Meyer & Allen (1991) offer the following definition of their three types of organizational
commitment:
Affective Commitment refers to the employee’s emotional attachment to,
identification with, and involvement with the organization. Employees with a
strong affective commitment continue employment with the organization because
they want to do so. Continuance Commitment refers to an awareness of the costs
associated with leaving the organization. Employees whose primary link to the
organization is based on continuance commitment remain because they need to do
so. Finally, Normative Commitment reflects a feeling of obligation to continue
employment. Employees with a high level of normative commitment feel that
they ought to remain with the organization. (p. 67)
In arriving at this definition, Meyer & Allen (1997) examined the differences and
similarities of descriptions from other researchers. In arguing for three separate types of
commitment, Allen & Meyer (1990) offered:
Affective, continuance, and normative commitment are best viewed as disguisable
components, rather than types, of attitudinal commitment; that is, employees can
experience each of these psychological states to varying degrees. Some
employees, for example, might feel both a strong need and a strong obligation to
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remain, but no desire to do so; others might feel neither a need nor obligation but
a strong desire, and so on. The ‘net sum’ of a person’s commitment to the
organization, therefore, reflects each of these separable psychological states.
(p. 4)