Title: Causes and preconditions for organisational commitment in knowledge work - a comparison of two expert organisations

Authors: Tiina Saari; Pasi Pyöriä

Addresses: School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tampere, FI-33014 University of Tampere, Finland ' School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tampere, FI-33014 University of Tampere, Finland

Abstract: Creating a strong atmosphere of staff commitment and trust is arguably the most robust route to maintaining a sustainable competitive edge in expert organisations. Under today's conditions, however, the question is how work intensification, time pressures and job uncertainty can be prevented from eroding the commitment of knowledge workers. In addition to a literature review, empirical evidence is drawn from qualitative interview data. The research setting covers two distinct business organisations representing Finnish technology industries (R&D unit) and knowledge-intensive business services (call centre). For the R&D staff in this study, the continuity of work was secured despite cyclical fluctuations. In the highly competitive telecommunications sector, by contrast, employees are seeing constant changes in work, which adds to their sense of uncertainty and undermines commitment. The results highlight the importance of good management and inspiring atmosphere in the workplace that can offset many of these problems in knowledge-intensive work environment.

Keywords: call centres; Finland; knowledge work; organisational commitment; R&D units; Taylorism; work organisation; research and development; staff commitment; trust; Finland; work intensification; time pressure; job uncertainty; knowledge-intensive business services; KIBS.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWI.2015.074168

International Journal of Work Innovation, 2015 Vol.1 No.3, pp.271 - 286

Received: 15 Sep 2012
Accepted: 06 Jun 2013
Published online: 14 Jan 2016 *

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