Employee commitment and well-being: A critical review, theoretical framework and research agenda

Although a great deal is known about the implications of employee commitment for organizations, less attention has been paid to its ramifications for employees themselves. Previous research has been unsystematic and the findings have sometimes been inconsistent. The most consistent findings pertain to the positive links between affective commitment and employee well-being. Relations between continuance commitment and well-being are more variable, but generally negative. Little is known about relations involving normative commitment. There is considerable inconsistency in findings pertaining to the moderating effects of commitment on stressor-strain relations. We provide a theoretical framework based on an integration of the three-component model of commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1997) and Deci and Ryan's (1985) self-determination theory of motivation to help explain both the consistencies and inconsistencies, and to guide future research. We also argue for a broadening of the concept of employee well-being to include indices of eudaimonic as well as hedonic well-being.