Evaluation-Oriented Framework and Employee Commitment
There are different levels to which evaluation-oriented framework and employee
commitment can be analysed in organizations. According to Robinson and Morrison in
McInnis et al. (2009), evaluation-oriented framework measures assess perceptions of the
fulfilment or breach of a contract. In most cases, the focus has been on employees’
perception of fulfilment or breach on the part of the organization and its implications for
employee attitudes and behaviour. Two commonly used forms of the breach measure are
composite and global measures.
McDermott, Heffernan and Beynon (2013) established that the level of perceived obligation
in the psychological contract has significant impacts on the three sub-divisions of
organizational commitment: continuance, affective and normative commitment, as posited
by Allen and Meyer. Jabeen, Behery and Elanian (2015) revealed that both relational and
transactional psychological contract is positively and significantly associated with
transactional leadership and organizational commitment. The overall job satisfaction is
dependent on the employees’ assessment of their work and working conditions. These
findings are expressive to this study to enable the county government to examine the levels
of perceptions and types of transactions exhibited by the Migori county government staff.
The consequences of an employment psychological contract are important to the employees
and employers. According to Cohen and Ehrlich (2019), the consequences of the
psychological contract for employment relationship are determinant factors in the
realizations of the organizational value in the process. It was indicated that relationships at
the place of work could be useful in realizing work commitment; however, this was a large-
scale survey. Migori county government could, therefore, consider these elements as key in
the realization of the organizational values in employee commitment levels.
Cassar and Briner (2011) note that psychological contracts are never written and cannot be
enforced in a court of law. Therefore, when either party or both breach their side of their
‘bargain’ they are likely to feel disappointed. A mutual misunderstanding leads to
unhealthy frictions causing stress, recrimination and poor performance, and even
termination due to poor performance. It thus has a powerful influence on the outcome of the
employee-employer relationship. The difference between the psychological and formal
contract is that the psychological contract tends to be implicit unlike formal contracts
(Guest, 2016; Karagonlar et al., 2016). This study focuses on the psychological contract
therefore the findings by these researchers could play an essential role in monitoring the
breach of contract that may arise from either party.
Commitment is related to such job characteristics as task autonomy, feedback and job
challenge and certain work experiences such as job security, promotion opportunities,
training, and mentoring opportunities, and supportive and considerate leadership (Jain,
Giga & Cooper, 2013).
According to Chan, Tong-Qing, Redman, and Snape (2006), organization, supervisor, co-
workers and union have separate commitment foci. Besides, the relationship between
commitment and outcome is stronger where the constituency of focus is matched.
Nevertheless, this was a comparative study based on cultural and industrial relational
contexts of two countries, hence detailed review was minimal.
According to Kakarika, González-Gómez, and Dimitriades (2017) through experimental
and field studies found that workplace bullying caused a psychological breach in France
and Greece. Besides, it emerged that implications of bullying were strongest among elderly
women. In another study, Montgomery, Raju, Desai, and Unnava (2018) found that devoted
consumers are normally more negative to in‐contract violations because they normally have
psychological contracts with certain brands; this results to lower trust in the given brand.
Moderating Influence of Leadership Style on Psychological Contract and Employee
Commitment Relationship
The concept of leadership style helps identify the kinds of leader actions best aligned with
strategy. It is also evident that the transformational leadership style is more of an influence
in bringing in the element of commitment in employees. "Leadership consists of the
method, not magic" (Breitsohl & Ruhle, 2013). Leadership and the different associated
styles have an immense impact on how employees perform and grow, to lead positive
organizational
outcomes ages, Leadership has been a subject of much debate and deliberation and how the
different styles of leadership evoke different responses from followers. Incorporate context
the dynamics of these two entities ‘the leader’ and ‘the led’ play a key role in shaping the
destiny of the organization. In addition, organizations and their leaders have realized that
research on organizational commitment has gained importance (Jaques, 2017) because of
relationships between it and various measures of organizational efficiency and influence.
Mone and London (2018) aimed their research study at the level of trust that employees
normally had in the leadership of their organization. The research thus developed context
data on the trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and
practice. The study and review of the literature model further endeavoured and indicated in
the findings that the higher the level of trust of employees in leadership, the higher the
commitment (Mone & London, 2018). The research is useful in examining if Migori county
government employees could develop high-level trust in the employer. Similarly, the
research that was undertaken by Macky et al. (2008) explored the generational differences
in psychological traits and their impact on the workplace. The study was conducted across
different companies and societies indicated that people of different generations had
differing levels of commitments at work. The study further indicated that the success of
employee commitments at the place of work depends on how well employees were paired
based on their ages. The age differences among the employees are also an important factor
to consider based on the research (Macky et al., 2008).
Accordingly, Wang et al. (2011), sought to establish the extent to which transformational
leadership and performance across criteria and levels influenced the level of job
performance in India. It was found that the success of organizations was based on the kind
of leadership
styles. This could apply to the context of Migori County where different kinds of leadership
styles could influence the level of job commitments at work.
Values and commitments may also vary between the private and public sector employees.
According to Lyons, Duxbury, and Higgins (2016), while using the desktop research
model; it was reported that the level of work commitments in the private sector is different
from the public sector. Those in the private sector were more committed to their work due
to their proximity to the managers.
According to Van Prooijen and De Vries (2016), while looking at the implications of
conspiracy beliefs on supervisors and managers mattered in settings of micro-level
organizations. It emerged that conspiracy beliefs had different implications on
organizations given that employees had various perceptions of the organization; thereby
determining and influencing their commitment levels either positively or negatively. It was
also revealed that participatory leadership was linked to lowered conspiracy beliefs of
organizations; while laissez-faire leadership was linked to increased conspiracy.
While exploring influences of commitment of organizations on its association with
leadership styles and performance of employees in public sector commission of Ghana; it
emerged that leadership styles adopted to inculcate continuance commitment in
organizations enhanced performance of employees. It was also found that high continuance
commitment mediated the association of transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles,
and the performance of employees (Donkor & Zhou, 2020). They further recommended
that strategies inculcate continuance commitment by the public sector leadership.
Garg and Ramjee (2013) found that leadership styles significantly influenced levels of
continuance, normative, and affective commitment in parastatals in South Africa. It also
emerged that: transactional leadership enhanced normative commitment, laissez-faire
leadership worsened affective commitment, while transformational leadership enhanced
normative, continuance and affective commitment. Similar observations were made by
Wiza and Hlanganipai (2014) while studying public learning institutions in South Africa,
and Teshome (2013) while studying private learning institutions in Ethiopia asserting that
effective leaders were enablers who points directly to committed and competent employees.
Similarly, Clinebell, Skudiene, Trijonyte, and Reardon (2013) also revealed similar
observations in a study on two subsidiaries of multinational organizations; and Mendis and
Suranga (2017) who were studying a private insurance company in Sri Lanka.
In a study in the banking sector in Ghana, Tuffour, Gali, and Tuffour (2019) found that
there was no significant difference between gender regarding demonstrating leadership
styles. Contrary to most previous studies it was found that transformational, transactional
and laissez-faire leadership had positive implications on employee commitment.
Research Gap
Based on the literature reviewed, the researcher found out that studies carried so far in
Europe by Jakobsson (2018), in Australia by Nobile (2016), in China by Zhou et al. (2014),
all had a wider geographic scope and worked with private organizations. It also emerged
that most of the studies done such as Zhou et al. (2014), Lyons, Duxbury and Higgins
(2016), Mumbi (2015), Meyer and Parfyonova (2010), Lub, NijeBijvank, Matthijs,
Blomme, and Schalk (2012) were based desktop review hence limitations from the
previous studies could affect
inferencing. A more closely related study which was carried in Kenya by Okoth (2012) and
Wachira (2013) were done in the country’s capital city (Nairobi) and not a remote county
like Migori County. Furthermore, the county governments had just been operationalized
and function not fully devolved to enable employees to have the full impact or reliable
experience working with the county government. Thus, this study bridges this gap by
providing first baseline information on the county employee’s perception of the influence
of the psychological contract on their work performance, after a considerable duration of
time; seven years after devolution.
Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework presents three key variable frameworks that form the core of
this study; content-oriented, feature-oriented and evaluation-oriented frameworks. The
content- oriented framework entails elements in the employee environment that dictate the
level of work-related commitment, motivation and performance. These include the type
of job content, level of obligations, nature of career development, type of management
styles and type of observed internal factors. The feature-oriented framework comprises the
level of stability, type of structure-implicit/explicit, nature of trade union present, type of
culture/ethics and type of motives. According to Robinson and Morrison in McInnis et al.
(2009), an evaluation-oriented framework measures perceptions of the fulfilment or breach
of a contract. Evaluation-oriented framework endeavours to explore the effect of change in
place or work environment on employee commitment. It also examines the effects of the
variables such as type of need and expectations and nature of violations of ethical issues in
the workplace on the employee commitment.
Figure 2.1: Conceptual Framework
Independent Variables
Moderating Variable
Dependent Variable
Source: Author (2020), Rousseau and Tijoriwala (1999).
Evaluation-oriented
Changes in place
Types of needs and expectations
Nature of violations
Breach of trust
Feature-oriented
Level of stability
Type of structure- implicit/explicit
Nature of trade union present
Organization culture
Professional ethics and motives
Employee
Commitment
Normative
Leadership Styles
Transactional
Transformational
Content-oriented
Type of job content
Nature of career development
Type of observed internal relationship
Type of management styles/policies
Policy development and implementation
