Ahmed AwedMD / MBA/ MPPA/ PMI-PMP / PMI-ACP / PMI-RMP / ASQ-SSGB| Health care OrganizationsCairo, Egypt
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Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Good provocation. In practice, it is rarely one or the other.
Institutional structures define the field of possibility. They clarify purpose, authority, incentives, and boundaries. Without that, asking for commitment is asking for individual effort inside an indifferent system.
But genuine commitment emerges at the level of individual agency, when people experience real room to decide, contribute, and learn without unfair punishment. Structure without agency produces compliance. Agency without structure produces burnout.
The critical point is alignment. Well-designed systems do not replace human commitment. They create the conditions for it to emerge sustainably.
Under pressure, this becomes visible. Organizations do not rise to their stated values. They default to what has actually been designed, or neglected, in the interaction between structure and autonomy. Saving Changes...
If you are referring to individual commitment to their organization, it comes from within not without, so I'd suggest it is individual agency.
If you are referring to the commitment of an organization to a specific goal or set of goals, then it is really a combination of the structure (as that will define "hard" power limits and establish default communication channels) and individual agency (as that dictates how many hearts & minds are aligned and the level of creativity displayed to achieve those goals).
Program Manager| HARPER SRLSanto Domingo / Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic
At the individual level, commitment can’t be imposed. Structure may influence behavior, but real commitment comes from personal choice, values, and meaning. At the organizational level, it’s more mixed. Structures set boundaries, priorities, and decision paths, but outcomes depend on how people choose to act within them. You can design alignment, but you still need people to opt in with judgment, effort, and creativity. So structure enables commitment, but agency is what brings it to life. Saving Changes...
Ahmed AwedMD / MBA/ MPPA/ PMI-PMP / PMI-ACP / PMI-RMP / ASQ-SSGB| Health care OrganizationsCairo, Egypt
I agree with all of you The following Theories and perspectives help explain how organizational commitment emerges through the interaction between internalized beliefs and external structures, rather than being driven by one dimension alone. Bourdieu emphasizes how habitus, doxa, and social capital shape individuals’ dispositions and practices, showing how organizational commitment is gradually internalized through socialization and shared values. In contrast, Foucault focuses on disciplinary power, highlighting how institutional structures, surveillance, and normative control regulate behavior and produce compliance. Saving Changes...
ِAhmed Awad good question I think Instead of coming from a single source, organizational commitment is shaped by the interplay between individual effectiveness and institutional structure, with the relative Saving Changes...
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