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When and why entrepreneurial employees want to quit their job: Exploring two conflicting mechanisms

Ahmetoglu, G; Nefyodova, V; Chamorro-Premuzic, T; Codreanu, S-C; (2020) When and why entrepreneurial employees want to quit their job: Exploring two conflicting mechanisms. Applied Psychology 10.1111/apps.12250. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

Past turnover research has posited personality traits as important antecedents to quit intentions. Nevertheless, previous literature has not investigated the relationship between employees’ entrepreneurial tendencies—a constellation of domain specific traits—and turnover. Drawing on dispositional trait theory and attraction‐selection‐attrition theory, we propose engagement and intentions to start a business as mediators of the relationship between entrepreneurial tendencies and quit intentions. We test our predictions in a sample of full‐time employees from the United Kingdom (N = 224). In line with our hypotheses, an inconsistent mediation is found, where both positive and negative links between entrepreneurial tendencies and turnover intentions were mediated by engagement and intentions to start a business respectively. Thus, entrepreneurial employees were more likely to be engaged, but at the same time also more likely to be considering starting their own business, leading to a conflicting relationship to turnover intentions. The current study informs the human resource management literature concerning the motivational mechanisms explaining turnover intentions among entrepreneurial employees. It also provides practical insights with regards to the effective management of this workforce.

Type: Article
Title: When and why entrepreneurial employees want to quit their job: Exploring two conflicting mechanisms
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/apps.12250
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12250
Language: English
Additional information: © 2020 The Authors. Applied Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Association of Applied Psychology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10093882
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