Organizational commitment

In the study of organizational behavior, organizational commitment is the extent of an individual's commitment to an organization. There are three major types of organizational commitment, according to Meyer and Allen's three-component model of commitment, which has been well-researched and is widely accepted by the academic community:


 * Affective Commitment: In this case, an individual strongly identifies with the goals of the organization and desires to remain a part of the organization. This is the ideal 'happy' state for an individual.


 * Continuance Commitment: The individual remains with an organization because of a perceived loss of sunken costs. The individual believes that he has invested a great deal of effort/time and has to remain in the organization.


 * Normative Commitment: The individual remains with an organization because of feelings of obligation. For instance, the organization may have invested resources in training an employee who then feels obliged to stay with the organization to 'repay the debt.'