Organisational Commitment Questionnaire

What it measures

Measures employee commitment to the organisation — a strong belief in and acceptance of the organisation's goals, a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organisation, and a strong desire to maintain membership. The OCQ is the original and most cited measure of organisational commitment, and captures what is now termed affective commitment — emotional attachment and identification with the organisation. Organisational commitment predicts turnover intention, absenteeism, organisational citizenship behaviour, and job performance. In service research, highly committed employees deliver higher service quality, show greater customer orientation, and are more willing to go beyond minimum service standards.

Response format

Likert (1–7, strongly disagree to strongly agree)

Representative items

• I am willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond that normally expected in order to help this organisation succeed.
• I talk up this organisation to my friends as a great place to work.
• I feel very little loyalty to this organisation. (R)
• I would accept almost any type of job assignment in order to keep working for this organisation.
• I find that my values and the organisation's values are very similar.

Usage notes & scoring

(R) = reverse-scored. Score = mean. The OCQ measures primarily affective commitment — emotional attachment. Allen & Meyer (1990) expanded this into a Three-Component Model (affective/continuance/normative commitment) which is now the standard framework; their scale (ACS) is widely used alongside or instead of the OCQ for multi-dimensional commitment profiling.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Mowday, R.T., Steers, R.M., & Porter, L.W. (1979). The measurement of organizational commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 14(2), 224–247.

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