The concept of organizational commitment has been defined in many ways. Steers (1977) is
among the first to view organizational commitment as an employee attitude and as a set of
behavioural intentions; the willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the
organization and a strong desire to maintain membership of the organization. Then,
Mowday, Steers and Porter (1979; 1982) refined that the concept of organization
commitment can be characterized by at least three factors: (a) a strong belief in, and
acceptance of, the organization’s goals and values, (b) a willingness to exert considerable
effort on behalf of the organization; and (c) a strong desire to remain in the organization.
The researchers defined organizational commitment as the strength of an individual’s
identification with the goals of an organization’s multiple constituencies. It is about positive
involvement which is integral to developing shared goals and objectives in a particular
organization. Organizational commitment can be considered to be affective responses or
attitudes which link or attach an employee to the organization.
During the last decade, it has become clear that organizational commitment is a multidimensional
construct that involves three dimensions: affective, continuance and normative.
This conceptualization of organizational commitment is commonly known as the Meyer and
Allen’s (1991) Three-Component Model of OC. Affective commitment refers to the
employee’s emotional attachment to the organization. Employees with strong affective
commitment remain with the organization because they want to do so. Continuance
commitment refers to the extent to which the employee perceives that leaving the
organization will be costly. Employees with strong continuance commitment remain
because they have to do so. Finally, normative commitment refers to the employee’s
feelings of obligation to the organization and the belief that staying is the ‘right thing’ to do.
Employees with strong normative commitment remain because they feel that they ought to
do so (Meyer and Allen, 1991). The most desirable profile of organizational commitment
amongst employees, especially those involved in the services industry which demands
continuous good service, is affective commitment which is the most prevalent theme in the
Meyer and Allen (1991) model. This study focused on the affective commitment dimension
that captures the degree of affective or emotional attachment of employees in the service