The aim of the current research is to investigate effects of competition in urban public transport. It is hypothesized that affective organizational commitment among employees is affected negatively by increased work pressure and reduced experience of organizational support, while continuance commitment is affected positively due to personal investments and lack of alternatives in the labour market. As a consequence, job behaviour as well as attitudes are expected to be influenced. This includes positive and negative aspects of driver behaviour, customer orientation and behaviour towards customers. It is expected that behaviour related to criteria of personnel assessment will be influenced positively, such as traffic behaviour which might lead to fines, or behaviour which might lead to customer complaints. A negative impact is expected from factors related to positive identification with the organization, such as service attitude and positive behaviour towards customers. Driver behaviour and customer-related behaviour are associated with traffic safety and service quality. Therefore, it can be assumed that effects of competition on commitment and behaviour finally contribute to the economic efficiency of competition. Commitment, job behaviour, and attitudes are studied through surveys and interviews among managers, employees and customers. Studies are carried out in bus companies operating under a competition tendering scheme, before and after tendering processes, and in companies operating in a market without competition. Based on the results, it is discussed how tendering processes should be designed in order to enhance commitment and to avoid negative consequences for job related behaviour. One of the challenges is seen in the peculiarity of competition in public transport requiring highly committed employees - in order to attain high service quality - at the same time as a large number of staff face a high risk of losing their jobs. Possible solutions are seen in formal aspects of contracts, which offer employees the opportunity toget a new job in another company in case of lost competition. Additionally, criteria for economic efficiency and quality should be combined with criteria for job conditions and personnel development. Personnel developmentshould be aimed at increasing commitment towards the profession "bus driver", a higher level of customer service, providing incentives for positivebehaviours, and feedback between employees and management, both bottom-upand top-down. For the covering abstract see ITRD E135582.
Samenvatting