Time to leave? The interaction of temporal focus and turnover intentions in explaining voluntary turnover behaviour

Although turnover intentions are the strongest predictors of voluntary behaviours, many employees who express to leave do not. To explain why some translate into behaviour and others not, this study examines moderating effect temporal focus (i.e. degree which one thinks about past, present future) between turnover, using lens theory planned behaviour. Data were collected from 683 full-time in a range organisations at three points time. Results show that past conditions positive relationship intention such is stronger when high. Future has an opposite effect, weaker future no significant current focus. Overall, helps stay by conditioning likelihood translating quitting. We speculate dominant, unspoken paradigm research assumption individuals focused, yet our results suggest scholars should explicitly examine assumption.