ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT - THE UTILITY OF AN INTEGRATIVE DEFINITION

The authors report a series of 9 studies (N = 2,734) in which they eva luated the construct definition, measurement, and validation of organi zational commitment (OC). An integrated examination of a wide range of antecedents of the various dimensions of OC was conducted. Results su pport the existence of 3 major OC dimensions (affective, continuance, and normative), with 2 subdimensions (personal sacrifice and lack of a lternatives) for the continuance dimension. Results suggest that the w idely used Organizational Commitment Questionnaire assesses primarily the affective dimension. Results provide various levels of support for the set of proposed antecedents. Implications for construct definitio n, measurement, and future research are discussed.