EXPATRIATE TURNOVER TENDENCIES IN SAUDI ARABIA: AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION

Abstract

The authors explore turnover tendencies among expatriate employees in Saudi Arabia They: (1) discuss the novelty of expatriates in Saudi Arabia; (2) review the literature on employee turnover tendency and its correlates—job satisfaction and employee characteristics; (3) hypothesize a negative relationship between extrinsic job satisfaction and expatriate turnover tendencies, a negative relationship between general job satisfaction and expatriate turnover tendencies, no relationship between intrinsic job satisfaction and expatriate turnover tendencies, and no relationship between expatriate characteristics and expatriate turnover tendencies, and (4) empirically lest the hypotheses with a sample of expatriate employees. Results provide strong support for most of the hypotheses except “pay,” one of the extrinsic job satisfaction variables, and “job feedback,” one of the intrinsic job satisfaction variables.