Giving Commitment: Employee Support Programs and The Prosocial Sensemaking Process

Researchers have assumed that employee support programs cultivate affective organizational commitment by enabling employees to receive support. Using multimethod data from a Fortune 500 retail company, we propose that these programs also strengthen commitment by enabling employees to give support. We find that giving strengthens affective organizational commitment through a “prosocial sensemaking” process in which employees interpret personal and company actions and identities as caring. We discuss theoretical implications for organizational programs, commitment, sensemaking and identity, and citizenship behaviors. Changing employment landscapes have weakened employees’ physical, administrative, and temporal attachments to organizations (Cascio, 2003; Pfeffer & Baron, 1988). Employees are more mobile, more autonomous, and less dependent on their organizations for employment than ever before. To address these challenges, organizations are increasingly seeking to strengthen employees’ psychological attachments by cultivating affective