Workers’ commitment is a widely researched construct in the management literature (Meyer and Allen, 1991; Mowday et al., 1982; Swailes, 2002; Argyle, 1989; Etzioni; 1975). It is widely believed that a committed worker would be more motivated and loyal to the firm (Meyer and Allen, 1991; Ahiauzu and Asawo, 2012) and organizations will have low employee turnover (Guest and Conway, 1998).  Thus employers strive to improve their employees’ commitment in order to improve productivity and reduce staff turnover (Oladejo et al., 2011). Researchers (Zabid et al., 2003; Oladejo et al., 2011; Omolayo and Owolabi, 2007; Salami, 2008; Ardrey et al., 2001; Carmeli and Gefen, 2005; Akintayo, 2010) have studied how other constructs like monetary rewards, psychological and demographic factors, structure, work family role, human resource management practice, communication climate and job satisfaction could improve commitment in organizations. This is as a result of the importance attached to gaining and maintaining the commitment of workers.

Irrespective of these researchers, workers’ commitment continues to be a major problem in Nigerian organizations (Ahiauzu and Asawo, 2012; Okpara, 2004; Aina et al., 2012; Ahiauzu and Asawo, 2009). Owing to this problem, we investigated the effect of team briefing on workers’ commitment in a bid to bring about improvement in employees’ level of commitment. We found there is a dearth of literature on the effect of team briefing on workers’ commitment in Nigeria.

In this study therefore, we examined the nature of ‘team briefing’ as a form of employees’ voice and its effect on workers’ commitment in the banking industry in Nigeria.

Team briefing

In order for an organisation to achieve its goals, there must be effective communication between managers and employees. Two-way communication is simply defined as “meetings between managers and their staff”, or can be referred to as Team briefing (Armstrong, 2003:808). Team briefing is a regular and systematic process that ensures communication takes place between management and employees.  It was introduced by the Industrial Society in the United Kingdom. Since inception there have been fewer incidences of industrial disputes owing to increased understanding and acceptance of change (Dudai and Cacioppe, 1991).

The objective of team briefing is to make sure that every employee knows and understands what he and others are doing in the organisation and why. Team briefing involves managers and their team getting together for about half an hour, in a formal setting, on a weekly basis to discuss issues relevant to their work and to provide them with information about the wider organisation.  Everyone has the opportunity to discuss specific job related matters with members of their team.

Team briefing (Dudai and Cacioppe, 1991) is a systematic, yet flexible system that ensures that information is passed regularly to all staff through interlinked team meetings. It allows information, ideas and questions to be fed back to other managers within the structure. Team briefing entails face to face discussion which encourages people to feel like part of a team and reinforces the message that it is the team leader and not the grapevine that provides accurate, credible information.

Effective communication through team briefing has a strong impact on employees’ sense of wellbeing, job satisfaction and commitment (Rogers et al., 1994; Oliver and Tonks, 1998; Johlke and Duham, 2000). Communication acts as the primary means for organizational members to process information, reduce ambiguity, and coordinate their actions (Johnson, 2009). Managers in organizations can personally influence employees; therefore they need to ensure that employees are given adequate information on their job roles. Employees are the face of the organisation and have a powerful influence in organisation success (White et al., 2010).

The importance of team briefing  has  been  highlighted in several studies: Jo and Shim (2005) found a strong relationship between management’s interpersonal communication and employees forming trusting attitudes. Personal relationships can help draw people into an organization and motivate them to stay in the organization. Team briefing as a form of communication allows subordinates to ask questions and seek clarification, therefore promoting shared understanding in the organisation. It also improves employee’s performance, teambuilding, commitment and employee relations (Oliver and Tonks, 1998; Gamble and Kelliher, 1999).

Augustine (2011) posits that at times of major changes or crisis in an organisation team briefing is a useful channel for passing urgent messages throughout the organisation at short notice. For it to be successful, team briefing should be based on a regular briefing or bulletin from the top of the organisation so that all employees have access to a message which everyone can hear/read before team briefings take place. This may be through email, the intranet or a printed copy. The message from the top remains consistent to all audiences and has not been watered down or become garbled.

In their research of an electronic retail chain in the United Kingdom, Gamble and Kelliher (1999) reported that managers were not trained, appraised or given feedback on the way to conducting team briefings. The organisation did not create a formal mechanism to monitor team briefings nor to make them successful. Therefore, team briefing had little impact on employee’s motivation or behaviour. They attributed this failure to the organization’s culture of promoting from within the ranks and national culture of conservatism.

In light of the above, Dudai and Cacioppe (1991) are of the view that team briefing fails in some organisation because managers do not feel responsible for communicating the corporate vision, goals, changes or policies initiated by senior management. Some managers lack the confidence in communication, since they do not have presentation, listening, asserting and meeting skills. Managers withhold sensitive information from employees believing the information will be misused or distorted. Also some employees’ are unable to read, speak or understand English which worsens the communication problems in organisations.

Dudai and Cacioppe (1991) maintained that team briefing is not successful in some organizations because of lack of commitment by senior management, lack of proper training, misunderstanding as to what it is, information not being relevant of lacking enough detail, mostly one way (Top-down), Accuracy – what is filtered out? Relevancy, the manager is boring.

To overcome the shortcomings of team briefing, top management according to Oliver and Tonks (1998) should ensure that their organizational culture is one that supports team briefing. Such an organizational culture according to them will have the  following  characteristics: Freedom to express opinions without retribution, Effective communication systems, Positive reinforcement is a recognized factor in helping to motivate employees, Creativity and innovation are encouraged, “risk” taking is encouraged (a “blame free” culture exists); Team working and networking are visibly practiced; Learning and development are seen as important for individuals and the organisation as a whole.

When organisations are able to tailor their culture to the above then they can accrue the benefits of using team briefing which Augustine (2011) listed as follows: Organisations can rapidly develop a shared vision, Management can gauge the progress towards achieving the vision, It helps strengthen new teams, Organisations can gather and exchange information on a timely basis, Organisation members are able to share best practice through examples of success in other areas of the organisation, People are able to receive immediate feedback, Regular alignment of actions to the culture and vision, Clarifying accountabilities and agreeing actions, Fast problem-solving, Meetings result in clear actions, responsibilities and deadlines, it enables and improves downward, upward and lateral (sideways) communications throughout the organization, prevents rumour and 'the grapevine' from gaining credibility, enables clarity of direction and information from the top, enables questions and suggestions to be fed back from all staff to the top, develops greater awareness and involvement at all levels, averts tendency towards 'mushroom management' (keeping people in the dark and covering them with manure), creates a culture of open communication, clears blockages and misunderstandings, explains financial, commercial and strategic issues, develops a shared sense of mission, vision, collective aims and reasons why, cease reliance or dependence on assumptions.

Oliver and Tonks believe that feedback, hard work, commitment and perseverance are essential to success-fully implement team briefing. Senior management commitment is very important. In a compatible culture, team briefing promotes consultation and a more open climate thereby serving as an effective employee voice mechanism.

Workers’ commitment

Several definitions abound in the literature of workers’ commitment and its measures (Etzioni 1975; Mowday et al., 1982; Argyle, 1989; Swailes, 2002). In this study, we adopted the definition of commitment as proffered by Meyer and Allen (1991) because it is the most influential current model of measuring workers’ commitment to their organizations. Several studies (Herscovitch and Meyer, 2002; Irving et al., 1997; Meyer et al., 2012) have been carried out to test the applicability of the Three Component Model of Commitment. These studies provide strong   evidence  for  the  generalizability  of  Meyer  and Allen’s model of commitment.

Meyer and Allen (1991) define workers’ commitment as “a psychological state that characterizes the employees’ relationship with the organization which has implications for the decision to continue or discontinue membership in the organization.” Organisational commitment, they suggest, comprises three components: Affective, normative and continuance. Meyer et al. (2012:1) reiterated that “workers’ commitment can take multiple forms, each characterized by a different psychological state or mindset. Affective commitment (AC) reflects an emotional attachment and desire to remain with the organization normative commitment (NC) is experienced as a sense of obligation to remain, and continuance commitment (CC) reflects an awareness of the costs associated with leaving. All three forms of commitment tie an individual to the organization and decrease the likelihood of leaving, but their implications for on-the-job behavior can differ.”

Muthuvelo and Rose (2005) have argued that employees with low affective commitment will leave an organization while those with high affective commitment will stay for longer periods because they are more loyal and believe in the goals and mission of the organization. Affective commitment brings about overall job satisfaction (Meyer et al., 2002).

Meyer et al., (2012)’s research revealed that employees that are affectively and normatively committed want to stay with their organizations because they feel it is the right thing to do, they are happier, more satisfied, more self-directed, healthier, more engaged and more willing to go the extra mile for their organization.

Meyer and Herscovitch (2001) report that employees with continuance commitment are less willing than those with affective and normative commitment to exert extra discretionary behaviour. Meyer et al. (2012) however found that workers with strong affective, normative, and continuance commitment are satisfied, self-directed and loyal to their organization. The absence of affective and normative commitment in such workers is what leads to the negative behaviour exhibited. In support Meyer and Parfyonova (2010) believe that the combination of affective and normative commitment leads to more positive outcomes such as organizational citizenship behaviour, employee wellbeing and intention to stay. Organizations benefit more when employees display affective and normative commitments than when they have only affective commitment. Organizations need to be more concerned with identifying the combination of different commitment profiles than mere looking at independent components of commitment alone (Meyer et al., 2012).

Team briefing and workers’ commitment 

Dudai and Cacioppe (1991) described team briefing as a systematic,   yet   flexible   system    that    ensures    that information is passed regularly to all staff through interlinked team meetings. It allows information, ideas and questions to be fed back to other managers within the structure. Team briefing entails face to face discussion which encourages people to feel like part of a team and reinforces the message that it is the team leader and not the grapevine that provides accurate, credible information. Team briefing promotes under-standing and encourages commitment (Oliver and Tonks, 1998). When employees are given relevant and timely information by management they become more committed to the organisation. Employees feel valued in the organisation and hence will have a positive attitude towards their organisation. Several studies have shown that giving employees information (which team briefing does) will increase their commitment to the organisation (Addae, 2006; Saks, 1994; Ganzach et al., 2002; Trombetta and Rogers, 1988). Addae (2006)’s study demonstrated that giving employees information leads to affective commitment and job satisfaction of employees. Also, Ganzach et al. (2002) found that information given to employees made them to develop more positive attitudes towards their organisation. Trombetta and Rogers (1988) are of the view that information adequacy is related to organizational commitment. Team briefing and organizational commitment has found strong support in the literature; we therefore hypothesized that:

Ho₁: there is no significant relationship between team briefing and employees’ affective commitment.

Ho₂: there is no significant relationship between team briefing and employees’ continuance commitment

Ho₃: there is no significant relationship between team briefing and employees’ normative commitment

Cross sectional survey design was utilized for this study; however we adopted a triangulation of methodology (using both questionnaire and interviews as our research instruments). The population was 5000 employees obtained from the listed banks in the Nigeria Stock Exchange. The accessible population was all the employees in the bank’s headquarters in the six state capital of the South-south zone of Nigeria. The sample size for this study was 357. It was obtained from Krejcie and Morgan’s (1970) table on sample size determination, where the appropriate sample size for a population of 5000 was 357. However, the completed and usable copies of questionnaire for the analysis were 315, representing 88.24% of respondents who genuinely participated in the study.

The questionnaire and in-depth interview were the instruments used for data collection. The questionnaire comprised two sections. Section A was demographic information such as age, gender, length of stay in the organization and educational qualifications. Section B elicited respondent’s views concerning the study variables. The 5-point Likert Scale type of questionnaire was adopted with responses ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The scale used for measuring team briefing was adapted from the work of Cacioppe and Mock (1984) and Dudai and Cacioppe (1991). Workers’ commitment was measured using Allen and   Meyer’s   (1990)   Organizational  Commitment  Questionnaire (OCQ) which we adapted for our study. The OCQ measured affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. Affective commitment had 9 items, while continuance and normative commitment had 8 items each. From the foregoing, it is clear that the variables that were employed for this study have construct validity because they were sourced from existing literature and had been pre-tested and validated in previous studies (Cacioppe and Mock, 1984; Dudai and Cacioppe, 1991; Allen and  Meyer, 1990, 1991; Herscovitch and Meyer, 2002; Pittorino, 2008).

Cronbach Alpha was used to test for reliability in our study. Researchers, (Bryman and Bell, 2007; Nunally and Berstein, 1994; Sekaran, 2003) consider an alpha level of 0.7 efficient. The following Cronbach Alpha Coefficient was obtained for our scales: Team Briefing (0.740), Affective Commitment (0.771), Continuance Commitment (0.724), and Normative Commitment (0.708). All the variables had internal reliability.

The results obtained from frequencies and percentages used in classifying the demographic data from section A of the questionnaire were as follows: Majority of the workers had been working for the bank between 1-3 years, which represents 47.94% of respondents; 24.8% of workers had been working between 4-5 years, while employees who had worked between 4-8 years represented 3.2% of respondents and those with over 8 years represented 7.6% of respondents. Males working in the banking industry were 168, representing 53.3% of respondents, while females made up the remaining 46.7% and were 147 in number. 47.3% of respondents were between the ages of 20-29, 45.7% were between the ages of 30-39, 6.7% were between the ages of 40-49 and only one person was 50 and above. Respondents with Bachelor’s degree were 157 in number representing 49.8%, Diploma/Certificate 85 (27%), Post Graduate Degree 66 (21%) and West African Examination Certificate or its equivalent were 7 in number representing 2.2% of respondents. This indicates that most workers were highly educated in the banking industry in Nigeria (Okpu and Jaja, 2014a; 2014b; Jaja and Okpu, 2013a; 2013b).

The following mean scores (x) were obtained for the variables using univariate analysis. Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4 give the mean scores for each variable. Team Briefing (TB) had 8 items on the scale, affective commitment (ACS) had 9 items, continuance (CCS) and normative (NCS) had 8 items each.

The Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient using SPSS was used in the bivariate analysis to establish the association between Team Briefing and Workers’ Commitment (Table 5). The following guidelines were used to accept or reject the null hypotheses: when the statistical test of significance (P-value) is less than 0.05 i.e., P<0.05, the null hypothesis was rejected, when P>0.05, the null hypothesis was accepted. This is  in  line with Kathari’s (2006) decision rule. The confidence interval was set at the 0.05 (two tailed). Table 6 presents the result of the association between Team Briefing (TBS) and Workers Commitment – Affective Commitment (ACS), Continuance Commitment (CCS), and Normative Commitment (NCS).

Table 6 shows that for our first hypothesis, r = 0.368** p = 0.000, therefore our first null hypothesis is rejected. There is a significant positive relationship between team briefing and affective commitment at the 0.01 level of significance.

Table 6 shows that for our second hypothesis, r = 0.186** p = 0.001, therefore our second null hypothesis is rejected. There is a significant positive relationship between Team Briefing and Continuance Commitment at the 0.01 level of significance.

From Table 6, for our third hypothesis r = 0.329** p = 0.000, therefore our third null hypothesis is rejected. There is a significant positive relationship between Team Briefing and Normative Commitment at the 0.01 level of significance.

Therefore, we can state our hypothesis thus:

H₁: there is a significant positive relationship between Team        Briefing and affective commitment

H₂: there is a significant positive relationship between Team Briefing and continuance commitment

H₃: there is a significant positive relationship between Team Briefing and normative commitment

This result is consistent with the in-depth interview conducted. Notes were taken in recording participant’s responses. The questions were based on the survey instrument and elicited information about bankers’ views of the use of Team Briefing and how it affects their commitment to their organization. Two participants from the six states were selected and a total of twelve banking personnel were interviewed.

There is usually a team briefing whereby the manager exchanges information with his subordinates. Some Interviewees assert that this takes place once a week usually on Mondays, while others are of the view that it takes place twice weekly, Mondays or Wednesdays, depending on issues on ground. The manager passes on information to his/her subordinates especially new changes that top management  is  proposing.  Employees  are at liberty to contribute or voice their feelings concerning such changes. Sometimes their views are taken into consideration, but at other times, management just listens and nothing is done about their suggestions. As one participant reports: “my manager just calls us into his office and tells us what top management has decided. When we point out how this will affect us, he tells us that we should comply or else we will be seen as rule breakers”. To an extent there is a bit of intimidation in some banks as what is being practiced is a form of autocratic leadership style by management, whereby employees have little or no input into decisions affecting them. This was a minority view, as most bankers interviewed hold contrary view and assert that they hold interesting discourse with their managers and pass their views through him/her to top management. Sometimes their decisions are implemented and this makes them feel good about the bank. When asked how this affects their commitment to the bank, they said the bank cares about their views; therefore, they are ready to work passionately to help the bank achieve their objectives. This translates to affective commitment whereby workers are emotionally attached to their organization.

The results from Table 6 indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between team briefing and workers’ affective commitment. Since team briefing entails face to face discussions, it encourages people to feel like part of a team and increases their sense of belonging to the team and hence to the organization. This makes employees’ feel like part of a family in the organization and makes them to be emotionally attached to the firm. They remain with their organization because they want to. Team briefing allows workers to make input into decisions taken at the bank and this makes them feel as if the organization’s problems are their own. Therefore the organization has a great deal of personal meaning to them.

Table 6 also indicates that there is a significant positive relationship between team briefing and workers’ continuance commitment. Workers remain with the organization because they are scared of quitting their jobs without having another one lined up. They also do not want to let go of the benefits they presently receive with their organizations. They are quite calculative in their thinking and feel they would lose a lot personally if they were to leave to the organization. Therefore they stay with the organization because of perceived lack of another choice.

The result from Table 6 shows that there is also a significant positive relationship between team briefing and workers’ normative commitment. Team briefing enhances employee’s loyalty to the firm since  they  have  the ears of their manager and they believe information that is required is being relayed to them in a timely fashion. They feel appreciated because their opinion concerning changes is considered by management. This makes them morally obliged to remain with the bank and strengthens their belief in the value of remaining loyal to one organization.

We found in our study that:

1.    Team briefing as a form of employee voice in the banking Industry in Nigeria has a significant positive effect on workers’ affective commitment.

2.    Team Briefing as a form of employee voice in the banking Industry in Nigeria has a significant positive effect on workers’ continuance commitment.

3.    Team briefing as a form of employee voice in the banking Industry in Nigeria has a significant positive effect on workers’ normative commitment.

From our study we found that the use of Team Briefing as a form of Employee Voice in the Banking Industry in Nigeria has a significant positive relationship with workers’ affective, continuance and normative commitment. This is not surprising because according to Meyer and Allen (1991) employees can experience all three forms of commitment to varying degrees and the strength of each is influenced by different factors. Our findings also support Meyer et al. (2012)’s contention that employees’ who have a strong affective, continuance and normative commitment will exhibit extra discretionary behaviour than those that portray only affective, normative or continuance commitment.

Drawing from this, our study suggests that workers in the Nigeria Banking Sector are affectively committed to their organizations. By the use of team briefing employees are of the view that their needs and expectations about the organization are matched by their actual experience in the organization. Therefore workers exhibit emotional attachment and identification with the organization. This may be as a result of team briefing allowing employees and managers to have a face to face discussion, which encourages employees to feel like part of a team, thereby improving employee’s performance, teambuilding, commitment and employee relations (Oliver and Tonks, 1998; Gamble and Kelliher, 1999). As information is passed regularly to all employees through interlinked team meetings, workers are able to pass on their suggestions to top management and made to feel that they are important in the organization and they contribute to the decision making mechanism in their firms. This symbiotic relationship sharpens their sense of belonging and hence they become more affectively committed to the bank. This finding is supported by Jo and Shim (2005)’s assertions in the literature that there exists strong relationship between management’s interpersonal   communication   and  employee’s  forming  trusting attitudes, which motivates workers to want to stay in the organization.

Our findings also show that the use of team briefing as a form of employee voice has a significant positive effect on workers’ continuance commitment. This supports Oliver and Tonks (1998)’s findings that team briefing promotes understanding and encourages commitment. This means employees are aware of the cost associated with leaving the organization and they stay because they need to. According to Coetzee (2005), the cost employees associate to leaving an organization include the fear of wasting time and effort spent acquiring nontransferable skills, losing attractive benefits, giving up seniority-based privileges or having to uproot family and disrupt personal relationship. When employees are given relevant and timely information by management they become more committed to the organisation. This has found support from other empirical researches (Addae 2006; Saks, 1994; Trombetta and Rogers, 1988). Employees want their performance to be appreciated and by offering them appropriate rewards and benefit packages, they will continue to be desirous of remaining in the organization.

We also found in our study that the use of team briefing as a form of employee voice in the Banking Industry in Nigeria has a significant positive effect on worker’s normative commitment. Team briefing allows workers to make input into decisions taken in the bank. This makes them to feel that their opinion concerning changes is considered by their manager. Hence they are loyal to the company since the bank has supported their ideas and recognized their input in the decision making mechanism of the bank. Weiner (1982) describes normative commitment as a generalized value of loyalty and duty employees have towards their organization. Hence they feel morally obliged to remain with the organization. According to Jha (2011:56), “this feeling of moral obligation is measured by the extent to which a person feels that he or she should be loyal to his or her organization, make personal sacrifice to help it out and not criticize it”. 

Since workers believe they are given opportunity to make input to decision making in the bank by the use of team briefing, they are thus committed to the goals and vision of the organization. This commitment is reflected in their desire, need and obligation to remain with the organization.

When managers have face to face interaction with their subordinates, with exchange of information, ideas and feedback, employees are made to feel that their opinion is important to management and they contribute in decision making in the organization. This finding from our study clearly shows that team briefing is an important form of employee voice and it helps to increase  workers’ affective, continuance and normative commitment in the organization. This finding supports other research works (Rogers et al., 1998; Gamble and Kelliher, 1999).

Team briefing as a form of employee voice is most favoured by workers and this increased their affective, continuance and normative commitment. Therefore managers should be concerned with ways of capturing and retaining the commitment of workers. Guest and Conway (1998) believe that positive organizational commitment is associated with higher motivation, higher performance and less likelihood of employees leaving the organization. Therefore when managers use team briefing in their organizations, employees would be more committed to their organizations. According to Coetzee (2005) committed employees do better than uncommitted ones and organizations with committed employees perform better financially than organizations with uncommitted workers. In the same vein, Boxall and Purcell (2011) assert that employees’ perceptions of the extent to which they are provided with information by their manager, the degree to which the manager provides a chance to comment and responds to suggestions, are associated with higher levels of job satisfaction and job engagement.

The author has not declared any conflict of interest.