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So Hard to Say Goodbye? Turnover Intention among U.S. Federal Employees
Author(s) -
Pitts David,
Marvel John,
Fernandez Sergio
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2011.02414.x
Subject(s) - affect (linguistics) , turnover , government (linguistics) , job satisfaction , agency (philosophy) , position (finance) , turnover intention , human capital , business , service (business) , demographic economics , public relations , psychology , social psychology , marketing , management , political science , economics , finance , sociology , economic growth , social science , linguistics , philosophy , communication
Why do U.S. federal government employees choose to leave the federal service? By focusing on turnover intentions, this article develops propositions about why employees anticipate leaving their jobs along three dimensions: (1) demographic factors, (2) workplace satisfaction factors, and (3) organizational/relational factors. Two distinct measures of turnover intention are advanced that reflect those who intend to leave their agency for another position within the federal government and those who intend to leave the federal government for an outside position. The 2006 Federal Human Capital Survey is used to test the impacts of three clusters of independent variables on these measures of turnover intention. The findings suggest that overall job satisfaction and age affect turnover consistently. Practical recommendations are outlined for public managers seeking to boost employee retention.