Beyond attitudes and norms: Trust commitment and HR values as triggers of intention to leave

The purpose of the current prospective study was to compare the relationships among HR values, trust, commitment and intention to leave, between two groups of HR managers—those who eventually left and those who stayed. It was hypothesized that those who eventually leave (exit) will score lower on trust, commitment and values, and higher on intention to leave. Welbourne and Andrews have defined human resource value as 'the degree to which a company values employees as a specialized asset'. They further write 'if employees are considered to be a source of competitive advantage, a firm's strategy, mission statement and operating practices should reflect that value'. Thus, it was further hypothesized that lower HR values would lead to lower trust, lower commitment, and higher intention to leave. Last but not least, it was hypothesized that we shall find a different pattern of relationship between research variables differentiating those who eventually leave and those who stay. According to the theory of reasoned action, intentions develop from the attitudes and subjective norms that people hold relevant to behavior and function as the immediate antecedent of behavior. The idea behind this argument is that the immediate antecedent of any behavior is the intention to perform the behavior. Integrating social exchange, reasoned action, and attribution theories within a social information processing framework, helps us to understand the effect of trust, commitment, and HR values on intention to leave. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)