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 ?is 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's identification with, and involvement in, a particular organization.
O'Reilly explains organizational commitment as:
Typically conceived of as individual's psychological bond to the organization including a sense of job involvement, loyalty, and a belief in the values of the organization.
O'Reilly 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 ...