Examining the Relationship between Cowarker Interpersonal Citizenship Behavior, Affective Commitment and Employee Turnover Intentions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how coworker interpersonal citizenship behavior and the level of affective commitment influence employee turnover intentions. Participants were employees of a Midwestern university who worked in different job categories. To gain understanding of how the level of coworker support and affective commitment affect turnover intentions, participants were surveyed to see if the lack of these behaviors combined with either high or low levels of affective commitment influenced their decision to leave. Significant values were found for levels of coworker interpersonal citizenship behavior and self-interpersonal citizenship behavior and its effect on affective commitment (r= .21, p< .05and r= .31, p< .001), respectively, and a marginally significant value was found regarding the employees’ level of self-reported interpersonal citizenship behavior and turnover intention (r= -0.15, p=.09). No evidence was found to support the absence of coworker interpersonal support affected employee turnover intentions. Further study in the area of social relationships and employee turnover are warranted.