Impact of Organizational Culture on Commitment of Employees: An Empirical Study of BPO Sector in India

Abstract

Retention of employees has become a critical issue in the corporate arena. With the increasing trend of frequent job switching among employees, it is a big challenge for HR Managers today to fulfill the aspirations of each and every employee and to bring congruence between organizational and individual goals. In the BPO sector of India where attrition rate is as high as 55 percent (ASSOCHAM, 2011), the situation is even more difficult for HR Managers. But the big question is how to make employees feel committed to their organizations especially in such a dynamic work environment where attrition rate is so high and job poaching is the order of the day. An extensive review of literature reveals that employees' ‘commitment‘ to the organization is a function of their interaction and relationship with that organization and, to a great extent, a manifestation of the attitude of management towards the employees. This belief is based on the premise that member's identity with the organization is a result of a set of carefully designed policies within the cultural pattern of the organization. An attempt has been made in this research to study the BPO sector to see whether the organizational culture and commitment level of employees differ across the different strata of employees in the BPO sector and finally to explore the relationship between organizational culture and commitment. The research was carried out in 15 BPO units in and around Chandigarh — Chandigarh, Panchkula, and Mohali which covered three strata of BPO units based on the number of employees and from all the three level of employees, i.e. top, middle, and lower level of employees. Results reveal that employees of smaller BPOs perceive their culture a shade better than medium or larger BPOs. And, as far as overall commitment is concerned, employees of smaller BPOs have significantly more commitment level than employees of medium or larger BPOs. As organizational culture is better in smaller BPOs and so is the commitment, these findings give us a cue that organizational culture has definite impact on commitment of employees. Further results reveal that commitment of employees is particularly sensitive to six dimensions of organizational culture viz. proaction, confrontation, trust, authenticity, experimentation, and collaboration. But, the results failed to support the relationship between autonomy and openness with commitment. Further, findings reveal that the focal point in the development of any strategy is directed towards impacting the commitment of employees towards their organizations