Organizational justice and millennial turnover in public accounting

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between distributive justice, procedural justice, and turnover intentions for Millennial employees working in the public accounting environment. Design/methodology/approach Data collection utilized an online survey sent to members of a regional certified public accountant organization (n=75). Findings Lower levels of both distributive and procedural justice predicted higher turnover intentions, controlling for gender and job tenure. Procedural justice was found to have a stronger relationship with turnover intentions than distributive justice for Millennial public accountants. Practical implications The public accounting industry is facing a crisis based on the shortage of staff and senior level accountants, which are primarily Millennial employees. The study results have practical implications for public accounting firms. The findings suggest that the fairness of organizational processes could impact Millennials’ turnover intentions more than the fairness of organizational rewards. Employers could use this information to manage levels of procedural justice, which could reduce turnover intentions, actual turnover, and other byproducts of the staffing shortage. Originality/value This study examined the relationship between organizational justice and Millennial turnover intentions in public accounting. The study replicated the findings of some prior studies in a purely Millennial sample in the public accounting context and addressed some of the contradictory results seen previously related to organizational justice. As the public accounting industry has an abnormally large percentage of Millennial employees, these findings may be applied to other environments as the Millennial population in the workforce increases.