Organisational Commitment

Richard McBain (2005) looks to define organisational commitment and concludes that although there is “no single definition of commitment”, he refers to Allen & Meyer’s (1990) three-component model and offers an explanation of those terms:

1. Affective commitment, “which refers to employees’ emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in, the organization”
2. Normative commitment, “which is based on feelings of loyalty and obligation”
3. ‘Continuance’ component “refers to the commitment based on the costs that employees associate with leaving the organization”

Richard McBain (2005) also explores Swailes (2002) argument that measures of organisation commitment often seem to focus on the reasons for commitment, or its outcomes, rather than on the commitment itself. He also goes on to explore the research by Malhotra and Mukherjee (2003) where they test the importance of job satisfaction and organisational commitment on service quality and explore how commitment may influence the willingness of customer-contact employees to engage in discretionary efforts may reflect in the service quality they deliver. He goes on to comment on one of the key findings from Malhotra and Mukherje (2003) research; that affective commitment was more important than job satisfaction in determining the service quality of customer contact employees. Richard McBain (2005) goes on to conclude that “Service organisations should, therefore, strive to develop the affective component of commitment amongst their customer employees, alongside their job satisfaction, as part as part of their internal marketing strategy”. Richard McBain (2005) goes on to look at the relationship between organisational commitment and readiness for change. He refers to Madsen, Miller and John (2005, pp. 214-215) arguement that “embracing constant and continuous change is now a necessity for business success; however, to do this, an organisation must be in a continued state of change readiness..(and) for organisational readiness individual employees must also be open, prepared and ready for change’

Richard McBain (2005) referred to Payne and Huffman (2005) work in exploring the relationship between mentoring, organisation commitment and employee turnover. A mentoring scheme may reduce the loss of workers, as going back to Allen & Meyers (1990) 3 component model of commitment, this would work with both affective and continuance commitment. However, a mentoring scheme could have some limitations in a contact centre as large as Domestic & General Ltd. With 600 + contact centre staff with strict adherence schedules timings of sessions may be difficult. Another limitation may be capability of potential mentors i.e team leaders.

Steven M Elias (2009) also refers to Allen & Meyer’s ( 1990) 3 component model of commitment and offers a more simplistic definition of the model: “ affective commitment can be thought of as wanting to stay, continuance commitment can be thought of as needing to stay, and normative commitment can be thought of as feeling though one ought to stay” Steven M Elias (2009) journal particularly focus’ on affective commitment, as this level of commitment “ primarily hinges on the fulfilment of personal needs”. He then goes on to say that “affective commitment tends to correlate strongly and consistently with organizational-relevant and employee-relevant outcomes”

Donald B Fedor et al (2006) begins his paper by highlighting his findings from his study on how organisational changes affected employees commitment to not just the specific change but also their commitment to the organization. He refers to previous research (Reichers, 1985; Wright & Bonnett, 2002) into organisational commitment and explores the reasons for research into this particular theory. He comments on how having committed employees is a positive for organizations due to the relationship between committed employees and positive outcomes such as performance, organizational citizenship behaviours, willingness to share knowledge, absenteeism, tardiness, and turnover. He goes on to explore the theory of” Two Levels of Commitment”. Two levels of commitment consist of not just organisational commitment but also commitment to the change.

Both Steven M Elias (2009) journal and Richard McBain’s (2005) journal have similar conclusions in regards to the theory of affective commitment and its relationship with employee performance. Considering one of the organisational goals is to have a high performing contact centre, with increased sales revenue. A "dip" in performance due to unengaged employees does not align with the ultimate goals of the Business.
Donald B Fedor et al (2006) warns that in a society where organisational change is becoming “the norm” it is therefore important that further research is completed to understand better the reactions to change. He warns that “notions of resistance to change, burnout, cynicism about change, and dysfunctional effects of change on organizational commitment, turnover, and morale seem to be far more prevalent than accounts of people readily embracing change initiatives” He concludes that long-term benefits of change occur only when employees actively work to support the change and maintain or enhance their alignment with the organization's goals and values.
All the studies reviewed so far seem to be in agreement that Allen & Meyer’s (1990) 3 component model of commitment is a fair explanation of the organisational commitment.

Theme 2
Commitment to Change

Furthermore Donald B Fedor et al (2006) singles out the study by Hercovitch and Meyer (2002) as one of the only studies that investigated individuals' support for a single change initiative and the effects of commitment to the change and organizational commitment. Donald B Fedor et al (2006) argues that although literature on organizational change may include hypotheses associated with individuals' attitudes toward a change (he references; readiness for change-Armenakis et al., 1993; openness to change-Wanberg & Banas, 2000), Donal B Fedor et al (2006) explores the theory” that commitment is different as it represents a behavioural intention to work towards success of the change rather than just reflecting a favourable disposition toward it”.

Steven M Elias (2009) journal, although not commenting on commitment to change, also explores Wanberg & Banas, (2000) theory of openness to change as a related theory to his research. He highlights from their research that “individual difference variables (e.g. personal resilience) affects one’s openness toward organisational change”.

Theme 3
Organisational Change Cynicism

Michelle Brown & Christina Cregan (2008) discuss how one of the outcomes of organisational change can be heightened levels of organisational change cynicism among employees. They highlight the difference between organisational cynicism and scepticism and refers to Reicher et al (1997) definition of scepticism as “doubt the likelihood of success but are still reasonably hopeful that positive change will occur”. Michelle Brown & Christina Cregan (2008) refer to (Wanous et al., 2000) to argue that Organizational cynicism is a “learned response” rather than a personality-based predisposition.

Michelle Brown & Christina Cregan (2008) discuss how organisational change can generate uncertainties within the workplace as well as have adverse effects on employees. Michelle Brown & Christina Cregan (2008) reason, that organisational cynicism can be avoided by the sharing of information from management to employees. They go one step further to say those involving employees in decision making will have a greater understanding of the rationale behind the reasons for change and will often result in a greater motivation and effort. (Wagner et al., 1997)

Michelle Brown & Christina Cregan (2008) go on to discuss how having some cynicism can be good for an organisation. They refer to Ferres & Connell (2004) argument that it can provide a mechanism to monitor potentially bad decisions.

Theme 4
Psychological Contract

Michelle Brown & Christina Cregan (2008) explore further in to the “theoretical antecedents” to cynicism. They refer to Andersson (1996) who using a psychological contracts approach argued that are three contributing elements to cynicism: first, the “formulation of unrealistically high expectations, second, the experience of disappointment at failing to meet these expectations and third, subsequent disillusionment”. Michelle Brown & Christina Cregan (2008) refer to (Johnson & O’Leary-Kelly, 2003) and go on to say that employees will develop expectations of their employer based on general beliefs about how organizations should behave or what they have experienced in the past.

Conclusion:

It is fair to say that change is a necessary part of all successful companies. To quote Pardodel Val & Fuentes (2003, p 143), “the general aim of organisational change is an adaptation to the environment or an improvement in performance.” When the new owners of the business that I work in reviewed its purchase, it is reasonable to say that they were disappointed with the standard of technology, facilities and the operation of the business. They consulted with an external company and the conclusion was; if the business did not make some fundamental changes in day to day performance and operations, they would be in serious difficulties in the near future. Therefore there is little doubt that change had to occur in the business, and fast.

The question that was asked of the HR department was to investigate the sudden increase in high attrition from the business' long serving employees. Through completion of face to face exit interviews, and stake holder meetings a common theme was that change was happening very fast, and that the majority of employees felt that they were being "kept in the dark". There was little confidence in the recent changes that were taking place. After reviewing the literature, it would seem that the employees may be feeling a break down in their psychological contract. The changes that are taking place have affected the commission and bonus structure of call centre staff. There is a lower earning capability as well as a higher target of calls to answer. Call centre Team Leader roles have changed from a management role to that of a “coach. The Team Leader bonus structure has also been changed. It would be reasonable to say that this is contributing to the possible feeling of employees organisational change cynicism. For how can the changes be for the better, when fundamentally the employees perception is that they are having to work harder for less?

After reviewing the literature, the theory of Allen & Meyer’s (1990) Affective Commitment seems relevant to my business as being the most damaged, in terms of organisational commitments. Employees, specifically long standing employees, no longer wanted to stay and see the changes out. They do not feel that they “need” to stay as the job market has increased in recent months, and nor did they feel that they “ought” to stay as having completed a relatively long employment, it may be felt that it is their time “to go”.

If you explore Donald B Fedor et al (2006) suggestion that further research would be required to better understand reactions to change, I would recommend that as a group across all sites re-engage with their employees. An engagement survey may provide answers as to how as business we can prevent further turnover with employees.

Richard McBain (2005) referred to Payne and Huffman (2005) work in exploring the relationship between mentoring, organisation commitment and employee turnover. Both so-called affective and continuance commitment may help to explain why mentoring may reduce the loss of workers. In an organisation as large as mine, it would be arguably feasible to look at a mentoring scheme for employees, however the engagement survey could be used to raise the concept to employees and find out if there would be a take up.

Reflecting back to Michelle Brown & Christina Cregan (2008) discussion on organisational cynicism. Could this be a reason why it is long standing employees that are leaving the business? Those with 5-10 years length of service have already been through one acquisition of the business.

References:

Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. P. 1996. Affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: An examination of construct validity. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 49: 252-276.

Andersson, L.M. (1996) Employee cynicism: An examination using a contract violation framework. Human Relations.

Donal B Fedor et al (2006) – The effects of Organisational Changes on Employee Commitment: A Multi Level Investigation
Malhotra, N. and Mukherjee, A. (2004) “The relative influence of organisational commitment and job satisfaction on service quality of customer-contact employees in banking call centres”, Journal of Services Marketing, 18 (2/3) 162-174.

Hercovitch and Meyer (2002)
Michelle Brown & Christina Cregan – 2008 Organizational Change Cynicism: The Role of Employee Involvement– Human Resource Management

Payne, S. C. and Huffman, A. H. 2005 “A longitudinal Examination of the Influence of Mentoring on Organizational Commitment and Turnover”, Academy of
Management Journal

Reichers AE. 1985. A review and reconceptualization of organizational commitment. Academy of Management Review, 10, 465-476.
Reicher, A. E., Wanous, J. P., & Austin, J. T. 1997. Understanding and managing cynicism about organizational change. Academy of Management Executive, 11(1), 48–59.

Richard McBain, 2005 - Organisational Commitment – Henley Manager Update

Steven M. Elias 2009 -Employee Commitment in Times of Change: Assessing the Importance of Attitudes toward Organizational Change? - Journal of Management

Wanous, J. P., Reichers, A. E., & Austin, J. T. (2000). Cynicism about organizational change. Group and Organization Management

Wanberg, C. R., & Banas, J. T. 2000. Predictors and outcomes of openness to change in a reorganizing workplace. Journal of Applied Psychology,

Wagner, J. A., Leana, C. R., Locke, E. A., & Schweiger,D. M. (1997). Cognitive and motivational frameworks in U.S. research on participation: A met analysis of primary effects. Journal of Organizational Behavior