Organizational commitment, turnover intentions and the influence of cultural values

Abstract

The moderating influence of idiocentrism and allocentrism on the relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intentions was examined. The investigation evolved over two phases. In Study 1, emic (culture‐specific) items were generated through in‐depth interviews with Turkish employees, and the commitment scales by Meyer, Allen, and Smith (1993) were revised to make them more appropriate for the Turkish context. In Study 2, turnover intentions were predicted as a function of an individual's affective, continuance, normative commitment, and social factors, operationalized as the approval of the family. The results indicated that affective commitment was an important predictor of turnover intentions irrespective of idiocentric or allocentric values. However, normative commitment and social factors were weaker predictors for individuals who endorsed idiocentric, values and social factors were a stronger predictor for allocentrics. These findings underline the importance of a normative perspective on organizational commitment, especially for collectivistic contexts.