Personal Purpose as a Key Driver of Commitment in Public Organizations: The Role of Purpose Identification

In recent years, researchers have begun exploring the concept of purposeful business, in which employees’ personal purpose plays a key role. Purposeful business significantly contributes to developing positive behaviors and outcomes, such as increased engagement, enhanced commitment, and improved individual and organizational performance. However, previous research has largely focused on observing purposeful business exclusively in private organizations. This study examines the relationship between personal purpose and commitment in public organizations, focusing on the moderating effect of purpose identification. A survey was conducted among 160 employees from seven Croatian public organizations. Moderation analysis revealed that purpose identification moderates the relationship between personal purpose and commitment. These findings underscore that employees’ personal purpose is an essential psychological mechanism for increasing their commitment, but only with the support of purpose identification. This study is the first to introduce the concept of personal purpose into the Croatian organizational context, offering new insights into purposeful business. The results provide practical implications for managers, highlighting the importance of harmonizing employees’ personal purpose with organizational purpose to enhance organizational commitment. However, limitations arise from collecting data from a single source in one time period and the involvement of only seven public organizations, suggesting avenues for further research.