Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) and a special form of it, the
participation in the Continuous Improvement Process (CIP), are
prospective key factors and qualifications that differentiate a
successful from an average company. They represent the most important
part of the human capital that gets more and more important and relevant
for the economical success in times of the information society and
numerous "lean strategies". OCB or the participation in the CIP can not
be influenced directly or even be demanded. The constructs
organizational identification and organizational commitment are supposed
to be the most important predictors for a strong OCB. Unfortunately,
there are only less holistic approaches to systematically strengthen
identification and commitment in an enterprise - a holistic approach
based on long term considerations is necessary. Therefore, the aim of
this paper is (a) the empirical proof of a positive connection between
OCB respectively CIP efforts among employees and identification or
rather commitment. (b) the development of a holistic consulting approach
to increase the participation in the CIP. Via a quantitative survey in
the shop floor level of an automobile manufacturer it was proved that
mainly the affective and cognitive dimensions show positive correlations
with the participation in the CIP. A consulting approach for a
systematic composition of affective and cognitive identification and
commitment is derived from the theoretical and empirical insights. The
target groups are students and scientists in the field of
identification, commitment and CIP as well as practitioners and
consultants in the business of the continuous improvement process.
