A Structural Model of Professional Commitment from the Perspective of Characteristics of a Professional Community

Professional commitment has been previously measured using the same methods as those used to measure organisational commitment. Ignoring a professional difference from an employing organisation represents a major deficiency in the measurements. On the basis of the defining characteristics of a professional community, this paper proposes a model of professional commitment which is described by the three components: career pursuit commitment, reference group commitment, and leisure time commitment. Ten items, which formed three scales in a questionnaire mailed to Australian project management professionals, were analysed using SPSS and AMOS. The results showed that the model fitted the data well, although there existed an error factor representing a general attitude towards work-leisure relations. The reliability and validity of the scales were also examined.