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International Journal of Management (IJM)
Volume 7, Issue 6, September–October 2016, pp.15–22, Article ID: IJM_07_06_003
Available online at
http://www.iaeme.com/ijm/issues.asp?JType=IJM&VType=7&IType=6
Journal Impact Factor (2016): 8.1920 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com
ISSN Print: 0976-6502 and ISSN Online: 0976-6510
© IAEME Publication
THE ROLE OF HRM PRACTICES IN GAINING
EMPLOYEE AFFECTIVE COMMITMENT IN
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES, TIRUCHIRAPPALLI
F. Wahidha Begum
Assistant Professor, Ph. D. Research Scholar,
Jamal Institute of Management, Jamal Mohamed College, Tiruchirappalli.
Dr. M. Shiek Mohamed
Professor (Rtd), Jamal Institute of Management
Jamal Mohamed College, Tiruchirappalli.
ABSTRACT
The study sought to understand and how the perception of Human resource Management
Practices influences affective commitment of organization commitment in Manufacturing Industries
in Tiruchirappalli. The dimensions considered for the study are Job security, Compensation, Job
autonomy, Working Condition, Training and Development and Supervisory Support and only
affective commitment of organization commitment. The population of the study is employing
working in manufacturing industries at middle level for more than 3 years. The sample size for the
study is 202, by adopting purposive sampling technique. The study identified job security and
Supervisor support is the strongest predictor of affective commitment in the selected manufacturing
industry employees.
Key words: HRM Practices, Affective Commitment, Manufacturing Industries.
Cite this Article: F. Wahidha Begum and Dr. M. Shiek Mohamed, The Role of HRM Practices in
Gaining Employee Affective Commitment in Manufacturing Industries, Tiruchirappalli.
International Journal of Management, 7(6), 2016, pp. 15–22.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/issues.asp?JType=IJM&VType=7&IType=6
1. INTRODUCTION
Work is a complex phenomenon and no clear definition can be easily given. Dessler (1997) stated that
changes in the environment of Human Resource Management require Human Resource (HR) to play a
significant role in work related issues in organizations. These trends include growing workforce diversity,
rapid technological change, globalization, and changes in the nature of work such as the movement toward
a service society and a growing emphasis on education and human capital.
Trends like globalization and technological innovations are changing the way firms are managed. The
traditional pyramid shaped organization is giving way to new organizational structures. Employees are
being empowered to make more decisions, and therefore, flatter structures with fewer layers of
management in organizations appear to be the norm.
F. Wahidha Begum and Dr. M. Shiek Mohamed
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In recent years, researchers have focused on how a firm’s employees can collectively be a unique
source of competitive advantage that cannot be imitated by competitors (Barney, 1991). Bailey (1993) has
observed that human resource management practices could enhance the return from employees’ efforts,
which could lead to gains that are significantly greater than the costs created by this process.
Dessler (1997) further explained that managers today must build commitment. These changes mean
that organizations must depend more on self-disciplined and highly committed employees. Organizational
commitment has been widely defined as identification and involvement with the organization; firstly
believing in the organization’s values and goals; secondly, exerting effort on behalf of the organization;
and thirdly, a desire to remain with the organization (Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1979).
Meyer and Allen (1991) noted that common to the various definitions of organizational commitment, it
is a psychological state that (a) characterizes the employee’s relationship with the organization, and (b) has
implications for their decisions to continue membership with the organization. Regardless of the definition,
committed employees are more likely to remain with the organization than are uncommitted employees.
According to Herscovitch and Meyer (2002) although the three components of organizational
commitment reduce the likelihood that employees will leave the organization, one reason for
distinguishing among them is that they can have quite different implications for on the job behavior. Meyer
and Allen (1991) argued that employees who want to remain (affective commitment) are likely to attend
work regularly, perform assigned tasks to the best of their ability, and do little extras to help out. Those
who remain out of a sense of obligation (normative commitment) may do likewise only if they see it as a
part of their duty or as a means of reciprocation for benefits received. On the other hand, employees who
remain primarily to avoid the costs of leaving (continuance commitment) may do little more than is
required to maintain employment. Empirical research provides support for the three-component model,
including predictions about differential behavioral outcomes.
1.1. Need for the Study
Organizational commitment is still regarded as important because of its effect on employee identification
with the organization, the level of effort, and turnover (Stroh & Reillyl996). The consequences to an
organization of employees with low commitment can be costly and, therefore, deserves the attention of
management. Money is not the prime motivator for employee commitment but the type of working
environment is. This concept is also endorsed by psychologist Frederick Herzberg who argued that the best
way to motivate workers is to build opportunities for challenge and achievement into their jobs via job
enrichment.
2. LITERATURE RELATED TO THE STUDY
2.1. HRM Practices
The importance of managing human resources, the essence of the organization, has been growing over the
past years in academia and in practice because the HRM practices help employees to form their attitudes
and behaviors (Meyer & Smith, 2000). Earlier, one of the studies found that perceptions of human resource
practices are more important than the actual practices in developing employee commitment (Kiniki,
Carson, Bohlander, 1992). Management scholars and practitioners have exerted continuous efforts in
learning more about human resource practices and how these practices enhance employees’ performance
and achieve organizational goals (Ahmad & Schroeder, 2003; Boselie et al. 2001; Guest, 1997; Huselid,
1995). The influence of human resource practices on performance at organizational level, individual level,
or group level is an important issue in the area of human resource management and organizational
psychology. In this regard, positive perceptions of human resource practices cause employees to believe in
social exchange relationship between employees and the organization (Wayne et al. 1997; Lee & Bruvold,
2003). Generally, employees who are satisfied with the organization are willing to contribute to the
organization (Eisenberger et al. 2002).
The Role of HRM Practices in Gaining Employee Affective Commitment in Manufacturing Industries,
Tiruchirappalli.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp 17 editor@iaeme.com
2.2. Job Security
According to Herzberg (1968), job security is the extent to which organization provides stable employment
for its employees. Job security has been conceptualized as the degree to which an employee could expect
to stay in the job for over an extended period of time (Delery & Doty, 1996). Researcher identified job
security as one of the most important components of human resource practices (Pfeffer, 1995) which
indicate organization’s commitment to their workforce, while there are evidences that job security
enhances employees’ organizational commitment (Chang & Chen, 2002; Meyer & Smith, 2000; Wong,
Ngo, & Wong, 2002). The organization’s commitment to the employees (through secured job) motivates
employees to exchange their obligation by showing reciprocal commitment to the organization.
2.3. Compensation
The study findings of Kim (2005) argued that compensation is not statistically significant reason for
reducing in the level of organization commitment and employees leaving the organization. The recent
study finding indicated that compensation alone will not be sufficient to retain talents (Chew & Chan,
2008). Thus, the inconsistent relationship between compensation and turnover requires further research to
understand the relationship. That is why this variable has been included in the present study.
2.4. Job Autonomy
Price (1997) defined job autonomy as the employee’s ability to set organizational goals and structure of the
organization to maximize professional concerns. In other words, job autonomy is considered as the
freedom of an employee of doing his or her own work or the control over his or her job activities such as
scheduling, work procedures, and task variety (Iverson, 1996). In fact, when employees perceive that they
have control over their jobs, they are less likely to leave (Iverson, 1999). In fact, by having job autonomy,
employees perceive it as the organizational support to the employees which in turn may increases job
satisfaction and reduces turnover intention (Spector, 1986). Generally, one can argue that employees will
be much more satisfied and committed to their organization when employees enjoy job autonomy as
compared to the employees with no such freedom.
2.5. Working Conditions
The issue of working conditions has long been of central interest to research on employees’ health and
safety as well as employee motivation and performance. In fact, safe working conditions are directly and
positively linked to the quality of employees’ work environment. According to Kramer and Schmalenberg
(2008), healthy working conditions are empirically linked to reduced employee turnover, increased job
satisfaction and lower degree of job stress and burnout among employees. Therefore, creating better
conditions are crucial to maintain an adequate workforce for any organization. To reinforce the importance
of working conditions, Pejtersen and Kristensen (2009) argued that positive working conditions will not
only reduce employee strain but also contribute to a more motivated workforce and in the long-run greater
organizational effectiveness, and lower employee turnover. In this regard, researcher explained that
working conditions may not increase employee commitment; however dissatisfaction with this factor may
create negative effect on employee commitment which in turn may affect turnover decision (Herzberg,
1968).
2.6. Training and Development
Training and development has been recognized as one of the important components of human resource
practices in the field of human resource management. Training and development is a human resource
practice that can provide competitive advantage to organizations, if properly organized and implemented
(Schuler & MacMillan, 1984). This component has been included in the high performance HRM practices
of the organizations (Huselid, 1995; MacDuffie, 1995). Generally, it is believed that organizations with
F. Wahidha Begum and Dr. M. Shiek Mohamed
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better training and development programs may experience lower employee turnover. Employee training is
an indication of management commitment to building a life-long relationship with the employees, thus
increases retention and reduces turnover decision (Samuel & Chipunza, 2009). In fact, training is one of
the important ways to assist individual employee to gain new knowledge and skills required to maintain the
standard performance in the competitive changing environment.
2.7. Supervisory Support
Supervisory support refers to positive evaluation and instruction of one’s performance, job direction,
career mentoring, and the expansion of one’s career network (Tan, 2008), and the provision of such
support is essential for developing, motivating and retaining knowledge workers (Bigliardi, Petroni, &
Dormio, 2005). According to Eisenberger et al. (2002), supervisory support is the employees’ global
perceptions concerning the extent to which supervisor values their contributions and cares about their
(employees) well-being. Specifically, supervisory support refers the interpersonal relationship between
supervisor and subordinate in the workplace, and the nature of relationship may influence employees’ job
satisfaction, and their turnover decision in the long-run (Zhao & Zhou, 2008; Aquino, Griffeth, Allen, &
Hom, 1997). Organizational support theory explained that supportive treatment from supervisors results
increased POS, which makes employees obligated to repay the organization by achieving its goals and feel
more committed, which in turn reduce their intention to leave (Rhoades et al. 2001).
2.8. Affective Commitment
Organizational commitment represents a psychological attachment of an employee to the employing
organization, and according to Allen and Meyer (1990), it may take different forms. Thus, it is a
multidimensional construct (Meyer & Allen, 1997) comprised of three components: affective commitment
refers to employees’ emotional attachment, loyalty, identification and involvement with an organization,
continuance commitment refers to commitment based on costs that employees associate with leaving the
organization, and finally normative commitment refers to feelings of obligation to an organization.
According to Allen and Meyer (1990), affective commitment is the most accepted dimension of
commitment. In fact, of these three components, affective commitment has been found to be the most
consistent and strongest predictor of positive organizational outcomes; and high organizational
commitment is associated with decreased turnover intentions (Iverson, 1996; Wasti, 2003; Mathieu &
Zajac, 1990), contributes to higher productivity and competitive advantage for an organization (Deery &
Iverson, 1996). Continuance and normative commitment were not included in the study because there was
less support for these commitment dimensions in the literature (Iverson & Buttigieg, 1999).
3. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In this global competition it is essential to study the impact of Human Resource management practices on
the level of commitment displayed by the employees in the manufacturing industries. Organization
commitment wills predicts how much an employee in the organization is committed to the goals of the
organization. Organizational commitment is multifaceted construct that has been associated with many
organizational and behavioral antecedents and outcomes. This study in particular will identify the impact
of human resource management practices on Affective commitment. Among the other two dimensions of
organization commitment, affective commitment plays a dominant role, because it is an employee
psychological attachment towards the organization, it may take different forms and positive outcome.
The Role of HRM Practices in Gaining Employee Affective Commitment in Manufacturing Industries,
Tiruchirappalli.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJM/index.asp 19 editor@iaeme.com
4. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
• To study the various HRM practices in Manufacturing Industries in Tiruchirappalli.
• To identify the level of employee affective commitment.
• To predict impact of HRM practices on affective commitment.
5. METHODOLOGY
The population of the study constitutes of employee working at middle level in leading private
manufacturing industries in Tiruchirappalli. The sampling frame constitutes of employee working in the
same organization for more than 3 years. The researcher collected the data through online. The covering
letter along with questionnaire was sent to the selected respondents based on the sampling frame. The
survey questionnaire method was used because a large sample size was considered for the study. A total of
258 questionnaire was sent, 212 were returned, in which 202 was in usable state. Thus the sample size is
202, and purposive sampling technique will be appropriate for the study.
The survey questionnaire consists of dimensions related to HRM practices in manufacturing industries
like Job security, Compensation, Job Autonomy, Working Condition, Training and Development,
Supervisory Support and finally affective commitment. The selected personal details of the respondents
were collected. All the study dimensions were adopted from pervious study with little modification. The
Cronbach alpha values were within .8 to .9 which was sufficient for analysis. All the dimensions were
measured with 5 point likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The study is limited
only to middle level employees. The study considered only affective commitment.
6. RESULTS
6.1. Descriptive Analysis
The gender distribution shows that all the respondents were male. The age wise classification of
respondents shows that majority of the age group leis between 20 years to 30 years. The monthly income
category shows that, 42% of the respondent’s income falls between Rs. 20,000 to 30,000. The educational
qualification of the respondents shows that 39% of the respondents were Undergraduate
6.2. Multiple Correlations
Job
security Compensation Job
Autonomy
Working
Condition
Training and
Development
Supervisory
Support
Affective
Commitment
.437** .356** .287 .320** .318** .402**
The above table shows the strength of relationship between affective commitment and HRM practices
in the manufacturing industries. The result shows that Job security and Supervisory support is moderately
related with affective commitment. The Working and Condition and Training and development falls next,
this is also moderately correlated and significant with affective commitment. The job autonomy founds to
be mildly correlated with affective commitment and it is significant.
