Resignation Intention

Resignation intention refers to an employee's potential plan to change jobs in the future, often reflecting job dissatisfaction and a desire to seek new opportunities. It includes both voluntary and involuntary resignations, with the former typically being a decision made by the employee and the latter due to specific reasons such as termination or retirement. Voluntary resignations can have negative impacts on companies, including affecting morale among other employees and human capital investments. Employees usually carefully consider before deciding to resign, and resignation intention is seen as a predictive indicator of actual resignation behavior.

Resignation intention, also known as turnover intention, refers to the likelihood of an employee changing their job within a certain period or the next withdrawal behavior after experiencing dissatisfaction. Experts generally believe that resignation intention is the sum of job dissatisfaction, thoughts of resignation, the tendency to look for other jobs, and the possibility of finding other jobs.

Narrowly defined, resignation refers to labor mobility from within an organization to the external environment. Resignation intention refers to an employee's deliberate intent to leave the organization after working for a specific period, following consideration. It is a latent desire to leave the organization and serves as a predictor of actual employee turnover behavior. Factors influencing employee resignation intentions are diverse and primarily stem from societal, organizational, and individual sources, including both objective uncontrollable societal factors and subjective individual psychological factors, as well as internal organizational environmental factors.

Resignation can be simply divided into voluntary resignation and involuntary resignation. Involuntary resignation is primarily due to factors such as termination, retirement, or work-related injuries. Generally, involuntary employee turnover is advantageous for a company's development, whereas voluntary turnover is often detrimental to a company's business operations. Employee voluntary turnover can lead to decreased morale among other employees, resulting in losses in human capital investment. Therefore, voluntary turnover often becomes a focal point of concern for practitioners and researchers. Given the significant impact of turnover on an employee's life, family, and career, employees usually carefully consider it before choosing voluntary resignation. Thus, employees tend to manifest some degree of resignation intention before formally resigning.

Factors Affecting Employee Resignation Intention

There are many factors affecting employee resignation intention, but the two most recognized are attitude factors: job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction refers to an individual's emotional experience related to their job and activities associated with it. When someone has a high level of job satisfaction, it means they have a positive evaluation and positive emotions regarding their work. Based on empirical research, job satisfaction is primarily composed of facets such as job content, promotion, compensation, supervision, and coworkers.

Organizational Commitment

Organizational commitment generally refers to the intensity with which employees identify with and participate in an organization. It differs from formal contracts concerning job tasks and roles that individuals enter into with an organization, and it represents a 'psychological contract.' In organizational commitment, employees determine the extent and degree to which they are connected to the organization, especially defining behaviors outside of formal contractual job roles. Employees with high organizational commitment have a strong sense of identification and belonging to the organization.