizational commitment. 2.4 The role of management in securing employee commitment to the organization Management practices can influence organizational commitment. This influence can have many different aspects – in accordance with the organizational culture, the employment relationship but also the social and cultural ethics of the organization’s external environment. Since employees are members of the society surrounding their organization they would be influenced by this society’s culture and ethics. Herriot (2001) noted that the decisions and the practices of managers could affect organizational commitment at the following point: when specific plans or projects are introduced in a particular organization, the managers need to provide to employees the necessary support in order for them to participate to these schemes ‘wholeheartedly’ (Herriot, 2001, p.91); however, in most organizations managers do not follow such practices; on the contrary, they are more likely to ask employees to participate in the realization of organizational plans without paying attention to the employees’ needs and views – rather, they ignore employees even if the latter have a crucial role in the success of organizational strategies. Through the above practice, the management team of an organization can cause the elimination or just the limitation of employee commitment across the specific organization. A similar issue is highlighted in the study of Farnham et al. (2005). In the above study, it is noted that recognition and psychological support would be more effective means for employers in order to enhance employee commitment across their organization – a comparison is made with the financial rewards given to employees for their performance (Farnham et al., 2005, p.62). Gennard et al. (2005) also emphasized on the importance of management team in the development of employee commitment; in accordance with the above researchers, ‘employee participation and involvement initiatives’ (Gennard et al., 2005, p.210) are the most common practices used by managers in order to ensure employee commitment; however, these practices are characterized by Gennard et al. (2005) as inadequate and not particularly effective. Additional policies, like the increase of funding on employee training are available to managers who aim to support employee commitment in their organization. In any case, time should be allocated for briefing and meetings – exchange of information and provision of necessary guidelines to employees in regard to various organizational activities (Gennard et al., 2005, p. 210). In order to identify the role of management team in securing the employee commitment it would be necessary to understand the nature of employee commitment; in accordance with Morgan (2006) the enforcement of employment commitment would be one of the policies used by managers in order to respond to the employees’ needs – in fact, Morgan set the ‘encouragement of employment commitment’ (Morgan, 2006, p. 39) at the top of the relevant hierarchy – as this hierarchy can be produced using the Maslow’s theory on the hierarchy of needs; in this case, the support of employee commitment would be included in the ‘self-actualizing’ part of the hierarchy – highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model. The power of management team to influence the employee commitment has been explained by Braverman (1974) using a different approach: in accordance with Braverman (1974) one of the key characteristics of the industrialized societies is ‘the progressive elimination of the control function of the worker and their transfer to a device which is controlled again by management from outside the direct process’ (Braverman, 1974, p. 212). In other words, employees lose their power to influence the progress of production; rather, they are set under the control of management teams that are not aware of organizational culture – they only have specific targets to achieve – usually referring to the increase of organizational profitability. Thompson and McHugh (2009) support a similar view; the above researchers note that employees are not actually treated as individuals having a crucial role in the development of organizational activities; rather they are obliged to reach a high performance without being fairly rewarded; the above practice has led to ‘the transfer of risk from capital to labour’ (Thompson and McHugh, 2009) – an approach which is similar with the Marxist theories on capital and labour. Employee commitment cannot be developed within such organizational conditions. It is clear that existing managerial practices should be reviewed and updated ensuring that employees are treated appropriately – in accordance with their role and their performance within their organization. 3. Conclusion The examination of the various aspects of employee commitment has led to a series of important findings: a) employee commitment is highly depended on managerial decisions and practices, b) managers in organizations worldwide are not always capable of identifying the ways through which employee commitment could be effectively supported, c) one of the key reasons for the limitation of support provided to employees in regard to employee commitment is the underestimation or the ignorance of the needs of employees at various levels of the organizational hierarchy, d) the tools and the practices available to managers for the support of employee commitment are likely to be differentiated in organizations operating in different social, political and economic conditions; thus, employee commitment is expected to have different forms in markets internationally. In any case, the increase of employee commitment can be achieved by developing an objective – meaning ‘fair’ – view on employees’ position in the organization; the Marxist views on labour and capital would be still valuable in explaining the failures of managers to enforce employee commitment across their organizations. Bibliography Allen, N., Grisaffe, D. (2001) Employee commitment to the organization and customer reactions: mapping the linkages. Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 11 No. 3 pp 209-236 Atak, M., Ertugut, R. (2010) An empirical analysis on the relation between learning organization and organizational commitment. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences Vol 2 No 2 pp. 3472-3476 Braverman, H. (1974) ‘Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century’, Monthly Review Press: New York Buchanan, D. and Huczynski, A. (2010) ‘Organizational Behaviour’ 7th edition Pearson Education: London Coyle-Shapiro, J., Morrow, P. 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