Job Attitudes, Intentions, and Turnover: An Analysis of Effects Using Latent Variables

Abstract

The effect of attitudes on behavior, intention to perform a behavior on actual behavior, and the simultaneous effects of attitudes and intention on each other, were examined within a sample of U. S. Navy enlisted men. A three-wave longitudinal design was employed in which measures of job satisfaction, organization satisfaction, and intention to reenlist were obtained at two time periods 6 months apart. Approximately 2 years after the initial data were collected, archival records were examined to identify participants whose enlistment had expired. Two hundred sixty such men were identified and their reenlistment decision noted. These men constituted the sample under study. Extending the general model proposed by Alwin, a structural equation analysis was employed. It was shown that the effect of intention on attitude was greater than the effect of attitude on intention. Situational constraints that might override preferences in determining actual behaviors were discussed.