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Article Excerpt
Recent research on work commitment continues to acknowledge the importance of occupational commitment as a distinct focus or target, along with other focuses or targets such as organization, supervisor, team and customer (Meyer, Becker, & Vandenberghe 2004; Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky, 2002). As work organizations continue to restructure and employer-employee relationships become less stable (Neumark, 2001), some employees may be shifting their loyalty to a broader base of perceived stability--their occupation (Snape & Redman, 2003). For occupational commitment research to continue to advance, empirical research needs to further test for the discriminant validity of individual occupational commitment dimensions. The purpose of this study is to further test this dimensionality.
Defining occupational commitment
As noted in a meta-analysis of occupational commitment (Lee, Carswell, & Allen, 2000), most prior research has defined occupational commitment as the 'psychological link between an individual and his/her occupation that is based on an affective reaction to that occupation' (Lee et al., 2000, p. 800). Thus, individuals with higher occupational commitment strongly identify with and have positive feelings about their occupation. Meyer, Allen, and Smith (1993) presented empirical evidence for a three-dimensional view of occupational commitment based on their three-dimensional structure for organizational commitment. As Meyer and Allen (1991) noted, there are affective, normative and continuance dimensions of organizational commitment. Applied to occupational commitment (Meyer et al., 1993), affective commitment is one's emotional attachment to their occupation; normative commitment is a person's sense of obligation to remain in their occupation, while continuance commitment involves the individual's assessment of the costs associated with leaving one's occupation.
Based partly on Becker's (1960) work, Meyer and Allen (1991, 1997) have argued that continuance organizational commitment develops as employees recognize--that they have accumulated investments or 'side bets' (Becker, 1960) that would be lost if they left their organization (i.e. high sacrifice), or that the availability of comparable alternatives is limited (i.e. lack of alternatives). Prior confirmatory factor analysis research on continuance organizational commitment supports this high sacrifice versus lack of alternatives 'split' into distinguishable dimensions (e.g. Culpepper, 2000; Dunham, Grube, & Castaneda, 1994; Hackett, Bycio, & Hausdorf, 1994; Powell & Meyer, 2004). However, Meyer et al. (2002, p. 36) found in their meta-analysis that the high sacrifice dimension was more strongly negatively correlated to organizational withdrawal cognitions (r = -.21) than lack of alternatives (r = -.01). Given these results, Meyer et al. and Powell and Meyer have suggested that lack of alternatives might be considered as an antecedent of continuance organizational commitment, rather than as part of the construct itself.
The Meyer et al. (1993) 6-item continuance occupational commitment scale measures general 'perceived cost' of leaving one's occupation, and limited alternatives. With only a 6-item measure, it is very difficult to reliably measure two different constructs (Hinkin, 1995). Closer inspection of the Meyer et al. (1993, p. 544) scale suggests that only 1 of the 6 items measures 'limited alternatives' (i.e. Item 2, 'changing professions would be difficult for me to do'; Blau, 2001b). One measurement source for an expanded two-dimensional; that is, accumulated costs and limited alternatives, operationalization of continuance occupational commitment may be found via the construct of occupational entrenchment.
Occupational entrenchment
Career (occupational) entrenchment (Carson, Carson, & Bedeian, 1995) is a construct that greatly overlaps with the continuance dimension of occupational commitment, by focusing on the perceived costs associated with leaving one's occupation (Becker, 1960) and the perceived lack of occupation alternatives. Given this common theoretical framework (Becker, 1960), one can propose that occupational entrenchment be integrated within the broader occupational commitment construct, as a stronger way to operationalize continuance occupational commitment.
According to Carson et al. (1995), occupational entrenchment consists of three dimensions; occupational investment, emotional costs and limitedness of occupational alternatives. Occupational investment measures the accumulated investments or costs (e.g. time, money, training) in one's occupation that would be lost if one changed occupations. Emotional costs measures the anticipated emotional price associated with pursuing a new occupation. For example, the loss of co-worker friendships and severance of professional ties can exact an emotional toll on a person changing one's occupation (Becker, 1960). Based on investment model research (Rusbult & Farrell, 1983), co-worker friendships, a network of contacts, time, money and training each represent investments or accumulated costs in one's occupation. Limited occupational alternatives tap the perceived lack of available options for pursuing a new occupation. Individual efforts to maintain occupational investments and minimize emotional costs will divert an individual from scanning the environment for viable occupational alternatives (Teger, 1980). Over time, such 'tunnel vision' can lead to diminished occupational alternatives (Brockner & Rubin, 1985). Each occupational entrenchment dimension is measured using a 4-item scale. Unlike the Meyer et al. (1993) continuance commitment scale, the Carson et al. occupational investment measure does indicate specific types of costs incurred, for example, time and training, if one changes occupations (Blau, 2001b).
Study hypotheses
Previous research by Meyer et al. (1993), Irving, Coleman, and Cooper (1997), and Snape and Redman (2003) did not formally test for significant differences in correlations between separate occupational commitment dimensions and other variables. Results supportive of significant correlational differences would provide stronger evidence for the discriminant validity of each of these dimensions (Blau, 2001b). Without formally testing for significant differences, Snape and Redman (2003, p. 156) did find that affective occupational commitment exhibited the highest negative relationship to occupational withdrawal cognitions, and highest positive relationships to two forms of professional participation, rank-and-file and passive. Blau (2003) also found some evidence for antecedents having differential relationships to occupational commitment dimensions. For example, stronger relationships were found between corresponding organizational and occupational facets, for example, normative organization commitment--normative occupational commitment.
As one continues to invest in his or...
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