High and low performers' intention to leave: examining the relationship with motivation and commitment

By studying intrinsic sources of motivation, the current research extends theory development in the motivation and commitment field to examine when employees of varying performance intend to leave their organisation. Based upon a nation-wide study of retail banking employees in one of the largest Australian financial institutions (N = 784), we found that for high-performing employees with either a promotion focus or affective commitment, there was significantly reduced intention to leave. The relationship between affective commitment and intention to leave was not significantly strengthened by increases in promotion focus. Implications for development of theories focused on intrinsic sources of motivation and commitment as well as the practical implications for talent retention are discussed.