Title: Movement Capital: Does Intention to Leave Come before Alternative Job Offers?
Abstract: Executive Summary Scholars of turnover research have identified many determinants that affect voluntary employee resignations. Both intention to leave and alternative job offers are included in the list of most significant determinants of turnover. However, which determinant comes first in the resignation sequence is still unclear. This research will focus on the order of these two determinants in turnover behavior. This article utilizes the concept of movement capital to solve the research question. Movement capital is defined by an employee's education, special experience, cognitive ability and transferable skills. High movement capital makes an employee more marketable and reflects increased possibilities to be raided by other organizations. Therefore, for those employees with high movement capital, alternative job offers could come before intention to leave. In contrast, for employees with low movement capital, their intention to leave comes before alternative job offers. Based on the inference, the author modifies the turnover model of Horn and Griffeth (1995) to achieve wider range explanation of turnover behavior. Managerial implications are presented at the end of this paper. Introduction Turnover is the movement of employees moving out of the boundaries of an organization. Employee turnover can be troublesome for employers who struggle to retain employees in a tight labor market. It is believed that a high amount of voluntary turnover adversely influences organizational effectiveness (Horn & Griffeth, 1995). When an outstanding employee's voluntary turnover occurs, the organization suffers from increased costs for hiring and training. Estimates indicate that hiring and training a replacement for an employee who quits cost approximately 50 percent of the worker's annual salary (Gemignani, 1998). Furthermore, human resource researchers forecast that the total cost of one turnover incidence could add up to twice a turnover employee's wage, depending on the employee's skill and level of job responsibility (Griffeth & Horn, 2001). The company runs the risk of low effectiveness and high operation cost if it becomes frustrated with lack of continuity in its employees. To enhance an organization's effectiveness, employee retention has become a leading focus and challenge both for organization managers and academic researchers. Scholars of turnover research have identified many determinants that affect voluntary resignations. Researchers employ survey methodology to measure turnover determinant variables and to estimate the intensity of the variables influencing turnover behavior. One traditional turnover model was developed by Horn and Griffeth (1995). Their framework of turnover identified job satisfaction and organizational commitment as antecedents of voluntary turnover. Horn and Griffeth maintained employees who became dissatisfied with their job or lost their organizational commitment would develop an intention to leave. Some employees left soon after forming their intention to quit, whereas others started job searching. Job searchers requested job alternatives, and, if they acquired alternatives that were superior to their current one, they would leave. On the other hand, the negative effect of job satisfaction toward turnover is of greater magnitude when unemployment rates are low (Trevor, 2001). As a result, the condition of the labor market, namely, the unemployment rate, would influence job satisfaction and cost of turnover. The conceptual framework of Hom-Griffeth turnover theory is illustrated in Figure 1. The Hom-Griffeth theory of turnover argues that employees dissatisfied with their organization formed the intention to leave, and, then, they undertook a job search. The theory implies an employee's job dissatisfaction comes before his intention to leave, and, his intention to leave comes before alternative job offers. …
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 3
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