Allen N. J., & Meyer, J. P. 1990. The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. Journal of occupational psychology, 63: 1-18
Summary:
The authors proposed a three component model of commitment, and also developed a measurement scale for the three kinds of commitment. To establish discriminate validity, they also examined antecedents.
Commitment has been defined to be the attitudinal antecedent of turnover from different approaches. The authors summarized that the three components are: 1) affective component, 2) continuance component, and 3) normative component.
First, affective attachment approach is perhaps best represented by the work of Porter and his colleagues. (Mowday, steers, & Porter, 1979). They developed the OCQ.
Second, perceived costs were examined by sociologist, Becker (1960). They focused more on the cognitive part, and view commitment as a tendency to engage in consistent lines of activity based on the individual’s recognition of the cost or lost side-bets associated with discontinuing the activity. –In a sense, the continuance commitment is related to the escalation of commitment. Of course, they are all named as commitment. The difference is, continuance commitment is viewed as a wise consideration of quitting or staying, while escalation of commitment is more regarded as a cognitive bias. The question is, for the organization, high continuance commitment is good or bad? (Zhou and George (2001)’s study seems to suggest, continuance commitment accompanied with job dissatisfaction will enhance creativity)
Another related thoughts, the continuance commitment is similar to the comparative advantage in strategy area, I remembered that they discussed the meaning of sunk cost for a firm, in a way, it means the organization has high commitment for the project. So, less alternatives (less real option?) are signaling high commitment and advantageous strategic status.
Question: behavioral of turnover is different from the attitudinal turnover. Although the three components all lead to low possibility of behavioral turnover, the relationship between the three components and attitudinal turnover may be different. In all of the three, continuance commitment is the most fuzzy one.
Experiment design: two persons game of escalation commitment. Examining the other person’s reaction of continuance commitment. Porker game? “bluffing” moderator: history and personality.
Last, the normative component. This view stressed on the role of “obligation”, and was proposed by Wiener (1982). “ought to”. It seems to me studied commitment from the individual difference approach.
Study thought: this type of commitment may be viewed as a moderator when individuals faced conflicting situation. –Say, when affective commitment is low, but continuance commitment is high.
