The concept of organisational commitment

Organisational commitment has been defined in several distinct ways over the last couple of years (e.g. Meyer & Allen, 1991; J. P. Meyer, D. J. Stanley, L. Herscovitch, L. Topolnytsky, 2002, I. R. Gellatly, J. P. Meyer, A. A. Luchak, 2006, Mowday et al., 1979). Although a number of researchers have turned their attention to the examination of commitment, several contradictory findings are present even today. Different approaches, therefore, assume the significance of lots of different factors concerning the emergence of commitment, and the correlations between commitment and behaviour at the workplace are also described in many different ways.

According to March and Simon (1958), the main predictors of organisational commitment are individuals’ active participation and good performance (see János, 2005). They put special emphasis on the significance of the following two dimensions of commitment: continuance commitment (which refers to an individual’s demands regarding the maintenance of his membership) and value-based commitment, which refers to one’s identification with the values held by an organisation, encouraging an employee to exert considerable effort into the accomplishment of certain goals on behalf of an organisation.

Other researchers prefer one-dimensional approaches to two-dimensional views when studying organisational commitment. The definitions advanced by Mowday, Steers, & Porter (1979) are to be introduced here, as these are generally accepted by the scientific community.

In their perspective, organisational commitment refers to two things: the individual’s identification with the organisation and the degree of employee involvement. Organisational commitment is thus made up of the following three components: 1) one’s strong belief in and acceptance of the organisation’s goals and values, 2) one’s willingness to make considerable effort on behalf of the organisation, 3) one’s strong desire to maintain membership in the organisation.

The same components are mentioned by other experts too under different names. Table 2 summarises the components of commitment identified by other researchers. The main three dimensions are included in other models too, sometimes together as interrelated factors (for instance, Mowday et al.) and sometimes independently (for instance, Meyer, Allen).

Table 2: The types (and components) of organisational commitment identified by researchers on the basis of Meyer and Herscovitch (2001)