Career Commitment scale

Description

This measure, (Career Commitment) developed by Blau (1989), has been widely used to examine individuals’ commitment toward their occupations, profession, and careers. Reilly and Orsak (1991) modified the items to fit the nursing profession. The measure could be similarly adapted to fit other specific professions.

Reliability

Coefficient alpha values ranged from .76 to .88 (Cohen, 1995, 1996, 1999; Reilly & Orsak, 1991; Somers & Birnbaum, 1998).

Validity

Career commitment correlated negatively with work stress, emotional exhaustion, low accomplishment, and the low alternatives dimension of continuance commitment. Career commitment correlated positively with perceived performance and life satisfaction, and the personal sacrifices dimension of continuance commitment (Cohen, 1999; Reilly & Orsak, 1991).

Factor analysis showed that career commitment was empirically dis­ tinct from affective organizational commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment (Cohen, 1996). Career commitment was also shown to be empirically distinct from job involvement and a measure of the Protestant work ethic (Cohen, 1999).

Source

Blau, G. (1989). Testing generalizability of a career commitment measure and its impact on employee turnover. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 35, 88-103. Items were taken from text, p. 92. Copyright© 1989 by Academic Press. Reproduced with permission.

Items

Response are obtained using a 5-point Likert-type scale where 1 = strongly agree, 3 = unsure, and 5 = strongly disagree.

1. I like this career too well to give it up
2. If I could go into a different profession which paid the same, I would probably take it (R)
3. If I could do it all over again, I would not choose to work in this profession (R)
4. I definitely want a career for myself in this profession
5. If I had all the money I needed without working, I would probably still continue to work in this profession
6. I am disappointed that I ever entered this profession (R)
7. This is the ideal profession for a life’s work Items denoted with (R) are reverse