A temporal analysis of the relation between organisational commitment and work motivation

Meyer, Becker, and Vandenberghe (2004) recently proposed a model linking work motivation to organisational commitment. Two studies tested these links prospectively with employees from a Canadian telecommunications company and from an Italian autoparts company. Self-determination theory provided the framework to measure work motivation, such that measures of external, introjected and identified regulation, and intrinsic motivation were linked to Allen and Meyer's (1990) and to O'Reilly and Chatman's (1986) tripartite models of organisational commitment. We hypothesised that Time 1 motivation would be related to changes in commitment over time, but that Time 1 commitment would not be related to motivational changes over time. Results supported hypotheses for affective and normative commitment, but not for continuance commitment.