ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO THE EMPLOYEE-ORGANIZATION RELATIONSHIP: DOES INVESTMENT IN EMPLOYEES PAY OFF?

1997/10/01 by Anne S. Tsui, A. S. TSUI, J. L. PEARCE +5 · 1,632 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #Business #Economics #Employee engagement #Employee morale #Employee motivation #Employee research #Gender Diversity and Inequality #Human resource management #Industrial relations #Investment (military) #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Labour economics #Management #Management and Organizational Studies #Marketing #Organizational behavior #Organizational effectiveness #Work (physics)

paper · open access · doi:10.2307/256928

published in Academy of Management Journal 40(5), 1089-1121 (Academy of Management)

openalex publication_date 1997/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

This article describes four approaches to the employee-organization relationship, as defined from the employer's perspective. An empirical study of employees from ten companies found support for the basic hypothesis that employee responses differ under the four types of relationship. In general, employees performed better on core tasks, demonstrated more citizenship behavior, and expressed a higher level of affective commitment to an employer when they worked in an overinvestment (by the employer) or mutual investment relationship than when they worked in a quasi-spot-contract or underinvestment relationship. These results were obtained even after we controlled for several other variables that could affect employee performance and attitudes.

Citations

• EFFECTS OF RACE ON ORGANIZATIONAL EXPERIENCE, JOB PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS, AND CAREER OUTCOMES.

Cited by

• Passing the buck: Labor flexibility practices that transfer risk onto hourly workers
• Social and Economic Exchange: Construct Development and Validation
• A study of the lagged relationships among safety climate, safety motivation, safety behavior, and accidents at the individual and group levels.
• One hundred years of employee turnover theory and research.
• Complementary and Supplementary Fit: A Theoretical and Empirical Integration.
• Examining Strategic Fit and Misfit in the Management of Knowledge Workers
• Supervisors’ work‐related and nonwork information sharing: Integrating research on information sharing, information seeking, and trust using self‐disclosure theory
• When Algorithms Manage Humans: A Double Machine Learning Approach to Estimating Nonlinear Effects of Algorithmic Control on Gig Worker Performance and Wellbeing
• Strategic talent management: A review and research agenda
• Human Resource Management in New Service Arrangements: Extending the Ability, Motivation, Opportunity Framework Into the Gig Economy
• An evidence-based review of e-HRM and strategic human resource management
• Issues of fit in strategic human resource management: Implications for research
• Understanding Employees’ Perceptions of Human Resource Practices: Effects of Demographic Dissimilarity to Managers and Coworkers
• The challenge of increasing employees' well‐being and performance: How human resource management practices and engaging leadership work together toward reaching this goal
• Factors of internal corporate social responsibility and the effect on organizational commitment
• Strengthening the employment relationship: The effects of work-hours fit on key employee attitudes
• Examining degree of balance and level of obligation in the employment relationship: a social exchange approach
• Social Exchange and the Effects of Employee Stock Options
• Social Exchange Theory: An Interdisciplinary Review
• Human resource management–well‐being–performance research revisited: Past, present, and future
• Gender makes the difference: The moderating role of leader gender on the relationship between leadership styles and subordinate performance
• Interunit interaction contexts, interpersonal social capital, and the differing levels of knowledge sharing
• Great Places to Work®: Resilience in Times of Crisis
• Human resource management and employee well‐being: towards a new analytic framework
• Impact of BYOD on organizational commitment: an empirical investigation
• The role of teaching staff in fostering perceived employability of university students
• Strategic human resource management, human capital and competitive advantage: is the field going in circles?
• HRM and performance—The role of talent management as a transmission mechanism in an emerging market context
• Identity and the Economics of Organizations
• EFFECT OF TEMPORARY CONTRACTS ON PERCEIVED WORK CHARACTERISTICS AND JOB STRAIN: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY
• Designing a safer workplace: Importance of job autonomy, communication quality, and supportive supervisors.
• Paradoxical Leader Behaviors in People Management: Antecedents and Consequences
• On the shoulders of giants: a meta-review of strategic human resource management
• Balancing psychological contracts: Validation of a typology
• Patterns of psychological contract and their relationships to employee well-being and in-role performance at work: longitudinal evidence from university employees
• Anne S. Tsui [wikipedia]
• From staff-mix to skill-mix and beyond: towards a systemic approach to health workforce management. [europepmc]
• The relationship between job performance and perceived organizational support in faculty members at Chinese universities: a questionnaire survey. [europepmc]
• Shared vision and autonomous motivation vs. financial incentives driving success in corporate acquisitions. [europepmc]
• High-performance work systems, multiple commitments, and knowledge exchange and combination among Chinese public hospital nurses. [europepmc]
• The Boundary Conditions of High-Performance Work Systems-Organizational Citizenship Behavior Relationship: A Multiple-Perspective Exploration in the Chinese Context. [europepmc]
• How Does Employee-Organization Relationship Affect Work Engagement and Work Well-Being of Knowledge-Based Employees? [europepmc]
• High Commitment Work System and Employee Proactive Behavior: The Mediating Roles of Self-Efficiency and Career Development Prospect. [europepmc]
• Similar or Different Effects? Quantifying the Effects of Humility and Modesty on Job Performance. [europepmc]
• Effects of Ambidextrous Leadership on Employees' Work Behavior: The Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment. [europepmc]
• How does high-commitment work systems stimulate employees' creative behavior? A multilevel moderated mediation model. [europepmc]
• Perceived Organizational Support and Creativity of Science-Technology Talents in the Digital Age: The Effects of Affective Commitment, Innovative Self-Efficacy and Digital Thinking. [europepmc]
• High-Performance Work Systems, Thriving at Work, and Job Burnout among Nurses in Chinese Public Hospitals: The Role of Resilience at Work. [europepmc]
• The Role of Organizational Factors in Nurses' Perceived Preparedness to Screen, Intervene and Refer in Cases of Suspected Postpartum Depression. [europepmc]
• Factors Affecting Remote Workers' Job Satisfaction in Utah: An Exploratory Study. [europepmc]
• Exploring the linkage between workplace precaution measures, covid-19 fear and job performance: The moderating effect of academic competence. [europepmc]
• The Effect of Deviant Workplace Behavior on Job Performance: The Mediating Role of Organizational Shame and Moderating Role of Perceived Organizational Support. [europepmc]
• Are "outsiders" in? Exploring the impact of outsourced workers' perceived insider status and job value status on job performance. [europepmc]
• The Influence Mechanism of Owners' Safety Management Behavior on Construction Workers' Safety Citizenship Behavior. [europepmc]
• The influence of internship satisfaction and the psychological contract on the career identity behavior of fresh graduates. [europepmc]
• Energizing Workplace Dynamics: Exploring the Nexus of Relational Energy, Humor, and PsyCap for Enhanced Engagement and Performance. [europepmc]
• How digital leadership adds affective commitment of new generation employees: an affective events perspective. [europepmc]
• When Pressure Breeds Misconduct: Job Strain, Coworker Support, and Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior. [europepmc]
• The contingent effects of supervisor positive gossip on employee receivers: the moderating role of performance goal orientation. [europepmc]
• Can participative leadership and LMX congruence promote collective organizational engagement? [europepmc]
• Understanding freelancers: optimizing HRM for freelancer success. [europepmc]

Related

• Social and Economic Exchange: Construct Development and Validation
• Perceived investment in employee development, intrinsic motivation and work performance
• Exploring alternative relationships between perceived investment in employee development, perceived supervisor support and employee outcomes
• Examining degree of balance and level of obligation in the employment relationship: a social exchange approach
• A mutual gains perspective on workplace partnership: Employee outcomes and the mediating role of the employment relations climate