Answer

Strategies for Developing Organizational Commitment

Introduction

Maintaining employee commitment is increasingly becoming a core necessity for organizations in the contemporary business world. In essence, employees have become more aware of the human issues and relations that define labour relations. Given the critical role of employees in driving organizational success, leaders and managers find themselves faced with the task of ensuring that they create an engaging work environment (Havaei, Dahinten, & MacPhee, 2015: 309). Several studies have been undertaken in the field of organizational commitment with most demonstrating the positive correlation between organizational commitment and employee traits that promote organizational effectiveness. Strategies that produce commitment are important factors that distinguish successful firms from unsuccessful firms and are considered as core ingredients in the survival and growth of the firms.

According to (Smith, 2009: 75), commitment is the willingness of social actors to offer energy and loyalty to the company. Xerri and Brunetto (2013: 3163) classify commitment into three categories as compliance, identification, and internalization. Havaei, Dahinten, and MacPhee (2015: 308) identified three basic themes that define the various strategies to organizational commitment conceptualizations namely perceived costs linked to leaving the organization, the moral obligation to remain in the firm, and the affective attachment to the company. In their study Iatridis, Kuznetsov, and Whyman (2016: 69) demonstrated a positive correlation between organizational commitment and the ability of the organization and the employees to adapt to unforeseeable events. Several other studies have established a positive correlation between commitment and the ability of employees and organizations to adapt to unforeseeable events. A number of studies suggest propose the role of organizational commitment in supporting organizational citizenship traits that are crucial in steering effective teamwork, empowerment, and reducing organizational bureaucracies (Austen & Zacny, 2015: 25).

Developing Affective Commitment

The affective commitment dimension represents the employee’s emotional attachment to the identification with and the involvement in the company. Organizational members who are committed on this level remain with the company because they consider their personal employment relationship as being congruent to the values and goals of the organization. It is a work related attitude that is characterised by positive feelings regarding the organization. This type of attitude can be conceptualized as an orientation towards the organization linking the identity of the individual to the company (Yingyan & O'Reilly, 2010: 833). The affective organizational commitment-based strategy illustrates that affective commitment is affected by factors including goal clarity, receptiveness by the managers, personal importance, participation, feedback, job challenge, equity, dependability, and peer dependability. Thus, development of affective commitment entails identification and internalisation. Employees’ affective attachment to their company is primarily founded on identification with the desire to establish a rewarding relationship with a company. Also through internalisation, which implies to the congruent values and goals shared by people in the company (McKay, Kuntz, & Näswall, 2013: 33). By and large, affective commitment is about the level to which individual identifies with the company.

Developing Continuance Commitment

Continuance commitment can be conceptualized as the awareness of the costs linked to leaving the firm. This can be calculated because it involves factors that can be calculated such as the weighting of costs and risks associated with leaving the current company (Aryee & Debrah, 2012: 175). Continuance commitment is considered the instrumental attachment to the firm in the instance where the employee’s association with the company is founded on the assessment of the economic benefits gained.

Employees develop commitment to the firm because of the positive extrinsic rewards and gains that they acquire through the effort-bargain but in the absence of identifying with the company’s values and goals. The strength of the continuance type of commitment as such referring to the need to stay is determined by the perceived costs of leaving the firm (Hauff, Alewell, & Hansen, 2014: 424). This implies that continuance organizational commitment will be strongest when the number of investments is high and the availability of the alternatives is few. Notably, this argument supports the position that when offered better alternatives, such employees will leave the company. Employees stay in the company because they are attracted by other accumulated investments which they are likely to lose such as seniority, pension, or organization specific skills. In order to retain employees who are continuance committed, companies need to give more attention and recognition to elements that boost their morale to be effectively committed.

Developing Normative Commitment

Normative commitment is the feeling of obligation to continue with the employment. Internalised normative values of duty and responsibility make employees obliged to sustain the organizational membership. Employees with a normative commitment believe that they ought to remain with the company. Thus, in the case of normative commitment, employees remain because they should do so. According to Wen-Hai and Yu-An (2009: 812), the level of normative organizational commitment is shaped by the accepted rules concerning reciprocal obligation between members and the company. The reciprocal obligation is rooted in the social exchange theory which proposes that an individual receiving a benefit is under a strong normative obligation to repay the benefit in some way. This means that employees often feel the obligation to repay the company for investing in them, for instance through training. Strategies that can be used to develop normative commitment include training and development and creation of better programs and benefits.

Other Strategies for Developing Organizational Commitment

Developing a shared vision and purpose

To create a clear and shared vision and purpose leaders should co work with their employees, this ensures that the objective of the organization is met.  The employees should as well be encouraged to participate in decision making and even in the implementation of the strategies laid. By doing so there is more input since all the staffs are given equal opportunities. The vision should create excitement and enthusiasm among the staff (Austen & Zacny, 2015: 26). By encouraging a supportive and teamwork environment, trustworthy and participative communication leaders can help to build commitment among their members and empower strategic changes.

Exploiting organizational cultures

Several studies have found out that organizational subcultures are better predictor of organizational commitment than organizational culture. This implies that the leaders must understand their organizations cultures and subcultures to build support amongst the staff (Smith, 2009: 76). By understanding the cultures and the subcultures of the organization leaders should fully support the employees by incorporating this into communication and working in the new strategies. Different groups to which people belong shape their views about the organizations this also affect their commitments to those organizations. 

Promoting aligned behaviours

Majority of the people do not behave in accordance with the organizational values. This has been a big challenge in the organizations. Promoting aligned behaviours in an organization can be done in four various ways

Setting challenging goals to increase motivation: By setting challenges goals which are motivating to the employees improves performance of the staff hence increasing production. Teams that set challenging goals are more enthusiastic about achieving the set goal and they hire important techniques in completing a given task compared to teams that set easily obtainable goals. Comparing the two works done by the two different teams, the challenging and motivating work ends up being done well (Smith, 2009: 77). For these strategies to proceed in a certain organization, the leaders must promote proactive goals generation and goal striving. This can be done by putting in place processes and support mechanisms that enable goal setting and tracking. The leaders should also certain that success is celebrated anytime it occurs, this ensures that the morale of the employees is not killed and in turn increases productivity of the employees.

Provision of process-oriented feedback: Communication and feedback are core features in ensuring employee satisfaction and commitment. Notably, the way communication and feedback is delivered plays a key role in creating motivation. Employees are more likely to accept feedback when it is perceived as process oriented such as actionable as opposed to when it is outcome oriented. In process oriented feedback, employees are able to pinpoint clear and specific actions that help them achieve their goals in future; with positive impact on satisfaction, performance, and commitment Xerri and Brunetto (2013: 3165). 

Targeting diverse motivational orientations: Different individuals are motivated differently. For instance, some people are motivated by achieving positive outcomes while others are motivated by the need for security representing the promotion focused and prevention focused strategies respectively (Austen & Zacny, 2015: 25). These different regulatory approaches define the different ways in which employees are likely to define their goals as well as the methods they use to achieve them. In order to develop commitment, leaders must be aware of these different regulatory approaches and adapt their commitment strategies accordingly.

Encourage self-efficacy: By improving the capabilities of employees, employers can strengthen their perception concerning their own ability to change and in turn affect their level of commitment (Smith, 2009: 76). This can be achieved through role modeling and encouragement which boosts their belief in their ability.

Conclusion

By and large, organizational commitment is linked with several benefits including higher productivity, personal sacrifice for the company, higher work quality, and employee retention. Employees who are committed to the company on an affective basis continue to work for the organization because they want to. Affective commitment is as such the relative strength of the employee’s identification with the involvement in a given company. The level of the affective commitment is shaped by the degree to which the needs and expectations of the employee concerning the company are matched by their actual experience. It is the value rationality-based organisational commitment implying the level of value congruence between the organization and the employee. Employees whose primary motivation to remaining in the company is the continuance commitment do so because they are forced by circumstances to remain. This is the basic differentiating factor of this dimension from the affective commitment where the motivation is the willingness to remain. Normative commitment is the work behaviour of employees that are guided by a sense of duty, loyalty, and obligation towards the company. The organizational members are committed based on moral reasons.