The theory of work commitment: a facet analysis

Purpose – This study attempts to analyze the structure of work commitment by delineating and classifying the content areas that constitute the conceptual space of the work commitment domain. Design/methodology/approach – Building on the work commitment literature, the present study considers the identified forms of work commitment, but goes beyond these forms to explore a basic conceptual structure of the domain. Findings – The findings indicated that multiple commitment measures provide more comprehensive information concerning individuals' work commitment than a single general measure. Specifically, facet analysis provides an important tool for researchers to understand the structure of work commitment. Originality/value – The multifaceted approach employed in this study enabled the designing and empirical testing of a structural definitional framework of work commitment, which despite growing interest, lacks such a definition. Only two of the three possible facets were examined. Future research may use the complete definitional framework in order to systematically develop an empirical tool that will represent all three facets and their elements.