Implications of Organisational Identification - Coursework Example

Implications of organisational identification Introduction Today, as world economies are continuously changing and businesses change accordingly, companies have to be effective in all the aspects of their performance in order to succeed in a globalized marketplace. Much time and effort have been recently invested in determining what particular areas of organizational behaviour are the most important in terms of ensuring stable development and profitability of a business. Among a great number of such factors are effective strategic planning, clear goal setting, good marketing, continuous innovation, outstanding HR practices, and so on. However, what is easy to assume is that any organization is extremely dependent on its people. Without people a company would not be able to exist or operate. So, it can be said that people are one of the most important assets of a business, because people are the ones who perform such organizational activities as planning, producing goods or services, and managing operations, among others. For that reason it can be easily understood that companies strive for the best talent. However, outstanding professional skills of an individual are not enough for one to be effective in an organization. In order for an individual to work in line with the company, one must have values and goals similar to those of the company. This forms a feeling of belonging to an organization, which is called organizational identification (Gemmiti 2008, 6). This particular phenomenon is the major topic of this paper. In particular, the goal of the given work is to examine what specifically the concept of organizational identification entails, as well as how it is related to employees’ job performance, commitment, and CSR activities carried out by a company. Body Dutton, Dukerich and Harquail (1994, 240) present a deep analysis of the concept of organizational identification. They state that organizational identification involves a connection between individual’s self-concept and organizational identity. That means a person with strong organizational identification has much in common with the company, including goals, plans, vision and strategies. In case the person’s values and vision correspond to those of the company, the individual will be feeling oneself as an integral and valuable part of the company through associating own life with that of the company. As it was already stated, organizational identification refers to individual’s knowledge of belonging to an organization. In particular, as Gemmiti (2008, 6) outlines, organizational identification implies employee’s being psychologically and emotionally bound to a group of people that make up the organization. This psychological attachment is, then, expressed in employee’s showing certain types of behavioural patterns, including job commitment and improved performance. Furthermore, since organizational identification involves person’s belonging to a group, the individual is likely to show mostly positive behaviours if organizational identification is strong. This is expressed in positive word-of-mouth publicity supported by the individual and, as Bartels (2006, 1) stresses out, in-group favouritism. So, strong and positive organizational identification of employees ensures that people support the organization in all the aspects of its operations. It is, thus, also true in relation to acceptance of changes and innovations, as well as lower absenteeism and turnover rates. The perception of self and the general self-concept of a person with positive organizational identification are modified as the person’s goals get aligned with organizational goals and values (Meyer, Becker, and Van Dick 2006, 665). So, it can be said that the person-organization interaction is two-sided. While organizational identification of an individual impacts the overall performance of a company, company’s values and strategies, in their turn, influence individual’s self-perception. For that reason it is important for companies to develop their strategic plans and corporate culture values in such a way that they are close to those of the employees. Similarly, when hiring a new employee, it is important to make sure the person will fit into a new for him or her corporate environment. Otherwise the individual will be experiencing lack of organizational identification, showing poor job performance and may, finally, leave the company. Since organizational identification implies that individual’s goals and values are aligned with organizational performance, it can be assumed that a person, whose goals correspond to the company’s goals, will be working harder, within the boundaries of the company, to achieve those common for both goals. The benefit, thus, is mutual – an employee achieves own goals working in a company, and the company achieves its goals employing such an employee. Indeed, a research conducted by Efraty and Wolfe (1988) proves that employees with higher levels of organizational identification show better performance. In particular, performance effectiveness, investment of effort, task involvement and job satisfaction of such employees are higher (Efraty and Wolfe 1988, 105). Superior job performance can be explained by the fact that an employee with higher organizational identification is more cooperative. Working in cooperation with a company, such a person understands that he or she is working for both own and company’s good. As a result, such an individual is more motivated to do one’s work better in order to succeed in both personal and organizational contexts. This opinion is supported by Riketta and van Dick (2005), who state that people with high levels of organizational identification do their work better, have lower absenteeism and are more satisfied with their jobs (Riketta and van Dick 2005, 490). These factors, in their turn, have a positive impact of people’s job performance. Furthermore, reduced absenteeism and improved job satisfaction lead to lower turnover rates. It is beneficial for a company in many senses, including financial and moral. Happy employees that work for one company for a long time, are more likely to deliver profit to a company. Hight turnover rates, on the contrary, require a company to spend additional money and other recourses for finding, hiring and training new employees. Another implication of organizational identification is its relation to commitment. Both job satisfaction and organizational identification are positively related to organizational commitment. Initially, since organizational identification involves person’s working for achieving common for oneself and the company goals, it can be assumed that an individual is committed to own goals in the first place. So, if such goals correspond to those of the organization, and if a person feels oneself as an integral part of the organization, then the individual will be more committed to the company and to achieving its goals. On this matter in 2008 He and Mukherjee conducted a research aimed at determining whether organizational identification has any influence on organizational commitment and job satisfaction. The study was conducted in China, and the sample group consisted of 438 salespeople who work in real estate industry. The study showed that organizational identification was not directly related to job commitment, but rather influenced it through job satisfaction (He and Mukherjee 2008, 2). So, the results of the research indicate that the first part of the process happens where job satisfaction takes place. Job satisfaction improves organizational identification of employees. Organizational identification, then, increases organizational commitment. So, organizational identification links job satisfaction to commitment (He and Mukherjee 2008, 18). At the same time, it should be noted that, as Efraty and Wolfe (1988, 105) suggest, strong organizational identification improves job satisfaction. Therefore, it can be concluded that the effect of organizational identification is continuous and influences job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Combined together, the results of the two studies may lead to an assumption that organizational identification improves job satisfaction, which, in its turn, strengthens organizational identification. Then the strengthened by job satisfaction organizational identification makes an individual more committed to one’s job and the company. Though the links might seem quite complex, it is obvious that in general strong organizational identification has a direct positive impact on individual and organizational behaviour and performance. For that reason company’s activities aimed at increasing performance should be addressing the issue of organizational identification, because it has an influence on such aspects of individual performance as job satisfaction, commitment and, consequently, productivity, loyalty and effectiveness. Organizational identifications means, as it was noted earlier, that an employee associates oneself with the company. Consequently, it can be assumed that if the company has a positive image and behaves in a socially, culturally and morally responsible manner, the employee will feel pride for one’s organization. As a result, his or her organizational identification will become stronger because of the desire to be a part of a good organization. So, it is more likely that employees of companies that support and implement various CSR initiatives will be more devoted to their employers. Studying this phenomena, in 2010 H. Kim, together with the colleagues, conducted a researched aimed at determining whether company’s CSR activities have a positive impact on organizational identification of the employees. The research showed that organizational identification is influenced by corporate social responsibility activities of the company, but indirectly. People’s organizational identification increases through people’s recognition of the prestige the company earns through CSR initiatives (Kim et al. 2010, 558). According to Kim et al. (2010, 558), organizational identification is influenced directly only if an individual personally participates in company’s CSR projects. If not, then organizational identification is increased only in case those projects get significant social approval and praise. In this case the person, willing to be associated with the good deeds of the company, strengthens one’s organizational identification. This idea is also supported by other studies. For instance, similar evidence is provided by Black (2005), who studied how CSR impacts organizational identification. Black’s study also showed that CSR has no direct impact on organizational identification. The research indicated that organizational identification is influenced not by CSR programmes themselves, but rather by improvements in organizational identity that come as a result of CSR programmes (Black 2005, 5). So, in order to improve organizational identification of employees with the help of CSR, the company has to, first of all, improve its organizational identity with the help of CSR. In addition, there also exist backward relations: well-designed SCR initiatives improve corporate identity, which improves organizational identification. Conclusion Organizational identification determines how strongly an individual is attached to an organization psychologically. It entails that an employee knows and understands that he or she is a part of the organization. Furthermore, in order for organizational identification to be strong and positive, strategies, goals, values and objectives of the company should come in line with those of the employee. In such a situation the person will be bound to the company more intensely and, as a result, show more positive behaviours and performance. Organizational identification is an important aspect or organizational performance because presence of employees’ organizational identification ensures that people are devoted to their jobs and committed to their company. Furthermore, as scientific research suggests, organizational identification has in influence on job performance, motivation and job satisfaction. Strong organizational identification also has a positive impact on employee’s absenteeism and turnover rates. So, it is in all senses beneficial for a company to have employees who associate themselves with the employing organization. Working with such people is beneficial for financial, cultural and moral aspects of company’s performance. It was also noted that organizational identification is dependent on organizational identity. Therefore, it might be advised that companies take their time to ensure their corporate identities correspond to the expectations of their employees. This will also help to design and implement effective CSR programmes and, in such a way, strengthen people’s organizational identification. Strong organizational identity, combined with well-designed CSR initiatives, will help companies to positively influence organizational identification of their people. Strong organizational identification will, in its turn, be positively influencing people’s motivation, job satisfaction and job performance. As individual performance of employees is improved, the overall performance of the company will improve as well. To sum up, it can be noted that the goals set for this paper have been met. The work discussed a number of implications of organizational identification. In particular, the paper examined and defined the concept of organizational identification, first of all. Then, the topics of how organizational identification is related to employees’ job performance, commitment, and CSR were presented. Finally, some recommendations were provided to organizations willing to improve organizational identification of their employees. References Bartels, J. 2006. Organizational Identificaiton and Communication: Employees’ Evaluations of Internal Communication and its Effect on Identificaiton at Different Organizational Levels. Print Partners Ipskamp. Black, L. 2005. The Role of Organisational Identity and Identification in Corporate Social Responsiveness. Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the International Association of Business and Society, Santa Rosa, California. http://www.accsr.com.au/pdf/OrganisationalIdentityandCSR_Leeora_Black_2005.pdf. Accessed August 20, 2011. Dutton, J., J. Dukerich, and C. Harquail. 1994. Organizational images and member identification. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39(2), 239-263. Efraty, D. and D. Wolfe. 1988. The effect of organizational identification on employee affective and performance responses. Journal of Business and Psychology 3(1): 105-112. Gemmiti, M. 2008. The Relationship Between Organizational Commitment, Organizational Identification and Organizational Citizenship Behavior. GRIN Verlag. He, H.-W., and A. Mukherjee. 2008. Does organisational identification mediate the job satisfaction – commitment linkage? Empirical evidence from Chinese salespersons. University of East Anglia, UK. Kim, H., M. Lee, H. Lee, and N. Kim. 2010. Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee–Company Identification. Journal of Business Ethics 95: 557–569. Meyer, J., T. Becker, and R. Van Dick. 2006. Social identities and commitments at work: toward an integrative model. Journal of Organizational Behavior 27: 665-683. Read More