Organizational identification and affective commitment: An integrative approach
(2011) 15th European Congress of Work and Organizational Psychology — Location: Maastricht (The Netherlands) (25.May.2011)
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- It is widely recognized that the relationship between employees and their organization has a major impact on their attitudes and behaviors at work. This relationship has typically been conceptualized in terms of employee’s affective commitment to the organization (ACO), in organizational psychology, and organizational identification (OI), in social psychology. ACO is generally defined as an “emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization” (Meyer & Allen, 1991), whereas OI refers to “a perception of oneness with or belongingness to the organization” (Ashforth & Mael, 1989). Despite their similarities, most of the empirical work concerning OI and ACO has been conducted independently. However, some scholars have recently integrated these two fields of research and several studies have empirically supported the distinction between OI and ACO (van Knippenberg & Sleebos, 2006). Few studies have however been dedicated to their relationship. Several scholars have argued that individual’s self-categorization as a member of the organization is a necessary first step towards an affective attachment to this organization (Meyer et al., 2004) but this proposition has not been tested empirically, leaving uncertain the direction of the relationship between OI and ACO. Moreover, OI and ACO were found to share some antecedents (e.g., perceived organizational support, POS; Rhoades et al., 2001; Sluss et al., 2008) and consequences (e.g., turnover intention; Griffeth et al., 2000; van Dick et al., 2004). Unfortunately, few studies have investigated these relationships simultaneously. The present research aims to examine the relationship between OI and ACO, and their relationships with some of their common antecedents and consequences. Using a sample of 413 soldiers, we conducted a longitudinal study to examine the direction of the relationship between OI and ACO. Results of panel analysis showed that OI is an antecedent of ACO. A second cross-sectional study using 203 engineers investigated the relationships between POS, OI, ACO, job satisfaction and turnover intention. OI was found to mediate the relationship between POS and ACO, whereas ACO mediated the effect of OI on job satisfaction and turnover intention. These findings suggest that OI may foster ACO and consequently positive employees’attitudes and behaviors at work.
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Marique, G., Stinglhamber, F., Hansez, I., & Bertrand, F. (2011). Organizational identification and affective commitment: An integrative approach. 15th European Congress of Work and Organizational Psychology, Maastricht (The Netherlands). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/198352