Is the Employee-Organization Relationship Misspecified? The Centrality of Tribes in Experiencing the Organization¹

Research on the employee-organization relationship (EOR) has focused largely on the nature of the exchange process between the employee and organization (Coyle-Shapiro & Shore, 2007). An exchange-based relationship forms when the employee and organization reciprocally bestow bene ts on one another, leading to an ongoing sense of “mutual obligation” (Coyle-Shapiro & Shore, 2007, p. 167). e notion of exchange in the EOR has sparked a great deal of research over the last 20 years, particularly on psychological contracts, perceived organizational support, leader-member exchange, and the employment relationship (Shore, Tetrick, Taylor, et al., 2004). Individuals’ attitudes toward the quality of the EOR are re ected in such concepts as organizational commitment, loyalty, organizational identi cation, and withdrawal cognitions.