Theoretical Background

As two of the first and seemingly only theorists combining values and turnover, Steers and Mowday (1981) explicitly acknowledge the role of values in the turnover process in their previously mentioned model of turnover. They have argued that the dynamic process of employee turnover has three sequential parts, i.e., “(1) job expectations […] and values influence an individual’s affective responses to a job; (2) affective responses affect desire and intention to stay or leave […]; and (3) an intention to leave an organization leads to actual leaving” (Lee & Mowday, 1987, p. 722).