The Commitment Conundrum

One of the most fundamental issues which Human Resource (HR) faces is how to induce or build commitment in employees towards achieving the objectives of the organization and the vision and mission of the organization. For a desired organizational culture, the employees should also be committed to their colleagues. Are there any fundamental principles to be followed by the organization to seek commitment? Are compensation, promotion and good environment enough to demand absolute commitment? Do specific businesses or activities create more commitment than others? This paper tries to understand how organizations can create commitment. It argues that the role of leaders, especially transformational and servant leaders, organizational commitment towards employees' wellbeing, and the journey towards perfection in work induced by the organization are some of areas which an organization can focus on to seek commitment from employees.IntroductionCommitment is defined as a strong belief in an idea or system or a promise to do something. As Guest (1987) indicated, HRM policies are designed to maximize organizational integration, employee commitment, flexibility and quality of work. With all the HR policies in place, regular enhancement in salary, promotions, seeing that the employees are satisfied with the job environment and profile, the organization expects commitment from the employees. The competitive edge in today's business scenario is not capital, technology or land, but Human Resource (HR). Hiring and retaining talented HR is considered a sine qua non for marching forward and being numero uno in one's line of business. But growth, competitive advantage, good results and capturing the market are all, in some way or the other, dependent upon the commitment the employee has towards the goals and objectives of the organization.Organizational commitment is the individual's psychological attachment to the organization. The essential element is to find out how the workers feel about their jobs so that these workers would become more committed to their organizations. More specifically, organizational commitment is defined by Mowday et al. (1982) as consisting of three components: (1) An identification with the goals and values of the organization; (2) A desire to belong to the organization; and (3) A willingness to display effort on behalf of the organization.Meyer and Allen (1997) have proposed a three-component model, which highlights affective commitment (individuals want to be attached to the organization), continuance commitment (individuals feel they need to be attached to the organization) and normative commitment (individuals feel they ought to remain with the organization).Literature ReviewMuch of the literature on the relationship between commitment and satisfaction with one's job indicates that if employees are satisfied, they develop stronger commitment to their work. Lincoln and Kalleberg (1996) studied the work attitudes of workers in the USA and Japan and found a correlation of 0.73 between job satisfaction and organizational commitment of workers in Japan and a higher significant correlation of 0.81 among Americans.Lucas (1999) says, People commit to an idea, dream, goal, or cause as it is embedded in an organization. We have to create our organizations with some embedded cause or causes that people can be committed to in a non-rational (not irrational) way. Lucas advocates setting goals to gain employee commitment.Hassan (2002) found a correlation between organizational justice and organizational commitment. According to Bragg (2002), there are four distinct types of committed employees.1. Want to: These are dedicated and loyal employees and are eager to take on additional responsibility, exhibit positive attitudes, and put out extra effort.2. Have to: These are trapped employees. They are unable to find other jobs or are close to retirement. They have bad attitudes and poor work habits. …