ABSTRACT
The construct of job involvement provides a lens through which researchers can study the relationships individuals have with their work and the level of importance that they place on it. Although research on job involvement has seen relatively little growth compared to other job attitudes in the past 30 years, the opportunities for future research on this topic are plentiful. The current chapter defines job involvement as the importance of one’s current job to one’s self-concept, as indicated by the extent to which one is mentally focused on, cognitively preoccupied with, and concerned with one’s present job. The goals of this chapter are to provide (a) a review of significant theoretical and empirical contributions to the job involvement literature and (b) an overview of contemporary issues, future directions, and practical considerations. Specifically, in the first half of the chapter the authors take a historical perspective on job involvement construct, focusing on prominent conceptualizations and associated measures. In the second half of the chapter the focus shifts to a discussion of contemporary research findings, challenges facing research on job involvement, directions for future research, and managerial implications.
