Commitment in the Workplace: Theory, Research, and Application

Adanced Topics in Organizational Behavior

by John P. Meyer, Natalie J. Allen

What is a committed employee? Are employees who are committed better or worse off than employees who are uncommitted? What are the organizational advantages and disadvantages of having a committed workforce? Commitment in the Workplace provides an overview of academic and popular perspectives on what committed employees look like and how they become committed. The multiple faces of commitment are examined as are the links that have been established between the various forms of commitment and organizational behavior. In addition, questions concerning individual differences, organizational characteristics, and work experiences associated with commitment are explored. The book concludes with a discussion of what organizations can do to manage commitment effectively, including commitment under more difficult circumstances, such as merger/acquisition, downsizing, and relocation. One of the great strengths of the book is that it summarizes the key organizational commitment research in such a way that the research findings can be evaluated for both their scientific merit and their practical value. The primary audience for Commitment in the Workplace includes students in MBA and executive MBA programs, researchers, and students and practitioners in the fields of organizational behavior and industrial psychology.

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 27, 1997

Reviews

[Mark Dantonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

ISBN = 0761901043 John Meyer, Nichole Allen

This book defines and breaks down the meaning of what commitment is in the workplace. The book basically splits commitment into one of three types all based on prior research.

Affective Commitment – The employee’s psychological and emotional attachment to the job. It involves the employee’s relationship with the employer and is based on the employee’s want to remain employed with the organization. (Basically, an employee wants to stay)

Continuance Commitment – This type of commitment is based on the employee’s need to remain with the organization. Continuance commitment is based on the reality that employees recognize that there is a cost of leaving the organization. Some employees may feel that they are trapped in a certain job or company. (Basically, an employee needs to stay)

Normative Commitment – Employees that feel normative commitment have a strong feeling of obligation to stay at their job. (Basically, an employee feels she ought to stay)

The research described in the book discusses the 3 forms of commitment based on employee relationships with various constituencies and domains. The discussion includes the correlation of various forms of commitment with positive and negative forces in the workplace. It also goes into great detail discussing the types of environments that workplace commitment evolves and how an HRM department can foster the development of commitment.

Most of the discussion is on Affective commitment. It is the preferred type to have in an organization. There are ways of developing this type of commitment such as proper communications, basic fairness and empowering of the workplace. HRM can foster this type of competitive advantage by installation of advanced HRM systems, ESOP plans, compensation-based on productivity and empowering teams. Many of the techniques to increase Affective commitment within an organization are intuitive and are common sense. Basically, there were many instances where commitment was positively or negatively affected. I would summarize the phenomena by saying that when the employee felt the company was looking out for her the level of affective commitment was increased. Much more was discussed in the book such as the differences of gender, effects of stress, job benefits and the effects of the 3 levels of commitment on each other. The book even discussed the conflicts that employees have regarding different constituencies that they belong to such as the company, the division, the national union, the local union, and the workgroup.

Mark D.

[Todd Cheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short read of and older book when commitment in the work place was a nascent empirical study. I appreciate the less kitschy jargon consulting like approach to workforce complexities. The authors unravel the understandings of the time regard Human Resources Management (HRM) practices. There is little forecasting on methods to retain, but more just a statement of the correlations. As we are currently in a market down turn and this book was written in the mid 90s after a previous downturn it is a guide to what might be experienced in survivors guilts of the leftovers not achieving the expected business outcome.