A latent transition analysis investigating the nature, stability, antecedents, and outcomes of occupational commitment profiles for school principals

Abstract

A person-centered perspective makes it possible to identify the most common combinations, or profiles, of Affective (AC), Normative (NC), and Continuance (CC) commitment to any target. Extensive person-centered research has been conducted on employees' commitment to their organization. However, only a few cross-sectional studies have focused on employees' profiles of commitment to their occupation, which is surprising given the key role of this target of commitment for a variety of occupational groups. The goal of this study was to contribute to this growing literature by focusing on occupational commitment profiles among a sample of 525 school principals (Mage = 44.94; 59% females), while also adopting a longitudinal perspective to assess profile stability over a two-year period. We also investigated the implications of these profiles in relation to occupational turnover intentions, job satisfaction, work-life imbalance and psychological distress, as well as the role of interpersonal relationships with other school managers, involvement in decision-making, and schoolboard transformational leadership in the prediction of profile membership. Our results revealed five profiles, which remained identical and highly stable (less than a fifth of the participants transitioned to a distinct profile) over the course of the study. Beneficial effects were associated with profiles dominated by AC, detrimental effects were related to the CC-dominant profile, and we found beneficial synergistic effects of NC when combined with high CC in terms of job satisfaction, turnover intentions and work-life imbalance. In terms of predictions, only interpersonal relationships with other school managers predicted profile membership.