Work and Employment Research Centre - werc

Managing Employee Commitment across organisational boundaries in Professional Service Organisations

Research team

• Professor Juani Swart
  
• Dr Nick Kinnie
  
• Dr Zeynep Yalabik
  
• Mark Green
  
• Stefanie Gustafsson
  
• Yvonne van Rossenberg

Employee attitudes and behaviours are vital to the success of Professional Service Organisations. Highly committed employees perform better and show greater loyalty to the firm. However, employees are increasingly working across organisational boundaries for clients and with partners who exercise a pull on their commitment. 

Research questions

Our research project addresses the following questions:

1. Who are the key parties who can exercise a pull on employee commitment (eg the organisation, clients, project team and profession)?
2. How does commitment to these parties affect employee commitment to and behaviour in the organisation?
3. What actions might be taken to manage employee commitment to the organisation?

How do we explore the research questions?

The project addresses these questions by conducting a series of case studies of Professional Service Organisations. In each case we:

• Identify the key parties with whom employees interact;
• Collect data on employee commitment and behaviour via a survey;
• Collect relevant data on employee behaviour and performance;
• Analyse this data to establish the links between attitudes, behaviour and performance.