A Study on Difference in level of Occupational Commitment among

employees of Public and Private Sector Organizations

Ms. Mukta Katyal
Assistant Professor, DSPSR

Introduction
Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence,
intelligent planning, and focused effort.

- By Paul J. Meyer

Commitment to work has been a topic of interest to researchers for some time, as reflected by the
many reviews of commitment theory and research (e.g., Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Meyer & Allen,
1991; Morrow, 1983, 1993). Work by Morrow (1983, 1993) has played an important role in
helping to clarify the various domains to which members of the workforce can be committed. In
her review, she identified five forms of work commitment grouped according to their major
focus (i.e., work itself, career, job, organization, union). Although organizational commitment is
the most extensively studied of these (see Meyer & Allen, 1997, for a review), considerable
attention has also been given to commitment to the occupation.
In recent years, the subject of commitment has continued to be a major focus of research (Meyer
& Herscovitch, 2001; Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky, 2002). Commitment in the
workplace can take various forms and diVerent foci, such as organizational commitment (e.g.,
Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Meyer & Allen, 1991) and occupational commitment (e.g., Blau &
Lunz, 1998; Meyer, Allen, & Smith, 1993). Organizational commitment is a psychological state
that binds the individual to the organization (Allen & Meyer, 1990), while occupational
commitment is ones belief in and acceptance of the values of a chosen occupation (Meyer et al.,
1993). Research on both forms of commitment have shown that employees with higher
organizational or occupational commitment engage in organizational citizen behavior, resulting
in better performance, and lower turnover intentions, that are beneficial to the organization
(Chen & Francesco, 2003; Cheng & Stockdale, 2003; Jaros, 1997).
Key Concepts:

Construct Definition Example

Occupational Ones belief in and acceptance of the An individual is willing to work
Commitment values of a chosen occupation (Meyer for a medical research company
et al., 1993) because his own beliefs are in sync
with the values of that profession.
Affective Affective occupational commitment An individual who is working in a
Commitment refers to an employees emotional prestigious medical research
identification with his/her work goals company, gets good salary and
and occupation (Lee et al., 2000; feel important. Individual will
Morrow and Wirth, 1989; have affective commitment
Vandenberg and Scarpello, 1994). because he/she enjoy work and
want to stay.
Continuance Individuals who stay in their Individual will have continuance
Commitment occupation due to the high costs of commitment because he/she don't
leaving (Irving et al., 1997) want to lose the pay and prestige
associated with the work.
Normative Employees feeling of obligation Given the nature of the work, an
Commitment towards an occupation (Irving et al., Individual may feel that he/she
1997) ought to stay to help with the
medical research.

Review of Literature

Year Author Key Findings

1984 Bateman and Strasser Organizational commitment, antecedents to job satisfaction
1997 Benkhoff
Key to business success
1998 Baruch
1999 Carson et al. Viability and suitability of organizational Commitment is
questionable
1998 Nadler Research on commitment is important for managers in the
organizations
2001 Lok and Crawford Examined commitment linkage to managerial strategy driven
by organizational culture and human resource strategies. Also
commitment dependent on managerial strategy and level of
employee participation.
1993 Jaros et al.
1998 Mayer and Commitment as a unidimensional construct or
Schoorman multidimensional
1988 Penley and Goud
1994, Meyer and Allen
1991 Commitment as a multidimensional construct, each
1993 Jaros et al. accompanied by a recommended measure or set of measures
1990 Allen and Meyer
1996 Hall Research on forms of commitment: commitment to
1992 Barling et al. organizations, commitment to unions occupations
1992 Becker and professions teams and leaders goals personal careers
1994 Hunt and Morgan
2001 Meyer and Herscovitch Disagreement with regard to the dimensionality of
organizational commitment
1999 Watson Wyatt Human resource practices and trust in management had the
strongest impact on building commitment
2001 Armstrong Pluralist view of commitment, it can be manipulated
2001 Mitchell et al. Job embededness and OC intention to stay relationship
2004 Baired High commitment systems in country-specific contexts
2005 Roca-Puig et al.
Service firms as a context for flexibility and commitment
2005 Payne and Huffman
2005 Lin et al. Mentoring and OC, turnover relationship, employee mobility
2006 Cabrera et al. and OC inter-linkages, employee engagement and OC
2011 Hassan and Hashim Relationship between occupational commitment and work-
 related behaviors such as absenteeism, turnover, job
satisfaction, performance, and leader-subordinate relations
2006 Blau and Holladay

1997 Irving et al.

1993 Meyer et al.
1994 Vandenberg and Occupational commitment is employees affective attachment
Scapello to his/her occupation and as a persons belief in and
2009 Heijden, Dam and acceptance of the value of ones occupation or line of work,
Hasselhorn and a willingness to maintain membership in that occupation
2011 Coogle et al.
2000 Lee et al. Commitment is significantly negatively correlated with
2014 Zhang, Wu, Miao, Yan, burnout and positively correlated with pay and job satisfaction
& Peng

Rationale of the study

Understanding the occupational commitment construct is important for several reasons. First,
occupations represent a meaningful focus in the lives of many people. This has become
increasingly the case as educational levels rise and work becomes more specialized (Burris,
1983) and as employees deal with extensive organizational change. Indeed, Carson and Bedeian
(1994) have suggested that coping with the uncertainty associated with changes such as mergers,
acquisitions, and layoffs has caused many employees to intensify their focus on, and
commitment to, the aspect of their working life over which they feel they have more control
their occupation. Second, occupational commitment is important because of its potential link to
retentionin terms of both occupational and organizational membership. Whether the concern is
society's need to retain people in particular occupations or an organization's need to maintain the
optimal level of turnover (see Colarelli, 1998), a link between occupational commitment and
retention would have important human resources management implications. Third, occupational
commitment is important because of its potential links to work performance. Researchers have
demonstrated that the development of expertise necessary for consistent high-level performance
requires individuals to engage regularly in the relevant activities for long periods of time
(Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996). Thus, to the extent that it influences continued involvement in the
occupation (and, hence, sustained practice), occupational commitment might be an important
precursor of exemplary work performance (Colarelli & Bishop, 1990). Finally, the occupational
commitment construct is important because it contributes to our understanding of how people
develop, make sense of, and integrate their multiple work-related commitments, including those
that go beyond organizational boundaries (Meyer, Allen, & Topolnytsky, 1998; Reichers, 1985).
Although researchers have examined occupational commitment in relation to a wide range of
variables, there has been no quantitative synthesis of this information.

Although researchers have examined occupational commitment in relation to a wide range of

variables, there has been no quantitative synthesis of this information. Thus this study aims to
explore the relationship between level of Occupational Commitment among employees of Public
and Private Sector Organizations in Delhi NCR as not many studies have been undertaken to
compare the Occupational Commitment in various types of organizations.

Objectives
To determine the level of occupational commitment among employees of Public and
Private Sector Organizations
To compare the level of occupational commitment among employees of Public and
Private Sector Organizations
To determine the impact of demographic variables on the level of occupational
commitment among employees of Public and Private Sector Organizations

Proposed Model

Research Methodology

a) Population of the study:

Target population: Employees of Public and Private Sector Organizations of Delhi NCR.
b) Sample for the Study:
As it is not feasible to study all the employees of Public and Private sector Organizations of
Delhi NCR, purposive sampling will be used.

c) Tools
To study the occupational level of employees working in public and private sector, standard
scale would be used.
Impact of below mentioned demographic variables will also be studied in relation with
Occupational commitment: