Employer Employee Relationship
Employer Employee Relationship
Employer Employee Relationship
net/publication/322546095
CITATIONS READS
0 3,117
3 authors, including:
H.M. Nishanthi
University of Kelaniya
22 PUBLICATIONS 2 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
All content following this page was uploaded by H.M. Nishanthi on 22 January 2018.
Abstract
1. Introduction
Organisational commitment often has been viewed as a necessary and
essential element in measuring employee behaviour in organisations, which
also tends to vary based on organisational/work settings (Brian &
Christopher, 2011). Producing employee commitment has also been seen as
a leading issue that many managers face in running their organisations
(Chew & Chan, 2008). The importance of creating commitment has been
enhanced ever before due to its high association in increasing organisational
productivity, performance, employee satisfaction as well as lowering
absenteeism (Payne & Huffman, 2005). Furthermore, organsational
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8519-1501
174
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
commitment portrays the attitude and the healthiness of the link between the
employer and the employee (Stites & Michael, 2011) as well where line
manager relationships and trust in senior management play a significant role.
175
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
variables; line manager relationship (e.g. Gilbert, De Winne, & Sels, 2011)
and the senior management trust (e.g. Farndale, Hope-Hailey, & Kelliher,
2011; Ruppel & Harrington, 2000). Pate, Beaumont and Stewart (2007) in
their study assessed issue of trust in senior management in the public sector
in United Kingdom which stress the robustness of the employer-employee
relations. They found that there is an issue of trust in senior management in
public sector companies where the findings were in line with the studies
conducted by Davis and Landa (1999).
Farndale, Van Ruiten, Kelliher, and Hope‐Hailey (2011) also found that there
is a positive association between line manager relationship and trust in senior
management with employee commitment. However, these research were
conducted in a European context. Zeffane and Melhem (2017) in their
comparative study between public and private sector organisations in United
Arab Emirates found that public sector employees feel that there is a greater
trust between them and the public sector employer while there was a greater
association between trust and turnover intention in private sector employees.
Hence, it is worthwhile to examine these relationships in Asian context as
well. Unfortunately researchers did not find any empirical study which
assesses these employer-employee relations (line-manager relationships and
trust in senior management) associating with employee commitment. There
were no significant amount of research done in Sri Lankan context in this
regard; especially relating to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). With
internal information, it is found that there is no much relationship between
the management and lower level employees of CEB. Therefore, it is important
to study on this impact over other organizational factors. Thus, in this study,
authors have focused on investigating the impact of employer-employee
relations on the employee commitment in CEB, Sri Lanka.
176
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
Studying this impact reduces the gap in knowledge and gives organizations
an in-depth understanding of how far these factors affect employee
commitment especially in government or semi government organizational
environments in Sri Lanka. The learning through this study will help the Sri
Lankan government and other organizations to develop better by investing in
trust and a sound supervisor relationship. This study will also provide
guidance for future research on this particular area.
The rest of the paper is structured with a literature review on the concepts of
employee commitment, line-manager relationship and trust with senior
management. This is followed by a conceptualisation where the researcher
develops the conceptual model with the support of the literature. Next, the
methodology of the study is discussed followed by the analysis and results of
the study. Subsequently, the paper discusses the findings finally the
concluding remarks of the study are presented.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Employee Commitment
177
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
that employer, and the intent to remain with that organization (Meyer &
Allen, 1988). According to Meyer and Allen (1997), a respected theory
proposes that there are three components to organizational commitment:
affective, continuance, and normative commitment. Affective commitment is
an emotional attachment to the organization. Continuance commitment is
characterized by a more rational analysis of the costs of staying versus leaving
the organization. Normative commitment is a sense of moral obligation to
stay with the organization.
178
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
179
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
180
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
Line Manager
Relationship
Employee
Commitment
Trust in Senior
Management
181
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
3. Method
The current study is cross sectional in nature. The unit of analysis is
individual employee. The population of the study comprised of all 86
assistant level employees of the CEB head office as given below.
For the convenience of the research, 60 (75%) assistant level employees were
randomly selected from each division including, Corporate and Regulation,
Finance Division, Supply, Personal Branch, Planning and Development
Branch, Legal, Energy marketing, Distribution. Primary data were collected
by distributing a well-structured questionnaire among the sample. The
questionnaire was of four parts including questions with regards to
demographics of the sample, line manager relationship, trust in senior
management and employee commitment. Organizational commitment was
measured using items based on Mowday et al.’s (1979) while Employee–line
manager relationship was measure using items extracted from Cook and Wall
(1980) and Unden (1996). Trust in senior management was measured using
four items derived from Cook and Wall (1980) (Farndale, Van Ruiten, &
Hope-Hailey). All the items were measured on a five point Likert scale. Items
in the questionnaire comprised of positive as well as negative questions such
as “my line manager is good at his/her job and “our senior management would
be prepared to gain advantage by deceiving the workers”. Secondary data of
this study were collected through past scholars researches, journals, books
and web sites. After the data collection was performed, data were analysed
using SPSS version 16.
182
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
4. Results
4.1.Sample Composition
A majority (37%) of the employees were in the technical service while 18
(33.3%) employees were assistant accountants. Service, 7 (13%) employees
were in HR service and 9 (16.7%) of the employees were engaged other
services. Out of the 54 respondents majority 32 (40.7%) were female and the
balance 22 (59.3%) were male employees. 45 (83.3%) employees were
permanent employees whereas, 9 (16.7%) employees were on a temporary
basis. In terms of the level of experience, it is noted that 11.1% of them have
less than 1year experience and majority of them are working for CEB
between 1-10 years (29.6%). 16.7% of the respondents were with the
experience of 11-20 years, (25.9%) are acquired between 21-30 and 16.7 %
of the respondents managers were having more than 30 years of experience.
The Cronbach’s Alpha value is more than 0.7 in all the independent variables
and dependent variable. Therefore as per Sekaran and Bougie (2010), the
questionnaire is reliable.
183
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
Line Trust in
Employee
Descriptive Statistics Manager Senior
Commitment
Relationship Management
Mean 3.64 3.58 3.69
Median 4.00 3.75 4.00
Std. Deviation 0.96 0.96 0.99
Variance 0.92 0.92 0.99
Minimum 1.60 1.75 1.67
Maximum 5.00 5.00 5.00
184
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
For the current study simple regression analysis was employed to test the
hypotheses.
Method Value
R2 0.747
Adjusted R2 0.742
F 153.197
Sig. ∆F .000
B – constant 0.415
Standardized Beta 0.864
According to the table 5, the b value of the equation, the slope of the
regression, is 0.864 which is significant. As indicated by adjusted R squared,
approximately 74.7 % of the variance of commitment is explained by line
manager relationship with the standardized beta of 0.864. The F value is
153.197, which is significant (P=.000), which suggests that line manager
relationship has significantly explained 74.7% of the variance of
commitment. Hence, as per the results H1 is accepted; There is an impact of
line manager relationship on employee commitment in CEB.
185
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
5. Discussion
The current study examined the impact of employer-employee relations on
employee commitment specially interms of employee-line manager
relationship and trust in senior management. Based on the results presented
above it was found that there is a strong positive impact of both the
independent variables, i.e.; line manager relationship and trust in senior
management on employee commitment. This highlights the fact that
employees would be much more commited to the organisations if they are led
by mainitining proper relationships with their immediate superiors. Further,
if the employees can trust their senior management in treating them fairly as
well as making the right decisions for the future which would benefit both the
employer and employee their level of commitment would alos intern
enhanced. Hence, the current study is of greater importance as it points out
that better and trusted leadership would result in better employee commitment
and performance.
186
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
of line managers deemed to be good at his job and they support for the
employees when employees have a problems at work. This practice should
be further strneghtened in order to keep employees from leaving the
organisation. As well as they should give feedback on how well employees
are performing in their work. Most of senior management make sensible
decisions for this organization and they would not be prepared to gain
advantage by deceiving the workers. To maintain a strong relationship
further, it is suggested to conduct events such as annual trips, annual
sportsmeet, provide sufficient resources & better working environment,
create friendly working conditions to increase commitment.
With regard to the limitations of the study, only sixty employees were
selected as the sample where only 54 employees responded. It is assumed that
the sample selected from CEB head office is the same as other branches,
where it is not the real case. Therefore, the findings may differ from the actual
situation, and it is difficult to generalize with other organizations. That limits
comparability as well. Timing has also been a constraint in the study. The
researcher has gone through a lot to minimize the limitations and do the best
work possible in finding out the relationship.
6. Conclusion
The results from this study examined and determined the relationship as well
as the impact between line manager relationship, trust in senior management
and employee commitment. It was found that there is a strong positive impact
of the variables concerned on the employee commitment. Hence, it could be
said that in this era the organizations should consider the line manager
relationship and trust in senior management to a greater extent in achieving
goals if expect greater commitment form the employees’end as well.
7. References
Aladwan, K., Bhanugopan, R., & Fish, A. (2013). To what extent the Arab workers
committed to their organisations? Analysing the multidimensional
perspective of organisational commitment in Jordan. International Journal
of Commerce and Management, 23(4), 306-326. doi.org/10.1108/IJCoMA-
03-2012-0020
187
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
Barnard, C.I. (1938), “The Functions of the Executive, Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press
Beck, K., & Wilson, C. (2001), “Have we studied, should we study, and can we
study the development of commitment? Methodological issues and the
developmental study of work-related commitment” Human Resource
Management Review, Vol.11, pp. 257-278.
Cropanzano, R., Rupp, D. E., & Byrne, Z. S. (2003). The relationship of emotional
exhaustion to work attitudes, job performance, and organizational citizenship
behaviors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(1), 160.
Eisenberger, R., Huntington, R., Hutchison, S., & Sowa, D. (1986). Perceived
organizational support. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71(3), 500-507
188
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
Farndale, E., Van Ruiten, J., Kelliher, C., & Hope‐Hailey, V. (2011). The influence
of perceived employee voice on organizational commitment: An exchange
perspective. Human Resource Management, 50(1), 113-129.
Gilbert, C., De Winne, S., & Sels, L. (2011). The influence of line managers and
HR department on employees' affective commitment. The International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 22(8), 1618-1637.
Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1976). Motivation through the design of work:
Test of a theory. Organizational behavior and human performance, 16(2),
250-279.
Konovsky, M.A., & Pugh, D.S. (1994) ‘Citizenship Behaviour and Social
Exchange’. Academy of Management Journal. 37(3): 656-69.
189
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
Lind, (2001) E.A. Lind, Fairness heuristic theory: Justice judgments as pivotal
cognitions in organizational relations. In: J. Greenberg and R. Cropanzano,
Editors, Advances in organizational justice, Stanford University Press,
Stanford, CA pp. 56–88.
Mathieu, I., & Zajac, D. (1990). A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents,
correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment. Psychological
Bulletin, 108, 171-194.
Macky, K., & Boxall, P. (2007). The relationship between ‘high-performance work
practices’ and employee attitudes: an investigation of additive and
interaction effects. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 18(4), 537-567.
Meyer, J.P., & Allen, N.J. (1988). Links between work experiences and
organizational commitment during the first year of employment: A
longitudinal analysis. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 61, 195-210
190
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
Pate, J., Beaumont, P., & Stewart, S. (2007). Trust in senior management in the
public sector. Employee Relations, 29(5), 458-468.
Sekaran, U., & Bougie, J. R. G. (2010). Research Methods for Business: A Skill
Building Approach (5th Edition), John Wiley & Sons.
191
Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume 12, Number 02 - July 2017
Wayne, S. J., Shore, L. M., & Liden, R. C. (1997). Perceived organizational support
and leader-member exchange: A social exchange perspective. Academy of
Management Journal, 40(1), 82–111.
Zeffane, R., Zeffane, R., Bani Melhem, S. J., & Bani Melhem, S. J. (2017). Trust,
job satisfaction, perceived organizational performance and turnover
intention: A public-private sector comparison in the United Arab Emirates.
Employee Relations, 39(7), 1148-116.
192