The Relationship Between Student Engagement and Organizational Commitment Among College Students

Organizational commitment, as defined by Allen and Meyer, is a three-facet (affective, normative, and continuance) construct related to important employee attitude and behavioral outcomes. Student engagement, while a popular topic among educators, is not as well-defined nor supported by a large body of research linking the construct to meaningful student- and university-related outcomes. The present study examined the relationship between organizational commitment and engagement, as well as the outcome metric of cumulative GPA, for undergraduate students at a large public university. Affective commitment was significantly related to engagement, but only for male students. There was no relationship to cumulative GPA for either organizational commitment or student engagement. Future research needs to address gender differences in commitment and engagement, perhaps due to levels of self-determination and attachment to the institution. Application of the Job Demands – Resource Model may also explain gender differences in engagement.