Work commitment in the Academy: Organisational, professional and career commitment at an Australian university

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to provide a balanced account of work commitment as experienced by workers themselves and highlight how areas of commitment are gendered and emotionalised. This research is a qualitative study of work commitment in an academic setting, where data are collected by means of semi-structured interviews. Data are analysed using the constant comparison approach to build concepts and categories of description. Three sub-core categories representing the organisational, professional and career commitment of academic staff are developed and discussed. The study confirmed the gendered nature of work commitment in the different ways in which women and men construct commitment. Career commitment, closely followed by professional commitment was found to be the most gendered and emotionalised form of commitment in the study.