Culture and Commitment

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Human Resource Management in a Business Context, 3rd edition
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Human Resource Management in a Business Context provides an international focus on the theory and practice of people management. A thorough and comprehensive overview of all the key aspects of HRM, including articles from HRM Guide and other sources, key concepts, review questions and case studies for discussion and analysis.
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Commitment

(...) Commitment is one of the original 4-Cs featured in the influential Harvard model of HRM (Beer et al., 1984). It is regarded as an immediate and, perhaps, the most critical outcome of human resource strategy since employee commitment is seen as the key factor in achieving competitive performance. (...) For Hendry (1995) commitment 'implies an enhancement of the individual and his or her skills, and not simply what this can deliver to the organization'. Goss (1994) wonders if commitment is 'HRM's Holy Grail?'

This paper discusses the connection between organizational commitment and gender: 'Organisation Man - Women and Organisational Culture' by G. Coates in Sociological Research Online

Commitment and culture

According to this viewpoint, commitment to the mission and values of the organization is a fundamental principle. As a concept it is clearly related to that of 'strong' corporate culture. Commitment goes further than simple compliance: it is an emotional attachment to the organization.

Commitment strategies

Commitment is an element of the 'psychological contract' between employer and employee.

Justifying commitment

There are a number of contradictions inherent in the notion of commitment. (...) As a combination of these, commitment can range from affective identification, a real intellectual and emotional identification with the organization, to mere behavioural compliance, simply presenting an appearance of the attitudes and behaviours expected by senior managers (Legge, 1995).

The softening economy and accompanying layoffs has workers feeling insecure and defensive, which manifests in negative behavior such as pessimistic talk and bad attitudes. Managing Workplace Negativity on HRM Guide USA

A Gallup study indicates that "actively disengaged" employees - workers who are fundamentally disconnected from their jobs - are costing the U.S. economy between $292 billion and $355 billion a year. Actively disengaged workers cost U.S. hundreds of billions a year on HRM Guide USA

Committed to what?

Individuals may identify with their work at a variety of levels: their job, profession, department, boss or organization. realistically, commitment may be diverse and divided between any or all of these. (...) Commitment conflicts with the notion of flexibility. Numerical flexibility has been a predominant feature of recent years, with 'downsizing' and 'delayering' being an obsession of many large companies. A climate of fear has been created for those people remaining.(...)

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