Measuring Organisational Commitment

Question

How can organisational commitment be measured?

Answer

John Meyer and Natalie Allen developed the Three Component Model of Commitment. This model proposes that there are three different types of commitment that an employee may feel towards their organisation. The three types of commitment are: 1) Affective commitment (employees’ affection for their job) 2) Continuance commitment (fear of losing out if moving) and 3) Normative commitment (how obligated an employee feels to stay at their organisation). In more detail, affective commitment refers to an employee having strong emotional commitment to their organisation. For example, an employee is likely to have strong emotional commitment to their organisation if the organisation’s approach to ethics corresponds with the employee’s own ethical standpoint. Continuance commitment refers to an employee weighing up the advantages and disadvantages of leaving their organisation to join a new one. For example, the new organisation may offer the employee work in an area that the employee is very passionate about, but offers less pay than the current organisation. The employee would have to weigh up which would provide the greatest benefit to them. Normative commitment refers to an employee feeling obligated to remain with their current organisation. For example, an employee may not like their job. However, because the organisation has invested time and money in training the employee to help develop their skills, the employee may feel obligated to remain at the organisation because they believe it is the right thing to do. The best way to measure how committed employees are at an organisation would be to conduct an internal staff survey (questionnaire) which specifically asks questions related to these three types of commitment. Some examples are: Do you agree with the organisation’s ethical approach? Are you happy with the level of pay you receive? Would you like to progress further in the organisational hierarchy?

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