Giving Commitment: Employee Support Programs and The Prosocial Sensemaking Process

Researchers have assumed that employee support programs cultivate affective organ-izational 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 weak-ened employees ’ physical, administrative, and tem-poral attachments to organizations (Cascio, 2003; Pfeffer Baron, 1988). Employees are more mobile, more autonomous, and less dependent on their or-ganizations for employment than ever before. To address these challenges, organizations are in-