Research purpose: This study examined whether human resource practices (as a core aspect of organisational culture) positively predict organisational commitment.

Motivation for the study: In South Africa, high voluntary turnover and skills shortages of professionally qualified people such as engineers are a major obstacle to economic growth and job creation.

Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional survey and quantitative design were used with a non-probability purposive sample of 284 early career professionally qualified engineers from a South African engineering organisation. Correlational statistical techniques were employed to achieve the research objective.

Main findings: Job satisfaction, training and development and rewards and remuneration positively predicted affective commitment. Leadership, rewards and remuneration and training and development also positively predicted normative commitment. Human resources policies and procedures positively predicted continuance commitment.

Practical/managerial implications: Managers and human resource practitioners need to take a proactive approach in facilitating an organisational culture that reflects the practices embodied by the variables measured in this study in order to increase organisational commitment.

Contribution: The findings add new knowledge that may be used to help managers and human resource practitioners understand how these human resource practices may guide retention strategies in the engineering environment.

Amah (2012) draws attention to the fact that the hypothesis that strong cultures enhance organisational performance is based on the intuitively powerful idea that organisations benefit from highly committed, motivated employees dedicated to common goals. For instance, organisational commitment is perceived as a key determinant of employee turnover due to its supposed sensitivity to the elements surrounding the work environment (Chang et al., 2013; Döckel, Basson & Coetzee, 2006; Meyer & Allen, 1991). The work environment is regarded as a combination of the psychological environment, HR practices and corporate culture that enable employees to perform their jobs with appropriate support or workplace flexibility, ongoing training opportunities (including teaching job, social and leadership skills) and clear career path and advancement opportunities (Amah, 2012; Döckel, 2003).

Previous studies have shown that organisational culture and HR practices (for example, leadership behaviour, performance management, training and development, compensation and communication) influence employee satisfaction, turnover intentions and organisational commitment (Chang et al., 2013; Döckel, 2003; Martins & Coetzee, 2007; Swart, 2009). Research further indicates that organisational commitment can lead to favourable organisational outcomes, including organisational effectiveness, improved performance and reduced staff turnover (Meyer & Allen, 1997; Saif, Nawaz, Jan & Khan, 2012).

In the context of the present study, the notion of organisational commitment is based on Meyer and Allen’s (1997) three-component model of organisational commitment: (1) the psychological state that reveals the level of an individual’s commitment and emotional attachment towards an organisation (affective commitment), (2) the pre-existing conditions leading to the development of that commitment level (continuance commitment) and (3) the behaviours that are expected to result from this commitment (normative commitment).

Affective commitment refers to the employee’s emotional attachment to, identification with and involvement in the organisation (based on positive feelings or attitudes towards the organisation). In this case, employees strongly identify with the goals of the organisation and want to remain a part of the organisation (Ezirim et al., 2012). Continuance commitment refers to commitment based on the cost that the employee associates with leaving the organisation (due to the high cost of leaving). In this case, the employee remains with an organisation because of a perceived loss of sunken costs (Ezirim et al., 2012). In terms of normative commitment, the employee remains with an organisation because of a sense of obligation. For instance, individuals may feel that they ought to remain with an organisation because they think that it is morally right to continue to participate in the same organisation. An organisation may also have invested more resources in training an employee, who then feels obliged to stay with the organisation to repay the debt (Ezirim et al., 2012).

In terms of social exchange theories, the strong link between individuals’ commitment to an organisation or occupation implies that employees are more committed after they have weighed the pros and cons following resignation (Kuo, 2013; Rothrauff, Abraham, Bride & Roman, 2011). Kuo (2013) therefore argues that organisational commitment is an effective and highly influential mechanism for connecting employees and the organisation. It also provides cohesion and motivates employees to devote long-term effort to addressing external influences and meeting customer demands (Kuo, 2013). Bang, Ross and Reio (2013) support the principle of social exchange theory and indicate that when the values of employees meet the values of the organisation, the strength of employees’ commitment will become greater, to the extent that they could demonstrate blind commitment, which will lead them to sometimes accept the status quo, resulting in the organisation losing its ability to be innovative and adapt to change.

Ezirim et al. (2012) found that organisational commitment is positively related to a variety of desirable work outcomes, including employee job satisfaction, motivation and performance, and negatively correlated to absenteeism and turnover. Van Dyk and Coetzee (2012) found a strong positive relationship between organisational commitment and HR-related retention practices, which appear to bind individuals to their organisation in the medical and information technology services environments.

The global consulting company Deloitte and Touche (2009) identified the following 13 core HR practices that are essential to a high-performing culture. These practices are seen to affect a company’s performance and therefore deemed to be important for a creating a strong performance-oriented organisational culture:

• Leadership relates to the extent to which employees perceive their senior leaders’ level of communication, openness and honesty, as well as the way in which leaders are seen to model the organisational values and inspire employees. Research suggests that leaders who treat people in the right ways have a high level of moral development and act with integrity positively influence employees’ affective commitment (Detert & Treviño, 2010).

• Management style relates to the extent to which employees perceive the accessibility of their manager or supervisor, as well as whether or not the manager provides them with the necessary resources to accomplish their jobs, consults with employees regarding important decisions, sets realistic performance goals and acknowledges them as individuals. According to Zeffane (1994), management style can significantly influence the degree of worker commitment to organisational values and goals.

• Communication refers to the effectiveness of the internal organisational communication channels, the frequency and quality of communication, communication between management and employees and between departments and the extent to which employees are consulted when decisions are being taken that will impact upon them. Ghina (2012) posits that affective commitment might be enhanced under conditions of high organisational communication and involvement of workers in the decision-making process. As individuals are consulted and involved in matters that concern them, strong feelings of loyalty to the organisation may develop.

• Values and culture refer to employees’ perceptions regarding their company’s vision, mission and values, as well as their experience of the organisational culture insofar as it is employee-centred and promotes good working relationships, trust and transparency. It appears to be that congruence between personal and organisation values and culture is highly motivating and may increase organisational commitment (Coetzee & Veldsman, 2013; Khandelwal & Mohendra, 2010). Employees’ personal values and culture have been found to be related to affective commitment (Rostami, Veismoradi & Akbari, 2012).

• Innovation refers to whether or not the organisation continuously comes up with new ideas and innovations in every area, thereby growing its revenue through innovation. Pandey and De (2013) indicate that innovation is the only way for companies to obtain a competition position. It is also the principal factor to trigger business growth. Innovation results in companies creating new products, systems and service items to meet the demands of customers. Innovation practices were found to be related to affective commitment (Pandey & De, 2013; Swart, 2009).

• Job satisfaction refers to the extent to which employees have clear work objectives, whether or not they have access to the necessary tools and resources to do their jobs effectively and are afforded the opportunity to fully utilise their talents and skills in their jobs. According to Shah, Jatoi and Memon (2012), employees with clear objectives and who are provided with the necessary tools and resources to carry out their jobs can develop a positive attitude towards the job and organisation. Employees’ job satisfaction has been found to be related to affective and continuance commitment (Shah et al., 2012).

• HR policies and procedures refer the extent to which appropriate HR policies and procedures are in place and are easily accessible to and understood by employees. Research by Juhdi, Pa’Wan, Milah, Hansaram and Othman (2012) shows that properly implemented and managed HR policies and procedures increase organisational commitment and decrease intention to resign amongst employees.

• Performance management refers to the perceived fairness and consistency of implementation as experienced by employees. According to Lin, Lin and Lin (2012), performance management enhances employees’ organisational commitment. Psychological commitment is higher amongst highly skilled engineering workers who believe that their company is fair and consistent in the implementation of performance management (Decremer, Smolders, Vanderstraeten & Christiaens, 2012).

• Recognition refers to the extent to which employees perceive recognition (e.g. promotions, verbal recognition, awards) to be effective and fairly implemented within the organisation. According to Zaitouni, Sawalha and Sharif (2011), monetary compensation is important, but not sufficient to retain employees. Recognition in the form of non-monetary elements (e.g. verbal recognition and positive feedback) is also important. Paré and Tremblay (2007) indicate that recognition from managers and peers has been found to be related to affective and continuance commitment.

• Rewards and remuneration refers to the extent to which employees perceive their remuneration to be market-related and appropriate to their job roles and responsibilities. This practice also explores the nature of benefits and bonus and incentive schemes offered by the organisation. It appears that fair rewards affect organisational commitment. Previous research has shown that rewards for quality efforts appear to positively influence employee morale and satisfaction (Martins & Coetzee, 2007). Research by Zaitouni et al. (2011) suggests that employees who are provided with benefits, such as increased salary, bonuses and promotion, develop strong feelings of loyalty to the organisation. Perceptions of fair rewards and justice lead to higher levels of satisfaction and long-term commitment to the organisation.

• Training and development refers to the nature of training and development within the organisation in terms of its availability, applicability to employees’ current and future job roles and the range of training opportunities available (Deloitte & Touche, 2009). Training is used to enhance specific skills and correct performance issues to empower employees with needed skills for current and future job requirements. Döckel et al. (2006) indicate that employees seem to develop a sense of obligation (normative commitment) and stay longer in an organisation that promotes career opportunity through learning and the ability to apply newly learned competencies.

• Diversity and transformation refers to the extent to which diversity management is applied within the organisation, with a particular focus on the equitable treatment of employees from different ethnic, gender and age groups. According to Jonsen, Tatli, Ozbilgin and Bell (2013), affective and normative commitment may be enhanced under conditions of good equitable treatment and non-discrimination. Jonsen et al. (2013) indicate that an engineering work environment that provides equitable fair treatment has the reputation of retaining talented workers.

• Change management refers to how the change management process is dealt with in the organisation and how employees are managed throughout the change process in terms of adequate communication, involvement and support. Visagie and Steyn (2011) indicate that employees’ commitment to the organisation is critical when an organisation engages in change initiatives. Committed employees can therefore provide many benefits, for example by putting in extra effort to ensure that change succeeds, serving as public relations representatives during the change and going above and beyond the norm to assist the organisation to function effectively (Visagie & Steyn, 2011).

Juhdi et al. (2012) describe HR practices as the methods that organisations use to mould employee behaviour, perception and attitudes. Organisational culture surveys of employees’ perceptions of the 13 HR practices identified by Deloitte and Touche (2009) enable organisations to observe which practices foster employee commitment, satisfaction and productivity and which hinder employee satisfaction and productivity. This valuable information can then be used to improve current organisational HR practices, thereby increasing staff satisfaction, commitment and productivity and reducing staff turnover.

Drawing on the research literature and previous empirical findings, we hypothesised that HR practices positively and significantly predict individuals’ affective, continuance and normative commitment.

The Organisational Culture Survey (OCS) (Deloitte & Touche, 2009) was used to measure employees’ perceptions regarding 13 organisational HR practices. These practices are seen to affect a company’s performance and are therefore deemed to be important for creating a strong performance-oriented organisational culture. The OCS consists of 80 items measured on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Examples of items in each Human Resource Management (HRM) practice dimension include the following: change management (‘In this organisation, employees are encouraged to become involved in and committed to change’), communication (‘Communication messages are effective and understood by all employees’), diversity and transformation (‘Understanding and respecting diversity is important in this organisation’), HR policies and procedures (‘A concerted effort is made to educate employees on the HR policies and procedures in place’), innovation (‘Innovation has been communicated to employees as being a strategic business objective in the organisation’), job satisfaction (‘In general, employees find their work interesting and challenging’), leadership (‘Most employees are inspired and motivated by leadership in this organisation’), management style (‘The person I report to involves employees in decisions that affect their job and work performance’), performance management (‘Employee performance is managed against clear and measurable objectives’), recognition (‘This organisation recognises employees who behave according to the organisation’s values’), rewards and remuneration (‘Employees’ total remuneration packages – salary plus bonus and incentives – are market-related’), training and development (‘Training and development for future career advancement is available to all employees’) and values and culture (‘There is a culture of honesty, openness and trust in the organisation’). The OCS is a well-established instrument that is widely used by Deloitte and Touche (2009), with proven validity and reliability in the South African business environment. The present study yielded high internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha coefficients) for the various dimensions of the BCPS: 0.88 for change management, 0.84 for communication, 0.80 for diversity and transformation, 0.84 for HR policies and procedures, 0.79 for innovation, 0.88 for job satisfaction, 0.91 for leadership, 0.91 for management style, 0.98 for performance management, 0.88 for recognition, 0.86 for rewards, 0.88 for training and development and 0.83 for values and culture.

Prior to conducting the various regression analyses, collinearity diagnostics were examined to ensure that zero-order correlations were below the level of concern (r ≥ 0.80), that the variance inflation factors did not exceed 10, that the condition index was well below 15 and that the tolerance values were close to 1.0 (Field, 2009). (Harry & Coetzee 2013, n.p.)

The significant correlation coefficients between the HR practices and the three organisational commitment variables (p ≤ 0.05) are reported in Table 1. As can be observed from Table 1, the correlations between affective and normative commitment and the HR practices mostly ranged between 0.40 (medium practical effect size) and 0.70 (large practical effect size). The correlations between continuance commitment and the HR practices ranged between 0.10 and 0.21 (small practical effect size). No significant correlation was observed between continuance commitment and training and development. These results showed that the zero-order correlations were well below the threshold level of concern (r ≥ 0.80) about multicollinearity and warranted further analysis in the form of regression analysis.

N = 284.

HR, Human Resource; M, mean; SD, standard deviation, α; alpha.

***, p ≤ 0.001; **, p ≤ 0.01; *, p ≤ 0.05

Standardised beta weights are reported for the final step in each model.

N = 284

***, p ≤ 0.001; **, p ≤ 0.01

In model 1, Table 2 indicates that the regression of the HR practices upon the affective commitment variable produced a statistically significant model (F = 85.21; p ≤ 0.001), accounting for approximately 55% (R² = 0.55; large practical effect) of the variance in affective commitment. More specifically, job satisfaction (β = 0.33; t = 4.36; p ≤ 0.000), training and development (β = 0.28; t = 4.22; p ≤ 0.000) and rewards (β = 0.20; t = 3.24; p ≤ 0.001) contributed significantly towards explaining the proportion of variance in the affective commitment variable.

In model 2, Table 2 indicates that the regression of the HR practices upon the continuance commitment variable produced a statistically significant model (F = 13.29; p ≤ 0.001), accounting for approximately 5% (R² = 0.05; small practical effect) of the variance in continuance commitment. Only HR policies and procedures (β = 0.21; t = 2.95; p ≤ 0.001) contributed significantly and positively in explaining the variance in continuance commitment.

In model 3, Table 2 indicates that the regression of the HR practices upon the normative commitment variable produced a statistically significant model (F = 71.09; p ≤ 0.001), accounting for 43% (R² = 0.44; large practical effect) of variance in normative commitment. More specifically, leadership (β = 0.28; t = 3.32; p ≤ 0.001), rewards and remuneration (β = 0.24; t = 3.27; p ≤ 0.001) and training and development (β = 0.21; t = 2.95; p ≤ 0.001) contributed significantly towards explaining the proportion of variance in the normative commitment variable.

A test of the difference of dependent multiple R’s, after conversion to z-scores, revealed a significant difference between the affective commitment multiple R and the normative commitment multiple R (z = 1.96; p ≤ 0.05). Similarly to the correlation results reported in Table 1, these results imply that the identified set of significant HR practices (training and development and rewards and remuneration) are, in general, more strongly related to affective commitment than to normative commitment. However, an analysis of the profiles of beta values of these three HR practices showed that they differed significantly in the two regression analyses reported in Table 2 for affective commitment and normative commitment. Rewards and remuneration explained significantly more variance in normative commitment than in affective commitment, whilst training and development explained significantly more variance in affective commitment than in normative commitment.

Affective commitment reflects a mindset of desire that develops when employees see their individual employment relationship as being in harmony with the goals and values of the organisation for which they are currently working (Ferreira, Basson & Coetzee, 2010). When employees become involved in and recognise the value and relevance of their association with the organisation in the pursuit of their jobs and careers, they develop a mindset of desire to stay (Meyer & Herscovitch, 2001). In the present study, training and development and job satisfaction were indicated as the two strongest predictors of the participants’ affective commitment. It appears from the results that providing training and development opportunities and enhancing employees’ job satisfaction by setting clear work objectives, providing them with necessary tools and resources to perform their jobs effectively and affording them the opportunity to fully utilise their talents and skills (Deloitte & Touche, 2009) will significantly increase their emotional attachment to the organisation. Döckel et al. (2006) found that employees are more likely to be emotionally bound to an organisation that provides proper training and career opportunities. Ghazanfar, Chuanmin, Bashir and Yang (2012) also found that the training and development of employees are important in enhancing their commitment to the organisation. Employees’ job satisfaction has also been positively related to affective and normative commitment (Lumley, Coetzee, Tladinyane & Ferreira, 2011; Shah et al., 2012).

The results of the present study further showed that rewards and remuneration (market-related remuneration, benefits and non-monetary recognition incentives) are important in enhancing the participating employees’ affective commitment. Lumley et al. (2011) also found pay satisfaction as an important antecedent of affective commitment. Meyer and Allen (1997) posit that an organisation that offers attractive compensation packages to employees shows their employees that they do matter to the organisation, which consequently enhances their emotional bond with the organisation.

Continuance commitment refers to commitment based on the cost that the employee associates with leaving the organisation (Meyer & Allen, 1997). The observed relationships between HR policies and procedures and continuance commitment are in line with research conducted by Meyer and Allen (1997). These authors found HR policies and procedures to be effective strategies for managing organisational commitment.

Normative commitment reflects a mindset of obligation, which develops as a result of the internalisation of norms through socialisation and the receipt of benefits (which encourages a feeling that one should reciprocate), or acceptance of the terms of a psychological contract (Ferreira et al., 2010). The results of the present study showed that this mindset is cultivated by positive perceptions of leadership, rewards and remuneration and training and development opportunities. Leadership has been related to positive organisational behaviour, which fosters engaged employees, higher performance and commitment, which, in turn, lowers the risk of losing talent (Kiyani et al., 2011; Mendes & Stander, 2011). Döckel et al. (2006) and Lumley et al. (2011) found pay to have a direct effect on normative commitment. According to Meyer and Allen (1997), high performance-based pay creates an economic obligation for an individual to remain with an organisation. Brundage and Koziel (2010) also confirm the importance of establishing a compensation system that focuses not only on salary and benefits but also on career development and growth opportunities in order to retain talented staff.

Organisations can train their managers to practise leadership behaviours that model the values of the organisation and inspire and motivate employees to deliver better performance and higher levels of commitment (Chang et al., 2013; Detert & Treviño, 2010). Training and development remain key practices for enhancing affective and normative commitment and, by implication, for retaining valuable staff. Formal and informal training and development opportunities should equip employees with the skills and knowledge they need for future career advancement. Although managers should be held accountable for the development of their employees, employees should be encouraged and empowered to take control of their own growth and development within the organisation by means of regular performance and development discussions (Chang et al., 2013; Döckel et al., 2006).

Fair reward and remuneration practices must be established in order to enhance employees’ affective and normative commitment. Remuneration packages should match job roles and responsibilities, be linked to performance and be perceived to be market-related (Brundage & Koziel, 2010; Chang et al., 2013; Döckel, 2003; Zaitouni et al., 2011). Employees’ job satisfaction can be enhanced by ensuring that they are well trained in terms of the knowledge and skills they need to perform their jobs well. Interesting and challenging work that taps into the talents and abilities of employees also assists in enhancing job satisfaction and affective commitment (Döckel, 2003; Van Dyk & Coetzee, 2012).

In order to enhance employees’ continuance commitment, a concerted effort should be made to educate employees on the company’s HR policies and procedures. Information about HR policies and procedures should be readily available to everyone. HR policies and procedures should be applied consistently throughout the organisation in order to ensure perceptions of fairness (Döckel, 2003; Paré & Tremblay, 2007).

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