organizational commitment: outcomes
Organizational commitment and job satisfaction are highly correlated at .53 (Britt & Jex, 2008.). Other positive correlations with organizational commitment are job involvement, occupational commitment, and union commitment. A negative relationship has been found with organizational commitment and absenteeism and employee turnover. The findings by Lilly et al suggest that, “HR practices, employee attitude toward business, organizational justice, trust, and commitment are linked during disasters.” (2008, p. 130). See Figure 1. They note that immediate financial gain does not focus on long term benefits such as employee stability and loyalty. Certainly, most businesses face a problem like natural disasters very rarely. However, natural disasters only tend to accentuate the overall value an organization places on its employees. Employee-friendly policies impact employee organizational commitment and thus employees will reciprocate with increased profitability, quality, and productivity.
The flooding on ranch started on Thursday morning. On Saturday morning, a coworker and I decided to find a way around the National Guard barricades and backpack into the ranch over the mountains. As we traversed down Green Ridge, past one of our horses who had died the day of the flood, and into the familiar pastures of the ranch, Kevin warned me to prepare myself. We first stopped to check on those who had been stranded on ranch. We encountered theowner of the ranch, who did not thank us for being there but merely cried about how devastated she was. I then went down to the river and watched as it continued to flow past the destruction that was our ranch. A hole was torn in my heart for the beauty of the land and the work that I had put in there. It had all been washed away. Over the following days and week, I hiked in, moved furniture, ripped carpet out of guest rooms, I hiked all of our wedding files in hard copy in my backpack out over a mountain, I biked up a washed out Highway 36 to help my friend and coworker retrieve her belongings from what was left of her house, I worked with my managers out of their garage on my laptop and called clients from my personal cell phone, stood in FEMA lines with my coworkers, and then reality hit.
There was no communication between the ownership and management (a problem that existed before the flood but was now made just that much worse by the flood), there was no plan to move forward, and there was no money left. We were all told to file for unemployment and look for our last paychecks. The thought of keeping staff on to help rebuild seemed to had not even occurred. It was strictly financial, there was no revenue coming in and they needed to lay us off. However, with the amount of work to be done, it seemed to be that one thing worth going in debt over would be keeping well-trained staff who had an emotional connection to the land. Now, I am searching for other jobs to maintain my student status and not go into debt. I occasionally see volunteer opportunities available at the ranch but cannot go there. My negative experiences involving the HR staff and ownership tainted my belief, trust, and commitment to the organization before and after the flood. Problems that existed before the flood were made worse after the flood. I also hear stories that dishearten me about ownerships actions concerning current employees (there are five left), volunteers, and the future. If they do end up reopening and offering me a job, I will refuse it. My organizational commitment to them was tested in the wake of this disaster and it has failed.
Below is a video of some of the repair efforts after the flood. If you are interested in volunteering, donating money, or simply learning more about Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch, please go to their website: www.sylvandale.com