Affective, Normative, and Continuance Commitment scale

Description

These measures, (Affective, Normative, and Continuance Commitment) developed by Meyer and Allen (1997), describe three types of organizational commitment. Affective commitment measures an employee’s emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization. Normative commitment reflects pressures on an employee to remain with an organization resulting from organizational socialization. Continuance commitment refers to commitment associated with the costs that employees perceive are related to leaving the organization. These mea­ sures have also been applied to describe commitment to an occupation or profession by substituting the profession name in place of organization in the items (Coleman, Irving, & Cooper, 1999; Meyer, Allen, & Smith, 1993). Meyer and Allen (1997) shortened the original eight-item measures to six items for each type of commitment. The items for both the original and revised measures are provided below.

Reliability

Coefficient alpha values ranged from .77 to .88 for affective commitment (ACS), from .65 to .86 for normative commitment (NCS), and from .69 to .84 for continuance commitment (CCS) (Allen & Meyer, 1990a; Cohen, 1996, 1999; Cohen & Kirchmeyer, 1995; Hackett et al., 1994; Meyer & Allen, 1997; Meyer, Irving, & Allen, 1998; Somers, 1995; Somers & Birnbaum, 1998).

Validity

In multisample confirmatory factor analysis, Hackett et al. (1994) and Dun­ ham et al. (1994) found support for the three-component model, with affec­ tive, normative, and continuance commitment each comprising a separate dimension. Cohen (1999) used confirmatory analysis to show discriminate validity among affective organizational commitment, career commitment, and continuance organizational commitment. Confirmatory factor analysis has also shown that the three Allen and Meyer scales were empirically dis­ tinct from job involvement, career commitment, work involvement, and Protestant work ethic (Cohen, 1996). This analysis also showed that a model in which continuance commitment was divided into two subscales fit the data better than models that used continuance commitment as one eight-item scale. One four-item component described continuance commitment due to the availability of limited alternatives. The other four-item subscale mea­ sured continuance commitment due to high sacrifices required to leave an organization. Meyer and colleagues (1991) suggest using the two contin­ uance commitment subscales unless these components do not have differen­ tial relationships with outcome variables, in which case there may be just cause for combining them into one eight-item scale for continuance commitment.

Somers (1995) found that affective and normative commitment both correlated positively with turnover, whereas continuance commitment cor­ related negatively with employee turnover. In addition, the low alternatives subscale of continuance  commitment  correlated  negatively  with career commitment. The personal sacrifices subscale of continuance commit­ ment correlated positively with career commitment. Allen and Meyer (1990b) found that affective commitment correlated positively with six dif­ferent types of organizational socialization programs and negatively with having an innovative role orientation within the first 6 months of entering an organization.

Source

Items

Employee responses are obtained on a 7-point Likert-type scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree.

Original and revised affective commitment items:

Items denoted with (R) are reversed scored. Items denoted with (RS) are those included in the revised affective commitment measure.

1. I would be very happy to spend the rest of my career with this organization (RS)
2. I enjoy discussing my organization with people outside of it
3. I really feel as if this organization’s problems are my own (RS)
4. I think that I could easily become as attached to another organization as I am to this one
5. I do not feel like “part of the family” at my organization (R) (RS)
6. I do not feel “emotionally attached” to this organization (R) (RS)
7. This organization has a great deal of personal meaning for me (RS)
8. I do not feel a strong sense of belonging to my (R) (RS)

Original normative commitment items:

Items denoted with (R) are reversed scored.

1. I think that people these days move from company to company too often
2. I do not believe that a person must always be loyal to his or her organization (R)
3. Jumping from organization to organization does not seem at all unethical to me (R)
4. One of the major reasons I continue to work for this organization is that I believe that loyalty is important and therefore feel a sense of moral obligation to remain
5. If I got another offer for a better job elsewhere I would not feel it was right to leave my organization
6. I was taught to believe in the value of remaining loyal to one organization
7. Things were better in the days when people stayed with one organization for most of their careers
8. I do not think that wanting to be a “company man” or “company woman” is sensible anymore (R)

Revised normative commitment items:

Items denoted with (R) are reversed scored.

1. I do not feel any obligation to remain with my current employer (R)
2. Even if it were to my advantage, I do not feel it would be right to leave my organization now
3. I would feel guilty if I left my organization now
4. This organization deserves my loyalty
5. I would not leave my organization right now because I have a sense of obligation to the people in it
6. I owe a great deal to this organization

Original and revised continuance commitment items:

Items denoted with (R) are reversed scored. Items denoted with (RS) are those included in the revised affective commitment measure.

(High sacrifice subscale)

1. I am not afraid of what might happen if I quit my job without having another one lined up (R)
2. It would be very hard for me to leave my organization right now, even ifl wanted to (RS)
3. Too much in my life would be disrupted if I decided I wanted to leave my organization now (RS)
4. It wouldn’t be too costly for me to leave my organization right now (R)

(Lack of alternative subscale)

5. Right now staying with my organization is a matter of necessity as much as desire (RS)
6. I feel that I have too few options to consider leaving this organization (RS)
7. One of the few serious consequences of leaving this organization would be the scarcity of available alternatives (RS)
8. One of the major reasons I continue to work for this organization is that leaving would require considerable personal sacrifice-another organization may not match the overall benefits that I have here (RS)