Meaningful moves: A meaning-based view of turnover intentions

Abstract

Turnover is a major global concern with significant service and cost implications. Although inquiries have been made into the antecedents, dynamics, and consequences of turnover, there is a lack of fine-grained understanding of the psychological states that reflect the cumulative impact of different antecedents and immediately precede turnover intention. In our paper, we provide a brief overview of the turnover literature, probe the critical missing pieces, and develop a meaning-based view of turnover intention. We draw from the literature on meaning in the context of work, distinguish between meaning in work and meaning at work, and hypothesize about the relationships between high/low meaning in and at work on the type of turnover intention (quitting the organization and/or profession). We tested our hypotheses with data gathered from employees in the Adult Custody Division (ACD) of a provincial correctional system in Canada. Our analyses of the data (N=854) indicates support for the meaning-based view of turnover intentions, with meaning at work exhibiting strong predictive powers. This meaning-based view of turnover intention provides a richer and more nuanced understanding of turnover and offers employees, managers and leaders more tailored remedies.