The curvilinear effect of work engagement on employees' turnover intentions

Numerous studies have shown the positive consequences of work engagement for both organisations and employees experiencing it. For instance, research has demonstrated that work‐engaged employees have lower levels of turnover intentions than non‐engaged employees. However, in this research, we examined whether there is a dark side of work engagement. More precisely, we investigated whether the relationship between work engagement and employees' turnover intentions might be non‐linear. Based on two different samples, our results indicated that the relationship between work engagement and employees' turnover intentions is curvilinear. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Non‐standard work schedules and retention in the entry‐level hourly workforce

Non‐standard work schedules involve work outside the Monday–Friday daytime hours. Although research has heavily studied the health and family effects of such schedules, few studies have investigated their relationship to retention. We draw from Maertz and Campion's discussion of motivational forces that influence turnover to propose that employees on non‐standard schedules are more likely to quit their employer because of general job dissatisfaction and because of normative pressures from family and/or friends. Specifically, we hypothesized that employees on day shifts or weekday only schedules would remain with their employer longer than those who work on nonday shifts or on the weekends. We also hypothesized that perceived employment mobility would moderate the effects of non‐standard schedules on retention length. Hypotheses were tested among 3,178 retail employees who worked five different distinct shift arrangements and different weekday/weekend schedules. Cox regression analyses indicated that, as hypothesized, employees working nonday shifts or schedules including weekends remained with their employer for a shorter duration of time than employees not on such schedules. Perceived mobility moderated the schedule–turnover relationship, though not in the hypothesized manner. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for work schedule assignment and retention strategies.     

THE IMPACT OF MOTIVATION,EMPOWERMENT, AND SKILL‐ENHANCING PRACTICES ON AGGREGATE VOLUNTARY TURNOVER: THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF COLLECTIVE AFFECTIVE COMMITMENT

This study advances research on macro human resource management by examining collective commitment as a mediator of motivation, empowerment, and skill‐enhancing practices and aggregate voluntary turnover. Findings from 20 top HR managers and 1,748 employees in 93 different job groups suggest collective affective commitment independently mediates the negative relationships between motivation and empowerment‐enhancing practices and aggregate voluntary turnover. Human resource practices functioning to enhance the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the workforce are positively associated with voluntary turnover but are not mediated by collective affective commitment. Functionally, this paper resolves the divergent thinking of 4 streams of research regarding HR practices, collective commitment and aggregate turnover. The implications for macro‐HRM theory and practice are discussed.     

Job attitudes of part‐time vs. full‐time workers: A meta‐analytic review

A meta‐analysis was conducted (k =38, N =51,231) to examine the size of the difference between full‐ and part‐time employees on job attitudes. Results indicated that there was little difference between full‐time (FT) and part‐time (PT) employees on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intentions to leave and facets of job satisfaction. Full‐time employees were found to be more involved with their jobs than PT employees (d_c=0.39). Moderating variables were examined (type of job, sex of the sample and sampling strategy used), but these variables explained little of the variability in effect sizes across the studies. An additional analysis of voluntary vs. involuntary employment status was conducted on job satisfaction, but only small differences were found. The theoretical implications are discussed.     

Gone Today but here Tomorrow: Extending the Unfolding Model of Turnover to Consider Boomerang Employees

Turnover research typically views voluntary turnover as an end state that severs the employment relationship permanently. However, this perspective overlooks the possibility that an employee who quits may return in the future. Anecdotal and empirical evidence suggest that these “Boomerangs” can be a valuable staffing resource for their organizations. Yet, research regarding this type of employee is largely absent. Thus, we know little about whether the experiences of these temporary leavers differ from those who leave an organization permanently. In this paper, we examined differences between Boomerangs (employees who quit but are later rehired) and “Alumni” (employees who quit but will not return) using both qualitative and quantitative data. In a large sample of professional service employees, we found that Boomerangs and Alumni reported different reasons for having quit, which meant they were more likely to be classified on different paths in the unfolding model of turnover. In addition, survival analyses on the time to turnover suggest that Boomerangs quit earlier than Alumni in their original tenure, paradoxically suggesting that employees who quit earlier may be the very employees who will return in the future. Together, our findings suggest an extension to the unfolding model that considers how the timing of and reasons for turnover impact post‐turnover (return) decisions.     

What Leads Entrepreneurial Employees to Want to Quit,or Stay in,Their Job? Exploring Two Conflicting Mechanisms

Past turnover research has posited personality traits as important antecedents to quit intentions. Nevertheless, previous literature has not investigated the relationship between employees’ entrepreneurial tendencies—a constellation of domain specific traits—and turnover. Drawing on dispositional trait theory and attraction-selection-attrition theory, we propose engagement and intentions to start a business as mediators of the relationship between entrepreneurial tendencies and quit intentions. We test our predictions in a sample of full-time employees from the United Kingdom (N = 224). In line with our hypotheses, an inconsistent mediation is found, where both positive and negative links between entrepreneurial tendencies and turnover intentions were mediated by engagement and intentions to start a business respectively. Thus, entrepreneurial employees were more likely to be engaged, but at the same time also more likely to be considering starting their own business, leading to a conflicting relationship to turnover intentions. The current study informs the human resource management literature concerning the motivational mechanisms explaining turnover intentions among entrepreneurial employees. It also provides practical insights with regards to the effective management of this workforce.     

Capturing a More Complete View of Employees’ Lives Outside of Work: The Introduction and Development of New Interrole Conflict Constructs

This research introduces 4 new constructs that reflect interrole conflict (i.e., work‐to‐personal, personal‐to‐work, family‐to‐personal, and personal‐to‐family conflict) and provide a more complete view of the roles and responsibilities employees experience outside of work. An integration of interrole conflict literature and research on work and nonwork roles or domains highlights the importance of considering an individual's personal domain, which includes activities one pursues because of his or her own interests (e.g., friends, hobbies, community). Unfortunately, without conflict measures pertaining to this new role, researchers cannot clearly understand how roles other than family interfere with individuals’ work role including how interrole conflict impacts employees who do not have significant responsibilities in the family domain. Five phases of research across 4 separate samples were conducted in order to develop measures for the 4 new conflict constructs and to examine relationships with important work, family, life, and health outcomes. Findings from multisource data, including self‐rated, coworker‐rated, as well as single and nonsingle participants, show that the 4 new forms of interrole conflict have significant implications for employees and organizations.     

Disparity in occupational training and career planning between contingent and permanent employees

In modern work life, a common structure of staffing comprises a core of permanent employees and a fluctuating number of contingent workers. We examined the degree to which participation in occupational training and career planning differed between these two groups. The study cohort comprised 5127 hospital employees (96% full time), of whom 4211 were permanent, 677 had a contingent contract, and 239 were contingent at baseline but got a permanent job during the 4-year follow-up period. Results show that contingent employees participated less in occupational training and career planning than permanent employees. The difference remained significant even after 6 years' employment in the hospital. Those contingent employees who became permanently employed did not differ from the permanent employees in occupational training and career planning. These trends in human resource allocation support the human capital theory. They also point to an unintended mechanism potentially increasing inequalities in the workforce, arising from the different human capital investments depending on the employment status.     

Factors affecting the turnover of different groups of part-time workers

Past research on employee attitudes and behavior has focused mainly on full-time employees. When part-time employees have been studied, the research has concentrated on the differences between full-time and part-time employees. Recent research has suggested that part-time employees should not be viewed as a single, undifferentiated group. Instead part-time workers can be classified into separate groups using theoretically based demographic variables, attachments, and roles outside of the focal employer. The present study provides support for the proposition that part-time employee group membership accounts for incremental variance in predicting turnover. The present study also provides additional support for the premise that organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and perceived employment alternatives differentially predict turnover for these part-time groups. Implications for researchers and employers are discussed.     

Do Employees Leave Just Because They Can? Examining the Perceived Employability–Turnover Intentions Relationship

The relationship between perceived employability and turnover intentions seems much more complicated than what the common sense would suggest. Based on the reviewed literature, it was expected that job satisfaction, affective commitment, and perceived job security would moderate this relationship. Using a sample of working individuals from different occupations and sectors (N = 721), it was found that employees who perceived themselves as highly employable were more likely to have turnover intentions when their affective commitment was low and perceived job security was high; and the relationship was negative for employees with shorter tenures. Understanding the conditions under which perceived employability is associated with turnover intentions may help organizations design human resource policies that allow them to retain an educated and competent workforce.     

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so: Informational support and cognitive appraisal of the work‐family interface

This paper examines whether cognitive appraisals regarding work‐family role combination can be influenced by providing informational support. We conducted an experiment among female employees with young children working in a financial services organization (N=149). Participants received information communicating either a scarcity or an expansion perspective on human energy, prior to completing a survey. In support of our predictions, results showed that employees appraised the task of combining their work and family roles more positively after exposure to an expansion rather than a scarcity message. This research offers new theoretical insights into the role of cognitive appraisal in work‐family research and offers scope for designing intervention programs that help employees to view role‐combining more positively.     

Specific determinants of intrinsic work motivation,emotional exhaustion and turnover intention: A multisample longitudinal study

This longitudinal study tested a theoretically derived pattern of specific relationships between work characteristics and outcomes. The research model proposed four central domains of the work situation (i.e. task characteristics, workload, social support and unmet career expectations) and three important psychological outcomes (i.e. intrinsic work motivation, emotional exhaustion and turnover intention). More specifically, it was hypothesized that intrinsic work motivation is primarily predicted by challenging task characteristics; emotional exhaustion is primarily predicted by a high workload and lack of social support; and turnover intention is primarily predicted by unmet career expectations. Furthermore, we hypothesized that (i) the research model is generalizable over samples; (ii) work characteristics at Time 1 influence outcomes at Time 2; and (iii) the proposed causal pattern of relationships holds over different occupational groups. These hypotheses were tested by means of self‐report questionnaires among two samples (bank employees and teachers) using a full‐panel design with two waves (one‐year interval). Results showed that Hypothesis 1 was confirmed in both samples. Hypothesis 2 was confirmed in sample 1, but not in sample 2. In the latter sample, we found evidence for reverse causation. Hence, Hypothesis 3 could not be confirmed.     

Why Don't You Just Show Me? Performance interviews for skill‐based promotions

Despite the high skill levels needed to cope with complex technical systems and the pace of technological change, there remain persistent skill gaps in the United States workforce. Organizations are increasingly relying on skill‐based programs to encourage and foster employee skill development. Unfortunately, many questions remain about how to make skill‐based promotions. Drawing from research on performance testing and structured interviewing, as well as work that examines broader issues of performance prediction and candidate reactions, we outline the development and empirical test of a performance interview that can be used for skill‐based promotions. Such interviews allow employees to demonstrate their skills on the job, and thus may be more accepted by employees. We first discuss seven design principles that form the conceptual foundation for the performance interview, followed by the specific steps practitioners can follow to develop a performance interview. Finally, using a sample of 230 auto parts manufacturing employees, we provide empirical evidence for the high reliability, validity, and positive candidate reactions to the performance interview.     

Perceptions and experience of workplace bullying in five different working populations

Whilst aggression in the workplace has been systematically studied in recent years, research into workplace bullying per se still remains quite limited. In this article, we report the findings from an investigation into employees' perceptions of social and organizational work conditions and experiences of bullying at work. Six‐hundred‐seventy‐seven employees from five different working populations (managers, teachers, technicians, call centre operators, and engineers) completed the Workplace Relationships Questionnaire (WRQ). This paper presents the results of the analysis, linking the experiences of bullying and perceptions of social and organizational work conditions. The present findings predictably identify victims and non‐bullied participants, and also indicate the existence of a new category of employee affected by the problem of bullying; bullied/non‐victims. Bullied/non‐victims may provide crucial insights into the ways that company practices and policies impact negatively on the whole workforce. Aggr. Behav. 29:489–496, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The effect of multiple negative,neutral, and positive organizational changes

Organizational change research has largely concluded that employees appraise changes in their workplace negatively and thus respond negatively to greater amounts of change. However, whether this conclusion is warranted remains unclear because previous research has examined single workplace changes in isolation or asked employees to make a global assessment of the changing nature of their workplace. Researchers have not had the means to capture the number of changes employees experience or their appraisals of the many different changes occurring in their workplace. In this study, we developed and validated the Quantity of Change Scale (QCS) to provide a more nuanced understanding of employees’ appraisals of their changing workplace. We found that the negative changes employees experience disproportionately influenced their reactions to the changing work environment. However, we also demonstrated that contrary to popular belief, employees appraised fewer changes as negative than as positive or neutral. Together these findings provide new insight into why assessments of employees’ general reactions to workplace change tend to be negative. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our empirical examination of employees’ appraisals of the many changes in their workplace.     

Anchoring Relationships at Work: High‐Quality Mentors and Other Supportive Work Relationships as Buffers to Ambient Racial Discrimination

Applying a unifying theoretical framework of high‐quality work relationships, we conducted a set of 3 complementary studies that examined whether high‐quality mentoring relationships can buffer employees from the negative effects of ambient discrimination at work. Integrating relational mentoring with relational systems theory, we first examined whether the presence of a high‐quality mentoring relationship buffers employees in a sample of 3,813 workers. In support of the “mentors‐as‐buffers” hypothesis, we found that employees who witnessed or were aware of racial discrimination at work had lower organizational commitment than those not exposed, but employees with high‐quality mentoring relationships experienced less loss of commitment than those lacking mentors. We then examined the specific buffering behaviors used by mentors in high‐quality relationships and whether these behaviors were effective for other work relationships and outcomes. Applying Kahn's typology, we developed and validated a measure of high‐quality relational holding behaviors in a sample of 262 workers. Using this measure in a third sample of 557 workers, we found that mentors buffer by providing holding behaviors, but we did not find this buffering effect when supervisors or coworkers provided holding behaviors. This potent mentor buffering effect held across a range of outcomes, including organizational commitment, physical symptoms of stress, insomnia, and stress‐related absenteeism. These studies suggest that mentoring may be a singularly effective relationship that offers a safe harbor for employees faced with ambient discrimination at work.     

Leader–member exchange and turnover before and after succession events

We conducted two studies that investigated the role of leadership succession as a moderator of the relationship between LMX and turnover in organizations. In a sample of 330 employees in 45 veterinary hospitals, high-LMX employees were less likely to leave the organization prior to a succession event but in nine hospitals that experienced a succession event, high-LMX employees were more likely to leave than low-LMX employees following the event. In the second study, we used a between subjects repeated measures simulation of leadership succession in a survey of 496 employed adults across different organizations. We found LMX is predictive of affective and cognitive reactions to succession events, and that these reactions mediate the relationship between LMX and turnover intentions after a simulated succession event. We discuss the implications of finding that succession events can be disruptive to organizations and groups because high-LMX employees may subsequently leave.     

Dynamics of psychological contracts with work engagement and turnover intention: The influence of organizational tenure

This study investigated the interrelations of the psychological contract with work engagement and turnover intention, which has hitherto been a largely overlooked topic in psychological contract research. Although previous research has mainly focused on how psychological contracts influence job attitudes and behaviours, it is proposed here that attitudes and behaviours also affect the psychological contract that the employee has with the organization. Moreover, it is proposed that because reciprocity norms are more important among shortly tenured employees, mutual relationships between psychological contracts and work engagement and turnover intention were stronger for employees with lower organizational tenure. Longitudinal data were collected among 240 employees and proposed models were evaluated with structural equation modelling. The results show that indeed psychological contract fulfilment was longitudinally related to higher work engagement and lower turnover intentions, but only for employees with low tenure. Moreover, stability in work engagement, turnover intention, and psychological contract over time was higher for those with high tenure, whereas the relations between turnover intention and the psychological contract were stronger for those with low organizational tenure. These findings demonstrate that psychological contracts are reciprocally interrelated with work outcomes, and that such relations are stronger for those with low tenure.     

Locus of Control and Delay of Gratification As Moderators of Employee Turnover1

Main effects of personality on turnover have generally been weak. However, little previous research has considered its indirect effects. Personality may moderate the determinants of turnover. Using a sample of 192 hospital employees, this study examined the moderating effects of locus of control and ability to delay need gratification on the immediate determinants of turnover proposed by Mobley, Griffeth, Hand, and Meglino (1979). The findings generally indicated that the relative strength of the determinants of turnover varied as predicted. Implications for employee retention are discussed.