ABSTRACT
Commitment is a general phenomenon that occurs in all social systems. As a research topic, commitment is important regardless of its setting because increasing our comprehension of the phenomenon may assist us in better undemanding the nature of the psychological process through which people choose to identify with different objects in their environment and how they find purpose in life. In this way, we increase our understanding of society (Mowday et al., 1982, chap. 1). Not surprisingly therefore, research has investigated commitment to a variety of objects such as religion (Lensky, 1961; Anderson, 1998; Hovemyr, 1996; Hillstrom & Stracham, 2000), programs (Neubert & Cady, 2001), friends and spouse (Huston & Levinger, 1978; Johnson, 1973; Rusbult, 1980a, 1980b; Sprecher, Metts, Burleson, Hatfield, & Thompson, 1995), the community (Antonovsky & Antonovsky, 1974; Kanter, 1968, 1972), one’s goals (Busch, 1998; Donovan & Radosevich, 1998), ones decisions (Dooley & Fryxell, 1999; Dooley, Fryxell, & Judge, 2000; Greer & Stephens, 2001), or one’s employees (Lee & Miller, 1999; Miller & Lee, 2001).
