Relations between organizational commitment and organizational environment

Relationship between Organizational Commitment and Organizational Environment Organizational commitment is a significant factor, characterizing the relations between employees and organizations, which employs them. Organizations are concerned about developing employee commitments to the organization, because committed employees are more productive, more involved in their work, exerting more efforts in reaching goals of the organization. Thus organizational commitment is essential for the organization’s efficiency and success. Many organizational researchers, who study the antecedents of organizational, has demonstrated, that the most important factor, which influences employee commitment to organizations are the characteristics of the psychological environment in the organization. In order to ascertain the relationship between organizational commitment and organizational environment, in this research we analyze the correlations between organizational commitment and the variables of the psychological environment in the organization, i.e. psychological climate and perceived organizational support. We used the Meyer and Allen (1991) three component commitment approach, which distinguishes three components of organizational commitment, i.e. affective, continuance and normative commitment to organization. Also we used in this study O’Reilly and Chatman (1986) organizational commitment approach, which distinguishes three aspects of commitment – compliance, identification, and internalization. Psychological climate conception of Brown and Leigh (1996) and Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison and Sowa (1986) perceived organizational support approach were used in order to assess the psychological environment characteristics of the organization. The results of the research showed positive correlations between organizational commitment and psychological climate; and between organizational commitment and perceived organizational support. The more employees positively perceive the psychological climate of the organization and the more thy perceive the support from the organization, the more they are likely to emotionally commit to the organization (affective commitment), and the stronger are the feelings of identification and internalization, and the lower is commitment based on financial rewards form organization