The interactive effects of participation and outcome favourability on turnover intentions and evaluations of supervisors

Prior research suggests that employees who receive unfavourable decision outcomes from their organization will have less negative attitudes towards the organization and organizational officials if they participated in the decision than if they did not participate. Questionnaire data from 220 academic accountants were analysed with regression to test for this proposed interaction between participation and outcome favourability in a performance evaluation context. In support of the proposed interaction, unfavourable outcomes had the lease negative relationship with intent to stay with che organization and trust in immediate supervisor when participation was high. This phenomenon may be attributable to a belief on the part of employees that participation afforded them influence in decision making to ensure they received the best possible outcomes under the circumstances.