Occupational and Organizational Commitment in Different Occupational Contexts: The Case of South Korea

Although the positive relationship between occupational commitment and organizational commitment has been well documented for occupation-specific and organization-specific studies, there is much less research that documents between-occupation differences in this relationship. Drawing from the occupational subculture literature, the authors offer and test hypotheses about between-occupation differences in levels of occupational and organizational commitment and in the correlation between these two forms of work commitment. Data from the 2005 Korean General Social Survey are used in the analysis. They find that (a) these two forms of commitment, although distinct constructs, are positively related for those in all occupations, with no significant between-occupation differences in the correlations; however (b) occupational commitment is greater for professionals than for managers as well as the nonprofessional cluster of clerical, service and sales, and manual occupations; and (c) managers exhibit greater organizational commitment relative to semiprofessionals and those in the nonprofessional cluster of clerical, service and sales, and manual occupations. In addition, it is only for professionals that occupational commitment is greater than organizational commitment. The authors do not believe that these results are unique to Korean society but argue that research such as theirs on between-occupation differences in work commitment needs to be undertaken in other cultural contexts. Perhaps more important, the impact on work commitment of the conflict between occupational subcultures and organizational cultures needs to be a focus in future research.