Personnel Review

Purpose – Mastery goals and intrinsic motivation have separately been found to predict employee turnover and turnover intention, respectively. The purpose of the present study was to examine their relative and combined influence on turnover intention in terms of a direct model and a moderated model.

Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional survey was conducted among employees representing more than 400 organizations from a wide range of industrial sectors. The theoretical or subject scope of the paper was to integrate motivational antecedents for employee turnover.

Findings – When assessed jointly, intrinsic motivation was the strongest predictor of turnover intention. Mastery-approach goals were positively related to turnover intention, but this relationship was moderated by intrinsic motivation. The relationship between mastery-approach goals and turnover intention was only positive for employees low in intrinsic motivation.

Research limitations/implications – The two most important limitations are the cross-sectional nature of the study and the reliance on self-reported questionnaire data. Consequently, experimental and/or longitudinal studies are needed to examine causality issues.

Practical implications – The results suggest that intrinsic motivation holds a salient role for predicting turnover intention. For managers and organizations, then, emphasis should be placed on facilitating work environments supportive of intrinsic motivation in order to maintain employees' turnover intention at low levels.

Originality/value – The most interesting finding is that intrinsic motivation held a substantially stronger relationship with turnover intention than that of mastery-approach goals. In addition, support for the buffering role of intrinsic motivation was found, as mastery-approach goals were unrelated to turnover intention when intrinsic motivation was high.