Among the factors which contribute to a healthy organizational climate, high morale and
motivation, is the extent to which members of staff have a sense of commitment to the
organization. The extent to their commitment will have a major influence on the level of
work performance. Walton suggests that a significant change in approaches to the
organization and management of work is from organizational control to commitment in the
workplace. The evidence is well grounded that underlying all the policies of commitment
strategy is a management philosophy at the centre of which “œis a belief that eliciting
employee commitment will lead to enhanced performance.
The concept of commitment itself, and the manner in which it is actually created, is not
easy to describe. There does, however, appear to be a growing acceptance of the notion of
attachment and loyalty. Commitment may be defined in terms of the relative strength of
the employee identification with, and involvement in, a particular organization.
OReilly explains organizational commitment as:
Typically conceived of as individual psychological bond to the organization including a
sense of job involvement, loyalty, and a belief in the values of the organization.
OReilly suggests three processes or stages of commitment:
Compliance, where a person accepts the influence of others mainly to obtain something
from others, such as pay; this is followed by
Identification, in which the individual accepts influence in order to maintain a satisfying
relationship and to feel pride in belonging to the organization; with leads to
Internalization, in which the individual finds the values of the organization to be
