THE IMPACT OF HIGH COMMITMENT AND LOYALTY

Commitment refers to attachment and loyalty. Mowday et al (1982:416), commitment consists of three components Viz:  Identification with the goals, values of the organization and willingness to display effort on behalf of the organization. Closely related definition of commitment, emphasizes the importance of behaviour in creating commitment, as Salanick (1977:306) puts it that commitment is a state of being in which an individual becomes bound by his action to belief that sustain his activities and his own involvement. The forgoing sees commitment as identification with the goals and values of

the organization as well as being bound by action of the   belief system of the organization. A belief in the positive value of commitment has been confidently expressed by Walton (1985: 106).

Underlying human resources polices is a management Philosophy, often embedded in a published statement, that acknowledge the legitimate claim of a company’s multiple stake-holders, owners, employees, customers and the general public. At the center of this philosophy is a belief that employee commitment leads to enhanced organizational performance. The evidence shows this belief to be well founded.

However, a review by Guest (1991: 207) led to the conclusion that high organizational commitment is associated with lower labour turnover and absence. Strong commitment to work is likely to result in conscientious and self-directed application to the job, regular attention, nominal supervision and high level of effort.

Commitment to the organization will certainly be related to the intention to stay and loyalty to the organization (griffin, 1984: 281). In other words, efforts should be made by management to secure workforce commitment on the part of organisational participants, else organizational goals will be difficult to achieve.