Page No.57-68
Bhupinder Singh, P.K.Gupta
Barkatullah University, Bhopal, Devi Ahilya University, Indore,
and Sushila Venugopal
Barkatullah University, Bhopal,
Researchers have worked on Organizational Commitment (OC) with a variety of
dimensions and perspectives. The present paper is an attempt to analyze the
contributions made in the last six decades to understand how OC should be viewed
in an organization to make employees committed to their work. Initially the concepts
of job involvement, motivation etc. were used in social systems in order to formulate
constructs, definitions and interpretations in the industrial scenario; the commitment
of an employee could be observed as emerged in the interpretation of the studies.
OC in early studies was seen as identification with individuals’ or organization’s
values or goals. It was also seen as the surrender leading to a total involvement
with the higher system of authority. In sixties and seventies, a broader concept of
commitment wherein employees’ commitment not only to norms but also to other
aspects of social systems was put forth. While eighties and nineties, a period of
extensive stress on OC, witnessed a bifurcation as attitudinal and behavioral
commitments. Presently it is being studied with a psychological frame of reference
of employees’ characteristics and their relationship with organizational factors
leading to the commitment. This paper is an attempt to bring the various views,
dimensions and perspectives studied in the last six decade or so together to
arrive at a comprehensive view of OC for further research.
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