Employee commitment: academic vs practitioner perspectives

Employee Relations - Tập 22 Số 6 - Trang 555-575 - 2000
Jeryl L.Shepherd1, Brian P.Mathews1
1University of Luton, Luton, UK

Tóm tắt

Employee commitment has been extensively researched by academics. Theories about commitment towards the organisation have enjoyed much interest. The concept is a central part of HR models. Research to date, however, has not examined the extent to which such “academic” perspectives are compatible with the views of practitioners. Hence, this research establishes practitioner’s understanding of employee commitment in a variety of UK private sector organisations. The findings of a national survey, distributed to 300 HRM managers (response rate 32 per cent), indicate a wide recognition of the desirability and benefits of commitment, but clear disparity between the way academics and practitioners conceptualise and measure it. Despite the variety of formal measuring tools available, organisational monitoring of commitment can be described as ad hoc and subjective. We conclude that the subjective approach adopted by practitioners could inform the approaches of academics just as the structured “objective” approaches of academics should inform practitioners.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Allen, N. and Meyer, J. (1990), “The measurement of antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organisation,” Journal of Occupational Psychology, Vol. 63, pp 1‐18.

Beardwell, I. and Holden, L. (1997), HRM: A Contemporary Perspective, Pitman, London.

Becker, H. (1960), “Notes on the concept of commitment”, American Journal of Sociology, Part 66, pp. 32‐40.

Beer, M., Spector, B., Lawrence, P., Quinn Mills, D. and Walton, R. (1985), HRM: A General Managers Perspective, Free Press, New York, NY.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (1999), Human Resource Management, Macmillian, Hampshire.

Buchanan, B. (1974), “Building organisational commitment: the socialisation of managers in work organisations”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 19, pp. 533‐46.

Buchanan, B. (1975), “To walk an extra mile”, Organisation Dynamics, Vol. 3, pp. 67‐80.

Cook, J. and Wall, T. (1980), “New work attitude measures of trust, organisational commitment and personal need non‐fulfilment”, Journal of Occupational Psychology, Vol. 53, pp. 39‐52.

Cook, J. and Wall, T. (1981), “A note on some new scales for measuring aspects of psychological well being at work”, Journal of Occupational Psychology, Vol. 54, pp. 221‐5.

Coopey, J. and Hartley, J. (1991), “Reconsidering the case for organisational commitment”, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 1 No. 3, Spring, pp. 18‐32.

Farnham, D. and Pimlott, J. (1990), Understanding Industrial Relations 4th ed., Cassell, London.

Festinger, L. (1957), A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Stanford University Press, Stanford.

Goffman, E. (1961), Asylums, Pelican Books, Middlesex.

Guest, D. (1987), “Human resource management and industrial relations”, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 24, pp. 503‐21.

Guest, D. (1995), “Human resource management, trade unions and industrial relations”, in Storey, J. (Ed.), Human Resource Management: Still Marching on or Marching out? and Human Resource Management: A Critical Test, Routledge, London.

Guest, D. (1998), “Beyond HRM: commitment and the contract culture”, in Sparrow, P. and Marchington, M. (Eds), Human Resource Management: The New Agenda, Financial Times Publishing, London.

Hall, D. and Schneider, B. (1972), “Correlates of organisational identification”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 17, pp. 340‐50.

Kanter, R. (1968), “Commitment and social organisation: a study of commitment mechanisms in utopian communities”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 499‐517.

Kiechel, W. (1985), “Resurrecting corporate loyalty”, Fortune, 9 December.

Legge, K. (1995a), “HRM: rhetoric, reality and hidden agendas”, in Storey (Ed.), Human Resource Management: A Critical Text, Routledge, London.

Legge, K. (1995b), Human Resource Management, Rhetoric’s and Realities, Macmillan, Basingstoke.

Mabey, C., Salaman, G. and Storey, J. (1988) (Eds), Strategic Human Resource Management: A Reader, Sage, London.

Meyer, J. and Allen, N. (1984), “Testing the side bets theory of organisational commitment”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 69, pp. 372‐8.

Mowday, R., Steers, R. and Porter, L. (1979), “The measurement of organisational commitment”, Journal of Vocational Behaviour, Vol. 14, pp. 224‐47.

Mowday, R., Steers, R. and Porter, L. (1982), Employee‐organisation Linkages: The Psychology of Commitment, Absenteeism and Turnover, Academic Press, London.

Oppenheim, A. (1992), Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement, Pinter, London.

Porter, L. Steers, R. Mowday, R. and Boulian, P. (1974), “Organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover among psychiatric technicians,” Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 59, pp. 603‐9.

Ritzer, G. and Trice, H. (1969), “An empirical study of Howard Becker’s side bet theory”, Social Forces, June, pp 475‐9.

Salancik, G. (1977), “Commitment and control of organisational and belief”, in Staw, B. and Salancik, G. (Eds), New Directions in Organisational Behaviour, St Clair Press, Chicago, IL.

Schmitt, N. and Klimoski, R. (1991), Research Methods in Human Resources Management, South‐Western Publishing, Cincinnati, OH.

Selltiz, C., Jahoda, M., Deutsch, M. and Cook, S. (1973), Research Methods in Social Relations, Methuen and Co., London.

Sisson, K. (1994), Personnel Management, Blackwell, Oxford.

Staw, B. and Salancik, G. (1977), New Directions in Organisational Behaviour, St Clair Press, Chicago, IL.

Steers, R. (1977), “Antecedents and outcomes of organisational commitment”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 22, pp. 46‐56.

Storey, J. (1995), “Human resource management: still marching on or marching out?”, Human Resource Management: A Critical Text, Routledge, London.

Tyson, S. (1995), Human Resource Strategy, Pitman, London.

Walton, R. (1985), “Toward a strategy of eliciting employee commitment based on policies of mutuality”, in Walton and Lawrence (Eds), HRM Trends and Challenges, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA.

Wiener, Y. (1982), “Commitment in organisations: a normative view”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 418‐28.

Wiener, Y. and Vardi, Y. (1980), “Relationships between job organisation and career commitments and work outcomes – an integrative approach”, Organisational Behaviour and Human Performance, Vol. 26, pp. 81‐96.

Wood, S. (1995), “Can we speak of high commitment on the shop floor?”, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 32 No. 2, pp. 215‐47.

Wood, S. (1996), “High commitment management and unionisation in the UK”, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 53‐77.

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Employee Relations

Tập 22 Số 6

555-575

Thông tin tác giả