Work Commitment In Times Of Crisis: Human Resource Management Practices In Organizations

This article ponders on the impact of management practices throughout the COVID-19 crisis on the work engagement within organizations. Our study thus makes it possible to strengthen, on the one hand, the existing literature on work commitment, through qualitative methods, and, on the other hand, research focused on employee engagement within organizations. For this, we chose to carry out a qualitative survey within two organizations: a reception center for asylum seekers and a multinational organization. To analyze these data, we used the theoretical framework of work engagement developed by Saks (2006). Our analysis allowed us, first of all, to observe how organizations managed the employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the modification of two main management practices, namely the organization of work and the management of skills. Second, we realized that these two management practices were closely related to three precursors of work engagement (Saks, 2006): work characteristics, organizational and managerial support, and reward. Finally, we could observe that these three precursors had a relationship of mutual influence with the two mentioned management practices and that they also had an impact on work commitment.