Nature of the Interactions among Organizational Commitments: Complementary, Competitive or Synergistic?*

Although organizational commitment is a multidimensional construct, researchers have tended to examine the independent effects of its different forms. However, doing so creates potential problems of model misspecification and under‐prediction if interactions exist among different commitments. In this paper we discuss theoretically plausible interactions among different commitments, the patterns of which are expected to vary depending on the nature of the criterion and the foci of commitment. We then test these predictions via empirical data. Results revealed a ‘synergistic’ pattern of effects for discretionary outcomes, such that levels of organizational citizenship behaviour and strain were most favourable when employees reported high levels on multiple commitments. Importantly, no evidence was found for competitive effects between commitments, such that high levels on multiple commitments are detrimental. We discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice.