Publication Date

Summer 2020

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Advisor

Howard Tokunaga

Keywords

Affective Commitment, Group Cohesion, Human Resources, Organizational Commitment, Psychological Safety, Transformational Leadership

Subject Areas

Occupational psychology; Organizational behavior; Psychology

Abstract

Predicting employees' affective commitment to their organization continues to be of strong interest to researchers. Previous studies have examined the relationship between specific organizational levels (company, manager, group, individual) and affective commitment. However, there is a lack of research that has analyzed all four levels in one study. Therefore, the current study sought to evaluate the relationships between the four organizational levels and affective commitment. More specifically, the current study analyzed human resources practices as the company-level variables, transformational and transactional leadership as the manager-level variables, group cohesion as the group-level variable, and psychological safety at the individual level. The sample comprised of 16,188 employees from a large multinational finance company. The data were collected by a global management-consulting firm as part of an annual employee engagement survey. All four levels made significant unique contributions to affective commitment, but when examined deeper, company level made the strongest contribution. Further analysis within the company level revealed that career advancement, and diversity and inclusion made the strongest contributions. The results suggest that organizational leaders and human resource professionals should focus on helping employees reach career objectives and develop a culture that is committed to diversity and inclusion to help foster affectively committed employees.

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