Corporate Ethical Values and Turnover Intention

Abstract

Corporate ethical values have been studied in a number of ways to understand how they influence the behavioral intention or actions of employees to achieve organizational survival and success. Nevertheless, they have not been considered as much within international business organizations, specifically around the issue of turnover which is important for those concerned with retaining knowledgeable staff in the organization. This study develops a model that explains how corporate ethical values influence turnover intention based on social identity theory and ethical principled theory. The empirical results find that career satisfaction directly relates to turnover intention whereas corporate ethical values indirectly relate to turnover intention through the full mediation of organizational identification. Meanwhile, the effects of career satisfaction on turnover intention and on organizational identification are positively moderated by corporate ethical values. Last, managerial implications and research limitations are discussed.