Organizational commitment: exploring the role of identity
| Date | 07 November 2019 |
| Published date | 07 November 2019 |
| Pages | 774-790 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-04-2019-0148 |
| Author | Leila Afshari,Suzanne Young,Paul Gibson,Leila Karimi |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Organizational commitment:
exploring the role of identity
Leila Afshari
Department of Management, Sport, and Tourism,
La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Suzanne Young
La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Paul Gibson
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, and
Leila Karimi
La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of how identification process is
associated with development of organizational commitment.
Design/methodology/approach –A mixed-method approach incorporating surveys and interviews was
employed. Data were obtained from a manufacturing organization in Australia. A clustering method was
employed to identify commitment profiles. Respondents belonging to the clusters representing commitment
profiles associated with desirable organizational outcomes were identified forthe qualitativestage of the research.
Findings –The results showed that both organizational identity and professional/occupational identity are
positively linked to the development of organizational commitment. An in-depth analysis of the qualitative
data demonstrated that engagement of personal/individual level of self in identification process enhances the
development of organizational commitment.
Practical implications –The findings suggest that human resource managers can build an effective
identification process by strengthening feelings of organizational identity and creating a positive
organizational image.
Originality/value –To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to employ a mixed-method
approach to explore the relationship between organizational commitment and identification process.
A mixed-method approach, on the one hand, enabled us to build on the existing objectivist commitment literature
and explore commitment profiles, and on the other hand, it allowed us to provide a more complete and contextual
portrayal of organizational commitment and identification process through qualitative interpretive strategies.
Keywords Quantitative, Mixed methodologies, Qualitative, Manufacturing, Occupational identity,
Organizational commitment, Organizational identity, Identification
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
There is a widespread agreement among human resource (HR) practitioners that a high level
of organizational commitment delivers many benefits to the organizations (Mostafa et al.,
2019). Indeed, organizational commitment is a primary consideration for HR management
when designing HR practices. The traditional view of organizational commitment with its
limited focus on employee turnover, however, has become obsolete (Kidd and Green, 2006).
In today’s agile business environment, employee turnover is no longer enough to create
desirable organizational outcomes and HR practitioners seem to have shifted their focus to
the types of commitment that lead to competitive advantage of the organizations. Research
shows that organizational commitment has stronger links with positive HR outcomes when
it is rooted in employees’emotional attachment to the organization (Lee et al., 2008; Mostafa
et al., 2019). This informs the primary aim of this research that is to explore the relationships
between organizational commitment and identity. Identity is referred to as one’s emotional
association with one’s organization/occupation/role/work (Lee et al., 2008). Understanding
Personnel Review
Vol. 49 No. 3, 2020
pp. 774-790
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-04-2019-0148
Received 5 April 2019
Revised 31 August 2019
Accepted 8 September 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
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PR
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how employees identify with their organization/occupation/role/work is important to HR
managers in order to design a HR system to boost desirable organizational commitment.
Organizational commitment as a long-term stabilising and binding force that binds
employees to a course of action (Meyer and Herscovitch, 2001) has been widely associated
with desirable organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction, job motivation and role
performance (Meyer et al., 2012). Although organizational commitment has received
enormous attention from HR management researchers, much of the research has focused on
antecedent conditions of commitment related to organizational supports, such as leadership
(Su and Baird, 2017) than, antecedents related to employees’attitudes, such as identity.
Moreover, most studies that attempted to reveal the relationships between organizational
commitment and identity, have primarily treated these two concepts interchangeably as
both reflect a psychological connection between the individual and the organization (Lee
et al., 2008; van Knippenberg and Sleebos, 2006). In other words, these studies seem to see
the two concepts as analogous. This could be related to two points: one being a lack of
agreement that exists with regard to the distinction between identity and commitment; and
two, the strong empirical correlations in the measurement of these two concepts (van Dick,
2016). Consequently, studies of the two concepts have been mainly conducted independent
of each other (Meyer et al., 2006), with little interest in combining the two literatures. Some
scholars have articulated similarities and differences between these two concepts (van Dick,
2016; van Knippenberg and Sleebos, 2006) in an attempt to integrate these two streams of
research. van Dick (2016) has argued that models that assume the two concepts are related
but different, seem to be superior to the models that treat the concepts as interchangeable.
Gautam et al. (2004) tested the empirical distinctiveness of these two concepts concluding
that commitment and identification are related but distinguishable concepts. Moreover, van
Knippenberg and Sleebos (2006) exploring the differences between commitment and
identification proposed t hat commitment reflects a rela tionship between separa te
psychological entities whereas identification reflects psychological oneness. The present
study, therefore, will explore the concepts of commitment and identity employing a holistic
triangulation approach to generate deeper insight into the relationships between these
two concepts.
The current literature on commitment is primarily objectivist and has recently shifted its
focus from a single form of commitment-mainly affective commitment (AC)-to three-
component commitment model (TCM) (Meyer and Allen, 1991) arguing that every individual
can simultaneously experience three commitment forms of affective, normative and
continuance. TCM proposes that every individual’s commitment is a combination of these
three forms of commitment and is best characterized as commitment profile. Despite this
advancement in the literature, much of the prior research has undertaken a limited approach
and focused only onAC. Such research neglects the combined effect of different commitment
forms. Hence, the present research adopted a mixed-method approach which, on one hand,
allowed usto build on the existing objectivistTCM literature,and on the other hand, it enabled
us to provide a more complete and contextual portrayal of organizational commitment and
identificationprocess through qualitative interpretive strategies.In adopting a mixed-method
approach incorporating surveys and interviews, holistictriangulation is used to demonstrate
how identification binds individuals to collectives, such as organizations, roles, and
occupations engaging their personal level of self (Turner et al., 2017).
2. Literature review
2.1 Organizational commitment
Organizational commitment is multi-dimensional with three different mind-sets
comprised of desire, perceived obligation, and perceived cost of leaving (Meyer et al.,
2004). Each of the mind-sets can be categorized, respectively, into one of three different
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Exploring the
role of identity
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