Exam 3: Organizational Commitment

Jess, Frank, and Ted are coworkers at Crossroad Inc., all having worked at CI for five years now. The three were discussing their careers one day during lunch break when they heard that their coworker Mary just quit and went to work for a competitor. Frank remarks that it is not worthwhile for him to leave like Mary because he has put in the time and hard work for a promotion. If he left for another company, he would not likely get this opportunity again soon. Ted replies to Frank that for him, it's the company's relaxed atmosphere and his best friends at CI that keeps him working there. When they asked Jess about how he felt, Jess indicated that Mary had no bonds to CI. She was relatively new and had not invested any time at CI. "For me," Jess says, "CI gave me an opportunity and invested so much in mentoring me, preparing me for the position, and showing me the ropes to success. There is no way that I can desert them by leaving for another company." Of the three employees, Ted is exhibiting:

Explain the different kinds of psychological withdrawal.

Examples of psychological withdrawal include missing meetings and tardiness.

Which of the following is a form of physical withdrawal?

Maria is rather quiet at her workplace. Her only friend at work, Nancy, quit the company a month ago. The _____ model suggests that Maria is more likely to quit her job because Nancy is no longer working in the same organization.

Which of the following is one of the three types of organizational commitment that focuses on personal and family issues more than the other two commitment types?

Maude has been working as the creative head at Juno Designs for the past 10 years. Her growth at Juno has made her one of the finest designers in the field. Of late, Maude has been receiving several inquiries from headhunters about possible positions at other companies. Maude feels that she should stay with Juno Designs because her retirement benefits increase during her later years of service as opposed to her initial years of service. This is an example of _____ commitment.

A(n) _____ merely exerts the minimum level of effort needed to keep his or her job.

EuroOne, a mutual fund company, is cutting its workforce in large numbers because of the current recession. The employees who still have their jobs are angered and depressed by the layoffs. They have lost the trust they had in management and are not sure if their future is secure with EuroOne. They are facing the _____ syndrome.

A lack of employment alternatives is one of the factors that increase continuance commitment.

Sean was recently hired to join the marketing team at Axon International. He will be starting at the company in two weeks. Sean has the reputation of being an expert in ad campaigns and catching the attention of the target audience. However, he also has the reputation of not getting along with anyone. He doesn't care much about where and for whom he works but is primarily motivated to achieve goals for himself and beat his own records. As soon as Amanda heard about Sean joining the team, she turned in her resignation. Ashton, another team member, called Sean and met him for lunch to express all the team members' concerns and to smooth things out before Sean formally joins the team. Amanda's reaction can be described as _____.

_____ commitment is defined as a desire to remain a member of an organization because of an awareness of the costs associated with leaving it.

The most serious form of physical withdrawal is absenteeism.

Apathetics tend to respond to negative events with _____ because they are low performers who lack marketable skills and who do not have a high enough level of organizational commitment needed to engage in acts of citizenship.

Employees falling under the category of "lone wolves" possess low levels of both organizational commitment and task performance and merely exert the minimum level of effort needed to keep their jobs.

Organizational commitment should increase the likelihood that an individual will respond to a negative work event with voice or loyalty.

Continuance commitment is defined as a desire to remain a member of an organization due to a feeling of obligation.

Continuance commitment focuses on personal and family issues more than affective and normative commitment.

Tardiness reflects the tendency to arrive at work late or leave work early.

Continuance commitment tends to create more of a passive form of loyalty than affective commitment.