wertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuio asdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklz cvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqw rtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopas fghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcv nmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwert uiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfg ORGANIZATION jklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbn COMMITMENT mqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyui pasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjk Submitted by: xcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmq

POOJA PATEL 08BEC247 ertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiop B1 Slot sdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzx vbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyu opasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghj zxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm

Organizational Commitment
Organizational commitment has an important place in the study of organizational behavior. This is in part due to the vast number of works that have found relationships between organizational commitment and attitudes and behaviors in the workplace. The concept of organisational commitment has attracted considerable attention over recent years and has become a central objective of human resource management. Furthermore, Batemen and Strasser state that the reasons for studying organizational commitment are related to employee behaviors and performance effectiveness attitudinal, affective, and cognitive constructs such as job satisfaction characteristics of the employees job and role, such as responsibility personal characteristics of the employee such as age, job tenure . Organizational commitment has been studied in the public, private, and nonprofit sector, and more recently internationally. Early research focused on defining the concept and current research continues to examine organizational commitment through two popular approaches, commitment-related attitudes and commitmentrelated behaviors. A variety of antecedents and outcomes have been identified in the past thirty years. Up until the 1980s the main concerns of management were the organisations strategy and structure with an emphasis on the technical aspects of work. People were seen as a resource to be spent like any other. Contrary to this view, now it recognizes that people are motivated by a complex set of factors that are interrelated, such as money, the need for affiliation or achievement and the desire for meaningful work. This view focuses on employees as potential talents and it is managements responsibility to learn how best to attract and retain these resources. Their main focus was an emphasis on productivity through people.

Definition of Commitment
Multiple definitions of organizational commitment are found in the literature. Bateman and Strasser state that organizational commitment has been operationally defined as multidimensional in nature, involving an employees loyalty to the organization, willingness to exert effort on behalf of the organization, degree of

goal and value congruency with the organization, and desire to maintain membership. Mowday, Steers, and Porter identified commitment-related Attitudes and commitment-related behaviors. It discusses three major components of organizational commitment as being a strong belief in and acceptance of the organizations goals, a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization, and a definite desire to maintain organizational membership. Sheldon defines commitments as being a positive evaluation of the organization and the organizations goals. According to Buchanan most scholars define commitment as being a bond between an individual (the employee) and the organization (the employer), though his own definition of commitment Meyer and Allen and Dunham identified three types of commitment; affective commitment continuance commitment Normative commitment. Affective commitment is defined as the emotional attachment, identification, and involvement that an employee has with its organization and goals. Affective commitment is characterized by three factors (1)belief in and acceptance of the organizations goals and values, (2) A willingness to focus effort on helping the organization achieve its goals, and (3) A desire to maintain organizational membership. Mowday further state that affective communication is when the employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals in order to maintain membership to facilitate the goal. Meyer and Allen continue to say that employees retain membership out of choice and this is their commitment to the organization. Continuance commitment is the willingness to remain in an organization because of the investment that the employee has with nontransferable investments. Nontransferable investments include things such as retirement, relationships with other employees, or things that are special to the organization. Continuance commitment also includes factors such as years of employment or benefits that the employee may receive that are unique to the organization. Meyer and Allen further explain that employees who share continuance commitment with their employer often make it very difficult for an employee to leave the organization. Normative commitment is the commitment that a person believes that they have to the organization or their feeling of obligation to their workplace. Weiner discusses normative commitment as being a generalized value of loyalty and duty. Meyer

and Allen supported this type of commitment prior to Bolons definition, with their definition of normative commitment being a feeling of obligation. It is argues that normative commitment is only natural due to the way we are raised in society. Normative commitment can be explained by other commitments such as marriage, family, religion, etc. therefore when it comes to ones commitment to their place of employment they often feel like they have a moral obligation to the organization. Meyer, Allen, & Smith say that the three types of commitment are a psychological state that either characterizes the employees relationship with the organization or has the implications to affect whether the employee will continue with the organization. Meyer continue to say that generally the research shows that those employees with a strong affective commitment will remain with an organization because they want to, those with a strong continuance commitment remain because they have to, and those with a normative commitment remain because they fell that they have to. Meyer & Allen define a committed employee as being one stays with an organization, attends work regularly, puts in a full day and more, Protects corporate assets, and believes in the organizational goals. This employee positively contributes to the organization because of its commitment to the organization. In todays dynamic world and increased job insecurity, the job for life is no longer existent. One can therefore question whether the concept of organisational commitment is now becoming redundant? People constantly fear their jobs and lose their motivation and commitment to work. For example, since October, 2008, thousands of job cuts have been announced across all sectors of the UK economy. Employees need to be reassured that their jobs are secure; otherwise they wont exert as much effort in achieving organizational objectives. Furthermore commitment also conflicts with the notion of flexibility. Numerical flexibility has been a predominant feature of recent years, with 'downsizing' and 'delayering' being an obsession of many large companies. A climate of fear has been created for those people. However one must consider that even if organizations are moving towards the flexible firm, nevertheless there will always be a core group of workers and it is important to retain their commitment to the organisation. In addition, organisations are increasingly relying on outsourcing to meet their labour force requirements, by hiring temporary workers or independent contractors. This highlights further complexities, concerning which company the employee is committed to i.e., whether it is the organisation they were originally employed by or the place they are currently working.

Antecedents
There are two significant variables that are studied in terms of commitment-related attitudes and commitment-related behaviors, the variables being antecedents and outcomes. Affective commitment antecedents are studied in the form of personal characteristics or what the employee contributes to the workplace. Mowday, all investigated the role of personal characteristics and found that the characteristics and experiences that a person brings to an organization can predict their commitment to the organization. Furthermore, Allen & Meyer have found there to be a positive relationship to between an employees age and time with the organization and their level of commitment. Studies have also found that employee traits such as leadership and communication styles have an effect on organizational commitment. Continuance commitment studies two antecedents: investments and alternatives. These studies often look at investments such as time, money, or effort. Florkowsi and Schuster found a positive relationship between profit sharing and job satisfaction and commitment. Studies examining different types of work sectors have found that government employees have higher levels of continuance commitment then other sectors. Normative commitment because it is the more recently defined type of commitment does not have a lot of research identified. Psychological contracts are the beliefs that a person has about what will be exchanged between them, the employee and the organization, therefore influencing their obligation to the organization.

Outcomes
Research on commitment outcomes examines whether the different components of commitment have certain consequences. Employee retention, attendance, organizational citizenship, and job performance are commitment outcomes that are widely studied. Various research studies take place examining the outcomes of employee commitment. It has been argued that having a committed workforce is seen as the key factor in achieving competitive performance. Highly committed employees wish to remain

associated with the organisation and advance organisational goals, and are therefore less likely to leave (employee retention is seen to be highest with all forms of commitment). This highlights a positive relationship between the level of organisational commitment and job tenure, which ensures a return on the investment in careful selection, training and development. However having a low labour turnover is not always a positive factor. For example in times of change some turnover is desirable to bring in new people, new ideas, and more diverse thinking. In addition, if employees with continuance commitment are staying in the organisation because they are not able to get jobs elsewhere this wont help the productivity of the organization Furthermore Meyer & Allen have illustrated a positively correlated relationship between affective commitment and work attendance. In-role job performance work attendance has been reported to be higher for employees with strong affective commitment. The underlying assumption is that they will work harder at their jobs

and perform them better than those with weaker commitment. This has been positively correlated to self-reported measures of work effort and to adherence to organisational policy. Employees with strong affective commitment are more willing to engage in citizenship behavior than those with weaker affective commitment. Committed workers can be expected to exercise responsible autonomy or self-control, removing the need for supervisory staff and producing efficiency gains. On the personal level, there are benefits for strong affective commitment i.e., working in an environment in which one is positive about has implications for reduced stress levels. Alternatively, affective commitment could lead to negative consequences for life beyond the organization. Further research has investigated the link between organizational commitment and the delivery of service quality. Even though the link between them is not very strong, it is found that organizational commitment is strongly tied to role ambiguity and teamwork as antecedents of the service delivery gap. Therefore obtaining affective and normative commitment from employees may have positive effects for the organization. Further, one must take into consideration that in times of organisational change, employees with affective commitment may be a barrier to change. This is because they are committed to a single set of values and goals and wont be able to cope with prevalent uncertainties and as a result may resist this change. However organisations can increase employee commitment by providing them with fair and reasonable working practices in a rather cost-effective way. To stay committed, employees should feel valued and recognised by management. A positive relationship between communication and commitment was detected highlighting the importance for management to ensure that communication channels remain open to allow for better transmission of information. Other HR practices, such as recruitment and selection, also play an important role in gaining employee commitment. By providing realistic job previews and accurate information, applicants are better able to determine whether the job is appropriate for them. After the initial recruitment of an employee, induction training and socialisation are carried out, which are vital in gaining employee commitment. It is essential to reinforce a sense of self-worth within newcomers, which can be achieved through a supportive environment. Job satisfaction is said to have the largest effect on commitment. Therefore, this factor should be increased to improve an employees commitment to an organisation. This can be done by providing performance appraisals, reward systems or benefits, which are perceived as fair and satisfactory. Since there is a positive relationship between satisfaction with performance appraisal and commitment, management

need to ensure that their performance appraisal systems is perceived by employees to be fair before they can expect higher commitment from them. In terms of assessment and promotion, the fairness in the decision making process is crucial for commitment. The organization should communicate clearly how decisions are made and why some people and not others did get promotions. Compensation programmes such as ESOPs can create a sense of commitment within the organisation.

Further Research
Overall, there have been numerous studies of organizational commitment. This topic does not lack in the amount of literature, but it does lack in the subtopics, meaning there is not enough variation. With the professionalizing of the nonprofit sector, it would be interest to examine organizational commitment in this sector. Nonprofit employees may have different motivations and outcomes as well as commitment and this would be interesting to see what the research would find. Not every research study examining organizational commitment used the same variables which often lead to contradicting or inconclusive support for previous studies. Organizational commitment though should continue to be studied in all sectors, public, private, and non-profit both domestically and internationally. In conclusion, its easy for organisations to say that people are our most important assets or the source of our competitive advantage. But its much more difficult to provide evidence, especially at a time when downsizing is so prevalent. However by placing organizational commitment at the core of the definition of HRM is an attempt to win the hearts and minds of the workforce. We must bear in mind that the focus of commitment goes further than simple compliance: it is an emotional attachment to the organisation. Therefore the way people are managed has a major impact on their commitment and on organisational performance. Advantages of gaining employee commitment have been perceived to be lower labour turnover, extra role behavior, and better product quality and employee flexibility leading to the firms competitive advantage. Thus, given the contribution that a highly productive trained employee can make to organizational productivity, keeping such an employee should be a high priority to the organisation. Organisations can secure this commitment by engaging in fair HR practices such as procedural justice, good communication, increased participation, more supportive management and reasonable rewards.