IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v21y2007i1p121-141.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Knowledge workers: what keeps them committed; what turns them away

Author

Listed:
  • John Benson

    (University of South Australia)

  • Michelle Brown

    (University of Melbourne, Australia)

Abstract

There is a well established literature on the antecedents of organizational commitment, though the relative importance of these antecedents to particular groups of workers remains unclear. Relying on a general set of antecedents for all workers may result in the application of inappropriate HRM policies and practices. Our focus is on knowledge workers as they have been identified as important to organizational success.The literature is, however, divided on what constitutes knowledge work so we develop and apply a measure that focuses on what these workers do.We then use this measure to examine attitudinal and behavioural commitment. We find, using responses from 1969 employees, knowledge workers have higher attitudinal commitment and lower intention to quit than routine-task workers. Further, the antecedents of commitment for knowledge workers and routine-task workers differ in many important respects, creating challenges for organizational decision makers.

Suggested Citation

  • John Benson & Michelle Brown, 2007. "Knowledge workers: what keeps them committed; what turns them away," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 21(1), pages 121-141, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:21:y:2007:i:1:p:121-141
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017007073623
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017007073623
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017007073623?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brewer, Ann M. & Hensher, David A., 1998. "The Importance of Organisational Commitment in Managing Change: Experience of the NSW Private Bus Industry," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 117-130, June.
    2. Lee Cronbach, 1951. "Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 16(3), pages 297-334, September.
    3. Paul Thompson & Chris Warhurst & George Callaghan, 2001. "Ignorant Theory and Knowledgeable Workers: Interrogating the Connections between Knowledge, Skills and Services," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(7), pages 923-942, November.
    4. Mueller, Charles W. & Price, James L., 1990. "Economic, psychological, and sociological determinants of voluntary turnover," Journal of Behavioral Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 321-335.
    5. John Benson, 1998. "Dual Commitment: Contract Workers in Australian Manufacturing Enterprises," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 355-375, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francisco Liébana-Cabanillas & Nidhi Singh & Zoran Kalinic & Elena Carvajal-Trujillo, 2021. "Examining the determinants of continuance intention to use and the moderating effect of the gender and age of users of NFC mobile payments: a multi-analytical approach," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 133-161, June.
    2. Yoon, Junghyun & Lee, Hee Yong & Dinwoodie, John, 2015. "Competitiveness of container terminal operating companies in South Korea and the industry–university–government network," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1-14.
    3. Md. Mominur Rahman & Bilkis Akhter, 2021. "The impact of investment in human capital on bank performance: evidence from Bangladesh," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Usunier, Jean-Claude, 1998. "Oral pleasure and expatriate satisfaction: an empirical approach," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 89-110, February.
    5. Abdul Kadar Muhammad Masum & Md Abul Kalam Azad & Loo-See Beh, 2015. "Determinants of Academics' Job Satisfaction: Empirical Evidence from Private Universities in Bangladesh," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(2), pages 1-15, February.
    6. Sharma, Vivek & Bhat, Dada Ab Rouf, 2020. "An empirical study exploring the relationship among human capital innovation, service innovation, competitive advantage and employee productivity in hospitality services," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(2), pages 1-14..
    7. Deepak, 2016. "Antecedent Value of Professional Commitment and Job Involvement in Determining Job Satisfaction," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 41(2), pages 154-164, May.
    8. Abernethy, Margaret A. & Vagnoni, Emidia, 2004. "Power, organization design and managerial behaviour," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 207-225.
    9. Marianela Denegri & María Baeza & Natalia Salinas-Oñate & Verónica Peñaloza & Horacio Miranda & Ligia Orellana, 2014. "Materialism in Pedagogy Students in Chile," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 505-521, June.
    10. Terason Sid, 2021. "Predicting Sports Facility Revisit Intentions Based on Experience and Mediating Effects of Perceived Value," Polish Journal of Sport and Tourism, Sciendo, vol. 28(3), pages 35-41, September.
    11. Amy Roberts & Gregory S. Ching, 2021. "The Ebb and Flow of Study Abroad: A Comparative Analysis of PRC and International Students in Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, May.
    12. Tomislav Letnik & Katja Hanžič & Giuseppe Luppino & Matej Mencinger, 2022. "Impact of Logistics Trends on Freight Transport Development in Urban Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-18, December.
    13. Zhihui Wang & Liangzhen Nie & Eila Jeronen & Lihua Xu & Meiai Chen, 2023. "Understanding the Environmentally Sustainable Behavior of Chinese University Students as Tourists: An Integrative Framework," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-17, February.
    14. William Kelly & Phillips Cutright & David Hittle, 1976. "Comment on charles F. Hohm’s “social security and fertility: An international perspective”," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 13(4), pages 581-586, November.
    15. Ding, David Xin & Hu, Paul Jen-Hwa & Sheng, Olivia R. Liu, 2011. "e-SELFQUAL: A scale for measuring online self-service quality," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(5), pages 508-515, May.
    16. Amolo Elvis Juma Amolo, PhD & Charles Mallans Rambo, PhD & Charles Misiko Wafula, PhD, 2021. "Alternative Risk Transfer and Performance of Power Projects in Kenya," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 8(12), pages 28-35, December.
    17. Robert P. Garrett Jr. & Jeffrey G. Covin, 2015. "Internal Corporate Venture Operations Independence and Performance: A Knowledge–Based Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(4), pages 763-790, July.
    18. Joungmin Kim & Sun Joo Ryu, 2023. "Enhancing Sustainable Design Thinking Education Efficiency: A Comparative Study of Synchronous Online and Offline Classes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-18, September.
    19. Kang, Min Jung & Park, Heejun, 2011. "Impact of experience on government policy toward acceptance of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in Korea," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3465-3475, June.
    20. Ahmad A. Alharbi & Hamad S. Al Amer & Abdulaziz A. Albalwi & Majed Y. Muthaffar & Yousef M. Alshehre & Hani F. Albalawi & Turky E. Alshaikhi, 2023. "Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of the Arabic Version of the Fall Risk Questionnaire," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(8), pages 1-13, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:21:y:2007:i:1:p:121-141. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.