Organisational Commitment Research: Past, Present and Future

The concept of organisational commitment (OC) has grown in popularity in the literature of industrial/organisational psychology and organisational behaviour research. Of all the forms of commitment, the organisational form receives the most attention. Of all the individual characteristics and attitudes within the organisation, OC is a major focus for academic study. Much of it is due to the role it plays as an antecedent to other attitudes and behaviour. In this chapter, the author reviewed the main research streams of OC, their advantages and disadvantages. The approaches to OC are introduced concretely, which are constituted by the calculative approach, the attitudinal approach and the multidimensional approach. It also gave suggestions for future directions in the study of OC.