HRM practices and organizational commitment profiles

Ian R. Gellatlya*, Karen H. Huntera, Luanne G. Curriea and P. Gregory Irvingb

aSchool of Business, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; bSchool of Businessand Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

In this study, we examined how employee perceptions of development-oriented,stability-oriented, and reward-oriented human resource management (HRM) practicesaffected the likelihood of affective and continuance commitment profile membership.Our focus on profiles of combined commitment components is a departure from aliterature dominated by studies of the separate forms of employee commitment.Drawing from self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan 2000) we described the natureof the psychological states believed to underlie the specific profiles under investigation,then tested a series of theoretical predictions concerning the link between HRMpractices and the likelihood of profile membership. Predictor and criterion data for thisstudy were collected from 317 respondents working in a variety of Canadian-basedorganizations. Our findings suggest ways that organizations can use HRM practicesstrategically to help shape the nature of overall employee commitment.

Keywords: employee commitment; organizational commitment; strategic HRM;worker-centered approach to HRM

Introduction

The resource-based view of the firm (e.g., Barney 1991; Barney, Wright and Ketchen

2001) proposes that an organization’s investment in its human capital resources can be

a source of sustainable competitive advantage and high performance. The practical

implication of this proposal is that firms develop, through their HRM practices, internal

workforce capabilities that are rare, valuable, inimitable, and non-substitutable, and that

allow them to exploit opportunities and/or neutralize environmental threats to a greater

extent than their competitors (Wright, Dunford and Snell 2001). A potential risk for firms

that invest heavily in their human capital resources, however, is that employees who

possess valued capabilities may choose to leave and join competing firms. Thus, for the

advantages created by a firm’s investment in its human capital resources to be sustained

over time, its employees must remain committed to the organization. It follows, then, that

in conjunction with the development of strategically-relevant employee capabilities

(e.g., knowledge, skills), organizations should also cultivate employee commitment.

The strategic importance of developing employee commitment is not new (Walton

1985). Rather than forcing employee compliance with organizational goals and restricting

employee discretion through narrowly-defined jobs, work simplification, close super-

vision, standardization of processes/outcomes, and extensive rules and procedures, the

high-commitment approach to HRM attempts to create the conditions necessary to

facilitate voluntary employee involvement and identification with organizational goals.

ISSN 0958-5192 print/ISSN 1466-4399 online

q 2009 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/09585190902770794

http://www.informaworld.com

*Corresponding author. Email: ian.gellatly@ualberta.ca

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Vol. 20, No. 4, April 2009, 869–884

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Numerous examples of ‘commitment maximizing’ practices and taxonomies of these

practices have been documented in the literature (e.g., Arthur 1994; Delaney and Huselid

1996; Huselid 1995; MacDuffie 1995; Pfeffer 1995; Wood and de Menezes 1998; Youndt,

Snell, Dean, and Lepak 1996) with little consensus about how many practice categories

exist or which commitment enhancing activities fall within them. In the present study, we

restricted our focus to three practice categories relevant to the criteria concepts under

investigation: development-oriented practices aimed at enhancing employee capabilities

(e.g., broadly defined jobs; employee participation programs; selective staffing;

comprehensive skill training and development; use of work teams; career ladders;

promotion opportunities), stability-oriented practices aimed at providing supportive

and secure working conditions (e.g., perceptions of fair treatment; employee participation

programs; effective grievance and dispute resolution processes; employment security;

longer-term employment contracts), and reward-oriented practices aimed at motivating

employees (e.g., content-valid performance appraisal; goal setting; performance-

contingent rewards; opportunities for high wages). In the next section we argue that the

kind of employee commitment a firm develops through its HRM practices has not been

well understood, in part, because of the complex nature of employee commitment and the

limitations of prior research.

Commitment components

Rather than viewing employee commitment as a simple concept that ranges from low to

high, it is now widely accepted that employee commitment has a multi-dimensional nature

(e.g., Allen and Meyer 1990; Jaros 1997; Jaros, Jermier, Koehler and Sincich 1993;

O’Reilly and Chatman 1986). This multi-dimensional nature has been articulated most

clearly in the three-component theory of organizational commitment (Allen and Meyer

1990; Meyer and Allen 1991, 1997). According to this perspective, the commitment an

employee feels towards his or her organization reflects varying combinations of desire

(affective commitment), cost (continuance commitment), and obligation (normative

commitment). Affective commitment (AC) has been described as the employees’

emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization. Meyer

and Allen (1991) proposed that anything that increases the quality of one’s work

experiences, especiallyone’s senseof autonomyandpersonal competence,will increaseAC.

Continuance commitment (CC) stems from an employee’s assessment of the respective

costs and benefits of remaining with or leaving the organization. This form of commitment

should increase over time as people accumulate personal investments or side-bets

(e.g., seniority rights; attractive benefits) that would be at risk if the relationship was

terminated (cf. Becker 1960). Although Allen and Meyer (1990) described a third

component, normative commitment (obligation-based commitment) we did not include

this component in our study given the high correlation between the affective and normative

components (Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch and Topolnytsky 2002), and because of recent

work calling for conceptual clarification of the normative-commitment component

(Gellatly, Meyer and Luchak 2006).

It has been consistently asserted that the overall commitment an employee feels towards

his or her organization reflects the relative strength of the components in combination

(Meyer and Herscovitch 2001; yet, virtually all prior research has focused on the components

in isolation (Meyer and Allen 1997).While much has been written about the antecedents and

determinants of the separate commitment components, especially AC and CC (e.g., Allen

and Meyer 1996; Meyer et al. 2002), much less is known about how these components work

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together to produce an overall commitment experience. We contend, as will be described

shortly, that the separate components provide a context for interpreting and understanding

how one’s commitment is experienced (i.e., strong CC experienced in a context of strong AC

should produce a different feeling of overall commitment than strong CC experienced in a

context of weak AC). By continuing to focus on the separate components, organizational

researchers have missed an opportunity to extend commitment theory beyond its constituent

parts. We are encouraged by the findings of recent studies that different component

configurations can be distinguished in terms of employee behaviours (Gellatly et al. 2006;

Sinclair, Tucker, Cullen and Wright 2005; Wasti 2005). We are unaware of any comparable

work on the antecedent side that examines the conditions that influence the likelihood of

different component combinations or profiles.

As a starting point, we focused on the combination of two commitment components,

AC and CC, because (a) these two components have been found to be uncorrelated (Meyer

et al. 2002) which should produce four relatively distinct combinations of AC (high/low)

and CC (high/low) to study, and (b) the psychological state associated with each of the

four combinations can be easily understood within the context of self-determination theory

(e.g., Deci and Ryan 2000; Gagne and Deci 2005; Meyer, Becker and Vandenberghe

2004). After describing the psychological characteristics of these four profiles, we propose

a series of hypotheses that connect different HRM practices with predictions of profile

membership. Predicting profile membership is an important step toward understanding

how overall feelings of employee commitment develop and complements recent work

exploring the behavioural consequences of commitment profiles.

Commitment profiles

According to Meyer and Allen (1997), employees feel more than one form of commitment

simultaneously and the nature of the resulting commitment profile, which reflects the

relative strength of commitment components, produces for each individual a distinct

commitment experience or mindset (Meyer and Herscovitch 2001). Consider, for example,

how levels of AC affect the way one experiences high CC. According to Sinclair et al.

(2005) one should experience devotion when high CC is combined with high AC (i.e., I need

and want to stay), but feel trapped when high CC is combined by low AC (i.e., I have no

desire to stay, but I need to). It seems contradictory that high CC can be experienced as both

devotion and entrapment. This example is an excellent illustration of the limitations of

focusing exclusively upon individual components of commitment without considering the

context in which that component occurs. An advantage of the profile approach is that it

assumes that the nature of the mindset associated with overall commitment will depend

upon the relative status of each of the constituent components. To further explain the

psychological properties of different component combinations, we turn to recent work that

has examined links between organizational commitment and motivation.

The view that overall organizational commitment reflects a psychological state or

mindset has an interesting parallel in the motivation literature (Meyer et al. 2004). Self-

determination theory (Deci and Ryan 1985, 2000; Gagne and Deci 2005; Ryan and Deci

2000) provides a framework for understanding how different configurations of perceived

(internal and external) control produce different motivational states. The model proposes a

series of motivational mindsets ranging from intrinsic (autonomous) motivation, whereby

activities are viewed as being primarily self-determined and undertaken for their

own sake (i.e., the activity is interesting, challenging and/or enjoyable), to extrinsic

(external regulation) motivation whereby activities are seen as being primarily controlled

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by others, by the constraints in a situation, or by salient reward contingencies. In their

analysis, Meyer et al. (2004) proposed that the mindsets underlying the components of

AC and CC, respectively, correspond to the mindsets associated with autonomous

motivation and external regulation. Extending this thinking to commitment profiles, it is

reasonable to expect that a mindset of autonomous motivation would most likely be present

when AC is high and CC is low. For these people, the primarymotivation to remain with the

organization would be tied to interest and enjoyment as well as a sense of personal

competence. It makes sense, then, that emotional connection and personal identification

with the organization should occur in a context where external controls are low or absent.

Sinclair et al. (2005) have referred to the profile of high AC and low CC as emotionally

attached. In contrast, amindset of external regulationwouldmost likely be presentwhenCC

is high and AC is low. For these people, the primary motivation would be to act (or stay) to

obtain external rewards or avoid costs. For Sinclair et al., people who experience high CC

within a context of low AC feel trapped. When the components of AC and CC are both

strong, the motivational mindset should reflect both autonomous motivation and external

regulation. Following the self-determination continuum (Deci and Ryan 2000; Gagne and

Deci 2005), the mindset of identified regulation (i.e., people identify with the importance of

staying with the organization for their own well-being, and still feel a sense of freedom and

volition; however, their behaviour is clearly instrumental rather than solely a source of

spontaneous enjoyment or satisfaction) reflects strong feelings of desire-based and cost-

based commitment. Sinclair et al. (2005) characterize the profile of high AC and high CC as

devoted, which is consistent with how internal regulation is described in self-determination

theory. Finally, a combination of low AC and low CC would be described as amotivation

(i.e., lack of motivation and commitment) or uncommitted.

HRM practices and commitment profiles

A central question advanced in this study was the extent to which employee perceptions of

HRM practices were associated with profile membership. Our decision to consider HRM

practices from the perspective of the individual employee was based on the opinion that

employees are in the best position to describe their actual employment relationships and

the management practices in use (Guest 2002; Wright, Gardner, Moynihan and Allen

2005; Macky and Boxall 2007). In fact, with a few exceptions (e.g., Whitener 2001), we

have observed that the vast majority of research assessing relations between specific

practices and employee attitudes has been framed and conducted at the individual level of

analysis. Our work is consistent with this approach. In this section, we consider the kinds

of HRM practices that should be associated with the mindsets believed to underlie the

different profiles of AC and CC. As mentioned earlier, we have limited our focus to

development-oriented practices, stability-oriented practices, and reward-oriented

practices. Each of these practice orientations is now described along with their proposed

relations to the commitment profiles under review.

We begin by proposing that development-oriented practices aimed at building

employee capabilities (e.g., skill training; personal development) should increase feelings

of internal control (autonomy) and competence, which, in turn, should increase one’s

identification, involvement, and emotional connection with the work and the

organization as a whole (Meyer et al. 2004). Thus development-oriented practices

should increase the likelihood of belonging to a profile where AC is high and CC is low

(emotionally attached), and, to a lesser extent, increase the likelihood of belonging to

a profile where both AC and CC are high (devoted), given that increased CC in a context

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of high AC is experienced as a moderate, rather than an extreme, form of external

regulation. Not only should the presence of development-oriented practices diminish

feelings of external regulation, but they should increase opportunities within and outside

the firm, which, in turn, should reduce feelings of being trapped (high CC/low AC) or

being uncommitted (low AC/low CC). Our profile predictions extend the work that has

studied AC alone. Examples of development-oriented practices that have been shown to

be positively correlated with AC include job redesign/enrichment (e.g., Allen and Meyer

1990; Deery, Iverson and Erwin 1994; Iverson and Buttigieg 1999); participation in

decision making (e.g., Gaertner and Nollen 1989; Allen and Meyer 1990; Rodwell,

Kienzle and Shadur 1998; Allen, Shore and Griffeth 2003); and training and

personal/career development (e.g., Gaertner and Nollen 1989; Shore and Barksdale

1998; Chang 1999; Meyer and Smith 2000; Lee and Bruvold 2003; Paul and

Anantharaman 2004).

Hypothesis 1a: Employee perceptions of development-oriented practices will increase

the likelihood of membership in the profile where AC is high and CC is

low (emotionally attached).

Hypothesis 1b: Employee perceptions of development-oriented practices will increase

the likelihood of membership in profiles where AC is high and CC is

either low (emotionally attached) or high (devoted).

Hypothesis 1c: Employee perceptions of development-oriented practices will decrease

the likelihood of membership in profiles where AC is low and CC is

either high (trapped) or low (uncommitted).

Stability-oriented practices aimed at providing employees with supportive and secure

working conditions (e.g., stable wages, job security) should focus employee attention on

both the benefits of retaining organizational membership and the personal and financial

costs associated with leaving the organization. According to Meyer et al. 2004, the

motivational mindset associated with strong feelings of cost-based commitment would

be characterized as ‘loss-prevention’ (Higgins 1998) and external regulation (Gagne and

Deci 2005). Thus, we expect that the psychological effects of stability-oriented practices

should primarily increase the likelihood of belonging to the profile where AC is low and

CC is high (trapped). Consistent with this view, we see evidence of positive correlations

between CC and the following practices: comprehensive non-portable benefits (e.g.,

Allen and Meyer 1990; Ward and Davis 1995; Meyer and Smith 2000) and job security

(e.g., Chang 1999; Harley 2002). If stability-oriented practices are viewed by employees

as a demonstration of organizational trust, the underlying mindset may also reflect a

blend of relationship and economic considerations, which in turn, should increase

the likelihood of belonging to a profile where both AC and CC are high (devoted). To the

extent that stability-oriented practices make salient the benefits of staying, feelings of

autonomy should diminish (i.e., I have little choice but to stay), which, in turn, should be

associated with reduced feelings of emotional attachment. To minimize the risk of losing

stable and secure working conditions, employees should be motivated to retain

organizational membership; thereby lowering the likelihood of belonging to the

uncommitted profile.

Hypothesis 2a: Employee perceptions of stability-oriented practices will increase the

likelihood of membership in the profile where CC is high and AC is low

(trapped).

Hypothesis 2b: Employee perceptions of stability-oriented practices will increase the

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likelihood of membership in profiles where CC is high and AC is either

low (trapped) or high (devoted).

Hypothesis 2c: Employee perceptions of stability-oriented practices will decrease the

likelihood of membership in profiles where CC is low and AC is either

high (emotionally attached) or low (uncommitted).

Finally, we propose that reward-oriented practices aimed at motivating employees

(e.g., performance-contingent outcomes) should produce a mindset characterized by

feelings of autonomy and external control. Although tangible rewards and social

recognition are clearly external inducements designed to shape the direction of an

employee’s attention and effort, performance-contingent rewards create a context

where employees, within limits, can decide how much effort they exert, and, therefore,

determine the level of their rewards. As mentioned previously, identified regulation is a

mindset characterized by a blend of choice and control that falls on the continuum between

the extremes of autonomous motivation and external regulation (Gagne and Deci 2005).

Thus, we predict that reward-oriented practices should increase the likelihood of belonging

to a profile where both AC and CC are high (devoted), and, to a lesser extent, increase the

likelihood of belonging to profiles where either AC or CC, only are high (emotionally

attached or trapped). We expect that the presence of reward contingencies should decrease

the likelihood of membership in the uncommitted profile. Examples of reward-oriented

practices found to positively correlate with AC include promotion opportunities (Gaertner

and Nollen 1989; Shore and Barksdale 1998; Deery et al. 1994; Chang 1999; Iverson and

Buttigieg 1999) and performance-contingent rewards (e.g., Iverson and Buttigieg 1999;

Coyle-Shapiro, Morrow, Richardson and Dunn 2002; Smeenk, Eisinga, Teelken and

Doorewaard 2006). Similarly, although less consistently, CC has been found to correlate

positively with promotion opportunities (Chang 1999), performance appraisal (Meyer and

Smith 2000), contingent rewards (Caldwell, Chatman and O’Reilly 1990), and high pay

(Iverson and Buttigieg 1999). Our profile predictions are consistent with empirical findings

where AC and CC were analyzed as separate components.

Hypothesis 3a: Employee perceptions of reward-oriented practices will increase the

likelihood of membership in the profile where both AC and CC are high

(devoted).

Hypothesis 3b: Employee perceptions of reward-oriented practices will increase the

likelihood of membership in the profile where both AC and CC are

high (devoted) and in profiles where either AC or CC only are high

(emotionally attached or trapped).

Hypothesis 3c: Employee perceptions of reward-oriented practices will decrease the

likelihood of membership in the profile where both AC and CC are low

(uncommitted).

Method

Respondent sample

We tested our study hypotheses using data gathered from a survey of business school

alumni from a large Canadian university. Approximately 3000 survey packages were

mailed to addresses provided by the school’s alumni association. Because we had no way

of knowing how many alumni actually received their survey package, we assumed that a

maximum of 2000 survey packages were received by alumni. This estimate was based on

an assumption that alumni lists, at best, are usually about 67% accurate. In total, 332

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completed surveys were returned to the researchers for an estimated response rate of

roughly 17%. We consider this response rate to be a lower-bound estimate, with the actual

response rate higher if the accuracy of the mailing list was less than 67%. Missing data on

the study measures reduced our sample to 317. Approximately half of the respondents

were female. On average, respondents reported that they had worked in their organization

for 3.7 years. As hoped, respondents came from a variety of occupations and

organizations.

Measures

Human resource management practices

We assessed nine specific management activities that characterized development-oriented,

stability-oriented, or reward-oriented HRM practices (Porter, Pearce, Tripoli and Lewis

1998). Four development-oriented practices included: (a) providing meaningful, interesting,

and challenging work; (b) providing development (training) opportunities on an ongoing

basis; (c) providing increasing responsibility and autonomy; and (d) providing skill

development that increased value to the firm. Two stability-oriented practices included:

(e) providing job security for at least one year; and (f) providing stable wages over time.

Three reward-oriented HRM practices included: (g) providing bonus pay or performance-

based incentives; (h) providing increases in salary when the company was profitable; and

(i) providing employees with an opportunity to earn a high income. Respondents indicated on

five-point scales (1 ¼ minimally or not at all; 5 ¼ very large extent) the extent to which

each of the nine practices were used in their organization. To test the validity of the intended

measurement model we undertook a confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL 8.5

(Joreskog and Sorbom 1993). The following three measurement models were compared: a

null (independence) model; a one-factor model; and a three-factor model. The fit indices

for the three models were as follows: the null model (x2null ¼ 1,243.38, df ¼ 36), the

one-factor model (x21 factor ¼ 851.19, df ¼ 33, p , .001; RMSEA ¼ .34; CFI ¼ .32), and

the three-factor model (x23 factor ¼ 73.33, df ¼ 23, p , .001; RMSEA ¼ .08; CFI ¼ .96).

Our findings clearly indicate that the three-factor solution fits the data best, and that the three

practice orientations are distinguishable empirically. Thus, composite measures of

development-oriented practices (M ¼ 3.49, SD ¼ .91), stability-oriented practices

(M ¼ 3.21, SD ¼ 1.09), and reward-oriented practices (M ¼ 2.93, SD ¼ 1.08) were

computed by averaging the appropriate specific practices. Coefficient alpha reliability

estimates for the development, stability, and reward measures, respectively, were .81

(4 items), .59 (2 items), and .73 (3 items).

Organizational commitment

We assessed two forms of organizational commitment, AC and CC, using the six-item

scales described by Meyer and Allen (1997) and Meyer, Allen and Smith (1993). For each

item, respondents were asked to indicate the extent of their personal agreement using a

seven-point scale (1 ¼ strongly disagree; 7 ¼ strongly agree). Responses to the relevant

items were averaged to produce measures of AC and CC. The alpha coefficients for the AC

(M ¼ 4.37; SD ¼ 1.29) and CC (M ¼ 3.57; SD ¼ 1.06) measures were .88 and .70,

respectively.

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Commitment profiles

To compute a profile score for each respondent we used the following procedure. First, we

dichotomized the distribution of AC scores into low and high groups using the median

scale score as the critical value. This was repeated for the distribution of CC scores. Next,

we assigned individual respondents to one of the four commitment profiles based on their

relative (low or high) status on AC and CC (Herscovitch and Meyer 2002; Gellatly et al.

2006). The distribution of respondents across the four commitment profiles was as follows:

devoted (N ¼ 80; AC and CC are both high), emotionally attached (N ¼ 81; AC is high

and CC is low), trapped (N ¼ 71; AC is low and CC is high) and uncommitted (N ¼ 85;

AC and CC are both low). Thus, the observed proportions (percentage) of respondents

belonging to the four profiles, respectively, were .252, .256, .224, and .268.

Analytic procedure: Multinomial logit analysis

To test our study hypotheses we subjected our data to multinomial logit analysis (MLA)

using STATA 8 (2003). This analysis is appropriate to use when, as in this study, the

criterion variable includes three or more unordered categorical responses (for reviews

see Demaris 1992; Rodriguez 2001). To assess the statistical significance of the relations

between the variables, we used MLA to estimate logistic regression equations of the

log-odds of membership in each profile compared to an arbitrary reference profile.

A chi-square statistic (likelihood ratio) was applied to determine if the resulting

regression coefficients for each equation were simultaneously equal to zero. To test our

study hypotheses we converted the regression coefficients to marginal effects

probabilities. Marginal effects indicate the direction and percentage change in the

probability of membership in a profile when one of the predictor variables is increased

by one unit above its mean (while other predictors are held constant at their means). For

instance, if a one unit increase in a predictor variable from its mean of 3.49 to 4.49 is

associated with a marginal effect of þ .08 for a given profile, we interpret this to mean

that the predictor variable increased the likelihood of membership in that profile by 8%.

Marginal effects are measured as probabilities and are therefore not interpreted through

comparison to a reference category (as is commonly the procedure when interpreting

basic MLA coefficients). For each independent variable, each increase in probability of

profile membership is offset by a corresponding decrease in membership in

another profile; therefore, the marginal probabilities for all categorical dependent

variables sum to zero. A z-test was used to test whether any given marginal effect

coefficient significantly differed from zero.

Results

Means, standard deviations, and correlations among the study variables are displayed in

Table 1. Modest positive correlations were found among the three HRM practices, which

confirms previous work showing that distinguishable groups of high-commitment

practices tend to occur together (e.g., Arthur 1994; Huselid 1995; Delaney and Huselid

1996; Wood and de Menezes 1998). Organizational tenure correlated positively with the

separate components of AC and CC, which is consistent with results reported elsewhere

in the literature (Meyer and Allen 1997). As expected, AC correlated positively with

development-oriented (e.g., Allen and Meyer 1990; Meyer and Smith 2000; Lee and

Bruvold 2003), stability-oriented (e.g., Shore and Barksdale 1998; Chang 1999; Iverson

and Buttigieg 1999), and reward-oriented practices (e.g., Shore and Barksdale 1998;

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Iverson and Buttigieg 1999). Also, as expected, we found that stability-oriented practices

were positively related to CC (Chang 1999). Negative correlations were found between

CC and both development-oriented (e.g., Meyer and Smith 2000; Harley 2002) and

reward-oriented practices (Iverson and Buttigieg 1999). The correlation between the two

commitment components was not significantly different from zero, confirming the

orthogonal nature of AC and CC.

Tests of hypotheses

We assessed the relations between several HRM practices and profile membership while

controlling for organizational tenure, as tenure correlated positively with both of the

commitment components upon which the four criterion profiles were based (Becker 2005).

The chi-square for the overall MLA was 91.10 ( p , .01), indicating the presence of

non-zero regression coefficients. In linear regression, as a measure of overall explanatory

power, R2 measures the amount of criterion variance accounted for by the independent

variables. In MLA, Pseudo R2 provides a loose representation of how well the model

explains the relationships in the data, with higher values being superior to lower values

(McFadden 1973). For this data, the associated Pseudo R2 was 10.38, indicating that

the HRM practices included in this analysis explain slightly more than 10% of what

determines profile membership. As discussed previously, MLA coefficients were

transformed into marginal effects, evaluated at the mean for each independent variable.

The pattern of marginal effects described in Table 2 provided the basis for testing the study

hypotheses.

Development-oriented practices

From Table 2 it is evident that, relative to the other profiles, a one-unit change in

development-oriented practices (3.49 to 4.49) is associated with the largest change

(þ13%) in the likelihood of belonging to the profile characterized as emotional

attachment. Although not as strong as emotional attachment, perceptions of development-

oriented practices are associated with an increased likelihood (þ8%) of membership

in the devoted profile. Also, consistent with our hypotheses, a one-unit increase in

development-oriented practices is associated with a decreased likelihood of membership

in trapped (211%) and uncommitted (210%) profiles. Taken together, expected

changes in the proportions (percentages) of respondents belonging to each of these four

commitment profiles after a one-unit increase in development-oriented practices are:

devoted (25.2% to 33.2%), emotionally attached (25.6% to 38.6%), trapped (22.4% to

Table 1. Descriptive statistics and correlations.

Measures M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6

1. Organizational tenure 3.65 3.412. Development-oriented HRM practices 3.49 0.91 20.07 0.813. Stability-oriented HRM practices 3.21 1.09 0.06 0.28 0.594. Reward-oriented HRM practices 2.93 1.08 20.10 0.42 0.17 0.735. Affective commitment 4.06 1.42 0.12 0.48 0.25 0.41 0.886. Continuance commitment 3.32 1.11 0.15 20.11 0.17 20.12 0.07 0.70

Notes: N ¼ 317; listwise deletion of missing data. Scale reliabilities (coefficient alpha) are presented along thediagonal. Correlations significantly different from zero, p , .05 (1-tail test) are shown in bold.

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11.4%), and uncommitted (26.8% to 16.8%). Thus, the pattern of significant marginal

effect probabilities for development-oriented practices is consistent with hypotheses

1a, 1b, and 1c.

Stability-oriented practices

As hypothesized, a one-unit increase in stability-oriented practices (3.21 to 4.21) is

associated with an increased likelihood of membership in the trapped (þ1%) and devoted

(þ7%) profiles, however, only the change in the latter profile was statistically significant.

Again, as expected, the pattern of marginal effects reveals that a one-unit increase

in stability-oriented practices is associated with a decreased likelihood of membership in

the emotionally attached (216%) and uncommitted (26%) profiles. However, only the

marginal effect coefficient for the uncommitted profile is statistically significant. Although

the overall pattern of findings is consistent with Hypotheses 2a–c, only Hypotheses 2b and

2c were confirmed by significant coefficients. The proportions (percentages) of

respondents belonging to the devoted and uncommitted profiles after a one-unit change

in stability-oriented practices, respectively, are 32.2% (25.2% þ 7%) and 20.8%

(26.8% 2 6%).

Reward-oriented practices

As hypothesized, a one-unit increase in reward-oriented practices (2.93 to 3.93) is

associated with an increased likelihood of membership in the devoted profile (þ2%)

although the magnitude of the change did not reach statistical significance. Increased

perceptions of reward-oriented practices are associated with an increased likelihood of

membership in the emotionally attached profile (þ9%) and a reduced likelihood

of membership in the uncommitted profile (27%). Predicted change to membership in the

trapped profile (24%) is not statistically significant. Overall, the pattern of significant

findings provides partial support for Hypothesis 3b and support for Hypothesis 3c. The

proportions (percentages) of respondents belonging to the emotionally attached and

uncommitted profiles after a one-unit increase in reward-oriented practices, respectively,

was 34.6% (25.6% þ 9%) and 19.8% (26.8% 2 7%).

Table 2. Marginal effects analysis.

Measures DevotedEmotionallyAttached Trapped Uncommitted

Organizational tenure dy/dx 0.02 0.01 0.01 20.03SE 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01

Development-oriented HRM practices dy/dx 0.08 0.13 20.11 20.10SE 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.03

Stability-oriented HRM practices dy/dx 0.07 0.16 0.01 20.06SE 0.03 0.03 0.02 0.02

Reward-oriented HRM practices dy/dx 0.02 0.09 20.04 20.07SE 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03

Notes: N ¼ 317; the four commitment profiles refer to combinations of high and low levels of affectivecommitment (AC) and continuance commitment (CC). The profile ‘devoted’ consists of high AC and high CC.The profile ‘emotionally attached’ consists of high AC and low CC. The profile ‘trapped’ consists of low AC andhigh CC. The profile ‘uncommitted’ consists of low AC and low CC. dy/dx ¼ marginal effect coefficients referto the probabilistic change in Y for a unit change in X.; SE ¼ standard errors for the marginal effect coefficients.Coefficients shown in bold are significantly different from zero (z test, p , .05).

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To summarize, the results of the MLA analysis suggest that all three HRM practices

significantly reduced the likelihood of respondents belonging to the uncommitted profile.

Overall the patterns of marginal effects for development-oriented, stability-oriented, and

reward-oriented HRM practices on commitment-profile membership were consistent with

our theoretical predictions, although some relations were not statistically significant.

Discussion

An inherent limitation of prior research that focused exclusively on separate components

of commitment is that we have not fully appreciated the context in which each component

is experienced, which, in turn, constrains theoretical development and management

practice. For example, the psychological state that is produced by an HRM practice aimed

at increasing CC (e.g., generous non-portable pension benefits) will depend on the status of

AC. As we have described earlier, high CC combined with low AC leaves one feeling

trapped, while high CC, combined with high AC leads to feelings of devotion (Sinclair

et al. 2005). Failure to recognize the importance of the commitment context can have

serious resource implications (Wright et al. 2001) leading, for example, a firm to

inadvertently design and implement management practices that promote profiles of

employee commitment that undermine, rather than advance, organizational goals.

In the present study our dependent variable consisted of categorical profiles created

by combining different levels of two commitment components, AC and CC. From a

theoretical perspective, this was an appealing starting point given that recent work (Meyer

et al. 2004) allowed us to map the different commitment combinations to distinct

motivational mindsets within self-determination theory (Gagne and Deci 2005), which, in

turn, provided a conceptual basis for linking these different commitment profiles to three

sets of HRM practices. We see this study as an important first step toward understanding

how overall employee commitment develops, and particularly, toward clarifying the role

that HRM practices play in shaping employee commitment.

Development-oriented practices aimed at building employee capabilities were found

to elevate the likelihood that employees felt emotionally attached (high AC and low CC)

or devoted (high AC and high CC) to the organization and were found to lower the

likelihood that employees felt trapped (low AC and high CC) or uncommitted (low AC

and low CC). This pattern was predicted from self-determination theory (Gagne and Deci

2005). HRM practices that produce in employees feelings of autonomy and competence

should contribute to a commitment mindset whereby people stay because they find

organizational membership interesting, challenging and/or enjoyable (i.e., because they

have a strong desire to stay) (Meyer and Herscovitch 2001; Meyer et al. 2004). The

pattern of our results was consistent with this theoretical interpretation. It has been

suggested that heavy investment in job-relevant and organization-specific training may

inadvertently increase CC by making it harder for an employee to transfer these

capabilities to another organization (e.g., Allen and Meyer 1990; Meyer and Allen 1997).

Our data suggest that even if levels of CC increase in response to training activities (it is

noteworthy that in our study the level of CC actually decreased), a corresponding

increase in AC should produce a mindset characterized as devoted rather than trapped.

This example further highlights the conceptual advantages of a profile approach to

organizational commitment.

Our findings for stability-oriented practices were generally in the predicted direction.

We proposed that HRM practices aimed at providing employees with stability and security

would raise awareness of the risks associated with leaving and would therefore foster

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a cost-based (loss prevention), rather than a desire-based, form of commitment. In addition

to making salient the benefits of organizational membership, we also proposed that

stability-oriented practices may be viewed by the employee as organizational support,

which, in turn should increase AC (e.g., Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison and Sowa

1986; Rhoades, Eisenberger and Armeli 2001; Rhoades and Eisenberger 2002). The

pattern of our results is consistent with this interpretation. Stability-oriented practices were

shown to significantly increase the likelihood of membership in the profile where both AC

and CC were high (devoted) and significantly decrease the likelihood of membership in the

uncommitted profile where both AC and CC were low. We expected that the mindset

associated with stability-oriented practices would most closely reflect external regulation

where employees remain with the organization because they have no choice. Although

stability-oriented practices, as predicted, increased the likelihood of belonging to the

trapped profile (low AC and high CC) and decreased the likelihood of belonging

to the emotionally attached profile (high AC and low CC), these two effects were

not statistically significant. It would appear that supportive and secure working conditions

elevated the CC component but, in a context of high AC, high CC was likely experienced

by the employees in the study as dedication or loyalty rather than entrapment.

We found that reward-oriented practices significantly increased the likelihood of the

emotionally attached profile while decreasing the likelihood of the uncommitted profile.

Although we predicted an increase in CC, our data clearly show that CC decreased in

response to reward-oriented practices. An explanation for this unexpected finding is that

our measure captured variable rewards rather than the more fixed and predictable aspects

of compensation (e.g., wages; salary; benefits) which may be more closely tied to CC.

As expected, employee perceptions of reward-oriented practices were positively related to

AC. It would appear that, on average, respondents did not view performance-contingent

rewards as organizational inducements that restricted or ‘controlled’ their actions. Rather,

our results suggest that these reward practices were associated with intrinsic motivation

generated perhaps by elevating the level of interest, challenge, and meaningfulness of the

work. These variable and discretionary rewards, in the right context, may also signal

competence and status within the work group, thereby helping to explain why AC

increased and CC decreased. Thus, from a profile perspective, high AC in a context of low

CC produces a state of emotional attachment rather than devotion. Finally, consistent with

our predictions, the presence of rewards significantly reduced the likelihood of

membership in the uncommitted profile.

Based on the work of Wasti (2005) and Sinclair et al. (2005), the most desirable

commitment profile, from a behavioural perspective, is the devoted profile where both AC

and CC are high. Our findings suggest that the best way to increase the likelihood of this

employee profile is to combine development- and stability-oriented HRM practices.

It follows from this that the most organizationally undesirable commitment profile is one

where high CC occurs within a context of low AC (trapped) or where both forms of

commitment are low (uncommitted). Our findings also suggest that development-oriented

practices, and to a lesser extent reward-oriented practices, help to reduce feelings of

entrapment. Perhaps our most striking and consistent finding was that all three practices

were shown to reduce the likelihood of the uncommitted profile. Thus, an important

contribution of the present study has been to confirm theoretical links between several

HRM practices and the likelihood of both organizationally desirable (and undesirable)

commitment profiles, which, in turn, should help explain how HRM practices influence

employee behaviours and performance (Guest 1997).

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Limitations

A potential methodological limitation of the worker-centered approach is reliance on self-

report data. This raises potential concerns about the influence of common method variance

on our findings. We attempted to reduce these concerns somewhat by assuring participants

of the anonymity and confidentiality of their responses (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee and

Podsakoff 2003). If common method bias were a problem in this study, we would have

expected to see substantial correlations between variables that should theoretically be

unrelated, such as AC and CC (cf. Lindell and Brandt 2000; Lindell and Whitney 2001).

The fact that the correlation between the two commitment components was non-significant

suggests that common method bias was not a serious problem. We also note that the

direction and magnitude of our observed correlations were consistent with prior work

looking at HRM practices–commitment relations, thus further reducing concerns about

inflated correlations due to common method variance. Another conceptual limitation

concerns our focus on two of the three commitment components. We anticipate that as

future research addresses the conceptual issues associated with normative commitment

(for a review, see Bergman 2006) this component will be integrated more fully within

commitment profile configurations. An implicit assumption in the present study would be

that normative commitment is held constant at its mean across all four profiles. We also

acknowledge that the reliability for the measure of stability-oriented HRM practices was

lower than desired. However, lower reliability would have made it more difficult for us to

find any associations with this measure. Increasing the number of items in the stability-

oriented and reward-oriented measures should improve scale reliability in future research.

Finally, the study’s cross-sectional design prevents us from drawing firm conclusions

regarding causality.

Practical implications

Employee commitment is a resource that firms can use to help them sustain the workforce

capabilities that give them sustained advantage over competitors. Our findings show how

HRM practices can be used to create different commitment profiles, especially those that

have payoffs in terms of reduced turnover and higher citizenship behaviour (Organ 1988).

Our findings also highlight the importance of monitoring the multiple forms of employee

commitment so the nature of the commitment profile can be understood and managed.

Based on Wasti (2005) and Sinclair et al. (2005), it seems that the best balance of

employee retention and citizenship behaviours is achieved when both AC and CC are high.

Organizations should measure the frequency of commitment components and, as this

study suggests, invest in HRM practices that reduce the frequency of organizationally

undesirable profiles. Of course, this is just the beginning. Much more research is necessary

to identify other factors associated with the various commitment profiles.

Acknowledgement

Support for this research was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council ofCanada.

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