Compromiso Laboral

Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, Vol.11, no.1, July 2006: 89-101

EVALUATING THE PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF
ALLEN AND MEYER’S ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT SCALE:
A CROSS CULTURAL APPLICATION AMONG
MALAYSIAN ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS
Noor Harun Abdul Karim and Noor Hasrul Nizan Mohammd Noor
Department Library and Information Science,
Kulliyyah of Information and CommunicationTechnology
International Islamic University Malaysia
e-mail: noorharun@iiu.edu.my
ABSTRACT
Meyer and Allen hold that organizational commitment is a multidimensional
construct comprising three components: affective, continuance and normative. This
study focuses on establishing construct validity (convergent and discriminant
validity) and internal reliability by applying Allen and Meyer’sorganizational
commitment scale among Malaysian academic librarians. Altogether 17 items
comprising the measures for both affective and continuance commitment were
incorporated in the questionnaire. The survey was administered on 222 academic
librarians from all the nine university libraries in West Malaysia. Findings were
based on the responses from 139 usable questionnaires. The findings revealedthe
two measures to be distinguishable from one another i.e. the measures exhibited
convergent as well as discriminant validity. The findings demonstrate that Allen and
Meyer’s Organizational Commitment measures are applicable to librarians in
general and to academic librarians specifically.
Keywords: Allen and Meyer’s Organizational Commitment Scale; Academic libraries;
Organizationalcommitment; Affective commitment; Continuance commitment

INTRODUCTION
The topic of organizational commitment has been the subject of much theoretical
and empirical effort in the field of organizational behavior, human resource
management and industrial/organizational psychology (Allen & Meyer,
1996;Mowday, Steers & Porter, 1997; Porter, Steers, Mowday & Boulian, 1974;
Stevens, Beyer, & Trice,1978). However, very little empirical work has been

Noor Harun, A.K. & Noor Hasrul N.M.N.

devoted in the field of library and information science, particularly, in the library
management area (Hovekamp, 1994; Rubin & Butllar, 1992). There is indeed a
dearth of empirical studies on organizational commitment among librarians in
general and even more so among academic librarians inMalaysia.
This study represents an attempt to fill in the empirical gap in the library and
information science field by testing and validating Allen and Meyer’s three
component measure of organizational commitment: affective, normative and
continuance commitment. Specifically, the study focuses on establishing construct
validity (convergent and discriminant validity) and internal reliability byapplying
Allen and Meyer’s (1996) organizational commitment scale among Malaysian
academic librarians.
Two research questions have been posited for this study:
a) Are the sub-scales affective and continuance commitment distinguishable from
one another, i.e. do the measures exhibit convergent as well as discriminant
validity when applied among Malaysian academic librarians?
b) Is each of thesub-scales (affective and continuance commitment) internally
reliable when applied among Malaysian academic librarians?
LITERATURE REVIEW
A review of the theoretical literature on the organizational commitment construct
shows that very little consensus exists among the scholars and researchers on how
the construct can be defined conceptually. As the construct develops and evolves
over the years,scholars from the various disciplines give their own conceptual
definitions as to how the construct should be conceptually defined.
Hall, Scheider and Nygren (1970) define organizational commitment as the “process
by which the goals of the organizations and those of the individual become
increasingly integrated and congruent”. Sheldon (1971) defines organizational
commitment as an attitude...