Critical latent triggers for threshold candidates at exit? A study of Korean public employees

This study analyzes the effect of need satisfaction on turnover intention for public employees using Alderfer’s ERG theory. Unlike previous studies, we focus on employees that fall within the range of voluntary turnover threshold to explore which of their needs result in a significantly increased turnover intentions. That is, we examine which needs act as latent key determinants that trigger voluntary turnover. We found that job satisfaction is a factor that induces threshold candidates to voluntary turnover and may also act as a latent critical trigger that causes non-threshold candidates to enter into the threshold and the effect of job satisfaction on turnover intention was found to be greater for threshold candidates. On the other hand, lower job security satisfaction led to increased turnover intention for non-threshold candidates which suggests that dissatisfaction with job security can act as a late critical trigger that causes them to enter into turnover threshold. Lastly, Among the threshold candidates, employees with lower pay satisfaction had higher turnover intention and among the non-threshold candidates, those with lower career development satisfaction showed higher turnover intention, respectively. Our results imply that differentiated management approaches are essential between strategies to prevent employees within the threshold from exiting and strategies to prevent new entry into the threshold.