Managing organizational commitment: Insights from longitudinal research

This article summarizes what is known about the active management of affective organizational commitment (AOC) through a review of 58 studies employing longitudinal research designs. The review yields six broad categories of antecedents that have empirically demonstrated effects on AOC: socialization practices, organizational changes, human resource practices, interpersonal relations, employee–organizational relations, and a residual “other” category. Insights from the review include (a) that perceptions of personal attachment to the organization are among the most substantiated (but tenuous) strategies for enhancing AOC, (b) that theorizing and research efforts have focused almost exclusively on achieving high levels of AOC, and (c) organizations have been reticent to address situations when AOC is low. Implications and recommendations for the theoretical, research and practical advancement of AOC are offered.     

Religion and suicide acceptability: a cross-national analysis

Four perspectives (moral community thesis, religious integration, religious commitment, and social networks) guide the selection of variables in this study. Data are from the combined World Values/European Values Surveys for 2000 (50,547 individuals nested in 56 nations). The results of a multivariate hierarchical linear model support all four perspectives. Persons residing in nations with relatively high levels of religiosity, who are affiliated with one of four major faiths, are religiously committed, and are engaged with a religious network are found to be lower in suicide acceptability. The religious integration perspective, in particular, is empirically supported; affiliation with Islam is associated with low suicide acceptability. The findings provide strong support for an integrated model and demonstrate the usefulness of the moral community thesis in understanding suicide acceptability.     

Controverse relative à la relation entre le stress et la performance au travail : recherche d’explications

Despite many efforts, the relationship between stress and performance remains very controversial. No relational assumption seems to dominate and empirical results present contradictory observations. Pursuing to clarify this relationship, this study has two objectives: countercheck the relation between stress and performance at work and document the potential moderating effects of commitment and job satisfaction on this relation. From information collected by self-administered questionnaires, the statistical analysis demonstrates the absence of relation between stress and performance in the restoration sector and a negative relation for workers in the health sector. As for the moderating properties of commitment and satisfaction, it appears that these variables do not permit to enlighten the relational ambiguities between stress and performance. The discussion presents supporting explanation to the disparity of results between samples.     

普通高校辅导员的职业认同与工作满意度的关系

研究探讨了普通高校辅导员的工作压力、核心自我评价、职业认同和工作满意度的关系。研究发现:(1)辅导员的工作压力、职业认同和工作满意度与专业教师存在差异;(2)工作压力、核心自我评价、职业认同影响着辅导员的工作满意度;(3)核心自我评价调节着工作压力和职业认同的关系;工作压力经由职业认同影响着工作满意度,且这一中介效应受到核心自我评价的调节作用。     

心理契约、工作满意度与组织承诺关系

深入研究心理契约、工作满意度与组织承诺关系,将对组织变革中的人力资源管理具有重要理论和实践价值。本文首先回顾心理契约、工作满意度和组织承诺的概念,其次对心理契约、工作满意度和组织承诺之间的关系做一简单总结,最后提出对人力资源管理实践的启示。     

The promise and peril of self-affirmation in de-escalation of commitment

Drawing on the motivated cognition literature, we examine how self-affirmation processes influence self-justification needs and escalation decisions. Study 1 found that individuals with a larger pool of affirmational resources (high self-esteem) reduced their escalation compared to those with fewer affirmational resources (low self-esteem). Study 2 extended these findings by demonstrating that individuals also de-escalated their commitments when they were provided an opportunity to affirm on an important value. Finally, Study 3 found that affirming on traits that were of low relevance (e.g., creativity) to an initial decision reduced escalation, but affirming on decision-relevant traits (e.g., decision-making ability) ironically increased escalation. Across three studies, using three instantiations of self-affirmations and two measures of escalation, the results highlight the potential benefits and costs of using self-affirmation as a vehicle to de-escalate commitment.     

Perceptions of Organizational Politics: A Meta-analysis of Outcomes

Organizational researchers during the past few decades have increasingly focused on the role of subjective work issues and their impact on important worker-related outcomes. One of the most prominently studied factors, perceptions of organizational politics, has received much recent conceptual and empirical attention. In an effort to better understand the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and key outcomes, we apply meta-analysis on 79 independent samples from 59 published and unpublished studies involving 25,059 individual participants. Results indicate strong negative relationships between POP and job satisfaction and between POP and organizational commitment, moderately positive relationships between POP and the outcomes of job stress and turnover intentions, and a non-significant relationship between POP and in-role job performance. Moderator tests show that age, work setting (i.e., public sector or private sector), and cultural differences (i.e., domestic sample or international sample), have contingent effects on certain POP relationships.     

The Role of Pay Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in Turnover Intentions: A Two-Sample Study

This paper reports the results of a two-sample study—a sample of medical reps from pharmaceutical companies (N = 232) and a sample of respondents from multiple organizations (N = 221)—of the relationships between pay satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions. Hypotheses were tested using a multidimensional perspective on both pay satisfaction and organizational commitment. Results from both samples show that the effect of pay satisfaction on intended turnover is fully mediated by affective commitment and perceived sacrifice commitment. Pay satisfaction is also significantly related to normative commitment but the latter has no influence on the outcome. Finally, in the sample of medical reps, pay satisfaction significantly reduces commitment based on lack of employment alternatives, a finding that is interpreted in light of the characteristics of pay systems in pharmaceutical companies. Future directions on compensation satisfaction and commitment research are discussed.     

Socially oriented values and reciprocity norm predict organizational commitment

The current research concerns the predictors and organizational outcomes of normative commitment in Chinese companies. In Study 1, using a semi-structured interview, we identified internalization of socially oriented value and reciprocity norm as two possible predictors of normative commitment. Survey results confirm the factorial independence of these two predictors. Study 2 examined the predictive relationship of these predictors with employee job satisfaction, turnover intention, in-role performance, and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The results showed that value internalization predicts higher job satisfaction and weaker turnover intentions via normative commitment, whereas reciprocity predicts higher job satisfaction, weaker turnover intention, and more frequent display of OCB via normative commitment. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for future research and management practices.     

Why modal fictionalism is not self-defeating

Gideon Rosen’s [1990 Modal fictionalism. Mind, 99, 327–354] Modal Fictionalist aims to secure the benefits of realism about possible-worlds, whilst avoiding commitment to the existence of any world other than our own. Rosen [1993 A problem for fictionalism about possible worlds. Analysis, 53, 71–81] and Stuart Brock [1993 Modal fictionalism: A response to Rosen. Mind, 102, 147–150] both argue that fictionalism is self-defeating since the fictionalist is tacitly committed to the existence of a plurality of worlds. In this paper, I develop a new strategy for the fictionalist to pursue in response to the Brock–Rosen objection. I begin by arguing that modal fictionalism is best understood as a paraphrase strategy that concerns the propositions that are expressed, in a given context, by modal sentences. I go on to argue that what is interesting about paraphrastic fictionalism is that it allows the fictionalist to accept that the sentence ‘there is a plurality of worlds’ is true without thereby committing her to the existence of a plurality of worlds. I then argue that the paraphrastic fictionalist can appeal to a form of semantic contextualism in order to communicate her status as an anti-realist. Finally, I generalise my conception of fictionalism and argue that Daniel Nolan and John O’Leary-Hawthorne [1996 Reflexive fictionalisms. Analysis, 56, 26–32] are wrong to suggest that the Brock-Rosen objection reveals a structural flaw with all species of fictionalism.