Change in the world of work and its impact on labor relations emphasizes the importance of considering organizational commitment as a process that may change overtime, reinforcing the need for longitudinal studies. The present study seeks to assess the process of affective commitment (AC), continuation commitment (CC), perception of organizational support (POS) and intention to leave the organization in relation to organizational change as perceived by managers and workers. In this sense, data were collected from three companies in four different points in time over a six month period. The organizations belong to the same economic group with activities targeting irrigated fruit culture at the São Francisco Valley- BA. Data was collected, in four different points of time, within three different organizations in the primary sector of the economy, all of them belonging to the same economic group. The samples consisted of 114 workers in time 1, 135 in time 2, 162 in time 3 and 162 in time 4. A total of 46 workers took part in all four data collection. The participants were mostly young males with low schooling level. The main analysis consisted of descriptive statistics and mean comparisons. Over the years workers perceived changes in the companies' physical structure, in the work process, in leadership, in the workforce and an important trend towards wage's payments delay. A mean reduction in AC, CC and OSP coupled with a mean increase in ILO was observed in time 3. The same trend was observed among 46 workers, with statistically significant OSP mean reductions between time 1 and 3, and time 2 and 3. The same pattern was observed with AC and CC between time 2 and 3. On the other hand, a statistically significant increase in ILO mean was observed from time 1 and 3. The findings contribute to the understanding of organizational commitment as a process that has to be understood over time. The decreases in OSP, AC and CC, and the increases in ILO may be related the organizations change context due to a long price crises that hit the fruit market and was characterized by increases in lay-offs and organizations restructuring during the period under investigation. It can be said that there is great relevance in longitudinal studies analyzing the commitment processes that has to be understood under the light of organizational context.
Organizational Commitment; Organizational Change; Longitudinal Study; Agricultural Workers
