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Voluntary Retirement and Organizational Turnover Intentions: The Differential Associations with Work and Non-Work Commitment Constructs

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Abstract

The relationships of voluntary retirement and organizational turnover intentions to various commitment constructs in work and non-work settings were examined using a sample of 345 employees near retirement age (mean age = 53.71). The results demonstrated that work centrality and commitment to leisure activities were unique predictors of retirement intentions, while affective organizational commitment predicted turnover intentions but not retirement. Occupational commitment was a significant predictor of both retirement and turnover. The implications for revising the definition of work-role attachment theory and further developing a theoretical model to explain retirement decisions are also discussed.

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Notes

  1. In this study, work satisfaction and co-worker satisfaction significantly correlated with retirement intentions. The interpretation of these relations is complicated by the fact that the retirement intentions scale used in this study appears to be a measure of perceptions about retirement rather than actual retirement intention (Example item: “In general, what is your overall feeling toward retirement?”).

  2. Recent research has suggested occupational commitment is composed of three components, adhering to a pattern similar to organizational commitment (see Meyer et al. 1993). This definition only explains affective occupational commitment which is the variable of interest in this study.

  3. The low response rate could be particularly problematic if a systematic self-selection effect was present. For example, the participants in this research were informed that the study was about turnover and retirement during the recruiting process, and therefore, it is possible that employees seriously considering retirement were more likely to participate. It is unclear how such a self-selection effect (if it exists) influenced the current findings. For example, if there are only a small number of employees within this age cohort who are considering retirement, the self-selection effect described above would increase the variance in retirement intention, and in turn increase effect sizes involving this variable. On the other hand, if the self-selection effect was strong enough to produce a sample of participants with very homogeneous retirement intentions, this would decrease the variance in this variable and its associated effect sizes. Future research may provide us with more accurate information about such self-selection effects.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Joseph A. Schmidt & Kibeom Lee

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  1. Joseph A. Schmidt
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  2. Kibeom Lee
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Correspondence to Joseph A. Schmidt.

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Schmidt, J.A., Lee, K. Voluntary Retirement and Organizational Turnover Intentions: The Differential Associations with Work and Non-Work Commitment Constructs. J Bus Psychol 22, 297–309 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-008-9068-y

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