“They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse!” Organizational commitment in a non-Western context

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between external monetary incentives (EMI) and affective commitment (AC), normative commitment (NC), and continuance commitment (CC). Design/methodology/approach Data were obtained from a sample of 880 employees of different education and job levels, industries, sectors, and salary grades. Findings An increase in EMI value is linked to a weakening of AC. In a non-Western context, specific employee characteristics – salary grade, educational level, industry type, and employment in the private vs public sector – are associated with different levels of CC. At the same time, employees at different job levels (top managers, middle managers, supervisor, and operative-level employees) are differently predisposed toward AC and NC. Job level emerged as a moderating variable between EMI and AC. Practical implications Understanding of the ways in which EMI are related to organizational commitment will inform organizational decision makers about how to be more successful in retaining valuable employees. Originality/value The study offers a systematic exploratory examination of the relationship between commitment components (AC, NC, and CC) and the amount of salary offered by an alternative employer.