Reconceptualizing Organizational Commitment in the Age of Sustainability: A Reflexive Grounded Theory Perspective on Fragmentation and Complexity in the Public Sector

Kulczycki, Jessica and Dióssi, Katalin (2026) Reconceptualizing Organizational Commitment in the Age of Sustainability: A Reflexive Grounded Theory Perspective on Fragmentation and Complexity in the Public Sector. In: FEJLŐDÉSI PÁLYÁK ÉS ÚJ TÖRÉSVONALAK A FENNTARTHATÓSÁGI ÁTMENET IDŐSZAKÁBAN : Nemzetközi tudományos konferencia a Magyar Tudomány Ünnepe alkalmából. Soproni Egyetem Kiadó, Sopron, pp. 454-467. ISBN 9789633345795

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Abstract

Demographic change is increasingly placing employers under competitive pressure to attract and retain qualified professionals. The public sector, in particular, is affected by rising workloads and a simultaneous shortage of skilled labor, which negatively impacts working conditions. Organizational commitment is considered a central yet inconsistently defined construct in human resource management. Existing approaches differ in terms of what the construct refers to, how it emerges, and how it is distinguished from other psychological concepts. This conceptual heterogeneity highlights the complexity of commitment. The public sector is shaped by specific cultural, structural, and political conditions that pose particular challenges to the conceptual engagement with organizational commitment – especially in the context of sustainable transformation. At the international, European, and national levels, research has so far been dominated by cross-sectional and quantitative study designs. While these provide valuable descriptive findings, they offer limited insight into the underlying mechanisms and potential meaning structures. This conceptual paper addresses the challenges of sustainable development in the public sector and emphasizes the need for an inductive, theory-driven approach to critically reassess the construct of organizational commitment. Reflexive Grounded Theory offers a suitable methodological framework to systematically capture subjective meaning, cultural variation, and organizational context, and to develop a context-sensitive theory of commitment within public service.

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