ginning of the decade.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT
The motivation of an organization's employees is a key task in effective manpower management. Motivation is best developed through models designed to cause members of an organ ization to develop a commitment to it. Organizational commit ment is defined as a (1) strong desire to remain as a member of a specific organization, (2) willingness on the part of an individual to exert high levels of effort for a specific organ zation, and (3) belief in and acceptance of organizational values and goals by an individual (Porter, & Smith, 1970). The development of organizational commitment is a joint responsi bility of human resources management, and line management.
A 1981 study (Angle, & Perry) examined organizational com mitment among bus drivers in transit companies. For
measurement, organizational commitment was operationalized in thecontexts of (1) turnover, (2) tardiness, (3) absenteeism, and (4) organizational adaptability.
The research performed for the study was based in a theo retical context in which organizations and their members are seen in an exchange relationship. In such a relationship, each party makes demands on the other, for which each party provides something in return. This study, as was true of many other investigations in this interest area, attempted to establish linkages between organizational performance and organizational commitment. The researchers believed that the theoretical com mitment framework could be legitimately referred to as an organizational behavior approach. For organizational effec tiveness, they accepted the premise that it is a concept which is multidimensional in character. They also accepted the pre mise that the determinants of organizational effectiveness likely vary in accordance with the environment and applicable technology.
The researchers hypothesized that organizations whose mem bers were st...