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Individual commitment to a group effort,
that’s what makes a company work
(Vince Lombardi)
A qualitative study on antecedents of organisational commitment
during organisational change
Master thesis, MscBA Change Management
University of Groningen, Faculty of Business and Economics
July, 2013 KIRSTEN WOLTHUIS Student number: 1918397 Aalsmeerweg 69-1 1069 AD Amsterdam Tel; +31 6 22 90 74 66 Email: k.m.wolthuis@student.rug.nl
- 2 - ABSTRACT
ING Insurance/Investment Management (ING Ins/IM) is under pressure of the Dutch government to downsize the company. In order to achieve this change, the senior management of ING announced a sale of the Asian Insurance business, which will decrease the size of the company by one third. With this context a research is initiated to investigate antecedents of organizational commitment during a period after the announcement of a large scale organizational change. This research is qualitative, to explain the relation of uncertainty, change communication, procedural justice and organizational support with organisational commitment. All four antecedents appeared to influence organizational commitment less than expected. The reason is that this research was done a large period before the visibility of the change consequences for the personnel.
- 3 - INDEX
INTRODUCTION ... 5
Research Context – Situation in the Organisation ... 6
Independent Variables ... 7
Research Question ... 9
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 11
Organisational Commitment ... 11
Uncertainty ... 14
Perceived Organisational Support ... 17
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Time before actual change ... 42
Relation people/colleagues and organisational commitment ... 42
Relation age – commitment to personal goals ... 43
Change tolerance ... 44
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ... 45
Organisational Commitment ... 45
Answering the Subquestions ... 46
Conclusion Related to the Subquestions ... 48
Additional Findings ... 48
Practical Implications for ING ... 50
DISCUSSION ... 52
Limitations ... 52
Implications for Further Research ... 52
REFERENCES ... 55
-APPENDIX A COMMITMENT SCORES HR DEPARTMENT 2011 ... 61
-APPENDIX B INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ... 63
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INTRODUCTION
Because organisations are organic and ever changing entities, literature in the light of organizational change is immense (Elias, 2009). Organisations adjust to environments and transform continuously, which creates many opportunities for studies related to this subject. However, these studies mainly focus on issues related to the organizational level, rather than to individual level (Elias, 2009). Important in this matter is the fact that organisational change not only affects the organisation as a whole; also the individual employees of the organization (Vakola & Nicolaou, 2005). Much can be learned from the effect of organisational change on individual consequences like the organisational commitment of employees involved (Elias, 2009).
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change program itself, which is indicated as commitment to organisational change (Fedor, Caldwell & Herold, 2006). Having organisational committed employees is positive for organisations during organisational change, therefore understanding organisational commitment’s antecedents is an interesting subject to explore (Fedor et al., 2006). Another reason for focusing on employees’ commitment to the organisation during a change process is the low score on organisational commitment measured by ING Insurance/Investment Management. These scores serve as a base of this research, and can be found in attachment 1.
The next paragraph will explain the context of this study, which leads to the decision of the variables and the research question.
Research Context – Situation in the Organisation
This research is performed at ING Insurance and Investment Management Europe and Asia, of which the head office is located in Amsterdam. When in this document is referred to ING or ING Ins/IM, ING Insurance/Investment management Europe and Asia is meant.
ING Group started in 1991 as a merger of Nationale Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Group. Since then ING was one of the largest banking and insurance companies in the world, having establishments in more than 50 countries. In 2008 ING received financial support from the Dutch government. As a condition for this support, some arrangements have been made between ING and the Dutch government. ING for example had to reduce the size and complexity of the company and implement a number of changes in order to strengthen its position, risk management, governance model and remuneration structure. These changes needed to be made in a context of a wide range of new rules and regulations for financial companies. In order to reduce the size of the company, ING is separating its banking and insurance businesses. Since the first of January 2011 the businesses are operationally separated and the Insurance/Investment Management business is continuing as a standalone company.
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business in Asia will be divested. At the moment of this research ING was in negotiation with several potential buyers about the sale. Because the Asian business contains one third of the total employee population of ING Ins/IM, the divestment has a lot of consequences for the global HR department.
There is a high level of uncertainty about the future of ING. The media is speculation a lot, there is however no information available about the future structure and strategy as a European company. Because a leak in sensitive information can affect the share prices of ING, no information on this event is made available to the employees. The consequence is that the employees of Group HR are doing their day-to-day activities without having any guidance from the strategy of the company or certainty about their future at ING.
ING Ins/IM Group HR is the corporate Human Resource Department, operating for all business lines and countries throughout the world (approximately 19.000 people). Group HR consists of several sub departments; “Leadership, Talent and Organisation Development”, “Compensation and Benefits”, “IT Operations and processes” and “HR consultants”. The group HR function has started in 2010 as a newly formed department. This research is held with 38 employees of the group HR department.
Since 2009 a Winning Performance Culture (WPC) survey is held with the employees of ING Insurance/IM. This survey measures employees’ opinion on inter alia organisational commitment. ING’s WPC survey of 2011 shows a relatively low score on organisational commitment of the Group HR Department (See appendix A). The commitment score is 56%, which means that on average 56 per cent of the employees of Group HR answered the four questions that measure organisational commitment with ‘totally agree’ or ‘agree’, compared to the rest of ING Insurance Europe & Asia (68% favourable).
Independent Variables
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According to the three component model of organisational commitment, this concept consists of affective commitment, normative commitment and continuance commitment (Allen and Meyer, 1990). Affective commitment is related to a person’s willingness to work with an organisation, normative commitment relates to the costs of leaving the organisation and continuance commitment to the perceived obligation to work in an organisation (Allen et al 1990, Meyer et al., 2001) The reason for deciding to integrate the three components of organisational commitment in this research is that multiple studies focus on one of the aspects in the light of organisational change (Elias, 2009). In fact, Elias (2009) notes that of the 500 plus published studies on organisational commitment between 1965 and the end of the 1990’s the majority is focused on affective commitment within organisations. Elias (2009) for example focuses on affective commitment because it is conceived as psychological and on individual level. Normative and continuance commitment, as stated, rely on factors external to the individual employee and could therefore be influenced less (Elias, 2009).
This research aims at making a contribution to the existing literature by studying the influence of the antecedents: uncertainty, organisational support, change communication and procedural justice on organisational commitment in a context of change. The reason for choosing these variables is twofold. First preliminary research is done within ING Ins/IM, where these variables were most mentioned as influencing people’s organisational commitment. This resulted in research on these variables as related to organisational commitment in theory. Several studies and meta-analyses were conducted on the subject of organisational commitment (Mathieu et al., 1990, Meyer et al., 2002, Bordia et al., 2004, Sverka et al., 2002; Ashford, Lee & Bobko, 1989). For the reason that ING Ins/IM is going through multiple change initiatives, these variables are researched in a context of organisational change.
- 9 - Research Question
During this study the main research question is:
How do uncertainty, change communication, organisational support and procedural justice influence organisational commitment of employees at ING Ins/IM in times of organisational change?
FIGURE 1 Conceptual model
In order to help answering the main research question, four sub questions are formulated, which will be formulated on the next page. Each of these sub questions is related to an independent variable that is examined, which are: uncertainty, change communication, procedural justice and organisational support. The independent variables that were chosen are relevant from both a theoretical perspective and relevance in the case study, in relation to the dependent variable: organisational commitment. This research can be visual depicted by a conceptual model (Figure 1).
- 10 - Sub questions
1. How does uncertainty influence organisational commitment in times of change? 2. How does change communication influence organisational commitment in times of
change?
3. How does procedural justice influence organisational commitment in times of change? 4. How does organisational support influence organisational commitment in times of
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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter explains the theoretical framework of this study. The definitions of the variables studied in this research will be explained, together with their relation with the organisational commitment literature. Because this research is done in the light of organisational change, this dimension is integrated in this research and therefore also in this chapter. To enable this, all variables will be explored from a change management perspective. Finally all variables will be explained in the situation of ING Ins/IM.
Organisational Commitment
In today’s constantly changing business environment, organisations have to change strategic direction, structure and staffing levels to stay alive (Bordia, Hobman, Jones, Gallois, Callan, 2004). The relationship between employees and the organisation during change has been studied a lot. Employees can respond with feelings of reduced commitment towards the organisation in times of change. (Neves, 2006). For this reason, the implementation of organisational change can be done more easily when employees accept the new attributes and are able to enact with them. In these terms, a change is considered to be implemented successfully when employees have a feeling of purpose, a plan and a part to play in the change (Neves, 2006).
The term commitment is seen as a force that binds an individual to a course of action of relevance to one or more targets (Allen & Meyer, 2001). Related to that is Porter, Crampin and Smith’s (1976) definition, who see organisational commitment as a relative strength of an employee’s identification with an organisation and therefore their involvement towards that organisation. Iverson (1996) translated that to ‘degree of loyalty to the organisation’. According to Rhoades & Eisenberg (2002), most employers appreciate dedication and loyalty from their employees. The reason is those employees who are emotionally committed to an organisation, show higher performance, less absenteeism and a reduced likelihood to quit their job (Rhoades et al., 2002).
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distinction between attitudinal and calculative commitment. Attitudinal commitment is defined as the strength of an employee’s identification with and involvement in a particular organisation. This identification is characterised by an acceptance of the organisation’s goals and values, a willingness to exert effort on behalf of the organisation and a desire to maintain member of the organisation (Mathieu et al., 1990). Calculative commitment occurs as an outcome of transactions between an individual and the organisation and changes in side bets and investments over time (Mathieu et al., 1990). This means that employees commit to an organisation because they invested side bets or sunk costs (for example a pension plan), and cannot afford to leave the organisation and separate themselves from this.
Related to that a study on organisational commitment was conducted in 1990, the study of Allen and Meyer (1990). They proposed a three component model, representing the commitment profile (Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002), which includes the following components:
Affective commitment: an employee’s identification with, emotional attachment to and involvement in an organisation. Allen et al. (1990) agree with this definition and state that affective commitment is the most widespread approach to organisational commitment. They call it the affective or emotional attachment to the organisation which is explained by the individual’s identification, involvement and joy in membership of the organisation (Allen et al., 1990). From both definitions can be concluded that employees with high affective commitment stay within an organisation because they want to do so.
Continuance commitment: an employee’s awareness to the costs related to leaving the organisation (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchisun & Sowa, 1986). An employee remains working at an organisation because of the recognition of the costs of leaving. These costs can come from ‘side-bets’; when something of importance to an employee, for example salary or pension, is depending on continued employment with the company (Meyer, 2001). This can also be described as a perceived profit associated with continued employment and a cost associated with leaving the organisation (Meyer, 2001). Employees with a merely continuance commitment therefore stay with an organisation because they need to do so.
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is influenced by the employee’s experiences, in personal life as well as in the organisation. A person’s normative commitment may for example be higher when others in their direct environment have been long term employees of an organisation and/or stress the importance of organisational loyalty. On the other hand normative commitment may increase when organisational practices make employees feel that the organisation expects their loyalty.
Abovementioned components are concluded to be distinguishable components of organisational commitment and have been greatly accepted in the organisational literature (Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, Topolnytsky, 2002; Meyer & Allen, 1991; Mathieu et al., 1990; Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002). In this study the decision is made to focus on the relations of affective, continuance and normative commitment with their antecedents. The reason for choosing this distinction and not the one of Allen & Meyer (1996), is the broad acceptance in the commitment literature. Moreover the distinction of Mathieu and Zajac (1990) can be seen as a part of the definition of Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002.
In the change management literature there is evidence which identifies the role of organisational commitment in a context of change. An employee’s commitment to the organisation plays an important role in his or her acceptance of change, where highly committed employees are more willing to accept change when believed it is beneficial (Vakola & Nikolaou, 2005; Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002).
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above mentioned meta-analyses, these antecedents have been mentioned in change management literature, and apply to the change context of ING Ins/IM.
Uncertainty
One of the most difficult perceived aspects during organisational change is employees experiencing uncertainty concerning the process and outcomes of the change (Bordia et al., 2004b). Uncertainty is defined as the lack of ability to accurately predict a future event (Bordia et al., 2004). The main characteristic is people having a sense of doubt around that future event or about the relationship of cause and effect in the environment (Bordia et al., 2004). Research found that within the context of change, uncertainty has large consequences for employees (Allen et al., 2007, Bordia et al, 2004a). Elving (2005) makes a distinction between implications for an individual employee, and implications for the environment where the employee is working in. The HR employees of ING are expected to experience strategic and job related uncertainty. The consequences of divesting the Asian business will have consequences for the strategy of the organisation, which changes from a global to a European company. However, there is no information available regarding future strategic consequences, which is assumed to cause uncertainty. The downsizing of the company is likely to indicate the loss of a number of jobs, and changes in multiple job roles. This may indicate employees experiencing job related uncertainty.
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that employees are seeking for strategies for improving control, when dealing with uncertainty.
Related to organisational change, employees may experience uncertainty about the nature and form of the new organisation, the impact of the change on their work and the likely changes for their job role (Bordia et al, 2004). Bordia et al. (2004) subdivide uncertainty into three categories: strategic uncertainty, structural uncertainty and job related uncertainty. During this research strategic and job-related uncertainty will be studied and related to organisational commitment. The reason for excluding structural commitment is the lack of proven connection with organisational commitment during change (Bordia et al., 2004).
Strategic uncertainty. Strategic uncertainty is defined as uncertainty regarding issues on the level of the organisation, such as the sustainability of the organisation, its future direction and so forth. (Bordia et al., 2004). Strategic uncertainly during organisational change can relate to several matters. Bordia et al. (2004) relate this type of uncertainty to issues on the strategic level of the organisation, such as the nature of the business environment, planning and sustainability. Moreover employees can for example experience uncertainty towards the reasons for change and the future direction of the organisation. Another possibility for employees to experience strategic uncertainty, are changes in government. Strategic uncertainty in the context of change can cause employees to feel uncertain about the overall nature of the change or about the reasons for change. One result of the research of Bordia et al. (2004) was someone stating: ‘We know we are being redeveloped. We don’t know which direction we are going in terms of the redevelopment’. This causes perceived strategic uncertainty, because employees are not able to use the organisational strategy when making decisions in their daily work, or during the organisational change. The term strategic uncertainty is chosen because of the future sustainability of the organisation is included, next to the uncertainty of the business environment (Bordia et al. (2004).
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existence of the job in the future”. Sverke, Hellgren & Naswall (2002) define job-related uncertainty as an employees’ expectation concerning the continuity in a certain job situation, their concern about the future durability of the job and a perception of the future continuance of the job as it is at the current level. The definition used for job uncertainty in this research is: an employee’s perception of uncertainty about the existence of his/her current role in the organisation in the future.
In several studies and meta-analyses job uncertainty is mentioned in relation to organisational commitment in the sense that it negatively affects organisational commitment (Cohen, 1992; Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Meyer et al., 2002). Sverke et al. (2002) agree and also state that job-related uncertainty has a strong negative relation with organisational commitment.
Vakola et al. (2005) suggest that job uncertainty is related to organisational commitment, which in turn is highly positively related to an employee’s positive attitude towards change. According to Hrebiniak and Alutto (1972) job uncertainty can cause people to see alternatives outside the organisation, which may cause the current organisation to be seen as a less attractive option. Next to that the study of Hrebiniak et al. (1972) indicates that the desirability of leaving the organisation is a direct function of the level of satisfaction of the work role. The future job role being uncertain could lessen the satisfaction and therefore reduces the affective commitment. Dissatisfaction about the uncertainty concerning the reward policies may in turn decrease the continuance commitment of the employee. This indicates that during change employees indicate job related security as an important factor when determining their commitment towards the organisation.
- 17 - Perceived Organisational Support
Perceived organisational support is defined as an employee’s belief in the extent to which the organisation values their contribution and cares about their well-being (Eisenberger, Huntington & Sowa, 1986). In this research organisational support can be subdivided into management support and co-worker support, related to the distinction of Iverson (1996). The relationship of both these types of support with organisational commitment will be researched in this study.
Management support. Management support is the degree of expressed consideration by the supervisor of the employee during change. Management support is measured by indicating the way it is perceived by the employee and therefore defined as the degree employees feel their supervisor values their contribution and the extent to which the supervisor cares about their well-being (Eisenberger, Stinglhamber, Vandenberghe, Sucharski & Rhoades, 2002). It is characterised by the relational abilities of superiors, which is perceived by his subordinates by feelings of trust, respects and a concern for his needs (Iverson, 1996).
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perception that co-workers are in a high degree involved in their work and help facilitate the employee’s work efforts (Babin et al., 1996).
Co-worker support is mainly related to affective commitment (Iverson, 1996). The relationship with co-workers is indicated as being an important relationship in someone’s life. For example having friends at work is seen as a semi-primarily relationship to employees (Iverson, 1996). Implicit in co-worker support is a sense of cohesion in a work group, characterised by co-workers listening to job-related problems, being helpful in reaching a job related goal and being able to rely on when job related difficulties arise.
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Of the work experiences investigated perceived organisational support has the largest correlation with affective commitment (Meyer et al. 2002). This suggests that organisations should provide a supportive environment in order for employees’ willingness to stay with the organisation (Meyer et al. 2002). Therefore organisations that are willing to create commitment among their employees should pay interest in the organisational support literature.
During organisational change employees are very likely to search for organisational support. The reason is that it increases one’s self-esteem and decreases the level of stress which can be perceived by the individual during organisational change (Callen, 2007). Organisational commitment during change is partially an exchange of perceived and outgoing organisational support. Employers in general value dedication and loyalty from their employees who are emotionally committed to the organisation. These employees demonstrate higher performance, less absenteeism and a smaller likelihood to leave the organisation (Rhoades et al., 2002). On the other hand, employees are concerned with the commitment of the organisation to them. Approval, respect, pay, promotion and access to information are examples that make employees feel valued and commit to the organisation (Rhoades et al., 2002). Abovementioned relates to the social exchange theory. This theory states that when a person is treated well by someone else, this favourable treatment is replied, which leads to beneficial outcomes for both. There is a link to the social support theory, which indicates the relation between perceived organisational support and organisational commitment, in the sense that the exchange of caring for caring increases the employee’s commitment to the organisation (Rhoades et al., 2002).
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way people approach each other. There is a lot of face-to-face interaction, however the upcoming organisational change is not mentioned often.
Change Communication
Park, Lee, Lee and Truex (2012) define communication as an interpersonal process of continuing initiating, maintaining and terminating information by nonverbal and verbal techniques. Communication is seen as effective when it is used for solving potential problems that relate to the exchange of information and knowledge (Park et al., 2012). Related to that Lies (2012: 255) defines change communication as: “The single part of change management, which focuses on the soft factors that are activated through the change of hard factors.” They explain that the management of soft factors contribute to the execution of change goals. According to Elving (2005) communication has two goals; to inform employees about tasks, policies and other organisational issues and to create a community within the organisation. The quality of change communication is indicated as measurable and refers to the way change is communicated (Devon & van den Broeck, 2009). The effectiveness of the communication is determined by the clarity, frequency and openness (Devon & van den Broeck, 2009). In the meta-analysis of Cohen (1992) the relation of communication and organisational commitment has been analysed. Also Mathieu & Zajac (1990) found a large correlation between management communication and employees’ perceived organisational commitment. A presumed explanation is that a leader who provides his employees with accurate and timely information will enhance the work environment and therefore increases employees’ commitment to the organisation.
The quality of change communication is hard to measure as a fact, because the perception could vary from one employee to another (Bordia et al., 2004). This even counts when employees are supposed to be exposed to the same communication program. This variance is according to Bordia et al. (2004) due to differences in the employees’ trust in the communication source and whether the communication meets the employee’s individual information needs.
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communicate, as stated by employees during the pre-study of this research. An issue mentioned by the management is the fear that the stock exchange will be influenced by communicating about the divestment of the Asian business. Employees indicate that there are many speculations in the media and in the grapevine.
Organisational Justice
Iverson (1996) explains perceived justice as the amount of fairness to which employees feel treated in terms of effort, responsibility and training. According to him this is related to change, as employees who exhibit positive attitudes towards change score higher on justice than employees who show more negative attitude towards change.
Perceived procedural justice is the degree to which employees who are affected by allocation decisions, perceive to have been treated according to fair guidelines and methods (Moorman, 1993), and is therefore also seen as fairness (Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter & Ng, 2001; Saunders, 2002). According to Rhoades, Eisenberger & Armeli (2001) the definition of procedural justice is the perceived fairness of means used to determine the amount and distribution of resources among employees. Justice is considered to be a social construction. This means that justice is defined when most individuals perceive it (Colquitt et al., 2001). The perception of ‘what is fair’ is determined people linking objective decision making to a subjective feeling of fairness. Colquitt et al (2001) indicated two forms of perceived organisational justice; fairness of outcome distribution or allocations and fairness of the procedures used to determine outcome distributions or allocations, respectively defined as distributive and procedural justice. In this research the decision is made to focus on the procedural part of perceived procedural justice. At ING Insurance/Investment Management the change that is researched is implemented in the future. Therefore it is not possible to measure the outcomes of these changes at this moment.
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During their meta-analysis on organisational commitment, Meyer et al. (2002) indicated perceived procedural justice as having a strong relation with organisational commitment (Meyer et al., 2002). They found that organisations wanting committed employees are required to provide their people with a supportive work environment. One important factor hereby is treating employees fairly.
Researchers studied the relationship between perceived procedural justice and organisational commitment and found conflicting conclusions (Hassan, 2002). The study of Hassan (2002) found that both perceived fairness distribution and the process increase the commitment of an employee. The results of the research of Cohen-Charash (2001) showed a link between procedural, distributive and interactional justice and organisational commitment, with procedural justice having the strongest link. Procedural justice in that research has shown to be negatively related to normative commitment (Cohen-Charash, 2001). That is, when employees perceive fairness in procedures, they feel like investing more in the organisation. Hassan (2002) agrees with this and states that employees, who perceive being treated fairly, identify with the organisation and show involvement in the organisation. Alternatively, when procedures are unfair, employees will feel that there is little to lose when changing employers. With other words, procedures lead people to feel obliged to the organisation when supporting organisational justice. Cohen-Charash (2001) found that the role between perceived procedural justice and organisational commitment is stronger than assumed before.
- 23 - METHODS
This section describes the procedure of data collection and the analysis of this data in detail. To collect in-depth information for this exploratory research, interviews are held with the employees of the HR department of ING. In the theory section of this thesis the dependent variable organisational commitment and independent variables were determined, which are: uncertainty, organisational support, change communication and procedural justice and their influence on organisational commitment.
Data Collection
In this exploratory research the development of several variables and their relation with organisational commitment are investigated (Baarda et al, 2005). In order to succeed in this, the decision is made to use a qualitative research method. The reason for using this method for collecting data is that it provides an in-depth insight in the relationships (Lee, 1999). Like stated before, a lot of research is done to indicate the relations between organisational commitment and numerous variables. This research is performed in order to study the employees’ perspectives on these relationships (Lee, 1999). A final reason for deciding to make use of a qualitative research method is that it is suitable for studying small sample groups. The target group used in this study, ING’s Group HR department, consists of 38 persons and is therefore indicated as a small target sample.
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how and why to questions than closed questions (Baarda et al., 2005). Interviewees can make inconsistencies and contradictions during the interview. In order to ensure that the information is gathered accurately, clarification will be asked when this may occur (Allen, Jimmieson, Bordia & Irmer, 2007).
Measurements
A combination of multiple existing scales have been used as a tested basement for formulation the questions for the interview. These scales and the final interview questions can be found in appendix B. The scale used to base the questions concerning organisational commitment is found in the study of Allen and Meyer (1990). It is broadly used in other studies, and therefore considered as being a proper foundation for this study (Rhoades et al, 2001). The scale is covering affective commitment as well as normative and continuance commitment. In this research the aim is to acquire quantitative data. Therefore in order to be able to use it for this study the questions were being transformed into open questions. For example the question: “I enjoy discussing my organisation with people outside it” is for this research changed into “To what extend do you enjoy discussing working at ING with people outside of it”.
In order to formulate the questions of uncertainty the scale of Bordia (2004) is used. This scale includes strategic uncertainty and job uncertainty and is therefore covers the items studied in this research, according to the definition of uncertainty. The decision is made to formulate the questions as open as possible, with the reason of giving the interviewees a chance to be open about each subject. Therefore the decision is made to for example ask: “What can you tell me about the future structure of the company?” As defined in the Theoretical framework one of the indicators of uncertainty is the amount of control over the situation, perceived by the employee. Therefore the items of measuring control by Bordia (2004) are transformed into the question: “To what extend do you feel like you can control your situation at ING?”
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of the communication is determined by the clarity, frequency and openness (Devon et al., 2009). These are therefore the indicators used in this research and therefore topics of the questions.
Alike the two scales mentioned above this scale is made to generate quantitative information. In order to transit this to the current research, the questions are made open. Bouckenooghe et al. (2009) for example the statement “information concerning the changes reaches us mostly as rumours” is for this research translated into “How does information about the change regularly meet you?”
The questions asked concerning procedural justice are based on a scale of Rhoades & Eisenberger (2001). The items important related to the definition are decision making procedure and fairness. Rhoades et al. (2001) question “Have you been able to express your views and feelings during procedures?” is translated into “To what extent have you been able to express your views and feelings during procedures?”
As stated before, perceived organisational support consists of manager support and co-worker support (Eisenberger et al.,1986). Next to that an employee’s feeling of the degree an organisation cares about his/her well-being is found to be an important indicator of perceived organisational support (Eisenberger et al.,1986). Related to this definition on the following question is included in the question list: “What do you notice about the organisation’s contribution to your well-being?” The decision is made to not only use the definition of Eisenberger et al. (1986), but also make use of their questionnaire scale to base the interview questions upon. As previously noted perceived organisational support is mainly linked to affective commitment (Iverson, 1996). The focus in this research will therefore be on this link, however the link between perceived organisational support with continuance and normative commitment will also be studied.
Sample
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categories. As shown in table 1 the selection of interviewees is done according to difference in gender, age, years of tenure at the company and nationality. Another measure to maximize reliability is to interview both employees and their managers. The HR team consist of 38 people, of which three managers. In this research fourteen employees and two managers are interviewed. In order to maximize the objectivity of processing the results of the interviews, all the interviews will be audio-taped and transcribed.
ING HR Sample Gender Male 17 6 Female 21 8 Age Minimum 23 23 Maximum 57 55 Average
Tenure with ING
Minimum 0,5 year 0,5 year Maximum 25 years 23 years
Managers 3 2 Nationality Dutch 30 14 Foreign 8 3 TABLE 1 Sample structure Procedure
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topic of the interview. All employees who were invited indicated to be willing to participate in the research.
In order to create a familiar atmosphere, the interviews were held in the office during workdays. The interviews were held in a small space that could be closed, in order to provide the interviewee with a secure feeling of privacy. These two measures are according to Baarda et al. (2005) of importance of the reliability of the research. Prior to each interview the interviewer explained the anonymity of each interview. The anonymity is guaranteed by coding each interview with a code; I1, I2 etcetera. Each list with questions and notes that were made during the interview contained that code and after transcribing the interviews each interview was provided with that same code. Furthermore names and other indications to a person were not used in this research paper.
Data Analysis
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this process the other important codes were analysed, putting codes together and indicating its importance.
Quality Criteria
- 29 - RESULTS
In this chapter the results of the interviews held with the employees of the HR department of ING are presented. The results of the interviews help determining the commitment of these employees and the way uncertainty, change communication, organisational support and procedural justice influence their organisational commitment. Quotes of the interviewees are used to explain the answers to the questions.
Organisational Commitment
As mentioned in the theoretical framework, organisational commitment consists of affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. Affective commitment in this study is defined as an employee’s identification with the organisation and with that his/her emotional attachment and involvement in the organisation (Allen et al., 1990). Affective commitment can be recognized by an employee’s willingness to work for a company (Allen et al., 1990). Continuous commitment has been defined as an employees’ feeling of need to stay at the organisation, because the costs of leaving the organisation are too high to leave (Allen et al., 1990). Finally normative commitment means an employees’ feeling of obligation to stay work with the organisation, for example because of a high feeling of loyalty towards the organisation (Allen et al., 1990).
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I still feel proud of ING because of the developments they made due to the crisis and they are working on, so yes I am proud of it yeah.”
Another indicator mentioned of affective commitment is people feeling as they are getting opportunities within ING and are able to develop themselves. This is for ten people important in their willingness to work at ING. One employee stated for example: “That’s what I like about ING. Getting opportunities and being recognised for the efforts I make.”
Another indicator for affective commitment is the degree of family feeling within the organisation. The interviewees stated not having an ING family feeling, but more an ING Ins/IM or a HR family feeling. Moreover, six interviewees stated that their family feeling decreased because of the changes in the organisation. An example is an employee stating when asked about the amount of family feeling: “It’s less. I think it’s less than a few years ago, because within Insurance/IM we feel like we are moving in a direction where at this stage it’s not very clear where we are exactly heading. We are moving away from ING, and I am also for my feeling moving away from ING. It’s more, what will the journey look like and where will we go? It’s a little bit saying farewell to something you loved very much. It’s a little bit of an old love, haha, and you are hoping to find a new love where you are going with.”
Eleven interviewees moreover mentioned experiencing some negative affective commitment. They indicated being less proud then before the start of the changes. One employee for example states: “I am not quite sure if I would use the word proud. Maybe that in itself says enough. I don’t take it for granted, but the pride is gone a bit.”
Affective commitment is not only indicated towards the organisation. People mentioned their commitment to the job being in some cases higher than towards ING. “I think I talk a little bit more about what I do and not about the company itself. And yeah, I do mention that I work for ING insurance, but I don’t talk about the company that much, no.”
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finds expression in people not being busy with looking for another job. This is illustrated by four out of fourteen interviewed HR employees stating that the loyalty from ING to them explicitly as an important reason for working with ING. ”I think it’s quite important to be loyal, because it’s part of your engagement. And I think that when people are loyal to the employer or to the product or to what they want to achieve, I think then you would benefit the most. So I do think that loyalty is important.”
When experiencing too much loyalty from ING, five out of the fourteen employees feel morally obliged to stay: “I think I owe something to the company, because they have given me so much in the last couple of years.” Another example is of someone who actively deals with the possible feeling of moral obligation to stay and work with ING. To the question if he/she ever felt morally obliged he/she mentioned: “Yeah, that has been the case. And that has also been one of the reasons why I chose a program I did last year to pay for it myself. Because I thought it was a pretty expensive one and I would ask a lot and I don’t know what it will bring me. And it would make me feel, well you talked about morally obliged, that probably would have been the case.”
The feeling of moral obligation to work at ING is not a given for everyone. Four out of fourteen people mentioned feeling no moral obligation to stay and work with ING, although they were familiar with the feeling: “For instance when I would get some type of coaching or a traineeship or that type of thing, you would probably be more obliged to stay. Or at least have the feeling, also because of your loyalty, because they spend money on you and …, that you would rather stay. But I don’t have that right now.”
The current organisational changes within ING Insurance/IM do influence the normative commitment of the HR employees. Four out of fourteen people stated feeling a higher degree of loyalty before the organisational changes than at the moment of the interviews. One person explained this fact with an example: “So I think due to the changes of the last few years changed my perspective on that. And I will give ING my best while I’m here, but if we both take the decision, or ING takes a decision and I go or ING takes a decision about my future, that’s the way it is. Yeah, that’s changed.”
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salary, but also the costs of their expertise having less value in another organisation (Eisenberger et al., 1986). Six out of the fourteen interviewed experience some form of continuance commitment. One of the employees mentioned the large amount of salary as an indication to work with ING. “I think I have enough alternatives, because, I work in HR and HR is there in every organisation. I actually got offered a job a couple of weeks ago. I am not sure if I have enough opportunities for the same salary”. An example of the secondary benefits that can cause normative commitment is given by this interviewee: “The benefits do help. I have my mortgage here that makes that when I am planning to leave, that I would really need to think about that longer than maybe another person, because it will cost me a lot of money”. ING Insurance/IM has mortgages as one of their selling products. For employees it can be beneficial to have their mortgage at ING, because they are provided with a discount. This indicates that next to losing their security in form of an income, employees have the risk of leaving mortgage benefits when leaving the organisation.
Uncertainty
Uncertainty is defined as the lack of ability to accurately predict a future event (Bordia et al., 2004). All the interviewed persons stated experiencing uncertainty at this moment within ING. This uncertainty is related to the current organisational change within the company. Like one person stated: “People are waiting for a long time, and they want to know more, but it’s such a complex process that they cannot tell more. But people are waiting, want to know more because they are uncertain, but they have to wait.”
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Strategic uncertainty. This is a type of uncertainty employees can for example experience towards the reasons for change and the future direction of the organisation (Bordia et al., 2004). The most common kind of uncertainty mentioned during the interviews was strategic uncertainty; everyone experiences this type of uncertainty. As one person
mentioned: “We are going for a new brand, currently is unclear what the direction is going to be. So it’s now also a little bit of saying goodbye to where I came from. It’s a little bit leaving your brand and your company behind. And not knowing yet where we and where I am going in the new organisation. That makes me feel sometimes a little bit, you can say emotional. But sometimes it’s like saying goodbye to something that was very dear, being part of it was nice to be.”
The question was asked to tell what they can say about the strategic direction of the company. Five employees answered to this question: “I don’t know exactly. Because it is still very unclear of course. Nobody really communicated anything about that”.
It is preferred to have a clear strategy, in order to have a clear guideline within their work. To the question how that person would like the current situation to be in the light of strategic uncertainty seven people answered: “What I hope for is that there really will be a vision that is appealing to people, where they can relate to. And that there is a strategy of which you can say, well that’s really a strategy where I want to work for, which creates a positive energy. That’s what I’m looking for. And that’s a bit lacking at the moment.”
Moreover is mentioned the willingness to know how the strategic decisions will influence the persons personally. Eight out of fourteen people stated something in the light of: “It’s all about the positions. What will happen, what’s in it for me? What will the future look like? Am I still be working here?”
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Job related uncertainty. The definition used for job uncertainty in this research is: an employees’ perception of uncertainty about the existence of their current roles in the organisation in the future (Elving, 2005, Sverke et al., 2002).
Twelve out of fourteen people experience job uncertainty, answering for example to the question to what extent they feel certain about their job within ING Ins/IM: “Not certain! No.. I do work from the bases that in six month from now I might not have a job anymore. Well, not here.” Ten of the fourteen interviewed people mention not feeling stressed about the job uncertainty at this moment. The reason for these statements is that they feel that decisions about redundancies are not decided upon in the near future. One person mentions: “I am not really certain, but I am not at all stressed about that actually. I am not certain at all, I mean, anyone could be some kind of victim of these changes and can be, how would you say that, could be hit by the changes and that goes also for me. But we will see. But on the other hand, it also brings new things in life I think and it brings new opportunities and sometimes it is also good to change.”
Relationship uncertainty and organisational commitment. As a result of the questions asked during the interviews, seven people explicitly indicated uncertainty affecting their organisational commitment negatively. Uncertainty influencing affective commitment is indicated by three people. One of them said the following concerning strategic uncertainty related to his/her perceived affective commitment: ”It’s less. I think it’s less than a few years ago, because within Insurance/IM we feel like we are moving in a direction where at this stage it’s not very clear where we are exactly heading.”
One person explicitly mentioned uncertainty affecting normative organisational commitment, who stated getting too little answers to his/her questions about the change. He/she stated getting answers like: “We expect.. Or well we cannot promise anything, but we try hard to bladiebla. It’s this kind of uncertainty, this kind of unclarity that causes people to move away. To accept the offer from well for instance bank to start looking for another job.”
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As mentioned in the theoretical framework, change communication in this research is defined as the information that is given which contributes to the execution of change goals (Elving, 2005). Next to informing employees about tasks, policies and other organisational issues, change communication has the goal of creating a community within the organisation (Elving, 2005).
Eleven of the interviewed HR employees indicated rumours as one of the main communication channels. As one of the participants answered the following to the question how he/she receives information about the change: “Mostly coffee machines and in the hallway, so rumours. People may have heard something of others and spread the rumour. With every change I’ve been going through in this company there have been a lot. So, it starts with rumours, hunches of people, interpreting what they see happening or what they hear.” A related comment was from an employee that describes the process of change communication through the grapevine: “As soon as there is something communicated then people create their own vision and message about it and talk with people about that. And when there are a lot of rumours in the wrong direction, there is always another message to make sure that to tell people that it is wrong, but if it’s right then that’s just what everyone thinks. So that’s how you get your information.”
Six people mentioned town hall meetings as being a change communication channel. Town hall meetings within ING are meetings where everyone in the head office is invited and information is given by the senior management that concerns all people in the organisation.
Their direct manager as a source of change communication has been mentioned by six people, next to email, mentioned by five and external media, mentioned by four out of the fourteen interviewed.
Quality of change communication. The quality of change communication refers to the way change is communicated and is determined by the clarity, frequency and openness (Devon & van den Broeck, 2009).
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organisation and then communicated down into the organisation. One employee describes this as followed: “I think we always underestimate the design is top down communicated, top down enrolled with top down milestones. That’s something we can do better, but that is also part of ING. It’s our way of dealing with change.”
Thirteen out of the fourteen persons however experienced this change communication as being negative. A commonly heard reason for the negative feeling about change communication is the low frequency, with promised information being postponed. Moreover, when asking the question how often change communication is received the answer was often that there was not enough change communication. An example of an interviewee: “It is not enough. It’s usually with the quarterly announcements and not always they have real information. When I think of the last one, they sold it like: “we are going to be one Europe business.” Well, to be honest, for me that was not anything new. It’s not like they are really informing about change to me.”
A different change communication related question during the interview was related to accuracy: “Does the change communication always answer your questions?” Nine interviewees found that it was not, like this particular person: “No, of course not. The information so far which is given is very shallow. And doesn’t give much away so, no it hardly gives away any information”. People however do understand why it is so hard for the top management to provide people with very precise change communication: “I can understand that it is difficult to provide all the answers, because they don’t have all the answers themselves yet. But, what I would like to see is clarity about the unclarity. So share what you still are not sure about, share what you do know and share what you don’t know yet. It is about the constant communication that I personally am looking for, versus the once per quarter event.”
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Relation change communication and organisational commitment. Uncertainty has a negative effect on commitment, specifically on normative commitment. This link can be explained by stating that the quality of the communication is perceived as low. This research did not indicate clear results of the relationship between communication and organisational commitment. All interviewees acknowledge the presence of organisational commitment, and thirteen interviewees having some negative feelings about it, no one gave an indication of it affecting their organisational commitment.
Organisational Support
During this research questions are raised about the organisational support people experience, and in particular the experience of employees with management and co-worker support. The definition of perceived organisational support used in this research is an employee’s belief concerning the extent to which the organisation values their contribution and cares about their well-being (Eisenberger, Huntington & Sowa, 1986).
Twelve people mentioned feeling support coming from the organisation during change situations. Eleven of the interviewed employees mentioned feeling a sense of co-worker support and experienced this as positive. Like one interviewee states: “What I experience the last years is that when I look at my worker and managers, there is always a spirit of co-creating and getting it done together”.
Management support. Management support is the degree of expressed consideration by the supervisor of the employee during change (Eisenberger et al., 2002).
One of the indicators of measuring management support is the degree of the manager caring about the employees in times of change, perceived by the employee (Eisenberger et al., 2002). Eleven out of fourteen people state feeling a large amount of support from their manager during change: “To a very large extend. I really have the feeling that when I come with a proposal and a really good story behind it, he/she will always accept it. And always support it.” Management support appears to have an impact on people’s affective commitment.
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work-life balance. When questioning the work-life balance of the last year one of the employees mentioned: “There was a work balance, not a life balance. ... So that affected my personal well-being actually, but you need to consider that for yourself whether that’s allowed; if you want to do that to yourself. And if not, I think you should discuss that and make sure that something happens. And at least your manager or your colleagues should do something to support you”.
A more work than life balance is also expected during the upcoming reorganisation: “I do expect next year to be a very busy year with the reorganisation. And then sometimes the work life balance is out of balance, but I know from myself that if I reach a certain limit I just pay somewhat more attention to my work-life balance.”
In general the organisation’s contribution to the employees’ well-being is considered positive, as eight of the fourteen people indicated so. Someone stated during the interview: “The organisation does the right things, we have health and safety. And ING is a very good employer, you know. Treating people with respect. We have a lot of rules and tools to make sure that people are treated fairly and also looked after.” At the question if he/she finds this is important for his/her willingness to work for ING Ins/IM, this person mentioned: “Definitely, of course. Yesterday I started working, after my holiday. But I was back at the office and I really enjoyed seeing everybody again and just being here again with people that I like. So yeah, that’s a big influence.”
Four out of fourteen people mentioned next to positive feelings of support some negative expressions. All four relate this negativity towards management support. A quote related to the question whether the person felt supported by management during organisational change: “No, I think that they could do more, in a sense that as I’m really young, I would like some more support and I think in that sense they could do more to keep me in, than that they are doing now.” Suggestions in this manner are for example getting a coach or some other form of support. This is considered to enlarge their loyalty and therefore their normative commitment.
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them indicated this as positive. Several quotes are related to “Yeah, definitely! If I need to do part of the change I will get help and also if I am concerned or if I have questions, yeah I think everyone is very willing to help me.”
According to some respondents co-worker support is not clearly noticed because the great change consequences were not present during the interviews. These people state that they propose to get co-worker support when necessary during change, but this is not seen yet because of a lack of consequences of change at the moment of the interviews. “No, not at the moment. I think it could be different once you get clarity about what is going to happen and for example our team should downsize with fifty per cent. Then it’s a big issue of course. And then you know if everybody is available to talk about it and share feelings and ideas about it. But I think as far as I know our team and the way we interact with each other, there will be room to talk about it and to share with each other, we trust each other.”
One out of the fourteen people mentioned clearly not feeling supported, what affects this person’s affective commitment negatively. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m in the right group of people. Shall I leave the team and join another team?”
Relation organisational support and organisational commitment. Eleven out of the fourteen employees stated feeling co-worker support, of which all indicate feeling affectively committed. However, the conclusion whether co-worker support actually affects affective commitment cannot be made easily, because only two persons indicated the direct relationship between organisational support and affective commitment. One of the employees explicitly referred to the relationship between management support and affective commitment. The person answered to the question whether management support would influence his/her willingness to work with ING Ins/IM: “Yeah, if that wouldn’t be the case, then I would… Strategy is one thing, but is this wouldn’t be the case, then I would be out.”
Procedural Justice
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procedural justice being noticed within ING. Some of these people however state that this process is not clear to them: “That’s a tough one. I don’t have a picture of the decision making process. The overall strategy, that’s a really tough one to find out who’s deciding on that. And my guess is that not enough people are currently involved in the decision making and not enough expertise is in there.” Six interviewees clearly mentioned this process not being clear.
Another issue many people notice about the decision making process is that it concerns a really small group of people. Furthermore a repeatedly mentioned issue is that people do not feel like they have influence of this decision making process. “I think it is mostly high level. Well I think I would never have any influence on the decision making myself.” Another person shares the same idea: “Well a lot of the decisions are taken on management board level, so those decisions are taken and being told. So not much influence there.” Two employees indicate this as unfair, while others say: “That’s fine, that’s not my job. Imagine the portfolio of the company, they should take that decision.”
Eight out of fourteen people mention procedural justice also as being fair. Like mentioned above many people stated that the decision making group is small. However, this is not always seen as something negative. “Well, it’s in the hand of a very few people. … I think it’s fair, because this is sensitive information. So it has implication on the market and the price of the company and all sorts of things. So, there’s obviously the need for some confidentiality, for secrecy and thinks like that. So I think it’s fair.” The fairness of the decision making process is also indicated in the established procedures that are known by the employees. These procedures are in general stated as fair: “When it comes to the effects on decisions on people, there are some procedures. Like the workers council has to be informed. In the Netherlands we have to work with a request for advice and they have to agree. And the workers council is really looking if this is fair and whether people are being taken care of in a good way. If you get redundant, is the process a fair one? So those types of procedures are in place.”
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people are playing tricks or do something else than they promise and things like that, I don’t want to work for an organisation like that. But I think that most people act, well the people that I work with, act with integrity”.
The decision making process during change at ING is unclear for some people. When asking an interviewee if the decision making process was fair, the answer was: “For that I don’t have enough insight how the process is going. Because I don’t know what is going on in making the decisions. Because well, it’s about people, positions, money, power. So I don’t know if that process is fair or not.” Someone who indicates that the decision making process is known, explained that the process of decision making is not a clear process to define: “It’s not really a documented process. Of course some type of decisions need to be made at relevant committees, of course the ultimate committee is the board, and they’ve got charters, and the supervisory board has charters towards what needs to be handled, but the whole process towards that committee and how a decisions is pre-worked and sought support for etcetera, that’s not always clear what needs to happen, but it happens.”
Relation procedural justice and organisational commitment. Two people during the interviews stated that organisational support influenced their organisational commitment negatively. One of them states that he/she does not feel like having influence on his/her commitment now, however indicated that it would when the situation remains the same: “Well, if I would not have the idea that it would change for the better, and this would be the situation I had to work with all the time, well at some point that would become annoying and I would not want to work for the organisation that is that unprofessional. Unless I was able to influence it. It’s just a phase that we are going through, and sometimes it’s annoying, but that doesn’t make me feel like I should leave immediately.”
Additional Findings
