The Doctrine of the Mean: Workplace Relationships and Turnover Intention

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1481
• Date: 01 March 2019
• Published date: 01 March 2019

The Doctrine of the Mean: Workplace

Relationships and Turnover Intention

Fong-Yi Lai

National Pingtung University of Science & Technology

Szu-Chi Lu*

National Chung Cheng University

Cheng-Chen Lin

National Pingtung University of Science & Technology

Yu-Chin Lee

Shu-Te University

Abstract

The present study examines the curvilinear relationships be-

tween LMX/TMX and team members’turnover intention si-

multaneously. That is, members with high LMX, TMX, or

both are more likely to have turnover intention. Hypotheses

were tested with a sample of 452 nurses, and we adopted the

response surface methodology and polynomial regression to

test our theoretical model. The hierarchical regression anal-

ysis showed that TMX has a U-shaped relationship with

turnover intention but not with LMX. In addition, the results

indicate that both the congruence and incongruence of LMX

and TMX result in higher turnover intention, but moderate

levels of LMX and TMX have the lowest turnover intention.

Strengths, limitations, practical implications, and directions

for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2018 ASAC.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: leader–member exchange, team–member ex-

change, turnover intention, polynomial regression, surface

methodology

Résumé

Les auteurs de la présente étude examinent simultanément

les relations curvilignes entre le LMX/TMX et les intentions

de roulement des membres d’une équipe. Ils montrent que les

membres qui ont un LMX ou un TMX élevé, ou les deux, sont

plus susceptibles d’avoir des intentions de roulement. Les

hypothèses formulées sont testées sur un échantillon de

452 inf‌irmières tandis que le modèle théorique proposé est

testé grâce à la méthodologie de surface de réponse et la ré-

gression polynomiale. L’analyse de régression hiérarchique

montre que le TMX a une relation en forme de U avec les in-

tentions de roulement, mais pas avec le LMX. Par ailleurs,

la congruence et l’incongruité des LMX et TMX se

traduisent par une intention de roulement plus élevée; en re-

vanche, les niveaux modérés de LMX et de TMX ont la plus

faible intention de roulement. Dans la conclusion, les au-

teurs présentent les contributions de leur étude, ses limites

et ses implications pratiques avant de proposer des pistes

de recherches futures. Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published

by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mots-clés: échange leader-membre, échange équipe-

membre, intention de chiffre d’affaires, régression

polynomiale, méthodologie de surface

Introduction

In a world of rapidly changing and ever increasing

complexity, the survival of a business is largely dependent

on the effective management of knowledge employees

(Grant, 1996). Losing these valuable and skilful employees

can undermine an organization’s effectiveness because of

the costs of retraining and cultivating new workers (Darmon,

1990). Therefore, to avoid losing valuable staff and maintain

organizational sustainability, it is essential that leaders fully

understand the reasons behind employees’turnover inten-

tion and minimize their thoughts of leaving the organization

(Darmon, 1990; Steel & Lounsbury, 2009).

Prior research identif‌ies several antecedents of turnover

intention, such as employees’attitudes and cognition, job

content, and leadership (Griffeth, Hom, & Gaertner, 2000).

One important antecedent is the relationship between

leader and members (Maertz & Griffeth, 2004). Drawing

on the interpersonal relationship perspective, members of a

work team are strongly inf‌luenced by two types of social-

exchange relationship (Anand, Vidyarth, Liden, &

Rousseau, 2010; Liao, Liu, & Loi, 2010; Scott & Bruce,

*Please address correspondence to: Szu-Chi Lu, Department of Labor Rela-

tions, National Chung Cheng University, Chia-yi county 621, Taiwan.

Email: ray5202002@gmail.com

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

36:84–96 (2019)

Published online 6 February 2018 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1481

Can J Adm Sci

36(1), 84–96 (2019)Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 84