Antecedents and Consequents of Loyalty to a Religious Organization

ABSTRACT The objective of the study is to identify antecedent and consequent factors of loyalty to a religious organization. The study is based on the theory of planned behavior, which is designed to identify which variables antecede the individual’s behavior of being loyal to a religious organization and have the constructs intrapersonal religious commitment and interpersonal religious commitment as constructs that are consequent of an individual’s behavior of being loyal to religious organizations. A theoretical model is proposed with the constructs attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intention, loyalty to a religious organization and interpersonal and intrapersonal religious commitment. Therefore, a quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study with 364 respondents was conducted. The study shows that a positive behavioral evaluation, opportunities in performing behavior and intention tend to be factors that influence loyalty behavior; additionally, once loyal, there is a greater likelihood of the individual being committed to his/her beliefs and the practice of those beliefs. Thus, attitude and subjective norms potentially influence commitment to a creed.