Is Employee Organizational Commitment Related to Firm Environmental Sustainability?

Organizational commitment refers to an individual’s identification and involvement with an organization. This paper examines the organizational commitment of employees toward firms with varying levels of environmental sustainability efforts. Analysis of surveys from 195 employees from nine small and medium-sized food-processing businesses shows employees’ level of organizational commitment is influenced by their perceptions of their firm’s environmental sustainability. Specifically, individuals working for firms that they perceive as having a collectivistic organizational identity orientation or that manufacture more certified organic product lines have greater affective and normative organizational commitment. In addition, higher employee affective organizational commitment is positively related to employee perceptions of environmental management practices. However, employee normative organizational commitment is not related to more stringent environmental management practices.