Exit and Voice: Turnover and Militancy Intentions in Elementary and Secondary Schools

Abstract

In his seminal 1972 work Hirschman suggested that members of organizations have two primary alternatives when faced with conditions that they find objectionable: exit (i.e., turnover) and voice (i.e., militancy). This study examines the degree to which two key affective work consequences (job satisfaction and stress symptomology) and two of their hypothesized antecedents (role conflict and ambiguity) are likely to have the same effect on voicing and exiting intentions. A covariance structure analysis of the data produced three basic findings. First, the results of previous studies of turnover intentions in organizations other than elementary and secondary schools were not found to be generalizable to these types of educational organizations. Second, the most plausible turnover specifications were found to be different from the most plausible militancy specifications for elementary and secondary schools (primarily in terms of the direct antecedents of turnover and militancy). Finally, exit and voice processes in elementary schools were found to be different from those in secondary schools (primarily in terms of the satisfaction-stress linkage).