Investigating the effect of collective organizational commitment on unit-level performance and absence

Neil Conway, Rob B. Briner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

38 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

The relationship between individual-level organizational commitment and employee's performance has been the subject of considerable empirical investigation over several decades. However, few studies have examined the effect of collective organizational commitment on unit or organizational-level performance, even though available theory suggests commitment's effects may be stronger at the unit level. We present results of a study examining the effects of unit-level organizational commitment on the speed and quality of performance, and employee absence, drawing on a sample of 893 service sector employees (representing a 90% response rate) from 39 office units in a UK public sector organization. Results show that unit-level organizational commitment was statistically significantly associated with both unit-level performance quality (i.e., reduced customer complaints per service transaction) and performance speed (i.e., customer average queuing time). Collective organizational commitment was not significantly associated with a unit-level measure of the average time customers spent at service counters with the tellers, nor was it associated with unit-level employee absence.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)472-486
JournalJournal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
Volume85
Issue number3
Early online date6 Jan 2012
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2012

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