Employee responses to job dissatisfaction : the effects of job attitudes, worker perceptions and individual differences on withdrawal and adaptation action alternatives

Abstract

Existing models of organizational withdrawal and job adaptation have received equivocal support mostly due to the limited number of behaviors used to define these constructs. Fuentes and Sawyer (1989b) articulated a comprehensive decision node model of organizational withdrawal and job adaptation which expanded on the Farrell (1983) EVLN typology to delineate the process by which employees respond to negative job affect. The decision node model, based on job attitudes, individual differences, and perceptual nodes which moderate the job satisfaction-withdrawal relationship, also expands on the conceptual definition of withdrawal by including a full range of possible behavioral responses. The purpose of this study was to test the linkages of the decision node model. Specifically, the moderating role of individual differences, worker perceptions and job attitudes was evaluated for seven forms of organizational withdrawal and adaptation: Exit, voice, loyalty, neglect, transfers, increasing outcomes, and aggression. A second objective was to conduct tests of three major models of the withdrawal process: 1) Progression model, 2) alternate forms and, 3) compensatory behaviors. Results indicated partial support for the decision node model with the proposed paths accounting for between 3 and 28 percent of the variance in withdrawal activity. In particular, the amount of personal resources invested in the job, perceptions of effective voice mechanisms, and perceptions of external market conditions significantly moderated the relationship between job satisfaction and various withdrawal action alternatives. Tests of the hypotheses of withdrawal yielded definitive support for the progression model, moderate support for the alternate forms hypothesis, and a lack of support for the compensatory behaviors model. Future research efforts should focus on the development of additional individual differences and worker perception moderator constructs to account for previously uncovered variance in withdrawal and adaptation activity.