Micron trust is like strawberry pie: Targeting employees’ appetite for commitment

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to investigate the relationship between employees’ trust toward a company and their commitment to it. It questions if certain levels of trust presented in each department at Micron Technology, Italy, are interrelated with the levels of commitment.

Design/methodology/approach

It reveals that a survey at Micron Technology Italy was conducted. Of the 1,580 employees who received the questionnaire, 892 responses were collected, resulting in a 56.46 per cent response rate.

Findings

It shows that for departments where trust values are below 6.8, the commitment level follows the trust value: there is a positive relation between these two factors. However, departments where employee trust reaches values higher than 6.8 are not reciprocated by a proportional commitment level that tends to reach a’satisfaction point’.

Practical implications

Advances the view that, since commitment does not seem to continuously increase, after a certain point, it is not cost-effective for a company to implement communication strategies aimed at increasing employee trust in a non-targeted way. The need for customized communication strategies emerges as does the importance of understanding internal communication as integrated with other human-resource management levers.

Social implications

It argues that managers must communicate with their employees as honestly and directly as possible, particularly during uncertain times, and should encourage the employees’ participation in the decision-making process.

Originality/value

It offers an original contribution to the ongoing discussion concerning employee engagement. Employees’ trust does not always lead to employee commitment behaviors inside the organization.

Citation

Pollitt, D. (2014), "Micron trust is like strawberry pie: Targeting employees’ appetite for commitment", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 22 No. 7, pp. 26-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/HRMID-10-2014-0139