This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (25) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Yoon, J. Articles by Ko, J.-W. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Interpersonal Attachment and Organizational Commitment: Subgroup Hypothesis Revisited

Mouraine R. Baker

Jong-Wook Ko

Department of Sociology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242.

Studies have hypothesized conflicting results regarding the effect of actors' interpersonal attachment on commitment to the encompassing large group. The cohesion approach hypothesizes that interpersonal attachment among actors will enhance group cohesiveness, which produces more commitment to the large group. In contrast, the subgroup approach predicts that interpersonal attachment among actors will contribute more to subgroup fragmentation which sets up barriers to actors' commitment to the large group. We derive hypotheses from these opposing approaches and test the hypotheses over a sample of 1621 employees drawn from 62 work organizations in Korea. The empirical tests indicate the following: (1) Interpersonal attachment among employees in local work units is shown to have a positive effect on commitment to the work organization encompassing the work units. (2) Interpersonal attachment between dissimilar positions in the same work units is shown to have a more positive effect on commitment than that between similar positions. Implications of these findings on the two theories are discussed.

Key Words: cohesion • commitment • subgroup • orgnization

Human Relations, Vol. 47, No. 3, 329-351 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/001872679404700305


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. C. Andrews, K. M. Kacmar, G. L. Blakely, and N. S. Bucklew Group Cohesion as an Enhancement to the Justice--Affective Commitment Relationship Group Organization Management, December 1, 2008; 33(6): 736 - 755. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. M. Sluss and B. E. Ashforth How Relational and Organizational Identification Converge: Processes and Conditions Organization Science, November 1, 2008; 19(6): 807 - 823. [Abstract] [PDF]

				S.-H. Lee and P. H. Phan The effects of tie strength and tie diversity on job search, pay increases, and promotions in Singapore and Thailand Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, October 1, 2006; 23(5): 820 - 839. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. W. Cadogan, S. Sundqvist, R. T. Salminen, and K. Puumalainen Export Marketing, Interfunctional Interactions, and Performance Consequences Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, October 1, 2005; 33(4): 520 - 535. [Abstract] [PDF]

				C. Vandenberghe, F. Stinglhamber, K. Bentein, and T. Delhaise An Examination of the Cross-Cultural Validity of a Multidimensional Model of Commitment in Europe Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, May 1, 2001; 32(3): 322 - 347. [Abstract] [PDF]

				A. Cohen The Relationship between Commitment Forms and Work Outcomes: A Comparison of Three Models Human Relations, March 1, 2000; 53(3): 387 - 417. [Abstract] [PDF]

				C. R. Scott Identification with Multiple Targets in a Geographically Dispersed Organization Management Communication Quarterly, May 1, 1997; 10(4): 491 - 522. [Abstract]