IM ch. 3: Organizational Commitment 1
INDIVIDUAL
OUTCOMES
INDIVIDUAL
MECHANISMS
Motivation
Trust, Justice,
& Ethics
Learning &
Decision Making
Stress
Job
Satisfaction
Organizational
Commitment
Job
Performance
9/17/09 9:39:07 PM
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
The chapter opens with a discussion of three different types of
organizational commitment – affective, continuance, and normative.
Responses to negative events are also examined, including exit, voice,
loyalty and neglect, with exit and neglect also described as physical and
psychological withdrawal. Finally the chapter covers workplace trends
such as diversity and employee-employer relationships, which can
influence organizational commitment, and gives suggestions for fostering
a sense of commitment among employees.
LEARNING GOALS
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following
questions:
3.1  | What is organizational commitment? What is withdrawal behavior?
How are the two connected?
What are the three types of organizational commitment, and how
do they differ?
What are the four primary responses to negative events at work
What are some examples of psychological withdrawal? Of physical
withdrawal? How do the different forms of withdrawal relate to each
other?
What workplace trends are affecting organizational commitment in
today’s organizations?
How can organizations foster a sense of commitment among
employees?
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6 CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Organizational Commitment
A. Organizational commitment is defined as the desire on the part of
an employee to remain a member of the organization
B. Employees who are not committed to their organizations engage in
withdrawal behavior – actions that help the employee to avoid the
work situation
II. What Does It Mean to Be a “Committed” Employee?
Try This! Open the class by asking students to picture a scenario
where they’ve worked for their first employer for a number of years and
have been approached by a competitor. Ask them what factors would
cause them to stay and list those factors on the board, subtly grouping
IM ch. 3: Organizational Commitment 2
them into affective, continuance, and normative factors (without using
those terms). Allow the students to guess what the groupings reflect.
This process will result in a table similar to Table 3-1.
A. Types of Commitment
1. Affective Commitment – a desire to remain a member of an
organization due to an emotional attachment to, and
involvement with, that organization
a. Research shows that people with affective commitment
engage in more interpersonal and organizational citizenship
behaviors, such as helping, sportsmanship, and boosterism
b. Affective behavior is influenced by the bonds between
employees
i. Erosion model says that employees with fewer bonds will
be more likely to quit the organization
ii. Social influence model says that employees who have
direct linkages with “leavers” will themselves be more
likely to leave
OB Assessments. This brief survey can be used to give
students a feel for their affective commitment levels, if
they are currently working (or have recently worked).
Use a show of hands to see how many students fell
above and below the average level, and see if students
will volunteer any extremely high or low scores. Ask
students with particularly high scores what explains their
levels, and do the same for students with particularly low
scores. Do the part-time employees in the class feel less
committed than the full-time employees? Why might that
be?
2. Continuance Commitment – a desire to remain a member of an
organization because of awareness of the costs associated with
leaving it
a. Continuance commitment is increased by the investment an
employee has in an organization, as well as lack of
employment alternatives
b. Embeddedness summarizes an individual’s links to the
organization and community, and what he or she would have
to sacrifice for a job change. The more embedded a person
IM ch. 3: Organizational Commitment 3
is, the more likely he or she will stay in his or her current
position.
OB on Screen: The Incredibles. Chapters 7 of the DVD
(beginning at 26:53 and ending at 30:41 for a total running
time of 3 minutes, 48 seconds) depict Bob Parr (once a
superhero named Mr. Incredible) as he tries to adjust to life
at Insuracare--the insurance company in which he’s been
placed as part of the Superhero Relocation Program. Ask the
students why Bob remains committed to Insuracare--what
form of commitment does he feel and why does he feel it?
Does Insuracare benefit from Bob’s commitment? Why or
why not? Note that this discussion could take a broad view
on the consequences of commitment--including not only
voluntary turnover but also behaviors that are
counterproductive to the firm.
Try This! Use the Incredibles clip for a different chapter. The
clip provides a good demonstration of low job satisfaction in
Chapter 4--in terms of both a poor supply of relevant values
(such as altruism) in value-percept theory and low levels of
significance in job characteristics theory. The clip also
illustrates low levels of psychological empowerment in
Chapter 6 on Motivation. Bob’s “bending” of the rules can
also be discussed from the perspective of the moral
principles in Chapter 7 on Trust, Justice, and Ethics. Finally,
the boss’s behavior is indicative of a number of ineffective
leadership styles in Chapter 14 on Leader Styles and
Behaviors, including passive management-by-exception.
Bonus OB on Screen (from 1st ed): The Firm. Chapters
2-3 of the DVD (beginning at 2:34 and ending at 13:25 for a
total running time of 10 minutes, 51 seconds) depict Mitch
McDeere, a Harvard law student, as he interviews with
Bandini, Lambert, and Locke, a small law firm in Memphis.
The scenes reveal a firm that encourages marriage and
children to its employees, because children bring stability.
The firm seems charming, if old fashioned, until the end of
the second chapter, when a somewhat sinister-looking man
meets with the senior partners to detail the phone calls
Mitch’s wife made from their hotel. That scene hints at the
true nature of the firm, which has the mob as its primary
client. One topic for class discussion is whether the firm is
really taking the right approach in building commitment
among its lawyers—is it smart for them to focus on building
continuance commitment and embeddedn