Free University of Amsterdam: screensaver increases organizational commitment

Netpresenter/Free University of Amsterdam, February the 1st 2003, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Organizations can increase the commitment of their employees by using the screensaver on their computer for internal communication. This has been shown by research made by the Free University of Amsterdam.

The study investigated the effect of a new communication tool in modern company life: the screensaver. The screensaver is automatically activated when a computer has not been used for several minutes. The Dutch company Netpresenter has developed a software programme by which all screensavers within an organization can be used to automatically display information. This way a message is being brought to the attention of all employees, without relying on personal initiative to obtain the information, as is the case with e-mail, magazines and intranet, which often remain unread.

Organizational commitment indicates a psychological link between an employee and an organization. Such commitment helps preventing an employee from leaving the company on his own free will. The study shows that more than 25 % of organizational commitment is determined by the communicational environment within the organization.
Such environment will be experienced as being more positive, when attention is given to the opinion of employees and their individual contributions to the organization. The research report recommends using the full range of interactive possibilities of the screensaver, to create a family-like environment within an organization.

The study was made by students of the Social and Cultural Science department of the Free University of Amsterdam. Personnel of three multinational companies have been interviewed extensively on the flow of information within their company and their organizational commitment. The questions focussed on their experience with the screensaver as information tool.

About Netpresenter
Netpresenter is the leading software developer of internal communication solutions worldwide. The company has an impressive track-record with more than 500,000 installed desktops, Kiosks and TV screens at leading organizations such as Amsterdam Airport (Schiphol), Volkswagen, Ford, Pratt & Whitney, Philip Morris Holland BV, Siemens, Swisscom, Sony, Barclays Bank, France Telecom, Shell, Philips, Unilever, Eastman, NATO, US Navy, Nokia, London Metropolitan Police and government agencies worldwide.

For more information contact Mrs. Linda Van Oppen tel.: +31 (0) 46-4370886 contact: Netpresenter press