A closer look at select cognitive precursors to organizational turnover: What has been missed and why

Two meta-analytic procedures are used to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction and selected withdrawal cognitions. Moderating influences not found in previous integrative research were identified by controlling for the influence of a large sample-size outlier and a target of behavioral intention, i.e., intention to stay versus intention to leave. Findings for 49 studies indicate previous integrative models of turnover by Hem, Caranikas-Walker, Prussia, and Griffeth, and of Tett and Meyer should be altered to reflect context (civilian versus military) and intention (staying versus leaving) moderators but nor an intention to turnover or a moderator of withdrawal cognition as indicated by Tett and Meyer in 1993. The adequacy of measures of current intention to leave is discussed regarding their consistency with recent intention theory. General implications for meta-analytic research are discussed with regard to accounting for sample-size outliers.