Etzioni's model of organizational involvement: A perspective for understanding commitment to organizations

Abstract

There are two predominant views of organizational commitment: instrumental and affective. The purpose of the paper is to explore the extent to which an adapted version of Etzioni's macro organizational model of involvement may serve as a single model of both affective and instrumental perspectives of organizational commitment. Moral commitment and alienative commitment are treated as affective forms of organizational attachment, and calculative commitment is treated as an instrumental form of organizational attachment. The paper employs five samples for the investigation. It develops scales for measuring each of the three dimensions of commitment. The paper concludes that organizational commitment is multidimensional. It also concludes that employees report a mixture of commitment types. Evidence is offered in support of the affective character of moral and alienative commitment. Although the evidence is equivocal, there is support for the independence of the two dimensions of affective commitment: moral and alienative. Evidence is also offered for the differential association of the three dimensions of organizational commitment with related aspects of organizational behavior. The paper extends our understanding of organizational commitment by providing a place for both instrumental and affective forms of psychological attachment to organizations. It offers scales which may be used for future research, and it suggests research which may extend the adapted model in this paper as well as provide direction for practising managers.

Appraising the Impact of Gender Differences on Organizational Commitment: Empirical Evidence from a Private SME in Iran

“…Terms used Corley and Mauksch (1993) Professional, work, organizational and patient commitment Etzioni (1961) Morally, calculatively and alienatively committed Fields (2002) Affective, normative and continuance commitment Finegan et al (2001) Affective, normative and continuance commitment Friss (1983) Attitude or belief, desire and effort Laschinger et al (2000) Affective, normative and continuance commitment Manion (2004) Affective, normative and continuance commitment McCloskey and McCain (1987) Behavior, attitude and effort Meyer and Allen (1991) Affective, normative and continuance commitment Mowday et al (1982) Behavior, attitude and effort Mowday et al (1979) Behavior, attitude and effort Penley and Gould (1988) Morally, calculatively and alienatively committed Potter et al (1974) Belief, effort and desire Porter and Smith (un-publish data, The University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA)…”

The predictability of organisational culture for commitment among faculty members: evidence from Iran higher education

“…According to Smeenk et al (2006Smeenk et al ( , p.2044, organisational commitment can be measured by a number of different scales (e.g. Cook and Wall, 1980;Penley and Gould, 1988;Porter et al, 1974). The current study measured organisational culture based on Allen and Meyer model (1996).…”

L’engagement des entrepreneurs : des doutes au second souffle

“…À ce stade, l'entrepreneuriat apparaît comme une activité particulièrement « engageante » au sens « comportemental » du terme. Plus ils se comportent de façon entrepreneuriale, plus les entrepreneurs se sentent obligés de persévérer, voire de surenchérir dans ce sens, de façon parfois irraisonnable (Staw, 1976 ;Beauvois et Joule, 1987 (etzioni, 1961 ;Penley et Gould, 1988). Cette partie du processus d'engagement entrepreneurial, sa relative irréversibilité, peut être rapprochée des théories de Becker (1960), de Staw (1976) et de Beauvois et Joule (1987).…”