Organizational commitment has been an important variable of interest to organization researchers for its relationship with various work outcomes (see Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Meyer & Allen, 1997; 2002). In educational settings, it has been found that organisational commitment has positive linkages with work performance, organisational citizenship behaviour, and student achievement, and has negative relationships with burnout and turnover (Bogler & Somech, 2004; Bragger, Rodriguez-Srednicki, Kutcher, Indovino, & Rosner, 2005; Chelte & Tausky, 1987; Gaziel, 2004; Kushman, 1992; Ostroff, 1992; Rosenblatt & Inbal, 1999; Somech, 2005a, 2005b; Somech & Bogler, 2002). Therefore, one of the main challenges confronting administrators of educational institutions is to identify factors that are likely to contribute to the development of organizational commitment of their employees and make certain that these factors are taken into account in the formulation of their human resource programs. Higher education in Thailand is undergoing transformation as a consequence of the second educational reform which aims to improve university effectiveness. Thai universities have been expected to improve the teaching-learning process; be self-responsible in terms of academic matters, finance, personnel, and general affairs administration; and achieve required standards and quality assurance. Consequently, old and new, public and private universities have been confronted by many challenges. In order to comply with the requirements of the reform, Thai universities have to depend heavily upon their academic employees. The commitment of Thai academics to their respective organisations is argued to be a significant factor in achieving university success. While it is now well established in the organizational commitment literature that this construct is multidimensional (Allen & Meyer, 1990; Kanter, 1968; Mayer & Schoorman, 1992, 1998; Meyer & Allen, 1984, 1991, 1997; O'Reilly & Chatman, 1986), few extant studies conducted in an educational context have examined the commitment dimensions simultaneously (e.g., Cetin, 2006; Marchiori & Henkin, 2004). In order to capture the concept of organizational commitment comprehensively, further examination is required by considering the multidimenstional conceptualization of this construct. In addition, while the majority of the previous research investigating organizational commitment has been conducted in North America (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Randall, 1993) and Western countries (Wong, Ngo, & Wong, 2002), there has been relatively little attempt to examine organizational commitment of educators outside the U.S. (e.g., Cetin, 2006; Somech, 2005a). It is possible that the predictors of organizational commitment may be culture-specific (Andolŝek & Štebe, 2004). Thus, “extending research on organizational commitment to other borders is important” (Cheng & Stockdale, 2003, p. 466). The current study sought to make contributions to the organizational commitment literature by identifying variables that influence organizational commitment in a sample of academics in Thailand, a society culturally different from the Western context, and considering the multidimensional conceptualization of organizational commitment (i.e., affective, continuance, and normative commitment). A sample of 406 full-time academics was drawn from three public and three private universities located in Bangkok that were willing to take part in the study. The respondents were recruited through the use of convenience sampling, undertaken by research representatives in each institution. Data for the study were collected via self-administered questionnaires. The participants were asked to answer three open-ended questions in a written format. It was considered important to allow the respondents themselves to identify factors which contributed to commitment to their organization, rather than suggesting possible reasons through the use of more focused questions. Content analysis of responses to the three open-ended questions of the questionnaires was conducted following a simplified approach of template analysis of qualitative data (Crabtree & Miller, 1999). The template approach allows for modifications and revisions of the template to correct for deficiencies after encountering the text (Crabtree & Miller, 1999). Goodwin and Goodwin’s (1985) procedure was followed to analyze the content of the open-ended responses and calculate the inter-rater reliability. Finally, frequency counts on the coded responses of how strongly the categories were manifested in the data were performed. Many categories emerged from the analysis as antecedents of the three components of organizational commitment. Specifically, ten most frequently mentioned antecedents of affective commitment were relationship with and support from co-workers, university support, relationship with students, management and culture, professional attachment and significance, fairness, work environment and atmosphere, compensation and welfare benefits, organizational tenure, and relationship with and support from supervisor. Continuance commitment developed when Thai academics perceived loss in compensation and welfare benefits, relationship with co-workers, professional attachment and significance, status and acceptance, relationship with students, opportunity for advancement, independence and autonomy, and comfort/convenience and flexible working hours. Employees who perceived that they needed to adjust themselves if they changed their job and perceived a lack of alternative employment were also likely to experience high level of continuance commitment. Antecedents of Thai academics’ normative commitment included professional attachment and significance, responsibility/duty, university support, relationship with students, relationship with and support from co-workers, independence and autonomy, compensation and welfare benefits, job satisfaction, contribution to university’s development, and comfort/convenience and flexible working hours. Future research directions and managerial implications are also discussed.