Commitment refers to attachment
and loyalty. Mowday et al (1982:416), commitment consists of three components
Viz: Identification with the
goals, values of the organization and willingness to display effort on behalf
of the organization. Closely related definition of commitment, emphasizes the
importance of behaviour in creating commitment, as Salanick (1977:306) puts it
that commitment is a state of being in which an individual becomes bound by his
action to belief that sustain his activities and his own involvement. The
forgoing sees commitment as identification with the goals and values of
the
organization as well as being bound by action of the belief system of the organization. A belief
in the positive value of commitment has been confidently expressed by Walton
(1985: 106).
Underlying
human resources polices is a management Philosophy, often embedded in a
published statement, that acknowledge the legitimate claim of a company’s
multiple stake-holders, owners, employees, customers and the general public. At
the center of this philosophy is a belief that employee commitment leads to
enhanced organizational performance. The evidence shows this belief to be well
founded.
However, a review by Guest (1991:
207) led to the conclusion that high organizational commitment is associated
with lower labour turnover and absence. Strong commitment to work is likely to
result in conscientious and self-directed application to the job, regular
attention, nominal supervision and high level of effort.
Commitment to the organization
will certainly be related to the intention to stay and loyalty to the
organization (griffin, 1984: 281). In other words, efforts should be made by
management to secure workforce commitment on the part of organisational
participants, else organizational goals will be difficult to achieve.