Commitment!

The buzz word amongst the HR community a couple of years ago, was attrition and employee turnover. The smaller it was the HR manager breathed easier and lived to tell the tale another day.
To curb attrition and employees taking off for better quarters was born the concept, of 'employee engagement', wherein the employee wants to stick to your organization, like glue, so that the HR, does not have to go hunting around for fresh employees at periodic intervals.
Engagement gets a person committed to an organization & provides the glue, that I alluded to earlier.
What are kinds of commitment that you would see?

1. Affective: wherein there is an emotion bonding between the organization and the employee. The reason why you rarely see folk quitting organization's like the Tata Steel, L & T or Infy.
2. Continuance: Plays out during a recession. The poor chap is going to lose a great deal by quiting his/her existing job. He/she fears getting another one so is committed.
3. Normative: The employee is obligated to hang on for past favors.

My hero of yesteryear's Steinmetz provides an interesting study in 'normative' commitment.

Our friend landed on the shores of the land of liberty a refugee, from his fatherland, Germany. unknown & unwelcome.After great strife & desperation he potted a job with a small motor manufacturer for a pittance, when nobody else would even look at the hunchback, with an over sized head, speaking little English.

As his genius was recognized & fame grew he came to the attention of another great, Thomas Edison, owner of the now famous General Electric. Edison, knew genius, when he saw it & wanted Steinmetz on board, but no amount of money or perks could lure the great electrical mind away from his job with the motor manufacturer.

Why? Because the motor manufacturer would be in trouble, if Steinmetz quit? So said Steinmetz and he did not want that, as he was obligated to his boss, for giving him a job, when he needed one.

While the negotiation went back & forth, GE eventually bought out the manufacturer to get Steinmetz!

That is normative commitment.

What a story! I get goosebumps thinking about such commitment. I think it is an old world notion that kid's of today would not comprehend.

It is imperative, that HR focuses on the right kind of commitment. Believe me, it does matter!

Today nobody talks about attrition & turnover, because, the HR leverages, commitment of the continuance kind. A dangerous game to play!