THE LINK BETWEEN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND ORGANISATIONAL COMMITMENT

Transcription

1 10 THE LINK BETWEEN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND ORGANISATIONAL COMMITMENT Ihionkhan Peter A., Ph.D. Department of Business Administration Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria. Aigbomian Eunice E. (Mrs), Department of Banking and Finance Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria. ABSTRACT The concept of organisational commitment lies at the heart of any analysis of human resource management. Indeed, the rationale for introducing human resource management policies is to increase levels of employees commitment in order to ensue positive outcomes, while human resource management on the hand has been an important theme in management and business research for the past few decades due to its potential to affect a range of organizationally and individually desired outcomes such as commitment, loyalty, turnover intent and satisfaction. There is also a consensus that human resource management practices are a management philosophy and a way of managing organisations to improve their overall effectiveness and performance. Therefore this paper did an investigation on the impact of human resource management practices on organisational commitment. The paper reviews the concept of human resource management practices and highlights the types and nature of organisational commitment and investigates the influence of four dimensions of human resource management practices (teamwork, communication, reward and recognition, and training and development) on organisational commitment. The paper concludes by revealing that the four dimensions of organisational culture are positively associated with organisational commitment. Keywords: Organisation, Organisational Commitment, Management, Human Resources.

2 11 Introduction: Organisations exist to achieve objectives, to realize these objectives effectively and efficiently organisations need committed workers, indeed the concept of organisational commitment lies at the heart of any analysis of human resource management. Infact, the rationale for introducing human resource management policies is to increase levels of commitment so positive outcomes can ensue. The literature defines commitment as an employee s level of attachment to some aspect of work; various authors have been instrumental in identifying types of employee commitment as critical constructs in understanding the attitudes and behaviours of employees in an organisation. Human resource management practices on the hand has been an important theme in management and business research for the past few decades due to its potential to affect a range of organizationally and individually desired outcomes such as commitment, loyalty, turnover intent and satisfaction. There is also a consensus that human resource management practices are a management philosophy and a way of managing organisations to improve their overall effectiveness and performance. Research has confirmed that human resource management practices are able to influence the thoughts, feeling, interactions and performance in organisations (Saeed and Hassan, 2000). Thus, this paper is aimed at examining whether the application of some dimensions of human resource management practices result in an improvement in employees working conditions, thereby contributing towards their commitment. In the next section, we will review the literature on theories of organisational commitment, human resource management practices, and the link between human resource management practices and organisational commitment. Finally, we discuss the implications for managers and the conclusion. Literature Review: Organizational Commitment: Organisational commitment, as an attitude, has been defined as the relative strength of an individual s identification with, and involvement in, a particular organisation (Mowday, Porter and Stress 1979; Allan and Meyer, 1990). This definition, reflecting an individual s affective commitment, represents a major approach to the study of organisational commitment (Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch and Topolaytsky 2002), and appears to be the most desired form of commitment. Employees with strong organisational commitment continue employment with the organisation because they want to do so (Ghani, Nordin and Mamat 2004). In order to achieve organisational commitment, employers need to help their employees value involvement in the organisation. The more the employees value being part of the organisation, the more likely they are to stay with the organization. There are two dominant conceptualisations of organisational commitment in sociological literature. These are an employee s loyalty towards the organisation and an employee s intention to stay with the organisation. Loyalty is an affective response to, and identification with, an organisation, based on a sense of duty and responsibility. One may use Herscovitch and Meyer s (2002) definition: the degree to which an employee identifies with the goals and values of the organisation and is willing to exert effort to help it succeed. Loyalty is argued to be an important intervening variable between the structural conditions of work, and the values, and expectations, of employees, and their decision to stay, or leave. Positive and rewarding features of work are expected to increase loyalty, which, in turn, will reduce the likelihood of leaving. Loyalty becomes stabilized with tenure, which partly explains the negative relationship typically found between tenure and turnover. Intent to stay is portrayed as effectively neutral, and focuses on an employee s intention to remain a member of the organisation. It is much closer to economists ideas on how weighing the costs of leaving versus staying, decides the employee to leave or stay. Hagen (2001) defines this form of commitment as the employee s expected likelihood of remaining employed in the same organisation. As with loyalty, intent to stay stabilises with tenure, and helps explain the negative tenure and turnover relationship. Theoretically, it is viewed as an intervening response to structural conditions of work, as well as conditions of work elsewhere. Development of Organisational Commitment: Two major theoretical approaches emerge from previous research on commitment. Firstly, commitment is viewed as an attitude of attachment to the organisation, which leads to particular job-related behaviours. The committed employee, for example, is less often absent, and is less likely to leave the organisation voluntarily, than are less committed employees. Secondly, the other line of research approach focuses on the implications of certain types of behaviours on subsequent attitudes. A typical finding is that employees who freely choose to behave in a certain way, and who find their decision difficult to change, become committed to the chosen behaviour and develop

3 12 attitudes consistent with their choice. One approach emphasises the influence of commitment attitudes on behaviours, whereas the other emphasizes the influence of committing behaviours on attitudes. Although the commitment attitude behaviour and committing behaviour attitude approaches emerge from different theoretical orientations, and have generated separate research traditions, understanding the commitment process is facilitated by viewing these two approaches as, inherently, inter-related. Rather than viewing the causal arrow, between attitudinal and behavioural commitment, as pointing in one direction or the other, it is more useful to consider the two as reciprocally-related over time. It is equally reasonable to assume that (a) commitment attitudes lead to committing behaviours that subsequently reinforce and strengthen attitudes; and (b) committing behaviours lead to commitment attitudes and subsequent committing behaviours. The important issue is not whether the commitment process begins with either attitude or behaviour. Rather, it is important to recognise the development of commitment may involve the subtle interplay of attitudes and behaviours over a period of time. The process through which commitment is developed may involve selfreinforcing cycles of attitudes and behaviours that evolve on the job, and, over time, strengthen employee commitment to the organisation. Types of Organisational Commitment: Meyer and Allen (1991) identified three types of organisational commitment, and define their three dimensional constructs as affective, continuance and normative commitment. Affective commitment refers to the employee s emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in, the organisation [based on positive feelings, or emotions, toward the organisation].the antecedents for affective commitment include perceived job characteristics [task autonomy, task significance, task identity, skill variety and supervisory feedback], organisational dependability [extent to which employees feel the organisation can be counted on to look after their interests], and perceived participatory management [extent to which employees feel they can influence decisions on the work environment and other issues of concern to them]. The use of these antecedents is consistent with findings by researchers, such as Steers (1974), Mottaz (1988) and Rowden, (2003), that these factors all create rewarding situations, intrinsically conducive to the development of affective commitment. In addition, age and organisational tenure are considered to be positively associated with affective commitment. It is hypothesised that employees with low affective commitment will choose to leave an organisation, while employees with a high affective commitment will stay for longer periods, as they believe in the organisation and its mission. Continuance commitment refers to commitment based on the costs that the employee associates with leaving the organisation [due to the high cost of leaving]. Potential antecedents of continuance commitment include age, tenure, career satisfaction and intent to leave. Age and tenure can function as predictors of continuance commitment, primarily because of their roles as surrogate measures of investment in the organisation. Tenure can be indicative of non-transferable investments [close working relationship with coworkers, retirement investments, career investments and skills unique to the particular organisation]. Age can also be negatively related to the number of available alternative job opportunities. Career satisfaction provides a more direct measure of career related investments, which could be at risk if the individual leaves the organisation. In general, whatever employees perceive as sunk cost, resulting from leaving the organisation, are the antecedents of continuance commitment. Normative commitment refers to an employee s feeling of obligation to remain with the organisation [based on the employee having internalised the values and goals of the organisation]. The potential antecedents for normative commitment include co-worker commitment [including affective and normative dimensions, as well as commitment behaviours], organisational dependability and participatory management. Co-workers commitment is expected to provide normative signals that influence the development of normative commitment. Organisational dependability and perceived participatory management are expected to instill a sense of moral obligation to reciprocate to the organisation. Antecedents of Organisational Commitment: The traditional view of organisational psychology has been that employee attitudes such as organisational commitment are cognitive assessments that reflect characteristics of the work environment. For example, an individual s commitment to his or her organization has been linked to factors such as job challenge, equitable

4 13 treatment, and the perceived availability of alternative employment opportunities (Allen & Meyer, 1990) and to job scope, job tenure, job level, and leadership behaviour (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990). The role of affective dispositions in shaping an individual s work-related attitudes is now becoming increasingly accepted by organisational psychologists. After years of research in which attitudes were regarded primarily as a function of the objective or perceived work environment, individual differences in affective disposition are now thought to play an important role in determining how people view their working lives (Barsade, Brief and Spataro, 2003). According to the integrated model of attitudes described by Brief (1998), work-related attitudes depend on both objective circumstances and individual dispositional characteristics such as positive and negative affectivity. Support for the role of affect as an antecedent of work attitudes comes from studies that measure both the attitudes and the affective dispositions of individuals. In a meta-analysis of 205 such studies, Thoresen, Kaplan, Barsky, Warren, and De Chermont (2003) found significant true-score correlations between work attitudes and dispositions and personality traits. For example, job satisfaction correlated.33 with trait positive affect and -.37 with trait negative affect. Extraversion, a personality trait associated with positive affect, correlated.22 with job satisfaction and.22 with organizational commitment; and neuroticism, a personality trait associated with negative affect, correlated -.28 with job satisfaction and -.23 with organizational commitment. In a second meta-analytic study, judge, Heller and Mount (2002) found job satisfaction correlated.25 with extraversion and -.29 with neuroticism. In summary, individuals high in positive affect (e.g., extraverts) tend to be more committed and to express more favorable attitude to their work, and individuals high in negative affect (e.g., neurotics) tend to be less committed and to express less favourable attitude to their work. The literature shows that there are two significant variables that are studied in terms of commitment-related attitudes and commitment-related behaviors, the variables being antecedents and outcomes. There are numerous studies on both the antecedents and the outcomes of organizational commitment and both of these variables offer highly desired information to managers, and others studying organizational behavior. Often research examines one or two types of commitment. Affective and communicative commitment has been studied much more then normative commitment. All three types of commitment have been studied in both the public, private, and nonprofit sector, though there is much more research completed on employees in the private and public sector. The literature shows that affective commitment antecedents are studied in the form of personal characteristics or what the employee contributes to the workplace. There have been mixed findings regarding what characteristics influence greater commitment. DeCotis and Summers (1987), argued that a commitment profile does not exist therefore there can be no connection between one s personal characteristics and their commitment to an organization. However though, Mowday (1992), Steers (1977), all investigated the role of personal characteristics and found that the characteristics and experiences that a person brings to an organization can predict their commitment to the organization. Furthermore, Allen & Meyer, (1993), Buchanan, (1974), and Hall et al. (1977) have found there to be a positive relationship to between an employee s age and time with the organization and their level of commitment. Studies have also found that employee traits such as leadership and communication styles have an affect on organizational commitment (Decottis & Summers, 1987). Continuance commitment studies two antecedents: investments and alternatives. These studies often look at investments such as time, money, or effort. Florkowsi and Schuster, (1992), found a positive relationship between profit sharing and job satisfaction and commitment. Meyer and Allen (1997) recognize that in order for there to be continuance commitment between the employee and organization, the employee must be able identify alternatives. Studies examining different types of work sectors have found that government employees have higher levels of continuance commitment then other sectors (Perry, 1997; Meyer & Allen, 1997). This is due to the antecedents of public service motivation. Because public sector employees in the past have high levels of commitment to the organization and its goals because it is argued hat they are a different type of employee, with strong ethics as well as job security (Perry, 1997). Lio (1995) states facing today s difficult times, many public employees appreciate the relatively secure job situation associated with public employment and consider it a major reason for their organizational commitment. Normative commitment because it is the more recently defined type of commitment does not have a lot of research identified. Meyer & Allen (1997) began to examine normative commitment in their most recent research. They look to understand the development of the psychological contract between the employee and the organization. Psychological contracts are the beliefs that a person has about what will be exchanged between them, the employee and the organization, therefore influencing their obligation to the organization (Meyer and Allen,1997).

5 14 Research on commitment outcomes examines whether the different components of commitment have certain consequences. Employee retention, attendance, organizational citizenship, and job performance are commitment outcomes that are widely studied. Reichers (1985) says that though the literature is fairly clear with respect to the outcomes of commitment, the antecedents of commitment seem to be much more varied and inconsistent due to the several different ways in which commitment has been defined and operationalsed. Employee attendance is the most positively related outcome to affective commitment. Steers (1997) found that employee commitment was highly related to the attendance of workers. Gellatlly (1995) found that continuance commitment was related with the how often an employee was absent. In a study examining a group of nurses Somers (1995) found those nurses with lower levels of commitment had higher levels of absences. Blau and Boal (1987) studied a group of insurance workers and found also found that those employees who had higher levels of commitment had lower levels of absenteeism and turnover. Retention of employee appears to be one of the most studied outcomes of organizational commitment. This is due to the numerous studies which have found a correlation between turnover and commitment (Porter et al, 1974; Meyer & Allen, 1997). Porter et al (1974) found that employees with lower levels of commitment were more likely to leave then their counterparts. Meyer and Allen (1997) argue that the different components of commitment relate to different types of outcomes, therefore continuance commitment may or may not relate to employee performance. In regards to employee performance, the research is mixed on finding relationships between employee performance and their levels of commitment. Meyer et. Al (1993) and Baugh & Roberts, (1994) both find that committed employees had high expectations of their performance and therefore performed better. However, Meyer & Allen (1997), continue to describe reasons why performance and commitment may not be related. Some of the factors include the seriousness with which supervisors value the appraisal process, the value of job performance by an organization and the amount of employee control over outcomes. Research has also found that those employees who are committed to their profession also have higher levels of commitment to the organization. Baugh and Roberts (1994) found that those employees who were committed to both their organization and their profession had high levels of job performance. Citizen behavior, or extra-role behavior, has also been studied in regards to organizational commitment. Once again the research is inconclusive about the relationship between citizen behavior and organizational commitment due to the contradicting findings. For example, Meyer et al (1993) found a positive relationship between commitment and extra role behavior, while Van Dyne & Ang, (1998) found no significance between the relationships. Other studies have found that there was a negative relationship between commitment and citizen behavior (Shore and Wayne, 1993). Human Resource Management: There is no universal agreement on the meaning of human resource management. Thus HRM has been defined as a strategic and coherent approach to the management of organisation s most valued assets the employees who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business (Armstrong 1995). Beer (1984) viewed HRM as involving all management decisions that affect the relationship between the organisation and employees its human resources. Storey (1995) considered HRM as a distinctive approach to employee management which seeks to obtain competitive advantage through the deployment of a highly committed and skilled workforce, using an array of techniques. On the other hand, Beardwell, Holden, and Claydon (2004) regard HRM as the philosophy, policies, procedures, and practices related to the management of people within an organisation. Monody and Noe (2005) simply see HRM as the utilisation of employees to achieve organisational goals. However, we are interested in the individual activities related to the management of people at the workplace. HRM consists of a number of basic tasks/activities or philosophy (Kamoche, 1997). The HRM literature identifies the following activities as common to all HRM systems of organisations: recruitment, selection, compensation, rewards, training, development, promotion, performance management, grievance handling, and overtime management. This means hiring (recruiting and selecting) the right person; appropriate compensation; appropriate remuneration; appropriate rewards for performance; opportunities for training; development, and promotion; proper performance management; appropriate grievance handling e.t.c.

6 15 Human Resource Management Practices: 0kafor (2006) defines practices as the usual or expected way(s), habit or custom of doing things in a particular organisation or situation. Collins Concise Dictionary cited in Okafor (2006) sees it as usual or customary action, repetition of an activity in order to achieve mastery and fluency the established method of conducting proceedings Webster Dictionary defines practice as a customary action or customary code of behaviour, repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of learning or acquiring proficiency Covey (1989: 34-35) sees practice as a specific activity or action. The emphasis of practice, therefore, is the performance of an activity or method of doing things. Looking at the two concepts together, HRM practices are organisational activities that are directed at managing the pool of human resources and ensuring that the resources are employed towards the fulfillment of organisational goals. Delery and Doty (1996) conceptualized HRM practices as a set of internally consistent policies and practices designed and implemented to ensure that a firm s human capital contributes to the achievement of its business objectives. Similarly, Dittmer (2002) viewed HRM practices as an individual s perceptions of the extent of the implementation of the strategies, plans, and programs used to attract, motivate, develop, reward, and retain the best people to meet organizational goals. Building on the arguments given by these scholars, HRM practices comprise specific practices, formal policies, and philosophies that are designed to attract, develop, motivate, and retain employees who ensure the effective functioning and survival of the organisation. Most researches suggest that HRM practices are vital in order for an organisation to achieve organisational success (Barney, 1991; Jackson & Schuler, 2000; Pfeffer, 1994). Typically, HRM practices are considered to be vital in order for an organisation to achieve its success by enabling the organisation to sustain competitive advantage. Literatures on strategic HRM even indicate that HRM practices and systems contribute to the creation of a sustained competitive advantage for the firm (Arthur, 1994; Gerhart & Milkovich, 1992; Huselid, 1995; Macduffie, 1995; Terpstra & Rozall, 1993). As a result, it is important that a firm adopt HRM practices that make use of its employees. A number of researches have found a positive impact of HRM practices on organisational performance. For instance, Becker and Gerhart (1996), Becker and Huselid (1998), and Dyer & Reeves (1995) empirical studies found that firms which align their HRM practices with their business strategy will achieve superior outcomes. MacDuffie (1995) worldwide studies of auto assembly plants found that some HRM practices are related to productivity and quality of the firm. Delery and Doty (1996) found significant relationships between HRM practices and accounting profits among banks. Youndt et al (1996) found that certain combinations of HRM practices are related to operational performance of manufacturing firms. Guthrie (2001) survey in New Zealand corporations found that HRM practices are related to turnover and profitability of the corporations. More recent empirical studies of HRM practices (Lee and Lee, 2007) uncovered six underlying HRM practices on business performance, namely training and development, teamwork, compensation/incentives, HR planning, performance appraisal, and employee security help improve firms business performance including employee s productivity, product quality and firm s flexibility. This study reveals that three items of HRM practices influence business performance: training and development, compensation/incentives, and HR planning. However, some other researches also show that certain HRM practices have significant relationship with operational (employee s productivity and firm s flexibility) and quality performance outcomes (Chang and Chen, 2002; Ahmad and Schroeder, 2003; Kuo, 2004 Sang, 2005). These research evidence shows that effective HRM practices can have positive impact on business performance. Using data from 197 Taiwanese high-tech firms, Chang and Chen (2002) conducted a comprehensive study to evaluate the links between HRM practices and firm performance. This study reveals that HRM practices including training and development, teamwork, benefits, human resource planning, and performance appraisal have significant effect on employee productivity. This study also found benefits and human resource planning have negative relationship with employee turnover. To generalize the efficacy of seven HRM practices by Pfeffer (1998) Ahmad and Schroeders (2003) found the seven HRM practices such as employment security, selective hiring, use of teams and decentralization, compensation/incentive contingent on performance; extensive training, status difference and sharing information have relationship with operational performance. Kuo (2004) adopted 11 HRM practices found that employment security, team working and incentive compensation are regarded as three of the main practices for impacting hospital performance.

7 16 The Link Between Human Resource Management Practices and Organisational Commmitment: To date, the literature examining the relationship between human resource management practices and employees workplace attitude has been mainly anecdotal. In previous work, there seems to be a general understanding regarding the type of human resource management practices that contribute to the development of business excellence. Recardo and Jolly (1997) have identified eight establishment dimensions of human resource management practices relevant to corporate excellence: communication, training and development, rewards, effective decision making, risk-taking for creativity and innovation, proactive planning, teamwork and fairness and consistency in management practices. In this paper we base our discussion of human resource management practices dimensions on a slightly modified version of Recardo and Jolly s (1997) work. Four core dimension of human resource management practices have been adopted in this paper, namely, teamwork, communication, training and development, and the emphasis on rewards. In order to understand whether human resource management practices dimensions have effects on employees commitment, the effects of each individual dimension are discussed as follows: i. Training and Development: Training and development can be defined as the process of providing employees with specific skills or helping them correct deficiencies in their performances (Poh, 2001). Previous empirical studies have provided extensive evidence that training and development facilitate the updating of skills, and lead to increased commitment, wellbeing and sense of belonging, thus directly strengthening the organization s competitiveness (Action and Golden, 2002; Karia and Ahmad, 2000, karia, 1999). Bartlett (2001) studied the relationship between employee attitude towards training and feelings of organizational commitment, among a sample of 337 registered nurses from five hospitals. Using social exchange theory as a framework for investigating the relationship, he found that perceived access to training, social impact of training, motivation to learn, and perceived benefits of training are positively related to organizational commitment. According to Cherrington (1995), a successful training and education program would create more-favourable employee attitudes and loyalty, and help employees in their personal development and advancement. Moreover, Deming (1986) stressed the importance of education and training for continual updating and improvement, identifying one source of human motivation at work as intrinsic motivation: the desire to grow; learn, and to develop oneself. Cherrington (1995) also stated that most learning situations are fundamentally reinforcing because of the satisfaction and commitment associated with the acquiring of new knowledge or skills. ii. Reward and Recognition: Reward and recognition can be defined as benefits-such as increased salary, bonuses and promotion-which are conferred as public acknowledgement of superior performance with respect to goals (Juran and Gryna, 1993). Rewards for quality efforts appear to have a significantly positive relation to employee morale (Kasicieh and Yourstone, 1998). According to Herzberg s (1996) hygiene/motivator theory, recognition is one of the four motivators, which can contribute to employee commitment when it is present. Reward and recognition activities are valued by employees, and therefore provide motivation or incentives. If executed appropriately, these activities can, to a certain degree, secure employees commitment to their jobs and make their jobs more enjoyable; thus creating an overall commitment to the organisation (Zhang, 2000). A study by O Driscoll and Randall (1999) indicated that the rewards offered by an organisation have a powerful effect on employees attitude towards their job and their organisation. iii. Organizational Communication: Organisational communication refers to the process whereby individuals and groups transact in a variety of ways and within different areas with the aim of carrying out organizational goals (Smidts et al., 2001; Brunetto and Farr- Wharton, 2004). Several authors note that communication is important for improving employees commitment and for positive outcomes (Goris et al., 2000; Pettitt et al., 1997; Guimaraes, 1996, Guimaraes, 1997). Stuart (1999) argued that communication can effect empowerment of employees, which in turn affects organizational commitment Moreover, the manner in which the organisational goals- and the employees role in advancing these goals-are communicated to employees strongly affect organisational commitment (Anderson and Martin, 1995;

8 17 Brunetto and Farr-wharton, 2004). Robbins (2001) suggested that there is a relationship between the quality of management -employee communication and the resultant level of employee motivation and commitment. iv. Teamwork: The concept of teams and teamwork is increasingly important to productivity and employees organizational commitment in the contemporary workplace (Adebanjo and Kehoe, 2001). Teamwork facilitates that meeting of affiliate needs within the workplace and has been directly connected to organisational commitment (Karia and Ahmad, 2000; Karia and Asaari, 2006). A study by Osland (1997) showed that working together within a production unit led to better employee attitudes. Anschutz (1995) stated that participation in teamwork, continuous learning and flexibility were the major factors for success within organisations in achieving a partnership between workers and managers. Karia and Ahmad (2000), studied the impact of Empowerment and Teamwork (E&T) practices on employees and found that an organization that practiced some level of teamwork experienced an increase in employees organisational commitment. Silos (1999) stated that the key to Japanese efficiency was in how the people work together and also suggested that teamwork will result in more commitment and involvement of employees within the organization. The above review indicates that human resource management practices dimensions significantly impact on organisational commitment since we have chosen to examine the relationship between the two concepts. Managerial Implication: The findings prescribe potential implications for top management to review their human resource management practices dimensions, consistent with the training needs of the employees within the organisations. Hence, employees will be more likely to perform better and to feel a higher level of commitment towards the organisation. Throughout the workplace employees must be given numerous opportunities to feel committed to the organization. Meyer & Allen, (1997), found that employees that have a good relationship with their immediate work group have higher levels of commitment. They discuss their idea that if employees are directly committed to their group, their commitment to the overall organization will be higher. Lio (1995) concluded that workers organizational commitment is significantly correlated to their perceived job security. Managers should be aware that management styles can influence the commitment level of employees. Koopman (1991) studied how leadership styles affected employees and found those employees who favored their manager s style also favoured the organization more. Though there was no direct connect between commitment, it could be argued that this would then affect their levels of commitment to the organization. Nierhoff et al (1990) found that the overall management culture and style driven by the top management actions are strongly related to the degree of employee commitment. These correlations bring to light the importance of having strong managers and their roles in the overall organization. Eisenberger (1990) discuss that those employee s who feel that they are cared for by their organization and managers also have not only higher levels of commitment, but that they are more conscious about their responsibilities, have greater involvement in the organization, and are more innovative. Managers and organizations must reward and support their employees for the work that they do because this perceived support allows for more trust in the organization. Conclusion: In summary, this paper did an exploratory investigation of the relationship between human resource management practices and organisational commitment. As claimed by some authors (Saeed and Hassan, 2000; Chow et al., 2001), human resource management practices does have significant effects on personnel attitudes towards their commitment within the organisation, this paper on his part revealed that workers perceptions of four human resource management practices dimensions are positively related to their commitment, with those perceiving a greater awareness of these dimensions exhibiting the more satisfactory reactions towards their commitment. The findings are considered to have made a significant contribution by advancing the human resource management practices literature to a better understanding of the influence of human resource management practices on commitment among workers in any organisation.the authors purport that practicing these dimensions in any

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