Dual commitment in the organization: Effects of the interplay of team and organizational commitment on employee citizenship behavior, efficacy beliefs, and turnover intentions

Abstract

Affective team and organizational commitment are among the most important employee attachments in the workplace. While past research has focused on identifying the differential relationships of these commitments with relevant workplace outcomes, the present study examines their additive and interactive effects based on a multi-foci research framework. Drawing on consistency and optimal distinctiveness theory, we predicted that team and organizational commitment add to and enhance each other's target-specific effects on team- and organization-directed citizenship behavior, efficacy beliefs, and turnover intentions. Furthermore, taking a person-centered perspective, we tested the hypothesis that dually committed employees score higher on the chosen outcomes than employees with unilateral commitments (to the team and the organization). Results from a survey study (n = 1362) confirmed our hypotheses for citizenship behavior. With regard to efficacy beliefs and turnover intentions, however, compensatory interactions were observed and dually committed employees scored higher on the team-directed outcome components. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.