Goal Management, Management Reform, and Affective Organizational Commitment in the Public Sector

This article addresses the long-standing and ever-relevant issue of goal-related management in public organizations and its impact on employees’ affective commitment to their organization. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the analysis explores the importance of goal-related predictors—organizational goal ambiguity, leader goal support, goal difficulty, and collaborative goal setting—for public employees’ affective organizational commitment. In addition, we examine the moderating effects of management reform in the Swiss federal government. The analyses indicate that collective perceptions of goal ambiguity and collaborative goal setting diminish organizational commitment, while employees’ perceptions of leader goal support and goal difficulty enhance the criterion variable. Furthermore, management reforms moderate the influences of leader goal support and goal difficulty on affective organizational commitment. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in the conclusion.