Employee perception on commitment oriented work systems

Literature critique
The study aimed to establish the relationship between employee perception on commitment oriented work systems and the managerial perceptions of employee commitment in the work place. Further, the study focused to assess the moderating role of employee perception of his or her role on the relationship between the motive to improve one’s self-image and job performance behaviors. The authors conducted a study that evaluated the effects of employee self-enhancement motives on job performance behaviors and the impact of these behaviors to them. Therefore, it was discovered that employees display job performance behaviors in part to improve their self-image, especially when their role is not clearly defined in the organization. Further, the effect of these behaviors on managerial reward recommendation decisions should be powerful when managers believe the employees to be more committed to their work.
The research attempted to identify the relationship between employee trust or loyalty to managers and employee’s in-role and extra-role performance in comparison with that of organizational commitment in the organizations. Due to increased popularity of the idea of employee commitment, researchers in this study turned their attention to multiple commitments in that in addition to the organizations as a focus of commitment, other important factors such as management, performance, and occupation were incorporated in the study. There are several theories included in this study. For instance, McGregor’s’ theoretical differentiation between theory X and theory Y has been applied. Theory X shows employees dislike work, lack motivation; avoid work and external motivation such as punishment is used as a way of motivation. This in turn results in poor performance. Theory Y on the other hand states that poor performance cannot be attributed to human nature but to an imperfect work system. Therefore, managers should realize that employees want self-control, self-direction, seeks and accepts responsibility. In turn, Theory X calls for use of a commitment oriented work system. The theory advocates for a universal employee preference for autonomy, self-control, and responsibility. Thus, an effective commitment HR system should fit these assumptions better than the control HR system.
The experimental design in this study relied on variables such type of work and type of contract. These variables were efficient in that they presented the relationship that exists in the work place when an employee knows the kind of work he or she does. The problem with this design is that it relied more on primary data. In this case, the results cannot be effective since it involves individual response. In addition, validity was jeopardized by experimental procedures, pretesting and differential selection among employees of the organization. The conceptual framework of this study was derived from the idea or concept of organizational commitment. The definition of organizational commitment emphasized acceptance of organizational goals, responsibility, and the desire to remain with the employer. The researcher must evaluate and study a smaller sample of employees from different companies in order to make conclusions concerning the larger group from which the main sample data was derived. In this manner, the researcher will be in a position to make conclusions about the larger population.
Control variables in this study included the age of the employee, type of work in the organization and type of contract. The dependent variables included employee trust and perceived job security to the management of the organization. Employees age is positively related to indefinite contracts while employee trust and perceived job security is positively related to employee’s self-control and self-image in the work place. The major limitation to the study is that it relied on one source of information and large data set, which usually result to large number of significant relationships between the individual variables. The research should gather data from different companies in Netherlands and other studies conducted on the topic in order to come up with an effective assumption. This will make the research contain additional evidence to support its arguments regarding the relationship between employee perception on commitment oriented work systems and the managerial perceptions of employee commitment in the work place. The methodology used in this research was less judgmental, and focused on collected data as reflected by control and dependent variables.
Work Cited
Boselie, Paul, Hesselink, Martin, Jaap, Paauwe, and Ton Van Der Wiele. Employee Perception
On Commitment Oriented Work Systems: Effects on Trust and Perceived Job Security.
Erasmus Research Institute of Management, 2000