Chapter 3, Organizational Commitment and Withdrawal Behaviour

Organizational Commitment

An employee’s desire to remain a member of an organization

Types of Organizational commitment

• Affective commitment (emotion based/sadness)

• Continuance commitment (cost based/anxiety)

• Normative commitment (obligation based/guilt)

Affective commitment

• Desire to remain a member of an organization due to an emotional attachment to and involvement in the organization

• erosion model

• social influence model

Erosion Model (Affective commitment)

• employees with fewer bonds with coworkers are more likely to quit

Social influence Model (Affective Commitment)

• employees with direct links to coworkers who leave will be more likely to leave

Continuance Commitment

• Desire to remain in an org because of the awareness of costs associated with leaving and has to remain

• Embeddedness

Embeddedness

• an employee’s connections to and sense of fit in the organization and community

Feelings of embedded people

• I have worked with my organization for a long time

• I have close friends and family nearby

• I have connections in the community

Normative Commitment

• Desire to remain a member of an organization due to a feeling of obligation to the organization

• associated with job performance

Factors of normative commitment

• Charitable organization

• Feeling indebted to the organization

Focus of commitment

• reference to people, places, things, that inspire desire to remain a member, emotionally attached to the work team, obligation to a manager, losing salary and benefits package

Occupational Commitment

• a psychological link between a person and his occupation that is based on an affective reaction to that occupation

Occupational Commitment Meta Analysis Study

• meta analysis conducted by Lee and colleagues (2000)

• Examined the extent to which occupational commitment was associated with job satisfaction, performance, etc

• Moderate positive correlation

Trends that affects commitment

• Diversity of the Canadian workforce

• Careers shifting from ladder pathways to jungle gyms

• Organizations using independent work arrangements

• Changes in employee-employer relationships

Diversity of the Canadian workforce (Trend)

• Increasing diversity within the workforce

• organizations need to actively manage their diverse workforce by maximizing commitment for all employees

• women and visible minorities increasing (1/3 of WF by 2036), older worker ages

Careers becoming jungle gyms instead of ladder pathways (TREND)

• Changes in employee-employer relationships can impact psychological contracts, switch to transactional contracts or relational contracts

Organization’s switching to independent workers (TREND)

• provides people with autonomy, freedom, flexibility

• but have feelings of insecurity, instability, underemployment

psychological contracts

• what employees owes organization

• what organization owes employee

transactional contracts

• monetary obligations

relational contracts

• based on open ended and subjective obligations like loyalty

Multinational corporations

• Could be loyal to the branch or the global organization

• Need to adjust to their foreign assignments

• Depends on many factors

Types of adjustments to Foreign assignments

• Work adjustment

• cultural adjustment

• interaction adjustment

Work adjustment

• job responsibilities and performance expectations

Cultural adjustment

• general living conditions, climate, cost of living, transportation, housing

Interaction adjustment

• socializing and interaction with others

4 Primary responses to negative events

• Neglect (Deconstructive, Passive)

• Loyalty (Constructive, Passive)

• Exit (Deconstructive, Active)

• Voice (Constructive, Active)

Neglect (Deconstructive, Passive)

• declined interest and effort in the job

• psychological withdrawal

Loyalty (Constructive, Passive)

• maintain public support while privately hoping for improvement

Exit (Deconstructive, Active)

• end or restricting organizational membership

• Physical withdrawal

Voice (Constructive, Active)

• attempt to improve the situation

Behaviours of Psychological Withdrawal/Neglect

• Daydreaming (least problematic)

• Looking busy

• Socializing

• Moonlighting

• Cyberloafing (most problematic)

Behaviours of Physical Withdrawal/Exit

• Tardiness

• Long breaks

• Missing Meetings

• Absenteeism

• Quitting

3 models of withdrawal behaviours

• Independent forms model

• Compensatory forms model

• Progression model

Independent forms model

• Withdrawal behaviours are uncorrelated to one another

• withdrawal behaviours occur for different reasons and fulfill different needs

• employee tardy = no certain outcome

Compensatory forms model

• Withdrawal behaviours are negatively correlated with one another

• Any form of withdrawal can compensate for a sense of dissatisfaction, which makes other forms unnecessary

• employee tardy = not absent

Progression model

• Withdrawal behaviours are positively correlated with one another

• Model with most scientific support

• employee tardy = absent

Commitment initiatives

• Creates a sense of perceived organizational support

• Increase employee bonds

• Provide good salary, benefits, and advancement opportunities

• Offer training and development opportunities