COMMITMENT: A DRIVING FORCE IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN IDENTITY. A MUST FOR NURSES

Abstract

This research presents a theoretical and empirical framework in order to test the reliability of organizational and professional commitment constructs. These concepts are clearly distinct and in this study, organizational and professional commitment are perceived as an antecedent to organizational and professional identification construct. The nature of the relationship between organizational and professional commitment and organizational or professional identity is questioned with a population of 99 learners and 171 nursing professionals. Our results show that this relationship exists, contrary to academic work that considered identity as a determinant of commitment and not as a consequence. The training institutes that offer professional immersion periods play a determining role in the feeling of organizational and professional commitment. The quality of these relations conditions the ability of professionals to feel an organizational or professional identity afterwards. IFSIs and organizations need to be mindful of their male population and need to foster learners’ organizational identity. IFSI prepares nurses to develop a professional commitment and identity in order to adopt the right behaviors and act in the interest of the profession. Learners also need to feel a sense of organizational commitment and identity in order to be fully involved in their relationship with their organization.