Perceived organizational membership: an aggregate framework representing the employee–organization relationship

Abstract

SummaryOrganizational scholars have examined the relational ties between employees and organizations, often focusing on specific facets of the relationship. However, this approach has not generated an overall representation of the employee-organization relationship, nor has it facilitated the identification of interrelationships among the concepts. This paper seeks to address these two issues by developing an integrative framework labeled perceived organizational membership. Perceived organizational membership is proposed to be an aggregate multidimensional construct reflecting employees' perceptions of their relationship with their employing organization, and its three underlying dimensions (need fulfillment, mattering, and belonging) offer a framework for categorizing and understanding relational tie concepts, both separately and in combination with one another. Drawing from the community psychology literature (McMillan & Chavis, 1986) as well as Graham's (1991) early work on organizational citizenship, we identify perceived organizational membership's underlying motives and the mechanisms through which they influence the construct, demonstrate how specific relational tie subdimensions fit with the more general construct, and develop propositions regarding relationships among the dimensions and the specific relational tie subdimensions. Finally, we discuss the benefits of the framework, including its ability to allow researchers to better understand both specific relational tie concepts as well as the overall employee-organization relationship.

How societal culture influences friction in the employee–organization relationship

“…To explain and classify work motives, we rely on perceived organizational membership, an aggregate, multidimensional construct that reflects employees' overall perceptions of their relationships with their organizations, based on three underlying work motive dimensions: need fulfillment, mattering, and belonging (Masterson & Stamper, 2003). Need fulfillment is defined as the extent to which employees perceive that their needs are being met and they are helping to meet the needs of the firm.…”

“…Mattering is the extent to which employees perceive they are influential in the organization, such as meeting status and respect needs. That is, mattering reflects the level of influence an individual may want to achieve within the organization, such as having the power to influence corporate policies and standards (Masterson & Stamper, 2003).…”

“…Belonging refers to the extent to which employees perceive a sense of insider status within the boundaries of the organization, including feeling personal relatedness to, or intimacy with, other members (Masterson & Stamper, 2003), organizational identification (Ashforth, Harrison, & Corley, 2008), and a sense of psychological ownership (VandeWalle, Van Dyne, & Kostova, 1995). More succinctly, the belonging motive indicates a desire for 'fitting in' and relating to others, as well as taking responsibility for the greater whole (Stamper & Masterson, 2002).…”

Marketing Communications Management

“…In the organizational behaviour literature, influence, labelled mattering in this context, has been conceptualized as an underlying dimension of perceived organizational membership (Masterson & Stamper, 2003).…”

Implementing the Marketing Concept in Travel Organizations: The Important Moderating Influence of Perceived Organizational Support

“…In particular, perceptions regarding an organization's commitment to employee well-being have been shown to relate to work attendance (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, & Sowa, 1986), job satisfaction (Eisenberger, Cummings, Armeli, & Lynch, 1997), trust in management (Whitener, 2001), individual performance , perceptions of organizational membership, and resultant affective commitment (loyalty) to the firm (Masterson & Stamper, 2003;Shore & Wayne, 1993). However, despite providing an explanation for the association between the organization and employees, to date, POS has not been considered within the market orientation framework.…”