1. Internal Image of Organization and Commitment of Employees Dr. Natalia ANTONOVA National Research University “Higher School of Economics”, Moscow, Russia

2. The structure of the presentation  Problem Statement  Theoretical Background  The Empirical Investigation of Internal Image and Organizational Commitment  Results  Conclusions

3. Problem Statement  Loyal staff creates a competitive advantage of business organization  Loyal staff creates a positive external image of the company  It’s especially important during crisis period  There are no empirical evidence about relationship between organizational loyalty and commitment and internal image of organization in Russian companies

4. Theoretical Background

5. Organizational loyalty/commitment Two approaches: the definition of loyalty as commitment, dedication, which is provided by organizational factors (organizational commitment); definition of loyalty as a special psychological phenomenon, directly related to the staff (employee loyalty) The boundaries between the concepts of commitment and loyalty are blurred

6. The study approaches 1) Behavioral approach assumes that loyalty is formed by the behavior of employees. 2) Attitudinal approach: the loyalty is considered as an attitude, and as an emotional connection between the employee and the organization.

7. Components of Organizational commitment D. Meyer and H. Allen: 1) affective commitment (emotional relationships between employee and organization) ; 2) normative commitment (perceived obligations towards the organization) ; 3) continuance commitment (perceived costs of leaving the organization).

8. Factors of Organizational Commitment Organizational factors: 1) the compensation for the adverse working conditions; 2) properly structured information policy; 3) promotion of team spirit; 4) caring for employees and help in resolving difficulties;

9. Factors of organizational commitment Employee’s factors: 1) job satisfaction, 2) organizational identification, 3) leadership Internal image of organization???

10. Internal image of organization Internal image of organization is a way the employees perceive their organization. Internal image defines trust of employees to the organization and, as a consequence, the organizational commitment (?)

11. Structure of the organizational image 1) self-actualization as a major factor (the development of professional skills and knowledge, the implementation of needs in career development); 2) social security (material well-being, job security in the future); 3) status prestige of the organization (reputation of the company, developed corporate symbols, the location of the organization, the image of organizational leader, the image of the product) (Shagzhina)

12. The Empirical Investigation of Internal Image and Organizational Commitment

13. Purpose and Hypotheses Purpose: to investigate the relationship between employee’s commitment and internal image of organization. Hypotheses: 1) there is a relationship between the internal image of organization and organizational commitment of the staff; 2) affective component of organizational commitment is mostly associated with the components of the internal image; 3) a kind of business and some characteristics of organization mediate the relationship between internal image and employee’s commitment.

14. Participants We investigated the staff of three organizations of Russian cities Lipetsk and Voronezh. A total of 198 respondents participated: the company "A", located in the city of Lipetsk, included 98 people; the number of respondents from organizations "B" (47 people) and "C" (53 people), located in Voronezh, was 100.

15. Features of organizations participated in the study “A” company: the trade company which sells products in different regions of the world, except in Russia. All employees receive an official (“white”) salary. “B” company: a branch of American company producing and selling software (official and high salary). “C” company: distributes foods in the Central and the Volga region of Russia. The salary is only partly official.

16. Methods 1) the method of studying the internal image of the organization, developed by Shagzhina (the results were processed by factor analysis); 2) "The scale of organizational commitment" developed by Meyer and Allen, in Russian translation made by Dominyak

17. Results

18. “А” organization: internal image % from maximum level factors dispersion Positive evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 1 self-actual. 2 social security 3 general attr. 4 status-prestige 5 trust

19. “B” organization: internal image % from maximum level dispersion Positive evaluation 1 self-actual. 2 social security 3 general attr. 4 status-prestige 5 trust 1 2 3 4 5 factors

20. “C” organization: internal image Positive evaluation 1 self-actual. 2 social security 3 general attr. 4 status-prestige 5 trust 1 2 3 4 5 factors % from maximum level dispersion

21. Высшая школа экономики, Москва, 2013 Possibilities and attractiveness for self-actualization and self-development Affective commitment 0,411 Possibilities and attractiveness for self-actualization and self-development Continuance commitment 0,323 Social Security Affective commitment 0,358 Organization “А” : relationship between factors of internal image and commitment components

22. Высшая школа экономики, Москва, 2013 Possibilities and attractiveness for self-actualization and self-development Affective commitment 0,506 General attractiveness Continuance commitment 0,333 Social Security Affective commitment 0,433 Social Security Continuance commitment 0,456 Organization “B” : relationship between factors of internal image and commitment components

23. Высшая школа экономики, Москва, 2013 Possibilities and attractiveness for self-actualization and self-development Affective commitment 0,311 Trust Normative commitment -0,300 Affective commitment 0,448 Social Security Continuance commitment 0,303 Normative commitment 0,384 Organization “C” : relationship between factors of internal image and commitment components

24. Limitations We studied only three specific companies in specific Russian region. We tried to observe the companies with different businesses and characteristics, but of cause didn’t cover all possible organizational conditions.

25. Conclusions 1) There is a correlation between internal image of organization and some components of organizational commitment. 2) There are correlations which are common for organizations with different characteristics: a) the correlation between factor "The ability and appeal to self-actualization and development" and the affective component of organizational commitment; b) b) the correlation between the factor "Social security" and the affective component of commitment. These correlations confirm our second hypothesis about closer ties of affective commitment with internal image of organization.

26. Conclusions We found some links which are more typical only for certain companies: a) in the company “C”, which has some specific features: the factor of internal image “Social security” correlates with all components of organizational commitment, factor "Trust" has a negative correlation with normative commitment; b) in the company "B" factor "General attractiveness" has weak correlation with continued loyalty. These correlations confirm our third hypothesis that some characteristics of organization mediate the relationship between internal image and employee’s commitment, but due to the limitations of our research, this problem needs further investigations.

27. Thank you for your attention! nvantonova@hse.ru