Redefining Organizational Commitment: Theory and Applications in Today’s Organization

The concept of Organizational Commitment is a very popular topic in the field of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Organizational Commitment is a psychological force that motivates an individual to maintain membership in an organization by identifying the goals and values of the organization. It is also a psychological bondage with organization, which enhances the job involvement, loyalty and willingness to go extra mile for an organization. Organizational commitment may be viewed either from behavioral perspective or from an attitudinal perspective that reflects cognitive and affective component about the organization. Organizational commitment typology may be conceptualized with the help of CAN model where C stands for continuance commitment, A denotes affective commitment and N signifies normative commitment. Continuance dimension represents instrumental attachment to the organization, where the individuals continue with an organization based on an assessment of economic benefits gained from organization. The affective dimension of organizational commitment represents the individual’s emotional attachment to the organization. Employees high with normative commitment display a sense of duty, obligation and loyalty towards the organization. Committed employees in an organization contribute positively to the organization by showing increased level of productivity and innovative job performance. It also encourages employees to take initiative and challenging work activities. Organizational commitment fosters feelings of affiliation, attachment and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), which tend to improve not only organizational efficiency and effectiveness but also facilitate employees’ well being and consequently leads to work-life balance.