Organizational Commitment Profiles : Application of a Person-centered Approach to a South Korean Nursing Context

This study extends research on organizational commitment by examining organizational commitment profiles in a South Korean nursing context. It furthers nursing research by investigating the relationship between nurses’ commitment profiles, on the one hand, and their turnover intention and organizational citizenship behavior on the other. Commitment profiles for the study were based on Allen and Meyer’s (1990) three-component model of organizational commitment and generated using k-means cluster analysis. The analysis yielded five distinct commitment profiles, which were labeled fully committed (i.e., high affective, continuance, and normative commitment), AC-high (i.e., high affective, low continuance, and moderate normative commitment), uncommitted (i.e., low affective, continuance, and normative commitment), CC-high (i.e., high continuance and low affective and normative commitment), and CC-NC-moderate (i.e., low affective and moderate continuance and normative commitment). Analysis of variance revealed the fully committed and AC-high profiles to be the most desirable, with lower levels of turnover intention and higher levels of self-reported organizational citizenship behavior in comparison with the uncommitted and CC-high profiles. The implications of these results for commitment research are discussed.