Intent to Exit: Why Do US Federal Employees Leave?

Abstract

This study examines factors that may influence an employee to exit an organization. Factors that are considered to influence exit are derived primarily from Hirschman’s model of exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect. Other variables considered are public service motivation, job satisfaction, pay satisfaction, gender, race, supervisory status, and agency. The study evaluates the relationships between these variables using data obtained from the United States’ 2010 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Overall, the data suggest that there is a slight tendency of public employees to be intrinsically motivated.

Keywords:

• exit
• voice
• loyalty
• and neglect
• Hirschman’s theory
• public service motivation
• motivation
• multinomial logistic regression