Commitment profiles: Combinations of organizational commitment forms and job outcomes

Although the three-component model of organizational commitment by Meyer and Allen (1991) posits that an employee can experience the three components concurrently, previous research has been largely variable-centered, looking at the antecedents and outcomes of each component separately. Two studies explored how the three components combine to create distinct “profiles” of commitment and the implications of different profiles. In Study 1, six clusters were identified using k-means cluster analysis. These were labeled as the Highly committed, Non-committed, Neutral, Affective dominant, Continuance dominant and the Affective-Normative dominant profiles. Analysis of variance results indicated that the Highly committed, Affective-Normative dominant and the Affective dominant profiles demonstrated the most desirable job behaviors. The Non-committed profile showed the least desirable outcomes, followed by the Continuance dominant profile. Study 2 largely replicated these findings. The results suggest that affective commitment is the primary driver of positive outcomes, especially when combined with low levels of continuance commitment.