Organizational Commitment
Schultz, 2
Organizational Commitment
Organizational commitment has an important place in the study of organizational behavior. This is in part due to the vast number of works that have found relationships between organizational commitment and attitudes and behaviors in the workplace (Porter et al., 1974,
1976; Koch and Steers, 1978; Angle and Perry, 1981). Furthermore, Batemen and Strasser
(1984) state that the reasons for studying organizational commitment are related to “(a) employee behaviors and performance effectiveness, (b) attitudinal, affective, and cognitive constructs such as job satisfaction, (c) characteristics of the employee’s job and role, such as responsibility and (d) personal characteristics of the employee such as age, job tenure” (p. 9596).
Organizational commitment has been studied in the public, private, and non-profit sector, and more recently internationally. Early research focused on defining the concept and current research continues to examine organizational commitment through two popular approaches, commitment-related attitudes and commitment-related behaviors. A variety of antecedents and outcomes have been identified in the past thirty years (Angle and Perry, 1981; Mowday et al
(1979; Hall, 1977).
Definition of Commitment
Multiple definitions of organizational commitment are found in the literature. Bateman and Strasser state that organizational commitment has been operationally defined as
“multidimensional in nature, involving an employee’s loyalty to the organization, willingness to exert effort on behalf of the organization, degree of goal and value congruency with the organization, and desire to maintain membership” (p.95). Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979) identified commitment-related attitudes and commitment-related behaviors. Porter et al. (1974)
Schultz, 3 discuss three major components of organizational commitment as being “a strong belief in and
References: Angle, H. L., & Perry, J. L. (1981). “An empirical assessment of organization and organizational effectiveness” Bateman, T. & Strasser, S. (1984). “A longitudinal analysis of the antecedents of organizational commitment” Baugh, S. & Roberts, R. (1994). “Professional and organizational commitment among engineers: conflicting or complementing?” Engineering Management, 41, 2, 108-114. Blau, G. & Boal, K. (1987). “Using job involvement and organizational commitment interactively to predict turnover” Bolon, D.S. (1997). “Organizational Citizenship Behavior Among Hospital Employees: A Multidimensional Analysis Involving job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment”. Buchanan, B., II. (1974). “Building organizational commitment: The socialization of managers in work organizations” Buchanan, Bruce, II. (1979). “Government managers, business executives, and commitment” Cohen, A. (1993). Age and tenure in relation to organizational commitment: A metaanalysis. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 14, 143-159 DeCotis, T Eisenberger, R., Fasolo, P., & Davis-LaMastro, V. (1990) “Perceived Organizational Support and Employee Diligence, Commitment, and Innovation” Farrell, D.; & Rusbolt, C.E. (1981) “Exchange variables as predictors of job satisfaction, Florkowski, G & Schuster, M. (1992) “Support for profit sharing and organizational commitment: A path analysis” Gellatly, Ian (1995). “Individual and group determinants of employee absenteeism: test of a causal model” Hall, Douglas. (1977) “Organizational identification as a function of career pattern and organizational type” Koch, J. & Steers, R. (1978). Job attachment, satisfaction, and turnover among public employees sector Koopman, P.L., 1991 Mathieu, J. E., & Farr, J. L. (1991). Further evidence for the discriminant validity of measures of organizational commitment, job involvement, and job satisfaction. Meyer, J.P. & Allen, N.J. (1991). A Tree-component conceptualitazation of commitment Meyer, J.P. & Allen, N.J. (1997). Commitment in the Workplace: Theory, Research, and Application Mowday, R., Porter, L. and Durbin, R. (1974). Unit performance, situational factors and employee attitudes in spatially separated work units Niehoff, B.P., Enz, C.A., & Grover, R.A. (1990) The impact of top-management actions on employee attitudes and perceptions O 'Reilly, III, C., and Chatman, J. (1986). "Organizational Commitment and Psychological Attachment: The Effects of Compliance, Identification and Internalization on Prosocial Perry, James (1997). “Antecedents of Public Service Motivation”. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 7, 2, 181-197.