Meyer and Herscovitch (2001, p. 301) propose that commitment is “a force that binds
an individual to a course of action of relevance to one or more targets”. Employees are
theorized to experience this force in the form of three bases, or mindsets: affective,
normative, and continuance, which reflect emotional ties, perceived obligation, and
perceived sunk costs in relation to a target, respectively (Allen and Meyer, 1990). Thus,
any scale that purports to measure organizational commitment should tap one of these
mindsets and should reference the target, what the employee is committed to, be it the
organization, a team, a change initiative, or a goal.