How Does Enlistment Motivation Shape Organizational Commitment? The Role of Career Identity and Organizational Support

This study, based on the integrative model of commitment and motivation and organizational support theory, examined the mechanism of intrinsic and extrinsic enlistment motivation on three facets of organizational commitment. A three-wave field questionnaire survey was conducted among 1606 Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadets from Chinese universities. The results showed that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation positively predicted affective commitment, normative commitment, and continuous commitment. The positive effect of intrinsic motivation was stronger than extrinsic motivation. However, the interactive effect of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation negatively predicted the three aspects of organizational commitment. Career identity mediated all the direct effects above. Moreover, organizational support moderated the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on career identity. When organizational support was low, the positive effect of intrinsic motivation on career identity was stronger; whereas, when organizational support was high, the positive effect of extrinsic motivation on career identity was stronger. Furthermore, extrinsic motivation and organizational support jointly moderated the effect of intrinsic motivation on career identity and the mediating effects between intrinsic motivation and the three facets of organizational commitment. Specifically, when extrinsic motivation and organizational support were low, the direct and mediating effects above were stronger.