Author(s)

Jutta Lang^*, Marcel Kern, Dieter Zapf

Department Work and Organizational Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.

The present study analyses the specific impact of proactivity, career satisfaction and job embeddedness on career turnover and aims to contribute to the improvement of future recruitment and retention policies. We propose an integrated model that focuses on direct and indirect effects of proactivity, career satisfaction and job embeddedness, on alternative job opportunities, going to job interviews and signing a new job contract. To test our hypotheses we used structural equation modeling with data from 192 employed participants, contacted at two separate points in time, once asking for personality and career related data, and six month later for turnover outcomes. The results support the assumption that proactive but not career satisfied and embedded employees carry with them a higher risk of leaving for greener pastures through their easier access to alternative job opportunities. On their way up the career ladder only high levels of job embeddedness and in particular attractive career opportunities within the present organization make staying more attractive than leaving.

Proactivity, Career Satisfaction, Job Embeddedness, Job Opportunities, Voluntary Turnover

Lang, J. , Kern, M. and Zapf, D. (2016) Retaining High Achievers in Times of Demographic Change. The Effects of Proactivity, Career Satisfaction and Job Embeddedness on Voluntary Turnover. Psychology, 7, 1545-1561. doi: 10.4236/psych.2016.713150.