Employee Commitment: Nature, Antecedents and Outcomes

Abstract

The authors explore the meaning, contributory factors; and results of employee engagement. We employ predominantly academic and popular literature to assess the three parts of the subject. Combining the review with discussion, we find that employees are committed not only to their organisations but also to their jobs and work groups; antecedents are of two main categories – organisational antecedents and personal characteristics antecedents, the former being predominantly intrinsic; outcomes include creation of corporate image, control of voluntary employee turnover, and social benefits. We conclude that many studies identify and describe motivation, job satisfaction, and increased performance as employee commitment outcomes, which we tend to disagree. We have clarified these, which we consider as the major contribution of this study.