| Organizations are increasingly relying on employee engagement as a means of competitive advantage. Desirable behavioral outcomes associated with employee engagement are strongly correlated with affective commitment. There is a growing interest in studies which link corporate social responsibility initiatives, such as cross-sector alliances, and employee commitment. These alliances promote an affective employee-employer connection as they reinforce a work culture that values social responsibility as well as provide opportunities for skills development. This study contributes to the dialogue that links employee commitment and engagement and by exploring the effects of participating in a cross-sector alliance program on employee commitment. It also addressed a gap in the literature through the application of Meyer and Allen's (1991) three-component commitment model in a cross-sector alliance setting. The study used a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design to assess changes in commitment. A self-administered electronic survey was used to collect employee attitude and demographic data from 162 participants located in six Canadian provinces. The pretest and posttest response rates were 61.3% and 48.1%, respectively. Reliability and scale statistics were calculated for each testing phase. Differences across eight demographic characteristics and the three forms of commitment were investigated using t tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The final chapter includes a discussion of findings, implications and recommendations for future research. Overall the study did not find any significant relationship between program participation and the three forms of commitment. Significant normative and continuance relationships were observed, however, for age, tenure, organization level and timing of last performance review. |
