Organizational commitment and compliance: a study on the discriminant validity between constructs

The organizational commitment is one of the most investigated topics of research in the field of organizational behavior and the genesis of its importance lies in recognizing the broad explanatory power of the construct. Given the apparent overlap reported in the literature between the affective and the normative dimensions of commitment, it has been proposed the construct of organizational compliance to differentiate committed workers from obedient ones. This article aims to establish the boundaries between the constructs of organizational commitment and consent. The study consisted of a cross-sectional survey with 994 workers from different organizations and production segments. The analysis suggests evidence of discriminant validity between consent, affective commitment and normative commitment. This can be observed in the different effect size of socio demographic variables on commitment and consent and the low correlation between consent and normative base of commitment (r=240).