Abstract
It is generally accepted that employee commitment has a significant impact on organisational performance. The primary goal of this article is to indicate that the ‘commitment/involvement’ concept did not evolve in an evolutionary and progressive fashion. Several problems in the development course of mainly three streams of research literature are indicated. Arguments are presented for indicating causes of concept contamination and even redundancy. In order to bridge these problems, a motivational approach as an integrating mechanism on a metatheoretical level is presented as a solution. The outcomes thereof should lead to better order on a theoretical level and to the parsimonious use of commitment concepts.