Perceived Internal Employability as a Strategy to Reduce Employee Intention to Quit

Abstract

This study analyzes the impact of perceived internal employability as a means to retain employees who possess human capital valuable for the company. Employees’ perceptions are used since these are the ones which determine attitudes and, therefore, predispositions to act, as well as adopted individual behaviors. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are proposed as mediating variables in such relationship, since they have been mentioned in the literature as determinants when explaining employee behavior. Intention to quit job is used as dependent variable insofar as it is very complex to analyze effective employee turnover, which depends to a great extent on the opportunities offered by the labor market. The analysis is carried out throughstructural equations in a sample of 218 employees. The results show that internal employability does have a positive effect in a combined affective dimension of the job, and that this dimension has a negative impact on employees’ intention to quit their jobs.