Antecedents of organisational commitment and its relation to other factors

Factors affecting the emergence of organisational commitment have also been widely studied.

The following factors were identified by Meyer et al. (1997) related to the development of organisational commitment^[1]:

• the matching of one’s scope of work and interests (1),
• the harmony of values held by employees and leaders (2),
• the consistency between employees’ presuppositions related to organisational culture and the actual characteristics of organisational culture (3),
• the fulfilment of expectations concerning one’s workplace (4),
• positive work experience (5),
• the effect of attribution: the causes of the fulfilment of one’s expectations and positive experience are attributed to the organisation itself (6),

• The perception of the commitment of the organisation: fair treatment of employees might indicate that an organisation is also committed to its workers (7).
• Individuals’ freedom of choice: those who are able to decide which workplace to choose, seem to be much more committed (8), reduction of dissonance.

Folger and Konovsky (1989) did research into the relationship between organisational justice and commitment. They wanted to see how a pay rise modifies commitment (see Mező, 2000). In fact, they studied the effects of procedural justice. Finally, they found no correlation between the amount of pay rise and the degree of commitment. They rather concluded that respect towards workers and recognition matter more to employees. If employees’ goals harmonise with those of an organisation, individuals become much more committed and are able to identify better with the organisation. An organisation will be more committed to its employees for a longer period of time in return.

Mueller and others (1992) concluded that the degree of commitment mainly depends on one’s career, work, relationships with colleagues, working conditions, and the organisation employing the individual (Perry, 2004).

Perry (2004) carried out research into how the trust between line managers and employees influence commitment. His findings suggested that the amount of time spent at one’s workplace, the amount of time spent with one’s manager, leadership justice, the fairness of superiors, the perceived fairness of cases when dismissal and reorganisation take place all affect the emergence of commitment. Interestingly, a number of researchers have identified similar variables when examining the development of commitment and trust (Perry, 2004). The following table gives a short summary of the results of the studies mentioned in the present section (see Table 3).

Table 3: Other factors affecting organisational commitment identified by experts on the basis of Mező (2000) and Perry (2004)

Katz and Kahn (1960)^[2] studied the relationship between group performance and the behaviour of leaders. Their findings can be summarised as follows: (a) a better leader tends to delegate a larger degree of authority, (b) subordinates of a better leader are under less strict supervision, (c) the leaders of groups that perform better are able to generate more cohesion at the group level, and (d) the leaders of successful groups are able to meet a number of responsibilities. The comparison of these findings to the results of the studies focusing on the processes during which commitment and trust emerge might also shed light on some interesting facts. We might draw a parallel between statement “a” and the importance of the delegation of tasks and employees’ participation in decision-making. Statement “b” may prove the significance of the existence of control and trust, i.e. low levels of control/supervision generate higher levels of trust and vice versa. Finally, there is a parallel between statement “c” and the fact that higher levels of group cohesion lead to higher levels of organisational commitment, which can also influence performance in a positive way.