Control in Organizations and the Commitment of Members

Abstract

Members' commitment is important in all organizations but more problematic in some than in others. Several studies have shown that the amount and distribution of control in an organization affect its success in securing members' commitment, but the effects of organization context on relationships between control and commitment are not thoroughly understood. Using the control graph to measure the amount and distribution of control in local churches, we examined the relationship between organization control and members' commitment (conceptualized as satisfaction, identification, and involvement) and the impact of the organization's context on that relationship. Our analysis shows that amount of control is an important predictor of members' commitment; distribution of control is less important. The effects of control tend to persist when contextual variables are statistically controlled. However, some of the organization context variables-conflict, minister's tenure, and local church size-produce important interaction effects.

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