Work Commitment Index

Blau, G. J., et al. (1993). On developing a general index of work commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior. 42:298–314.

Comments: The purpose of this research was to design a general work commitment index with distinct work commitment factors similar to the procedure used with job satisfaction to develop the Job Descriptive Index. This index demonstrates that employees view their job, organization, occupation, and work in general differently.

Scale Construction: Work commitment was measured across four facets: career (occupation), job, value, and organization. The 31 items measuring career came from four scales: Blau’s (1988) career commitment scale; Gould’s (1979) career involvement scale; Greenhaus’s (1971) general attitude toward work subscale; and Sekaran’s (1982) career salience measure. The 10 items measuring job facet came from Kanungo’s (1982) job involvement scale. The 10 items measuring value facet came from Kanungo’s measure of work involvement and Blood’s (1969) Protestant work ethic scale. The eight items measuring organization facet came from Meyer and Allen’s (1984) affective commitment scale. Sample: The participants in the first study consisted of 407 part-time MBA students from three universities in the Philadelphia area and 383 part-time MBA students (seven weeks later). There were 328 students who completed the survey both times. The participants in the second study consisted of 339 full-time registered nurses from three hospitals in a

large eastern city.

Reliability: The alpha coefficients (Cronbach) were 0.91 (occupational commitment), 0.81 (value of work), 0.82 (organizational commitment), and 0.83 (job involvement). Test-retest reliabilities were 0.90 (occupational commitment),

0.91 (job involvement), 0.92 (value of work), and 0.94 (organizational commitment).

Validity: Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the discriminant validity of the four scales.

Factor Analysis: Although principal components analyses yielded five factors, only four factors were used to develop four separate scales. There were minor differences between the varimax rotation and the oblique rotation. Therefore, the results of the oblique rotation were reported. The four factors are: 11 items on occupational commitment (1–11); seven items on the value of work (12–18); six items on organizational commitment (19–25); and seven items on job involvement (26–31).

Data Analysis: Means, standard deviations, coefficient alpha, test-retest reliabilities, and correlations for the four factors are reported.

References

Work Commitment Index

The following are not completed items. The respondent completes the statement with the personal pronoun or article as needed.

1. If could, would go into a different occupation
2. Can see self in occupation for many years
3. Occupation choice is a good decision
4. If could, would not choose occupation
5. No money need, still continue in occupation
6. Sometimes dissatisfied with occupation
7. Like occupation too well to give up
8. Education/training not for occupation
9. Have ideal occupation for life work
10. Wish chosen different occupation
11. Disappointed that entered occupation
12. Most important things involve job
13. Job only small part of who I am
14. Live, eat, and breathe my job
15. Most interests centered around my job
16. Most personal life goals are job-oriented
17. Job is very central to my existence
18. Like to be absorbed in job most of time
19. Hard work makes self a better person
20. Wasting time as bad as wasting money
21. Person’s worth is how well does job
22. Better to have more responsible job
23. People should get involved in work
24. Work should be central to life
25. Life goals should be work-oriented
26. Don’t feel like belong to organization
27. Not emotionally attached to organization
28. Organization has personal meaning for me
29. Do not feel like part of organization
30. Glad to spend rest of days with organization
31. Organization’s problems are mine too

Scoring: Strongly Disagree = 1; Moderately Disagree = 2; Slightly Disagree = 3; Slightly Agree = 4; Moderately Agree = 5; and Strongly Agree = 6.