Feature-Oriented Framework and Employee Commitment
According to De Cuyper and Isaksson (2017), enriching the works environment
is a useful tool that improves the level of feature orientation of employees. This
was, however, survey-
based research though the findings could improve the success of organizational
values in Migori County. Morgeson, Mitchell and Liu (2015), also found that
one of the key elements that could retain employees in the organizations was a
development of a quality system. This was a useful addition to the current
research as it examined the system realized in the organization as a useful tool to
employee performance.
Macky, Gardner, Forsyth, Twenge and Campbell (2008) explored the
generational differences in psychological traits and their impact on the
workplace; conducted across different companies and societies, it emerged
that people of different generations had differing levels of commitments at
work. The findings further indicated that the success of employee commitments
at places of work depends on how well the employees have been paired based on
their ages.
Different generations of workers have been established to have different levels
of commitment. Lub et al. (2012) while focusing on possibilities of similarity
among employees of different ages in the healthcare sector. It found that
different ages have different levels of commitments at work. It was important in
exploring the psychological contract and commitment of different generations of
hospitality workers. Nevertheless, the study was undertaken through the
development of a desktop research model.
Accordingly, in a study by Gerber and Lange (2017) that focused on the
measurement of internal customer satisfaction concerning facility management
services in hospitals, it was found that there was a close link between employee
commitment and customer satisfaction. Therefore, it would be a useful tool to
add to the current solution where the need to have an
understanding of the county service delivery was dependent on the level of
employee’s motivation and commitments.
Similarly, Hassan, Abdul-Rahman and Basit (2017) in a study that focused on
the impact of psychological contracts on organizational commitment revealed
that the psychological contract of the employees was a vital tool that would be
useful in the development of performance levels. This was a key addition to the
current study in explaining how a study model would apply to the case of the
county government employees.
Rather than focusing on the specific terms of a contract, feature-oriented
framework measures address the characteristic properties that might be used to
differentiate contracts regardless of their specific content (Gerber & Lange,
2017; Hassan, Abdul-Rahman & Basit, 2017). A feature-oriented framework has
an important advantage over the content-oriented approach because it can be
used to guide the development of general measures usable across situations. It
can also help in clarifying the distinction between different types of contracts.
The notion of a balanced contract has also been distinguished from others in
terms of its features such as open-ended and specific (Ho et al. in McInnis et al.,
2009). Although a feature-oriented approach cannot be substituted for an
evaluation-oriented approach (fulfilment vs. breach), it might complement such
an approach in explaining the nature of an employee’s relationship with their
organization including their commitment and their duration of employment.
Duration of employment is conceptualized to affect how individuals perceive the
bond with their employer (McInnis et al., 2009). This is imperative for this study
as the County Government will be able to understand the basis and practicality of
the interest of the employees.
Cohen and Ehrlich (2019) in their research of conceptualizing five dimensions of
the feature- oriented psychological contract. The study stated that feature-
oriented psychological contract was subjected to change as the employees
advance in their employment status, based on how they perceive their
relationship with the employer and the organization. While looking into
empirical evidence on understanding how public servants differ in orientation
and motives. These findings showed that fulfilment of the feature-oriented
psychological contract is positively linked with organizational commitment,
concluding that a psychological contract can be a platform for understanding the
UK’s public sector perception of the employment relationship. This can also be
an aspect of reference to Migori County Government which is a public sector
entity.
Cohen and Ehrlich (2019) developed a feature-oriented study of psychological
contracts to theoretically identify and empirically investigate dimensions of the
psychological contract. Agarwal (2011) in a study on organizational commitment
in the Indian Information and Technology sector found that the psychological
contract of employees in the Indian Information and Technology industry was
positively and significantly correlated to their organizational commitment; this
study could be relevant as it establishes a correlation in the variables of this case
of Migori county government.
McDermott et al. (2013) sought to establish the relationship between
psychological contracts, organizational commitment and employment
characteristics in their research. It was found that level of perceived obligation in
psychological contract impacts differently on three sub- dimensions of
organizational commitment. Jabeen et al. (2015) found that both relational and
transactional psychological contract is positively and significantly related to
transactional leadership and organizational commitment with a conclusion that
fair psychological contract
induces higher levels of organizational commitment (Jabeen et al., 2015). These
findings are useful in forming a benchmark for the Migori County government in
observing the levels of commitment of the employees.
According to Choi and Majumdar (2014) commitment is positively related to
personal characteristics such as age, length of service in a particular organization
(Johnson et al., 2010), and marital status has an inverse relation to the
employee’s level of education (Low, Bordia & Bordia, 2016).
According to McInnis et al. (2009), there are six bipolar feature dimensions of
the psychological contract. These are tangibility, stability, scope, time-frame,
symmetry and level. These dimensions reflect the degree to which employee
perceives the contract as being individually or collectively established (McInnis
et al., 2009). These dimensions could be important in identifying the delineation
of Migori county government employees.
According to Karagonlar et al. (2016), a psychological contract has the trust of
both parties in which some contracts must be accomplished, some contributions
are needed, and some liability must be attained. Cassar and Briner (2011)
revealed that over time, the psychological contract takes a particular model in the
minds of employees and it guides the perception of employees about how to
interpret the information received and how to react to the happenings in their
surroundings. These findings could be key in the case of Migori County
Government staff. The employer would be able to examine the trust and
perception levels of the staff.
Researchers have utilized the concept of the psychological contract in a variety
of ways (Lee & Lin, 2014); however, it is important to recognize that there are
significant aspects of all definitions of psychological contract which include
elements such as values, beliefs, expectations, and aspirations of both the
employee and employer. Relational contracts are broader, more amorphous,
open-ended and subjectively understood by the parties to the exchange. They are
concerned with the exchange of personal, socio-emotional, and value- based, as
well as economic resources (Conway & Briner, 2008) and they, exist over some
time. Relationships and relational issues such as obligations play an increasingly
important role in economics and organizational behaviour (Guest, 2016; Lee &
Lin, 2014). These could be of importance to Migori county staff to consider the
development of the psychological contract over a while.
Transactional contracts are short term in nature and have specific objectives; an
individual’s identity is derived from their unique skills and competencies, those
on which the exchange relationship itself is based. The organization only
becomes a place for such contracts. It is useful to seek immediate rewards out of
the employment situation, such as pay and credentials (DeCenzo et al., 2016).
According to Johnson et al. (2010), transactional contracts involve specific
monetizable exchanges such as pay for attendance between parties over a
specific period as in the case of temporary employment. Negotiation of
transactional contracts is likely to be explicit and require formal agreement by
both parties (Conway & Briner, 2008). Contrastingly, as per the above findings,
transactional contracts are explicit and negotiated while the focus of the study
was an implicitly unwritten contract.
According to Yuniawan et al. (2017), in a study in Indonesia, it was found that
psychological contract as indicated by fulfilment of employees’ needs and the
establishing harmonious social relations is the impetus for the emotional
attachment of employees with the organization. The challenging work is more
likely to give attachment to employees with the values and goals of the
organization, and the inspiration for achieving the organizational
goals. Studies indicate that organizational support from business owners
significantly encourages the employees’ positive commitment. This study could
be of the essence for the current case of the Migori county government to assess
the establishment of social and emotional attachments to the organization.
Employee commitments at the workplace can also be understood from the
elements of their levels of motivation. The need to motivate the employees is a
vital element in organizations. According to Mumbi (2015), a job satisfaction
perspective is a useful tool that can be deployed by stakeholders towards
improving the level of employee commitments. Migori county government needs
to be committed to understanding how they would be involved in motivating the
employees as a way of improving their levels of commitment.
REFERENCES
Agarwal, P. (2011). The relationship between the psychological contract and
Organizational Commitment in the Indian IT industry.
Alcover, C., Rico, R., Turnley, W.H., and Bolino, M.C (2017). Understanding
the changing nature of psychological contracts in 21st-century
organizations: A multiple-foci exchange relationships approach and
proposed framework. Organizational Psychology Review,7(1): 4-35.
Anderson, S.F. and Maxwell, S.E. (2016). There’s more than one way to conduct
a replication study: Beyond statistical significance. Psychological
Methods, 21(1), 1.
Antonaki, X.E. and Trivellas, P. (2014). Psychological contract breach and
organizational commitment in the Greek banking sector: The mediation
influence of Job satisfaction. Procedia - Social and Behavioural
Sciences, 148: 354-361.
Berry, W.D. (1993). Understanding Regression Assumptions. Sage.
Blau, P.M. (2014). Justice in Social Exchange. Sociological Inquiry, 34(2): 193-206.
Brathwaite, A. (2003). The selection of a conceptual framework for guiding
research interventions. The Internet Journal of Advance Nursing
Practice, 6(1)1-10.
Breitsohl, H. and Ruhle, S. (2013). Residual Affective Commitment to
Organizations: Concepts, Causes and Consequences. Human Resource
Management Review, 23 (2): 161-173.
Byrne, Z.S. and Hochwarter, W.A. (2008). Perceived organizational support and
performance: Relationships across levels of organizational cynicism.
Journal of Managerial Psychology, 23(1): 54-72.
Cassar, V., and Briner, R.B. (2011). The relationship between psychological
contract breach and organizational commitment: Exchange imbalance as
a moderator of the mediating role of the violation. Journal of vocational
behaviour, 78(2), 283-289.
Chan, A.W., Tong-Qing, F., Redman, T., and Snape, E. (2006). Evaluating the
multi- dimensional view of employee commitment: A comparative UK-
Chinese study. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 17 (11): 1873-1887.
Choi, N. and Majumdar, S. (2014). Social entrepreneurship as an essentially
contested concept: Opening a new avenue for systematic future research.
Journal of Business Venturing, 29(3): 363-376.
Clinebell, S., Skudiene, V., Trijonyte, R., and Reardon, J. (2013). Impact of
leadership styles on employee organizational commitment. Journal of
Service Science (JSS), 6 (1): 139-152.
Cohen, A. and Ehrlich, S. (2019). Exchange variables, organizational culture and
their relationship with constructive deviance. Management Research
Review.
Conway, N. and Briner, R.B. (2008). Understanding psychological contracts
at work: A critical evaluation of theory and research, Oxford University Press,
Kindle Version. Cooper, D.R and Schindler, P.S. (2013). Business research
methods (12th ed.). Irwin; McGray Hill.
Davoudi, S.M. (2012). Organizational commitment and extra-role behaviour: A
survey in Iran’s insurance industry. Journal of Business Systems,
Governance, and Ethics, 7(1): 66-75.
De Cuyper, N. and Isaksson, K. (2017). Employment contracts and well-being
among European workers. Routledge.
Deepthi, U. and Baral, R. (2013). Understanding the Role of Generational
Differences in Psychological Contract Fulfilment and its Impact on
Employees’ Cognitive Responses. Review of HRM.
De Nobile, J. (2016). Organizational communication and its relationships with
job satisfaction and organizational commitment of primary school staff in
Western Australia. Educational Psychology, 37(3): 380-398.
De Simone, S. (2014). A Conceptual Framework for the Organizational Analysis
in Health Care Contexts. International Journal of Humanities and Social
Science, 4(12).
DeCenzo, D.A., Robbins, S.P., and Verhulst, S.L. (2016). Fundamentals of
Human Resource Management, Binder Ready Version. John Wiley and
Sons.
