Topic: Job Attitudes, Organizational Commitment
Publication: Academy of Management Journal
Article: Giving commitment: Employee support programs and the pro-social sense-making process.
Author: A.M. Grant, J.E. Dutton, B.D. Rosso
Blogger: Benjamin Granger
Since the nature of work and
employees’ relationships with their employers is changing (e.g., work from home
programs, more autonomy), it is becoming increasingly important for
organizations to foster affective organizational commitment. This
refers to a psychological attachment that helps bind an employee to his/her
organization. More specifically,
it’s an emotional attachment to one’s organization (feel like part of a family,
attached to coworkers).
Employees who are
affectively committed to their organizations perform better at work, show
decreased absenteeism, and are less likely to turnover. Basically, affectively committed
employees are gold mines!
Recognizing the value of
fostering affective commitment in the workplace, many organizations have begun
implementing employee support programs such as various employee aid programs,
work-family programs that may include childcare or elder care.
So here is how it might go…You
and I work for Company A. In an
effort to increase our affective commitment, Company A implements several
employee assistance programs. These
make us feel supported and thus more attached to our company, and bam! … We
become more productive employees (and Cinderella lived happily ever after!). Seems reasonable, right?
Interestingly, researchers
Grant, Dutton, and Rosso (2008) found that these support programs can also
foster affective commitment by giving employees the opportunity to help others.
(Whoa, so is it really better to
give than receive? Perhaps so!)
In a series of two studies
including employees from a Fortune 500 retail company, Grant and colleagues
found that giving (yes, giving) can lead to increased affective commitment on
the part of the employee. This
implies that employee assistance programs work (i.e., do indeed increase
employee commitment) partly due to the opportunities they give employees to
help or give to fellow employees in need. In many such programs, fellow organizational members are
given the opportunity to help others and give to others within the organization
(e.g., financial donations under hard times). Thus, the act of giving leads to affective organizational
commitment!
Grant et al. also found that
when employees give to others within the organization (through a support
program), they are likely to feel that both they and the organization are
caring. And this fosters the
commitment that management desires.
In summary, Grant and
colleagues found that employee support programs cultivate commitment through
both self-interest (e.g., “what can
this program help ME with”) and other-interest
(e.g., “this program gives me the chance to help my fellow coworkers in need”)
pathways.
