INDIANAPOLIS – Just the thought of leaving your place of work could have some effect on your behavior, even before you go.
A paper recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology considers what can happen between the time a person decides he would like to leave a job, to when he actually leaves. Researchers sought to answer whether or not turnover intentions predict behaviors at work.
“As much as we’d like to think that turnover intentions lead directly to turnover, in reality, that’s not always the case,” said Christopher O.L.H. Porter, professor of management at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business Indianapolis. “Someone might think about leaving a job but may not have the opportunity to leave, or it might not be the right situation for him to leave. This research flips the way we think about turnover by looking at attitudes and beliefs and subsequent work behaviors that are affected as a result of thinking about quitting.”