Chapter 3- Organizational Commitment

Organizational Commitment
Definition: An Employees desire to remain a member of an organization
- Sits side by side with job performance in our integrative model of organizational
behaviour
- Need to be able to retain talented employees for long periods of time so that they
organization can benefit from their efforts
- Organizational commitment influences whether an employee stays a member of the
organization or leaves to purse another job
- Turnover can be voluntary and involuntary
- Withdrawal Behaviour- Employee actions that are intended to avoid work situations
*** Low withdrawal behaviour = High Organizational commitment***
*** High withdrawal behaviour = Low Organizational commitment ***
What Does It Mean To Be Committed?
3 Forms of Organizational Commitment
1) Emotion Based Reasons- staying because you want to- Affective commitment
Some of my friends work at the office; I really like the atmosphere, etc.
2) Cost-Based Reasons staying because you have to- Continuance commitment
Due for a promotion soon, salary and benefits get us a nice house
3) Obligation-Based Reasons- Staying because you ought to- Normative commitment
Boss has invested so much time in me; organization gave me my start.
Forms of Commitment
1) Affective Commitment- an employees desire to remain a member of an organization
due to a feeling of emotional attachment
Staying because you ant to.
2) Continuance Commitment- an employees desire to remain a member of an
organization due to an awareness of the costs of leaving
Staying because you have to
3) Normative Commitment- an employees desire to remain a member of an organization
due to a feeling of obligation
Staying because you ought to
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The three forms of organizational commitment combine to create an overall sense of

psychological attachment of the company
Fostering organizational commitment can be complex in multinational corporations for
2 reasons
1) Provides two distinct foci of commitment. Employees can be committed to the local
subsidiary in which they work, or they can be committed to the global organization
2) Require many employees to serve as expatriates for significant periods of time.
3 Distinct forms of expatriates
1) Work Adjustment- the degree of comfort with specific job responsibilities an
performance expectations

2) Cultural Adjustment- the degree of comfort with the general living

conditions, climate, cost of living, transportation and housing offered by the
host culture.
3) Interaction adjustment- the degree of comfort when socializing and
interacting with members of the host culture
- If expatriates cannot feel comfortable in their assignment, its difficult for
them to develop an emotional bond to their organization
Focus of Commitment- the people, place and things that inspire a desire to remain a
member of an organization
Ex. Might choose to stay with your current employer because you are emotionally
attached to your work team

Affective Commitment
- Identify with the organization, accept that organizations goal and values, and are more
willing to exert extra effort on behalf of the organization
- Meta-Analysis- averages out the results from multiple studies investigating the same
relationship
- Erosion model a modal that suggests that employees with fewer bonds with coworkers are more likely to quit the organization
Likely to feel less emotional attachment to work colleagues
- Social Influence model a model that suggest that employees with direct linkages to
co-workers who leave the organization will themselves become more likely to leave
Continuance Commitment
- Exists when there is a benefit associated with staying and a cost associated with leaving,
with high continuance commitment making it very difficult to change organizations
because of the step penalties associated with the switch
- The total amount of investment that an employee has made in mastering his or her work
role or fulfilling his or her organizational duties can increase continuance commitment
- Lack of employment alternatives also increases continuance commitment
- Focuses on personal and family issues more than the other two commitment types,
because employees often need to stay for both work and non-work reasons
- Embeddedness- an employees connection to and sense of fit in the organization and
community
Strengthens continuance commitment by providing more reasons why a person
needs to stay in his or her current position
Normative Commitment
- Exists when there is a sense that staying I the right or moral thing to do.
- 2 ways to build a sense of obligation- based commitment among employees.
1) Create a feeling that the employee is in the organizations debt- he or she owes the
organization something
2) Recognition of the investment that the employee might feel obligated to repay the
organization with several more years of loyal service.

Withdrawal Behaviour
4 reactions to negative work events
1) Exit- in which one becomes often absence from work or voluntarily leaves the
organization
2) Voice- in which an employee offers constructive suggestions for change
3) Loyalty- a passive to a negative work event in which one publicly supports the situation
but privately hopes for improvement
4) Neglect- a passive destructive response to a negative work event in which ones interest
and effort in work decline
Withdrawals comes in two forms
1) Psychological (neglect)- mentally escaping the work environment
Some refers to it as warm-chair attrition meaning that the employees have
essentially been lost even through their chairs remains occupied.
Comes in number of ways
1) Daydreaming
2) Socializing
3) Looking busy
4) Moonlighting- use work time and resources to do non-work related activities
5) Cyberloafing- employees surf the internet, email, and instant message to avoid doing
work related activities
2) Physical Withdrawal- a physical escape from the work environment
Comes in number of ways
1) Tardiness- employees arrive late to work or leave work early
2) Long breaks
3) Missing meetings
4) Absenteeism- employees do not show up for an entire day of work
5) Quitting
Independent form model- a model that predicts that the various withdrawals behaviours are
uncorrelated, so that engaging in one type of withdrawal has little bearing on engaging in other
types
Compensatory forms model- indicating that the various withdrawals behaviours are
negatively correlated, that engaging in one type of withdrawals makes one less likely to engage
in other types
Progression model- indicating that the various withdrawals behaviours are positively
correlated, so that engaging in one type of withdrawals makes one more likely to engage in
other types
Tendency to daydream or socialize leads to tendency to come in late or take long breaks,
which leads to tendency to be absent or quit

Trends that Affect Commitment

1) Diversity of the Workforce
- Diversity of the labour force
2) The Changing Employee-Employer Relationship
3 Ways to quantify the change in employee- employer relationships
1) Psychological Contracts- employees beliefs about what they owe the organization and
what the organization owes them
Shaped by the recruitment and socialization activities that employees experience
2) Transactional Contract focuses on a narrow set of specific monetary obligations
Ex. Employee owes attendance and protection of proprietary information
3) Relational Contract focus on a broad set of open-ended and subjective obligations
Application: Commitment Initiatives
Perceived Organizational support- the degree to which employees believe that the
organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being
organizations can do a number of things to be supportive, providing adequate rewards,
protecting job security, improving work conditions and minimizing impact of politics