ABSTRACT
As Klein, Molloy, and Cooper concluded in chapter 1, commitment is a psychological bond. Interpersonal commitment is a bond between an individual and other persons or small groups. Although much attention has been directed toward more macro attachments, such as to organizations and occupations (Lee, Carswell, & Allen, 2000; Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky, 2002), and more micro ones, such as to goals (Klein, Wesson, Hollenbeck, & Alge, 1999), much less theory and research has addressed interpersonal commitments. Due to the nature of the literature, in this chapter I will focus on supervisors, peers, work teams, top management, and customers as interpersonal foci of commitment. Further, there is evidence that commitments to these targets are empirically distinguishable and that they explain unique variance in workplace outcomes beyond commitment to traditional targets such as organizations (e.g., T. E. Becker, Billings, Eveleth, & Gilbert, 1996; Bishop & Scott, 2000; Stinglhamber, Bentein, & Vandenberghe, 2002; Vandenberghe, Bentein, & Stinglhamber, 2004).
