Staying or leaving : A combined social identity and social exchange approach to predicting employee turnover intentions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to combine social identity and social exchange theories into a model explaining turnover intentions. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires measuring the constructs of organizational identification, perceived organizational support, emotional exhaustion, and turnover intentions were completed by 195 employees. Findings – Results supported our hypotheses: social identification increased the perception of organizational support which in turn reduced emotional exhaustion which was finally related to turnover intentions. Furthermore, social identification moderated the relation between organizational support and turnover intentions. Research limitations/implications – The study design was cross-sectional and data were collected using self-report with no assessment of objective data. Practical implications – To reduce turnover, managers should focus on both support and employees’ identification with teams and organizations. Originality/value – This study combines two theoretical perspectives into an integrative framework and simultaneous moderated-mediation was used to test the model.