Employee commitment and motivation: A conceptual analysis and integrative model

Theorists and researchers interested in employee commitment and motivation have not made optimal use of each other’s work. Commitment researchers seldom address the motivational processes through which commitment affects behavior, and motivation researchers have not recognized important distinctions in the forms, foci, and bases of commitment. To encourage greater cross-fertilization, the authors present an integrative framework in which commitment is presented as one of several energizing forces for motivated behavior. E. A. Locke’s (1997) model of the work motivation process and J. P. Meyer and L. Herscovitch’s (2001) model of workplace commitments serve as the foundation for the development of this new framework. To facilitate the merger, a new concept, goal regulation, is derived from self-determination theory (E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan, 1985) and regulatory focus theory (E. I. Higgins, 1997). By including goal regulation, it is acknowledged that motivated behavior can be accompanied by different mindsets that have particularly important implications for the explanation and prediction of discretionary work behavior. Organizational scientists and practitioners have long been inter-ested in employee motivation and commitment. This interest de-rives from the belief and evidence that there are benefits to havin