Abstract
In the business world, there is a strong belief that an employee's commitment to an organization (or employer) has a strong influence on the organization itself (Hagen & Nelson, 2001). There is also a growing body of research that suggests that organizational commitment (or the lack thereof) can be associated with such factors as employee absenteeism, employee turnover, job satisfaction, occupational commitment, and even job performance (Hagen & Nelson; Lopopolo, 2002). There seem to be similarities between an employee's commitment to their organization and a professional's membership commitment to their professional organization in that the same factors influence an individual's sense of commitment to the organization. Factors such as peer influence, management I organizational policies and procedures, and even the mission and values that the organization establishes seem to have either a positive or negative affect on an individual's organizational commitment (Hagen & Nelson, 2001; Bauman, 2008). The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) is a national, professional organization that represents the physical therapy profession and its individual members in the United States (APT A-a, 2008; McGinty, Cicero, Cicero, Janney, & Shipman, 2001). The purpose of this study was to identify the level of organizational commitment to the APTA among physical therapists and physical therapist assistants, and any potential differences in organizational commitment between APTA members and non-members. A modified version of the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire was used with permission and administered to licensed physical therapists and physical therapist assistants employed by the Lee Memorial Health System over a four week period. A total of 100 individuals chose to participate in the study. Results of the data analysis found that demographic identifiers such type of practice license (physical therapist or physical therapist assistant), APTA membership status (member or nonmember), years of APTA membership, and involvement in the APTA or APTA affiliated organization as a student all shared a statistically significant relationship with an individual's level of organizational commitment (represented by the individual's score on the OCQ). Results also showed that an individual's level of perceived professional peer influence was not affected by the same demographic identifiers. Additionally, a statistically significant relationship was found between an individual's level of perceived professional peer influence and organizational commitment to the APTA. Further research is warranted to identify other factors that may affect an individual's organizational commitment particularly with regards to professional organizations like the APTA.