Abstract
It is of great significance to grasp and control the relationship between organizations and employees for the healthy development of an organization. This paper measured the closeness and distance of the employee–organization relationship. The results were based on an investigation of 554 employees. (1) The mean value of the employee–organization psychological distance (EOPD) was 3.51, indicating that the relationship between the employee and organization was not optimistic. (2) 48.79% of the 554 interviewees maintained “existence” relationships with their organizations, 28.13% of people maintained “exclude” relationships with their organizations, 20.44% had a “loyalty” relationship, while only 2.64% had an “integrated” relationship with their organization. (3) EOPD showed significant differences in terms of age, marital status, education, career, position and area of residence. (4) Detailed analysis was undertaken to explore the distribution characteristics of four relationships, and specific rules were found. Our research provided a new perspective and related references for the further study of organizational management.
Highlights
It has been more than 100 years since the concept of psychological distance was initially put forward by Bullough in 1912
The average employee– organization psychological distance (EOPD) was 3.51, the averages for behavioral distance and cognitive distance were the highest, at 3.67, while the average objective social distance was the lowest, at 3.36. In this investigation, using the data from 554 employees, we found that nearly half of the participants maintained an existence relationship with their organizations, approximately 30% of people had an exclude relationship, 21.12% of people a loyalty relationship, and only 2.64% had an integrated relationship with their organization
Further analysis showed that the percentage of objective social distance in an exclude relationship was much lower than that of other kinds of distance, only 14.95%; behavioral distance accounted for 33.64% in an exclude relationship, whereas experiential distance occupied the largest part of an integrated relationship, at 8.49%
Summary
It has been more than 100 years since the concept of psychological distance was initially put forward by Bullough in 1912. Two main definitions have become the most widely accepted by researchers: one was an “individual’s subjective perception about the closeness of relationship with others and relevant emotions after he/she has integrated various social information” (Agnew et al, 2004), and the other was “an individual’s perceptions of situations under different time, space, social relationships and the occurrence of incidence at a specific moment” (Trope and Liberman, 2010). Both definitions essentially viewed psychological distance as a perception, which was an individual’s psychological construction after interpreting and processing specific objective information. Employees will feel self-centered when perceiving various kinds of information
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