Elfi Ettinger Boeken

The topic of commitment has a long-standing presence in organizational behavior literature, with over 40 years of research differentiating it into forms such as affective, normative, and continuance commitment. Employees may feel committed to their organization for various reasons: affective commitment stems from a desire to belong, normative commitment arises from a sense of obligation, and continuance commitment is driven by a lack of alternatives. Empirical evidence indicates that affective commitment correlates positively with key organizational outcomes, including performance, satisfaction, and well-being. Normative commitment also shows positive associations with these variables, albeit to a lesser degree. In contrast, continuance commitment is largely unrelated to these outcomes, with its only significant link being to turnover intentions. Recent research has explored the different foci of commitment, identifying the organization as a whole and smaller entities like teams or departments as primary targets. Findings suggest that commitment tends to be stronger towards these smaller groups than to the larger organization, and the strength of relationships to other variables is influenced by the alignment between the concepts involved.