Dual Commitments to Organizations and Professions: Different Motivational Pathways to Productivity

Abstract

Commitments to organizations and professions have important implications for behavior in the workplace, but little is known about how these dual commitments combine to affect organizational outcomes. We present a model proposing that commitment to professions influences productivity through a positive effect on intrinsic motivation and a negative effect on extrinsic motivation. Commitment to organizations, conversely, is hypothesized to have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation and a positive effect on extrinsic motivation. We tested the model with a sample of 237 tenured management professors and, overall, the model fit the data well and better than less parsimonious models or ones positing reverse causality. Commitment to the profession was positively related to intrinsic motivation to engage in research and, through this effect, resulted in more challenging research goals, increased commitment to those goals, more hours spent on research, and greater research productivity. Commitment to the organization (university) was positively related to extrinsic motivation and negatively related to intrinsic motivation and was unrelated to goal level, goal commitment, hours spent on research, and research productivity. Our model makes a unique theoretical contribution by revealing the differing paths by which commitments to organizations and professions affect work outcomes, and our results support and extend commitment theory and offer unique insights into posttenure productivity.