Organisation’s Commitment towards its Workers (OCW): Evidence from the Netherlands

Abstract

What does ‘organisation’s commitment to its workers’ (OCW) mean to employees? I conducted 86 semi-structured interviews with Dutch socio-therapists, fire fighters, PhD candidates, and R & D engineers. The findings show that one indicator of the employment relationship quality can serve as a framework for understanding OCW: Perceived Organisational Support (POS). However, the evidence also suggests that the current antecedent categories of POS have to be refined. These refinements should more consequently address the different needs of employees and the responsibility and responsiveness of different organisational representatives, but should also reconsider the current treatment of employee voice by making use of Industrial Relations knowledge.