KASBIT Business Journal, 3(1):88‐95 (2010) http://www.kasbit.edu.pk/journal/index.

htm

Impact of Organizational Culture on the Employees’ Commitment: Relationship between Levels of

Organizational Culture with Commitment

Muhammad Suleman Sabir1, Adeel Razzaq2 and Muhammad Yameen3

ABSTRACT

The main aim of this paper is to examine the impact of organizational culture on the employees’ commitment
towards organizational goal. Further, it focuses on three levels of organizational culture (i) surface level, (ii)
espoused values and (iii) assumptions values, and their relationship with commitment of employees’ whether
it is form of emotional attachment of employees or obligations for employees. Detailed literature review
shows that organizational culture enhances the commitment of employees towards organizational goal.
Organizational culture is compulsory part of the organization on which organization’s success or failure
depends. Those organizations, which succeed in implementing the culture efficiently in the organization, lead
the marker or gained high profitability. The organizational culture increases the employee’s commitment
through installing different level (surface level, espoused values, basic assumptions and values) of culture in
the organization.

JEL. Classification: J31; J81; P37

Keywords: Organizational culture, surface level, espoused values, basic values, normative and affective
commitment.

1. INTRODUCTION

Organizations need to build up their culture for the survival in the market and each organizational
culture is different from the other. The culture of the organization influences the work gets done

The material presented by the authors does not necessarily represent the viewpoint of editors and the management of the KASBIT
as well as the authors’ institute
1
[email protected] (0092-345-5434927), Department of Management Sciences, Iqra University, Islamabad
Campus

2
[email protected] (0092-3148000005), Department of Management Sciences, Iqra University, Islamabad Campus

3
[email protected] (0092-3335758231), Department of Management Sciences, Iqra University, Islamabad Campus

Acknowledgement: Author would like to thank the editors and anonymous referees for their comments and insight in improving the
draft copy of this article. Author furthur would like to declare that this manuscript is original, has not previously been published, not
currently on offer to another publisher; and willingly transfers its copy rights to the publisher of this journal.

Recieved: 02‐11 ‐2010; Revised : 17‐12‐2010; Accepted: 29‐12‐2010; Published: 31‐12‐2010

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in the organization, whether it is strong or weak culture. Organizational culture influences the
organization in different angles but this study only focused on the workforce commitment aspect
of the organizational culture. In this era of competition, organizations need such culture that
increases the employee commitment (Keren, Langlands, Stroh, Northcraft, and Neale 2002).
Employee’s commitment comes from the workforce that shows the level of attachment with the
organization and these levels of commitment effect the organization.

In the decade of 1980s, researchers more concentrated on the organizational culture, considered one of the
vital determinants of success. The fundamental determinant of organization’s success is strong culture.
Organizational culture came into being with the interaction of employees with each other. The culture of
organization differentiated from the other on various bases. The culture formation in the organization
involved various factors such as workforce, leadership, owner, size and background. Organizational
culture gives the authority to manager and workforce for the usage of resources. The culture of an
organization motivates the workforce, which affects the performance of organization. Researchers divided
the culture into weak and strong culture. The organization that consist the clear and comprehensive shared
value and belief lead the strong organizational culture. Strong culture increases the workforce performance
by energizing with good working environment and coordination among employee behavior (Andre 2008:
572).

The culture of an organization can be build with the assistance of major four factors (personal and
professional characteristics of People within organization, organizational ethics, property rights that the
organization gives to employees, and structure of organization). Each organization developed own culture
with the interaction of these four factors and may change with the passage of time. The development of
organizational culture based on the people that establish the organization. The people's shared value within
organization becomes more similar with the organizational values, which lead optimum performance. The
cultural value depends on top management, which also establishes ethics for employees to deal with each
other. The moral values and ethic values are part of culture that shapes the values. The establishment body of
ethic values influences the organizational culture (Schein 2010).

Organizational culture appears in various forms on the different levels; but Hofstede (1990) introduced four
levels of organizational culture including shared assumptions, cultural values, behaviors and cultural
symbols. These support the organization in building organizational culture. According to Schein (1999), each
organizational culture has three levels: surface, espoused and basic assumption.

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The culture gained more importance now than past and organization requires for the development their
workforce. Currently, organizational culture is fundamental component of each business. The organizational
culture communicates to all the levels of management because organization achieves goal when values are
shared among all workforce of the organization. The workforce aligned with the culture of organization gives
lot of benefits to the organization.

This study examines the relationship between the organizational culture and workforce commitment.
Positive culture enhances the commitment of employee that accomplishes the organizational goal effectively.
This study has wide scope and it will support the organization to build a better culture that increases the
employee commitment and gives competitive information to the follower and researcher on establishing
workforce commitment through organizational culture as well as understanding how an organization creates
a better culture that improves the workforce commitment and involvement. Structure of Remaining paper is
as below:

2. LEVELS OF COMMITMENT

The workforce around the world is now well educated and knowledgeable, which increased their mobility
and finding better employment and benefits. The commitment has different dimensions and Angle and Perry
(1981) link the commitment to the organizational goal. Reilly and Chatman (1986) give three dimensions of
commitment including compliance, identification and internalization, and moral. Calculating direction given
by (Penley and Gould (1988), Meyer and Allen (1991) established model with affective, continuance and
normative commitment. Mayer and Schoorman in (1992) presented model of commitment with value and
continuance. This research, focused on model of organizational commitment. Organizational commitment is
comprised with three elements: affective, continuance and normative commitment. Affective commitment is
emotional affiliation of employees with the organization (Wankel 2009). Affective commitment is consisting
three factors: beliefs, willingness and desire towards the organizational goal (Porter 1974). Mowday (1982)
categorized the affective commitment with personal and structural characteristics, job and work experience.

Continuance commitment refers to employee’s benefits attached with leaving organization or it is investment
of employee in the organization. This investment of employee is given at the time of retirements or emotional
attachment with other employees. Normative commitment refers to the obliged feeling of an employee
towards organization. It is value of loyalty and responsibility of employee regarding his commitment with the
organization (Meyer and Allen 1991).

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2.1. Theoretical Framework

Organizational Culture

Surface Level

Espoused Values Organizational Commitment

Basic Assumption

Based on theoretical framework and literature developed hypotheses are as below:

H1: There is positive relationship between the surface level of organizational culture and organizational
commitment.
H2: Espoused level of organizational culture enhances the organizational commitment
H3: Basic assumption of organizational culture directly relates to organizational commitment
H4: Positive organizational culture leads the organizational commitment.

3. LEVELS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

3.1. Surface Level of Organizational Culture towards Organizational Commitment

The surface level of organizational culture is including physical environment, symbols, language and tangible
products. The physical environment invites the people of different backgrounds that used inclusive language.
First organization focused on the physical environment in which employees interact with each other. The
effective environment provides happiness to the employee of organization, which increases the emotional
attachment with the organization (George 2009). The organizational affective commitment increases with
providing environment in which employee feels better and comfort to work and employee easily interact with
each other in pleasant environment. Existing culture of the organization regarding employees is long-term
investment in the organization and its return at the end. Many researchers argue that continuance
commitment is low as compared with affective commitment with the organization (Meyer and Allen 1997).
The ritual and ceremonies conducted by the organization influence the degree of attachment of employee
with organization and true narrative stories for new employee encourage his/ her affective commitment. The
emotional attachment with the organization is difficult to measure. The effective communication within the

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organization not only increases the performance of the firm but also enhances the affective commitment
toward the organization of employee. The artifact or surface level of organizational culture encourages the
employee, and enhances their level of confidence regarding their attachment with the organization (Nelson
and Quick 2000). The culture of an organization established set of values among the employees of
organization to form affective commitment that optimize the organizational performance (Basu 2009:235).

3.2. Espoused Values of Organizational Culture towards Organizational Commitment

Espoused values show the stated values and norms of an organization, which significantly correlated with the
commitment of an organization. Espoused values of an organizational culture are associated with three
directional organization commitment. Espoused values are organizational legal values in which some are
compulsory to follow and must be implemented by the leader or manager of an organization. The
organizational leader sets the target for employees, emphasized on its achievement, and allows relaxing time
that increases the commitment (Cooper 2003:35-36.). Organizational culture developed by leadership or
executives and espoused values are the aspiration of the leader. The leadership brings different option for
different backgrounds and identifies the opportunities and challenges confronted by organization in future
too. The implementation of strategies regarding organizational culture supports the commitment of
employee. The leadership strategies and values decrease the uncertainty of employee and encourage their
commitment with the organization (Whetten and Cameron 2004). The difference between the individual
values and espoused values is necessary for employee to align with mission and strategies of organization
(Ferrando 2010).

3.3. Basic Assumptions of Organizational Culture towards Organizational Commitment

Basic assumptions and values of an organization are thoughts, perception or essence, which makes difficult
to leave due to its existence on unconscious level. The basic assumptions and values of organization in
problem solved with external adaptation and internal integration build up the commitment of employee
(Schein 1991). The well-established model of basic assumptions and values regarding organizational attitude
helps in developing high degree of commitment of employee with the organization (Fink 1992). The
fundamental pattern of shared values and assumptions build up the employee commitment (Mcshane 2006).
Organization can build up the trust of employee with shared values among the employees that establish the
basic assumptions and value of organizational culture. These factors improve the motivation and
commitment of employee towards organizational goal (Mcshane 2006).

According to Denison (1984), effective organizational culture of an organization builds up high commitment
environment that improve the return on investment and organizational performance. The performance of
organization through organizational commitment indicates optimized performance (Petty, Beadles, Lowery,
Chapman and Connel 1995). The cultural assessment gives the opportunity to organization to find out gap
between the current and desired culture, which helps the organization in improving commitment (Schein
1991). Culture is integral part of organizational operations, established by various factors of values,
language, rituals, ceremonies and routines. Various types of organizations adopted different types of culture,
but every organizational culture is compatible with the three level of organizational culture. Organizational

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culture has three levels, which support the organization in improving and establishing highly motivated
employee in the organization (Schein 1991).

4. CONCLUSIONS

Many researchers reflect their opinions on the importance of organizational culture and its factors, which
influence the organizational performance. Researchers adopted Schein (1991) model of organizational
culture and established its relationship with commitment. Various levels of organizational culture influence
the commitment of employees on different levels. Organization establishes and implements the basic three
levels of culture in the organizational efficiently. Each level of organizational culture influences the
organizational commitment. It is concluded through literature that physical environment, language and
visible product enhance the affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment,
when founders of organizational culture implement the artifact, espoused values and basic values in
organizational effectively and efficiently. Espoused values regarding leadership has greater importance
because leader/ manager always plays a major role in establishing well managed environment for diverse
employees that increases their commitment. Basic assumptions and values of organization built up an
environment in which values and norm played a role. The leadership established values and norms for the
organization in which strategies, rules and regulations prepared regarding employees.

Continuance commitment depends on strategies of organization, which basic assumption uses and enhances
the emotional attachment of employee with organizational goals. Organizational culture supports the
organization in creating more motivation among employees for increasing commitment towards
organizational goal. Many researchers and scholars explored the area of organizational culture and
commitment, but the level of organizational culture and its relationship with organizational commitment are
not explored at required level, therefore it needs to be explored. Researchers of this study followed only one
model of organizational culture and follower may extend this research with other models of organizational
culture.

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