Communication and Commitment in Organizations: A Social Identity Approach

Results of two studies show that horizontal communications (informal, with proximate colleagues, of socio-emotional content) are less strongly related to levels of commitment at both organizational and unit level, than are vertical communications (strategic information and communication with management). In addition, it was shown that vertical communication from senior management predicts organizational commitment best, whereas commitment with the unit is predicted better by vertical communication at that level. Results are inconsistent with approaches to commitment in organizations and teams that assume commitment stems from interpersonal relations, but more consistent with approaches to organizational commitment based on a social identity approach which tend to focus on social-level antecedents of commitment and identification.

[1]  Harold Jack Leavitt.  Managerial Psychology: An Introduction to Individuals, Pairs, and Groups in Organizations , 1972 .

[2]  Michael G. Pratt,et al.  To be or not to be: Central questions in organizational identification. , 1998 .

[3]  James Kohnen,et al.  Creating High Performance Organizations: Practices and Results of Employee Involvement and Total Quality Management in Fortune 1000 Companies , 1996 .

[4]  Susan Albers Mohrman,et al.  Creating high performance organizations : practices and results of employee involvement and Total Quality Management in Fortune 1000 companies , 1995 .

[5]  P. Wright.  The Social Psychology of Organizations, (2nd Ed): Daniel Katz and Robert L. Kahn New York: Wiley, 1978, 838 pp. , 1979 .

[6]  D. Cremer,et al.  Psychology in organizations: The social identity approach , 2001 .

[7]  Erik W. Larson,et al.  Relationships Between Worker Behavior and Commitment to the Organization and Union. , 1984 .

[8]  Tom Postmes,et al.  Social identity, group norms, and "deindividuation" Lessons from computer-mediated communication for social influence in the group , 1999 .

[9]  N. Ellemers,et al.  Self‐categorisation, commitment to the group and group self‐esteem as related but distinct aspects of social identity , 1999 .

[10]  R. Kahn,et al.  The Social Psychology of Organizations , 1966 .

[11]  Naomi Ellemers,et al.  Social Identity: Context, Commitment, Content , 1999 .

[12]  A. Pruyn,et al.  THE IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION AND PERCEIVED EXTERNAL PRESTIGE ON ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTIFICATION , 2000 .

[13]  Naomi Ellemers,et al.  PERCEIVED INTRAGROUP VARIABILITY AS A FUNCTION OF GROUP STATUS AND IDENTIFICATION , 1995 .

[14]  D. D. Gilder,et al.  Het drie-componenten model van commitment. , 1997 .

[15]  D. D. Gilder,et al.  Het 3-componentenmodel van commitment , 1997 .

[16]  M. Hogg,et al.  Social Identity and Self-Categorization Processes in Organizational Contexts , 2000 .

[17]  Paul C. Godfrey,et al.  Identity in organizations : building theory through conversations , 2000 .

[18]  D. Gunzburg.  New forms of work organization , 1985 .

[19]  John P. Meyer,et al.  A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment , 1991 .

[20]  Fred A. Mael,et al.  Identifying Organizational Identification , 1992 .

[21]  Paul J. Kobulnicky,et al.  Commitment in the workplace: Theory, research and application , 1998 .

[22]  Bruce Buchanan.  BUILDING ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT: THE SOCIALIZATION OF MANAGERS IN WORK ORGANIZATIONS , 1974 .

[23]  R. Kanter.  COMMITMENT AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION: A STUDY OF COMMITMENT MECHANISMS IN UTOPIAN COMMUNITIES * , 1968 .

[24]  John P. Meyer,et al.  Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment to the Organization: An Examination of Construct Validity , 1996, Journal of vocational behavior.

[25]  A. Lott,et al.  Group cohesiveness as interpersonal attraction: a review of relationships with antecedent and consequent variables. , 1965, Psychological bulletin.

[26]  John P. Meyer,et al.  The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization , 1990 .

[27]  Rex B. Kline,et al.  Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling , 1998 .

[28]  M. Hogg,et al.  Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. , 1989 .

[29]  Donna M. Randall,et al.  The consequences of organizational commitment: Methodological investigation , 1990 .

[30]  John P. Meyer,et al.  Links between work experiences and organizational commitment during the first year of employment: A longitudinal analysis* , 1988 .

[31]  Vernon D. Miller,et al.  Reconsidering the Organizational Identification Questionnaire , 2000 .

[32]  Michael A. Hogg,et al.  The Social Psychology of Group Cohesiveness: From Attraction to Social Identity , 1992 .

[33]  Peter M. Bentler,et al.  EQS : structural equations program manual , 1989 .

[34]  J. Levine,et al.  Progress in Small Group Research , 1990 .

[35]  Paul Thompson,et al.  Hands, Hearts and Minds: Changing Work and Workers at the End of the Century , 1998 .

[36]  Nancy Foy,et al.  Empowering people at work , 1994 .

[37]  S. Moscovici,et al.  Introduction à la psychologie sociale , 1972 .

[38]  S. Albert,et al.  The Definition and Metadefinition of Identity , 1998 .

[39]  Thomas E. Becker.  Foci and Bases of Commitment: Are They Distinctions Worth Making? , 1992 .

[40]  Lyman W. Porter,et al.  Employee-Organization Linakges: The Psychology of Commitment, Absenteeism and Turnover , 1985 .

[41]  M. Wood.  Language: Contexts and Consequences. , 1993 .

[42]  Clinton O. Longenecker,et al.  The behavioral expression of organizational commitment , 1990 .

[43]  Bill Harley,et al.  The Myth of Empowerment: Work Organisation, Hierarchy and Employee Autonomy in Contemporary Australian Workplaces , 1999 .

[44]  L. Porter,et al.  The Measurement of Organizational Commitment. , 1979 .

[45]  Arnon E. Reichers,et al.  A review and reconceptualization of organizational commitment. , 1985, Academy of management review. Academy of Management.

[46]  M. E. Sheldon,et al.  Investments and Involvements as Mechanisms Producing Commitment to the Organization , 1971 .

[47]  L. Miller,et al.  Self-disclosure and liking: a meta-analytic review. , 1994, Psychological bulletin.

[48]  J. Mathieu,et al.  A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment , 1990 .

[49]  E. V. Schie,et al.  Foci and correlates of organizational identification , 2000 .

[50]  P. Bentler,et al.  Significance Tests and Goodness of Fit in the Analysis of Covariance Structures , 1980 .

[51]  Jose C. Casal,et al.  Organizational Commitment and Whistle-Blowing , 1994 .

[52]  Fred A. Mael,et al.  Social identity theory and the organization , 1989 .

[53]  T. Postmes,et al.  Breaching or Building Social Boundaries? , 1998 .