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Organizational Identification and Commitment: Correlates of Sense of Belonging and Affective Commitment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Mª Celeste Dávila  and
Gemma Jiménez García
Mª Celeste Dávila*
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense (Spain)
Gemma Jiménez García
Affiliation:
Grupo GSS (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mª Celeste Dávila de León. Departamento de Psicología Social. Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Campus de Somosaguas, s/n. 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón — Madrid (Spain). Phone +34 913942766. Fax: +34 913943029. E-mail: mcdavila@cps.ucm.es
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Abstract

The general purpose of this work is to analyze the overlap between organizational identification and commitment. Specifically, our study focuses on the analysis of the differences and similarities between sense of belonging (a dimension of organizational identification) and affective commitment (a dimension of organizational commitment). In order to do this, we analyzed their discriminant validity and raised their relationship with variables that previous research had showed like precedent and subsequent variables of them: value congruence, perceived support, organizational citizenship behavior, and intention to continue in the organization. A total of 292 people at one organization completed surveys measuring the variables previously described. The results showed that sense of belonging and affective commitment are different concepts and they have different relationships with relation to precedent and subsequent variables. Affective commitment seems to be more useful than sense of belonging to predict organizational citizenship behavior aimed at the organization and intention to continue. Some practical implications are described.

El objetivo general de este trabajo es analizar el solapamiento existente entre los conceptos de identificación y compromiso organizacional. Concretamente, nuestro estudio se centra en el análisis de las diferencias y similitudes entre el sentido de pertenencia (dimensión de la identificación organizacional) y el compromiso afectivo (dimensión del compromiso organizacional) abordando para ello el análisis de su validez discriminante y su relación con variables que la investigación previa ha mostrado como antecedentes o consecuentes de los mismos: congruencia de valores, percepción de apoyo, comportamiento de ciudadanía organizacional e intención de continuar en la organización en el futuro. Un total de 292 personas pertenecientes a una única empresa cumplimentaron un cuestionario que permitía medir las variables anteriormente descritas. Los resultados hallados muestran que el sentido de pertenencia y el compromiso afectivo son dos constructos diferentes, que presentan diferentes relaciones tanto con las variables antecedentes como con las consecuentes. El concepto de compromiso afectivo parece ser más útil a la hora de predecir el comportamiento de ciudadanía organizacional dirigido hacia la organización y la intención de continuar en el futuro. Se describen algunas implicaciones prácticas de los resultados hallados.

Keywords

organizational identificationorganizational commitmentsense of belongingwork behavioridentificación organizacionalcompromiso organizacionalsentido de pertenenciaconducta laboral
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 244 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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