This thesis sets out to solve a paradox: maintaining a high level of employees' affective commitment to the organisation is assumed to be a critical factor for successful downsizing, but downsizing tends to reduce employees' affective commitment to the organisation. In seeking to resolve this paradox, the thesis aims to provide insights into how employees' affective commitment to the organisation under downsizing can be managed. The thesis first explores the mechanism through which downsizing exerts its influence on employees' affective commitment to the organisation, i.e. it examines whether downsizing affects employees' affective commitment to the organisation directly and/or indirectly through employees' daily work experiences, and seeks to determine which impact is stronger. Then, it examines whether employees' affective commitment to the organisation is really important in terms of organisational citizenship behaviour. Finally, the thesis identifies the determinants of employees' affective commitment to the organisation and investigates how and why these determinants have such effects. The results of the research show that the indirect impact of downsizing on employees' affective commitment to the organisation is much stronger than its direct impact. That is, employees' affective commitment to the organisation is slightly reduced by downsizing, but it can be maintained or enhanced if the change of employees' daily work experiences caused by downsizing is favourable to them. Moreover, employees' affective commitment to the organisation appears to be very important in terms of organisational citizenship behaviour. Finally, employees' daily work experiences affect employees' affective commitment to the organisation through their impacts on the three mediating variables (organisation-based self-esteem, perceived organisational support, and self efficacy). The results also show that organisation-based self-esteem is the key mediating variable.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:524256 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Lee, Jaewon |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/1299/ |
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