Commitment at Work- A “Virtue” or a “Choice”

In corporate life we frequently come across the word “Commitment”. Either hear the same from our superiors or we keep saying it to the team below. And often a success or failure in an assignment, personal or profession is linked to our association to this word “commitment”. What does the word “commitment “means? Few of the dictionary meaning are as follow; the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity etc. Another meaning says, “a promise or firm decision to do something”. For me the word “Commitment” invokes a strong sense of intension and focus. It typically is accompanied by a statement of purpose or a plan of action.

I have spent 17 years in my current and the only organisation worked for, I feel I have a strong solid engagement build on trust and commitment. This “commitment “has been defining the behaviours that is displayed with a strong focus on the outcome. Well as a manager when you lead a team, you are always on stage, with the audience focused on every action you take, leaving no choice to be committed or not. You also cherish a strong belief that your long service in the organisation is noted and recorded. And the at the right time the system will speak for you. But is this the reality? The irony in this journey is that you work for multiple bosses and supported by multiple human resources structure. In last 17 years I have worked for seven bosses and multiples of that in the HR structure. So, who cares how committed you have been in the last six roles till you arrived there? As you move across the organisation you are as good today as you deliver in the new role. As people change, structure change you are back to the same mountain climb again. You start from the basics again; knowing what is expected of you at work, focusing on individual performance and fitting into the new structure!  Your journey has started fresh again. And the worst part, for a better opportunity in the same organisation you go through an assessment process, a fresh round of evaluation, and you must respond to question like your key achievement, reason for success, and how you fit in the new role as you are just introduced to the organisation.

I often wonder, how organisation with modern age data analytic and intelligence is digging deeper into understanding of millions of customers; their buying behaviour, shopping pattern, internet habit and designing strategies to target them. Still simpler, you get into any smallest of workshop and give your car registration no, you can get the entire history of the car with details of services done in any part of the country in a similar brand workshop, called as the vehicle history! Many organisation have such comprehensive loyalty and rewards program to pay back to the customers for the trust shown in the brand. Are you aware of any such mechanism to measure the loyalty and commitment factor for our own employees? I wish if I can just put the employee identification number in a portal and get the complete download of the employee, what he has done for the organisation in the last so many years, the laurels he has earned amongst his peers and superior. Can I create a tool that will give the commitment score, you may call it the “Commitment Index? A balanced scorecard coming out of various factors like numbers of years in the organisation, the diversity of roles handled, the intensity of difficulty in the assignment, successes in previous assignment, the appraisal ratings, the average period to get a promotion and so on. At one click of the button you have the complete score card, somewhat like the CIBIL rating which evaluates the credit worthiness of the customer, in this case the “commitment worthiness”. Along with numeric scores it can have qualitative ratings from all previous managers elaborating on his skills, ability to handle challenging situation, flexibility, resilience and many such attributes. Not just for profession growth and opportunity, something we can share this with the family and feel good about it. Infact it will be way to show to your wife that you are not so bad at work, as she presumes you are at home!

To my limited knowledge, I have not come across such an employee management index. So, it brings me back to the topic where I started. Is commitment a “virtue” in the present-day volatile work environment or it is just a “choice “you have made. If I take it a virtue, you create those expectation to yourself that your organisation will always remember it and pay it back to you. And if it does not happen, you get into a state of disillusionment. You are broken and you desperately start looking for outlet to establish how committed you were in your work.  So, who is the one who would remember you?

Many times, when the organisation in your purview is going through a tough time, you get desperate and you take that extra pressure, put that extra efforts to put things in order. You make the transition from being an employee to a guardian of the organisation. You start to display the traits of resilience and perseverance like an entrepreneur struggling to establish his own business.  You do not realise that you have moved away ahead from the goals that has been signed off with you at the beginning for the year. Even your personal life gets into a spin and family becomes a party to the stress. What should you expect in returns? So again, the question who is the one to remember you? Your organisation is too big! It is again back to the same point that it is a choice you have made for yourself and not that is enforced on you.

Looking back into my past make me feel happy that I have been treated with fairness and honestly till now and getting the trust and respect. “Commitment” has thus been the right choice to me. It has helped in number of ways

feel a connection to the organisation, feel that I fit in

bringing purpose and dedication to my actions

setting the right direction to move 

strong belief in my system

binding myself intellectually and emotionally to a course of action  

firming up my decisions

making me feel I am part of something special

Ultimately its “Your Own Choice “whether you just want to be a count in the thousand or few hundred thousand employees your organisation employees. Or you want to the “Be the One “who is here is make the difference “with no strings attached.

So, what is your choice?

Robin Kumar Das