Relation between Organizational Commitment and Professional Commitment: an Exploratory Study Conducted with Teachers

Es conocida la existencia de distintos tipos de compromiso en el puesto de trabajo. Con todo, existen pocos estudios que los relacionen o que establezcan modelos determinísticos entre sí. Este estudio exploró la relación entre el Compromiso Organizacional y el Compromiso Profesional de docentes de educación superior pública, a partir de la perspectiva multidimensional de Meyer y Allen (1991), en base a una muestra de conveniencia constituida por 219 docentes. Los modelos propuestos se estimaron a través de la modelación de ecuaciones estructurales. El Modelo 1 especificó una relación de influencia directa del Compromiso Profesional sobre el Compromiso Organizacional y el Modelo 2 una relación inversa, de influencia directa del Compromiso Organizacional sobre el Compromiso Profesional. Los dos modelos presentaron un buen ajuste a los datos sin que se haya observado diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre sí. No obstante, el Modelo 1 por integrar un mayor número de relaciones de determinación estadísticamente significativas evidenció un poder explicativo superior al del Modelo 2. Se debatieron implicaciones teóricas y prácticas y se identificaron líneas futuras de investigación.The existence of several kinds of commitments in the workplace is well known. However, there are few studies that relate these different commitments or those established by deterministic models. This study explored the relationship between organizational and professional commitment in public higher education professors according to the multidimensional perspective of Meyer and Allen (1991), based on a convenience sample of 219 teachers. The proposed models were estimated through structural equation modeling methodology. Model 1 specified a relationship of direct influence of Professional Commitment on Organizational Commitment and Model 2 established the opposite relationship of direct influence of organizational commitment on professional commitment. Both models presented a good fit to the data without statistically significant differences between them. Nevertheless, the explanatory power of Model 1 was superior to Model 2, due to the fact that it includes a larger number of determinant relationships that are statistically significant. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed and new directions for future research were identified