Marc Stigter BBA, MBA, MMgmt, MSc

PhD research student

University

Lancaster University Management School (LUMS). LUMS doctoral management program is rated top 5 in the world by The Financial Times (2008).

Thesis title

How do employees perceive organisational factors that impact on engagement and affective commitment and what role does psychological contracting play in this process?

Thesis abstract

Whilst several forms of commitment exist, I am particularly interested in ‘affective’ commitment, which can be described as the employee’s emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organisation. Affective commitment is seen as the most important form of commitment as it has the most potential benefits for organisations. It is argued that employees who have high affective commitment are those who will go beyond the call of duty for the good of the organisation. In recent literature, some academics have referred to this form of commitment as ‘engagement’, whilst others argue that engagement builds on earlier research on commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour.

Academic research into the concepts of psychological contracting, engagement, or affective commitment seems to be limited to quantitative research based on questionnaire surveys. It has been my intent to gain a more in-depth and grained understanding of the concepts by ‘going below the surface’. My research has therefore been qualitative, partly validating or challenging existing views of the concepts. Data has been generated by interviewing cross-sections of employees across 5 organisations from the energy, power, mining, education, and recruitment sectors.

Initial findings suggest a kaleidoscope of engagement drivers which impact on affective commitment and which can be offered through psychological contracts, especially on an idiosyncratic basis. When it comes to identifying and offering engagement drivers to a collective, an alternative model has emerged relating to the offering of value propositions to segmented groups of employees.