The Impact of the Operational Environment on the Commitment Profiles of Canadian Armed Forces Soldiers

The aim of this study was to use latent profile analysis to determine whether commitment profiles found in previous studies could be replicated in a deployed Canadian military sample. This study examined antecedents contributing to the development of the profiles, outcomes associated with profile membership and stability of profiles solutions. A total of 4254 (pre-deployment) and 2365 (post-deployment) military personnel completed surveys related to affective (AC), normative (NC) and continuance (CC) organizational commitment, unit climate, operational preparedness, psychological distress, and intention to stay. Four commitment profiles (e.g., high AC- dominant, low CC/NC-dominant, Moderately and Weakly committed) emerged across both samples. Findings suggest that military personnel who experience more favourable commitment profiles (e.g., high AC-dominant) report better work environments, greater psychological well-being, and staying intentions. Additionally, stability of the profiles across samples was examined by systematically testing the invariance of profile solutions across both samples. Results suggest that despite being visually similar, the profile solutions themselves differed across the two samples. The importance of commitment profile research and its implications are discussed