Shortened Organizational Commitment Questionnaire

Description

This measure is a nine-item shortened version of the 15-item Organization Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) (Mowday et al., 1982). It measures atti­tudinal or affective commitment. The shortened OCQ has been shown to have a large positive correlation with the 15-item OCQ (Huselid & Day, 1991). This measure has also been used to describe commitment to a profes­sion by inserting the profession name in place of organization in each item (Vandenberg & Scarpello, 1994).

Reliability

Coefficient alpha values ranged from .74 to .92 (Aryee, Luk, & Stone, 1998; Cohen, 1995, 1996; Dulebohn & Martocchio, 1998; Huselid & Day, 1991; Jones, Scarpello, & Bergmann, 1999; Kirchmeyer, 1992; Mathieu & Farr, 1991; Mossholder, Bennett, Kemery, & Wesolowski, 1998; Netemeyer, Burton, & Johnston, 1995; Somers & Casal, 1994; Thompson & Werner, 1997; Wahn, 1998; Wayne, Shore, & Liden, 1997). Vandenberg and Lance (1992) found the test-retest reliability to be .74.

Validity

Organizational commitment correlated positively with power and success of an employee’s work unit, perceived opportunity for advancement, employee income level, work involvement, and employee satisfaction with work schedule flexibility. It correlated negatively with arbitrary personnel prac­tices, turnover intentions, and employee turnover (Aryee et al., 1998; Huselid & Day, 1991; Kirchmeyer, 1992; Wahn, 1998).

Cohen (1996) found through confirmatory factor analysis that the nine­ item version of the OCQ was empirically distinct from job involvement, ca­reer commitment, work involvement, and the Protestant work ethic. In Mathieu and Farr (1991), confirmatory factor analysis in two samples showed that commitment, job satisfaction, and job involvement were empir­ically distinct measures.

 Source

Responses are obtained on a 7-point Likert-type scale where 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = moderately disagree, 3 = slightly disagree, 4 = neither disagree nor agree, 5 = slightly agree, 6 = moderately agree, and 7 = strongly agree.

Items

Instructions and items:

Listed below is a series of statements that represent possible feelings that in­dividuals 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 would accept almost any types of job assignment in order to keep working for this organization
4. I find that my values and the organization’s values are very similar
5. I am proud to tell others that I am part of this organization
6. This organization really inspires the very best in me in the way of job performance
7. I am extremely glad that I chose this organization to work for over others I was considering at the time I joined
8. I really care about the fate of this organization
9. For me, this is the best of all possible organizations for which to