Antecedents of team turnover intentions in temporary organizations

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the antecedents of team turnover intentions in temporary organizations such as projects, programs, or temporary teams. Design/methodology/approach – The authors systematically combine the findings from the literature on the antecedents of turnover intentions in permanent organizations (PO) with the characteristics of temporary organizations (TO) and develop a research model comprising personal factors, job-related factors, and organization-related factors. Findings – A research model consisting of testable propositions that the authors derived from both specificities of TO and the antecedents of turnover intentions in PO. Originality/value – The authors contribute to literature by identifying potential antecedents of turnover intentions that are specific to TOs and those that also exist in POs but are adapted to a temporary context. The research model allows future empirical research on turnover in TO to be conducted in a systematic way and supports the development of theory.

Performance Outcomes of Turnover Intentions in Temporary Organizations: A Dyadic Study on the Effects at the Individual, Team, and Organizational Level

“…Despite the recent growth of research on TOs (Bakker, ), only little has been done to differentiate turnover intentions from temporary as opposed to permanent organizations. We define turnover intentions from temporary organizations as an employee's willingness to withdraw from a TO, regardless of whether the employee wants to quit the surrounding PO as well (Nuhn and Wald, ). Previous studies confirmed that turnover intentions from POs cause detrimental effects on employees' performance behavior (Hui et al, ).…”

“…As employees develop turnover intentions from TOs, they will increasingly think about and search for alternative future positions to work in. Within TOs, future job placement also encompasses the appointment to other TOs within the same PO (Nuhn and Wald, ). In order to assess the availability of desirable alternatives, employees will increasingly show active job search and evaluation behavior (Sager et al, ; Blau, ).…”

“…For employees with turnover intentions from a TO there is no reason to spend much effort in the existing TO any longer. As employees plan their turnover from a TO (while remaining with the PO), they will turn their attention to their superiors in the permanent organization who are usually responsible for decisions related to payment, promotion, performance appraisal and the future assignment to TO‐teams (Bredin and Söderlund, ; Tyssen et al, ; Nuhn and Wald, ). This is similar to a situation described by Fontinha et al .…”

“…project‐based organizations (Sydow et al, ; Turner, ). The main difference between turnover intentions in TOs and turnover intentions in POs lies in the fact that employees may wish to work for another TO but remain within the same PO, whereas employees that develop turnover intentions in a PO consider leaving their company altogether (Nuhn and Wald, ). As employees change their attitudes and behaviors towards an organization once they decide to leave (Nelson, ; Wells and Peachy, ), they might also alter their individual performance behavior in the presence of turnover intentions from a TO.…”

“…However, empirical evidence for the theoretical propositions made above is scarce. More specifically, previous research has restricted investigations to performance outcomes of turnover intentions in POs and neglected to examine effects of turnover intentions from TOs (Howes et al, ; Nuhn and Wald, ). Furthermore, previous research has examined several performance outcomes of turnover intentions at a corporate level but largely neglected to investigate performance outcomes of turnover intentions at the individual level of a single employee (Mowday, ; Glebbeek and Bax, ).…”