Organizational Commitment Questionnaire

Description

The Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) was originally developed by Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979). It uses 15 items to describe global organizational commitment. This widely used measure has been modified to examine professional commitment by replacing the word organization with profession. It has also been used to assess job commit­ ment by changing the wording from organization to job (Gunz & Gunz, 1994; Millward & Hopkins, 1998). Sagie (1998) developed and used a Hebrew-language version of the measure.

Reliability

Coefficient alpha values ranged from .81 to .93 (Becker, 1992; Brett, Cron, & Slocum, 1995; Cohen & Hudecek, 1993; Gunz & Gunz, 1994; Hackett, Bycio, & Hausdorf, 1994; Hochwarter, Perrewe, Ferris, & Gercio, 1999; Johnston & Snizek, 1991; Kacmar, Carlson, & Brymer, 1999; Lee & John­ son, 1991; Marsden, Kalleberg, & Cook, 1993; Mathieu, 1991; Mathieu & Farr, 1991; Millward & Hopkins, 1998; Riggs & Knight, 1994; Sommer, Bae, & Luthans, 1996; Zeffane, 1994). The Hebrew-language version of the OCQ had alpha = .62 (Sagie, 1998).

Validity

Organizational commitment correlated positively with involvement in an organization for both calculative and moral reasons, job satisfaction, leader­ member exchange (LMX), perception of organizational justice, job satisfac­tion, job involvement, and the perceived utility of organizational and task feedback (Brett et al., 1995; Johnston & Snizek, 1991; Kacmar et al., 1999; Lee & Johnson, 1991; Mathieu, 1991). Organizational commitment corre­lated negatively with the extent of hierarchy, more specialized jobs, employee education level, intention to turnover, role strain, perceptions of organizational politics, job tension, and voluntary turnover (Brett et al., 1995; Hochwarter, Perrewe, Ferris, & Gercio, 1999; Johnston & Snizek, 1991; Kacmar et al., 1999; Lee & Johnson, 1991; Mathieu, 1991). The Hebrew-language version correlated positively with job satisfaction and negatively with intention to quit (Sagie, 1998).

In Riggs and Knight (1994), structural equation analysis showed dis­ criminate validity between organizational commitment,  job satisfaction, and personal efficacy. In a study by Zeffane (1994), a factor analysis found two principal factors within the 15 items of the OCQ. The first factor was made up of six items measuring corporate loyalty/citizenship. The second was made up of nine items and measured attachment to the organization. Mathieu (1991) found that a factor analysis yielded two factors-one con­ taining nine positively worded items and the other containing six negatively worded items. The meaning of the second factor was unclear and possibly was an artifact of the item wording. Cohen and Hudecek (1993) found in a meta-analysis that the full 15-item  scale includes  six items that  measure an employee’s desire to remain with the organization  and  may overlap with turnover intentions. These six items had a stronger relationship with employee turnover than did the nine-item subscale that did not include these items. However, Kacmar et al. (1999) used confirmatory factor analysis to compare a one-factor model (one dimension for the 15 items) with a two­ factor model (value commitment and commitment to stay). The one-factor model fit the data better. This confirmatory analysis also found that the OCQ is empirically distinct from an alternative organizational commitment mea­ sure developed by Balfour and Wechsler (1996). Dunham, Grube, and Castaneda (1994) found in a multisample confirmatory factor analysis that the 15 items of the OCQ loaded with the eight affective commitment items of the Meyer and Allen affective commitment scale on a single factor, suggest­ ing that the OCQ primarily measures affective commitment.

Source

Mowday, R. T., Steers, R. M., & Porter, L. W. (1979). The measurement of organizational commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior; 14, 224-247. Items were taken from Table 1, p. 228. Copyright © 1979 by Academic Press. Reproduced with permission.

Items

Responses are obtained using a 7-point Likert-type scale where 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = moderately disagree, 3 = slightly disagree, 4 = neither disagree noragree, 5 =slightly agree,6=moderatelyagree,and 7 =strongly agree.

The OCQ instructions and items:

Listed below is a series of statements that represent possible feelings that in­ dividuals might have about the company or organization for which they work. With respect to your own feelings about the particular organization for which you are now working [company name], please indicate the degree of your agreement or disagreement with each statement by checking one of the seven alternatives below each statement.

  1. I am willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond that normally expected in order to help this organization be successful
  2. I talk up this organization to my friends as a great organization to work for
  3. I feel very little loyalty to this organization (R)
  4. I would accept almost any types of job assignment in order to keep working for this organization
  5. I find that my values and the organization’s values are very similar
  6. I am proud to tell others that I am part of this organization
  7. I could just as well be working for a different organization as long as the type of work was similar (R)
  8. This organization really inspires the very best in me in the way of job performance
  9. It would take very little change in my present circumstance to cause me to leave this organization (R)
  10. I am extremely glad that I chose this organization to work for over others I was considering at the time I joined
  11. There’s not too much to be gained by sticking with this organization indefinitely (R)
  12. Often, I find it difficult to agree with this organization’s policies on important matters relating to its employees (R)
  13. I really care about the fate of this organization
  14. For me, this is the best of all possible organizations for which to work
  15. Deciding to work for this organization was a definite mistake on my part (R)

Items denoted with (R) are reverse scored.

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