The Effects of Family Structure on Organizational Commitment, Intention to Leave and Voluntary Turnover [*]

In the large literature on human resource management, scholars have long recognized and frequently speculated on the potential effects of family life on work behaviors. Over the years, numerous appeals for research on the interfaces between work and family life have been made (e.g., Zedeck, 1992). In the more focused research on voluntary turnover, Mobley (1982) called attention, more than sixteen years ago, to the likely effects of family and nonwork factors on the leaving process. Moreover, he appealed for additional theory and research because a better understanding of these effects would enhance our theories and empirical prediction of voluntary turnover. To date, however, the role of family on voluntary turnover remains poorly understood (Hom and Griffeth, 1995). This Research Report begins a response to the strong and enduring interest shown by scholars of human resource management on family issues and to the long standing appeals for empirical study on the effects of family in the turnover process. Mo re specifically, we present preliminary evidence that families constitute a major contextual factor when people leave organizations and begin clarifying its role in that process. More important, we seek to stimulate and suggest directions for future research. In the following sections, the traditional psychological theory and research on the effects of family on voluntary turnover are reviewed. In particular ambiguities in this literature concerning the substantive content of family are highlighted. To suggest resolutions to these ambiguities, specific characteristics of family and possible processes by which these characteristics might operate on turnover are identified from sociological theory and research. Then, in turn, hypotheses are deduced, empirically tested, and results are reported. Finally, speculations, limitations and implications for future research are offered. Traditional Psychological Theory and Research Based on ideas summarized by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), many models of voluntary turnover adopt the following as their core psychological linkage: (a) job attitudes [right arrow] (b) intention to leave (or stay) [right arrow] (c) actual leaving (c.f., Stroh et al., 1996). Moreover, most turnover theories and much of the corresponding empirical research can be differentiated by their varying emphasis, inclusion and placement within this core linkage of other specific turnover-relevant variables. For example, Gerhart (1990) investigated the direct and interactive effects of perceived ease of movement, unemployment rate and tenure on the linkages from job satisfaction to intention to stay to voluntary turnover. He found that perceived ease of movement directly and interactively (with job satisfaction) affected intention to stay, unemployment rate directly and interactively (with intention to stay) affected turnover, and tenure had direct effects only on intention to stay and turnover. Similarly, Stroh et al. (1 996) studied the direct and interactive effects of sex, family structure (i.e., dual earner status and children at home) and the "glass ceiling" on intention to leave and subsequent leaving. They found that sex, children at home, and the interaction of sex and glass ceiling were significant predictors of intention to leave. Although some family variables are included in virtually all psychologically-oriented turnover models, theorists have not agreed upon which family characteristics are most relevant to quitting and how they might operate. For instance, Mobley's (1977) intermediate linkages model shows that "nonjob factors" (with "transfer of spouse" as his specific example) operate between job dissatisfaction and intention to leave via an effect on a sequential process of intention to search, search for alternatives and evaluation of alternatives. In their expanded version, Mobley et al. (1979) assert that "family responsibilities" affect individual values, which in turn affect intentions to search and to quit. …