Employees form a global belief about whether the organisation values them, and that belief predicts commitment and effort better than specific conditions do.
Eisenberger and colleagues found in 1986 that employees personify the organisation and attribute intent to it. Favourable treatment is read as evidence of regard when it appears discretionary, and discounted when it appears forced by regulation or union agreement. The same benefit therefore produces different commitment depending on whether it looks chosen.
In practice
- A pay rise mandated by law buys no goodwill, and a smaller discretionary one buys a great deal.
- An employer that helps during a personal crisis is repaid for years in a currency it never priced.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Organizations & Bureaucracy
- Essay
- How organisations behave when nobody is steering