| As American industry proceeds into the 21st century it faces ever-increasing competitive challenges that place emphasis on improving the overall performance of the workforce as well as increasing the retention of top performers. The focus of this research was to investigate the relationship between the performance ratings of engineers and the three components of organizational commitment: affective (desire), normative (values), and continuance (needs). While it has been proposed that understanding employee commitment is vital to optimizing performance, the data show very inconsistent results regarding this linkage. The more leadership understands about the bases of commitment of top performers, the greater the opportunity to improve overall workplace productivity.; Approximately 2,000 technical personnel consisting mainly of engineers in two major organizations were studied. The official corporate employee performance ratings used by these companies to determine pay, promotion, and recognition were utilized and were grouped into three performance categories (upper, middle, low). To test for relationships between employee performance and organizational commitment, a comparison of the values in high and low performance groups were compared. This approach using official ratings established in an unbiased manner, grouped into categories, and then compared, minimized concerns of employee ratings accuracy thereby ensuring the most valid comparisons. Data on the employee performance job satisfaction and employee performance-organizational characteristic relationships were also collected and will be reported in the future.; The main findings show that performance is inversely related to continuance commitment. Compelling data are provided to support the conclusion that performance is directly related to affective commitment. No relationship was observed between performance and normative commitment. Demographics of gender, age, and service showed little effect on the relationship, but the type of job, especially management versus technical positions, showed significant effects. In summary, the results indicate that a relationship exists between actual employee performance ratings and continuance commitment, a strong indication of a relationship between performance and affective commitment, and no relationship with normative commitment. |
