Commitment and employee behavior: Comparison of affective commitment and continuance commitment with perceived organizational support.

Abstract

The social exchange view of commitment (R. Eisenberger, R. Huntington, S. Hutchison, & D. Sowa, 1986) suggests that employees' perceptions of the organization's commitment to them (perceived organizational support, or POS) creates feelings of obligation to the employer, which enhances employees' work behavior. The authors addressed the question of whether POS or the more traditional commitment concepts of affective commitment (AC) and continuance commitment (CC) were better predictors of employee behavior (organizational citizenship and impression management). Participants were 383 employees and their managers. Although results showed that both AC and POS were positively related to organizational citizenship and that CC was negatively related to organizational citizenship, POS was the best predictor. These findings support the social exchange view that POS creates feelings of obligation that contribute to citizenship behaviors. In addition, CC was unrelated, whereas AC and POS were positively correlated, with some impression management behaviors.