A CAREER STAGE ANALYSIS OF CAREER AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT IN NURSING

A sample of 520 full-time hospital staff nurses responded to a survey directed toward identifying and partially validating the dimensions of commitment relevant to the nursing profession. Using items from established commitment instruments, career commitment and three components of organizational commitment (affective-organizational, continuance, and normative) were partially validated by (1) comparing them to standard measures of affect and (2) examining their relative strength in nurses in different career stages. Two definitions of career stage-based on age and professional tenure-were employed. As predicted, results showed that (1) affect measures were most strongly associated with career and affective-organizational commitment and (2) reports of continuance commitment and normative commitment significantly increased with career stage, but career commitment remained constant. Results for affective-organizational commitment were mixed, varying by career stage criterion. The implications for employing a cross-sectional career stage analysis in lieu of a longitudinal design are discussed. © 1991.