Managerial work characteristics and organizational commitment after offshoring. The moderating effect of perceived organizational valence

Offshoring affects the nature of work in onshore locations, but little is known about job incumbents’ reactions to these changes. Based on concepts of work design, we demonstrate how offshoring related changes in onshore managers’ work characteristics are associated with their affective organizational commitment. Drawing on the organizational change literature, we further investigate how this association is moderated by managers’ perceptions of the benefit that offshoring has for the organization, i.e. perceived organizational valence. We found that both job complexity and international working were positively associated with higher organizational commitment, and that the magnitude of such associations enhanced as organizational valence became higher. Changes in skill variety by contrast were not associated with organizational commitment, regardless of the strength of organizational valence. Our findings serve to extend prior job characteristics models, explain diverse reactions of onshore employees to offshoring, and deepen our understanding of contemporary changes to the nature of work in developed countries