Job attitudes and organizational withdrawal: An examination of retirement and other voluntary withdrawal behaviors

Relationships among a variety of organizational withdrawal indicators and retirement are examined. The specific focus is on retirement as a voluntary organizational withdrawal behavior. Retirement is considered a means, similar to other forms of organizational withdrawal, that individuals may use to avoid dissatisfying work situations. Eighty-two academic and eighty-four nonacademic employees at a large midwestern state university completed a structured interview about their retirement intentions, work-role attitudes, job importance, attitude toward retirement, and withdrawal behaviors. Relations among individual withdrawal intentions, cognitions, and reported behaviors—including lateness, absenteeism, turnover intentions, desire to retire, and intended retirement age—are reported. Preliminary evidence for two families of withdrawal behaviors, Work Withdrawal and Job Withdrawal, was found. Similar patterns of relations among the behaviors for both academic and nonacademic employees were evident. Regressions of composite scores reflecting the two withdrawal families on job attitudes, job importance, health satisfaction, and retirement attitudes were examined. Different networks of relations across the two samples and between the two families within each sample were obtained. Implications of the findings for organizations and individuals are discussed.