Abstract

Organizations spend millions of dollars every year selecting and recruiting high performing employees. While hiring good employees is an essential part in assuring performance goals and dollar figures, if the company is unable to retain these employees, then they are wasting their time. One of the ways organizations seek to retain their employees is to increase their levels of organizational commitment. If employees are involved in, attached to, and can identify with the organization, this increases their likelihood of remaining with the organization. The present study focused on the impact of the relationships between employees in the organization and their levels of organizational commitment. Using the concept of network analysis, the study examined two measures of commitment: similarity of commitment between individuals and the individuals' amount of commitment. Examining the relationship between network structures and commitment demonstrated three main findings: (a) individuals involved in friendship and work relationships have high levels of commitment; (b) individuals who are close to and can interact quickly with someone without having to go through other people have high levels of commitment; and (c) individuals in homogenous groups have higher levels of commitment than individuals in heterogeneous groups.