Organizational attachment of newspaper reporters: how professional sentiments come into play
Abstract
This study explores how newspaper reporters become attached to their organizations, specifically focusing on the dynamics between attachment, professional sentiments and workplace relationships. Attachment is defined as a perceived oneness with the organization that leads employees to embrace and behave according to organizational values and interests. Drawing from Borden's (1997) work, this study developed measurements for journalism and business values of the individual as well as journalism and business values that are perceived to be celebrated by the organization. Work relationship is operationalized as the perceived quality of communication in the workplace. Mixed methods were used in an attempt to provide insights that are both contextual and generalizable. Quantitative data from an online survey on 141 reporters were triangulated with qualitative data produced from depth interviews with 10 reporters with varying tenure and experience. Journalism value acts as a reference point with which reporters frame their feelings toward the characteristics of their organization, co-workers, editors, top management, readers and personal identity. Organizational journalism value is found to be a significant predictor of organizational attachment. Person-organization differences in terms of value profiles correlate negatively with attachment, with organizational journalism value as the driving factor for outcome improvement. Work relationship with top management serves as a stronger predictor of attachment than work relationship with co-workers.
Degree
M.A.