DISSECTING ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH EMPLOYEE BEHAVIOR

In theory, organizational commitment should have a moderately strong r elationship with employee performance, but empirical studies have gene rally found only a weak relationship. We present a new model of the or ganizational commitment process in which different components of organ izational commitment have different relationships with employee behavi ors. We argue that the empirical relationship between organizational c ommitment and performance is weak for two reasons: First, one componen t of organizational commitment, the desire to remain a member of the o rganization, often has a weak, uncertain relationship with performance . Second, organizational commitment does not include perceived rewards for high performance, a variable that is a significant determinant of performance. The results, based on a sample of 246 men and women from diverse industries and occupations, were consistent with these explan ations.