Job Withdrawal Measures

Abstract

The Job Withdrawal Measures, as presented here, constitute a concise, three-item scale designed to assess an employee’s cognitive and affective predisposition toward voluntary organizational departure. Often derived from the foundational work on organizational withdrawal by Hanisch and Hulin (1990, 1991), this instrument specifically targets Turnover Intentions by measuring the frequency of quitting thoughts, the perceived likelihood of future separation, and the subjective desirability of leaving the job. It is a critical psychometric tool used primarily in organizational and industrial psychology to predict actual turnover behavior and evaluate the effectiveness of retention strategies.

Keywords

Job withdrawal, Organizational behavior, Withdrawal behavior, Turnover intentions, Intent to quit, Employee retention, Vocational psychology.

Authors

K. A. Hanisch, C. L. Hulin, Phillip Lipka (User/Adapter).

Purpose

The primary purpose of these measures is to quantify an individual’s cognitive predisposition toward leaving their current employment. It is specifically designed to capture the immediate and proximal predictor of actual voluntary turnover, distinguishing it from broader concepts of general job dissatisfaction or affective commitment. Researchers utilize this brief instrument to efficiently gauge the risk of employee departure across various organizational settings and contexts.

The scale serves as an indicator of the final, decisive stage of the withdrawal process, reflecting an employee’s decision-making phase regarding separation from the organization. By measuring both the frequency of quitting thoughts and the subjective probability of future action, the scale provides a robust, albeit short, assessment of intent that is highly correlated with actual termination behavior.

Construct

The central construct measured is Intent to Quit, which is classified as a cognitive component within the broader framework of Organizational Withdrawal. Hanisch and Hulin conceptualized organizational withdrawal as a set of behaviors aimed at removing the individual from an unpleasant work situation. This specific measure focuses exclusively on the attitudinal and intentional factors that immediately precede voluntary termination.

Intent to Quit is widely recognized in organizational research as the strongest attitudinal predictor of subsequent employee departure. The three items effectively tap into the multifaceted nature of intent: contemplation (frequency of thinking about leaving), likelihood (perceived probability of future action), and desirability (affective evaluation of separation). The high degree of specificity in these items ensures strong predictive validity relative to actual turnover.

Validity

While specific validation data for this exact three-item version must often be sought within the individual studies that employ it (e.g., the Lipka 2010 dissertation), the underlying construct of Intent to Quit derived from Hanisch and Hulin’s work demonstrates strong predictive validity. Extensive empirical evidence confirms that scores on similar withdrawal intention measures significantly predict actual voluntary turnover behavior over subsequent months or years, often exhibiting correlations in the range of .30 to .50 with subsequent termination.

Furthermore, these measures possess robust construct validity. They consistently correlate negatively and significantly with established scales measuring job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job embeddedness. Conversely, they show positive correlations with indicators of job stress, burnout, and perceived lack of organizational support, confirming that the scale accurately captures the theorized precursors to job withdrawal.

Reliability

Given the brevity of this measure (N=3 items), internal consistency reliability (measured by Cronbach’s Alpha) is often reported as acceptable, typically falling within the range of 0.70 to 0.85 when the items are used as a unified measure of intent. Researchers often accept reliability at the lower end of this range due to the scale’s theoretical coherence and exceptional predictive power. The items are highly inter-correlated because they all address the same immediate decision outcome.

Test-retest reliability is also relevant, reflecting the stability of the intention over time. While intentions can naturally fluctuate based on immediate organizational events, the measure generally demonstrates adequate stability over short to medium periods (e.g., 4-8 weeks), confirming its utility in capturing persistent cognitive withdrawal states rather than transient moods.

Factor Analysis

Due to the limited number of items (N=3), formal exploratory factor analysis is often not feasible or necessary when the scale is used in isolation. However, when these items are administered alongside a broader battery of organizational behavior measures—as conceptualized by the hierarchy of withdrawal behaviors—they invariably load onto a single, distinct factor representing “Voluntary Turnover Intentions.”

Studies utilizing Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) consistently support the treatment of these three items as indicators of a single latent variable: Intent to Quit. This unidimensional structure confirms the scale’s focus on the singular cognitive outcome of deciding to separate from the organization.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report attitude questionnaire measuring cognitive and affective intentions.

Format: Psychometric scale utilizing a 5-point Likert-type response format. Response anchors vary across items, covering frequency, likelihood, and desirability.

Language Available: Primarily English, with common adaptations and translations available for use in global organizational studies.

Population Group: Employed adults; widely used in organizational, vocational, and human resources research.

Age Group: 18 years and older (Working adults).

Population Details: Applicable to diverse occupational sectors, including manufacturing, service industries, public administration, and professional roles, where issues of employee retention and job withdrawal are crucial.

Test Methodology: Administration can be conducted via paper-and-pencil or electronically. Scoring typically involves assigning numerical values (e.g., 1 to 5) to the responses. Item 3, which assesses desirability of quitting, often requires reverse scoring if the high end of the scale corresponds to low withdrawal (e.g., Very undesirable to quit = high commitment).

Keywords

Job satisfaction, Organizational commitment, Employee retention, Turnover prediction, Vocational behavior, Human resources.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not publicly provided in the source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not publicly provided in the source material.

Correspondence Address: Refer to institutional records for K. A. Hanisch and C. L. Hulin (e.g., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale items are generally considered non-proprietary and are widely used in academic and non-commercial research without specific permission fees, provided appropriate academic citation is given to the foundational works of Hanisch and Hulin (1990, 1991). The items are adaptations derived from research published in the early 1990s. The specific application cited in the source material (Lipka dissertation) is from 2010.

Reference’s

• Hanisch, K. A., & Hulin, C. L. (1990). Job attitudes and organizational withdrawal: An Examination of retirement and other voluntary withdrawal behaviors. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 37, 60–78.
• Hanisch, K. A., & Hulin, C. L. (1991). General attitudes and organizational withdrawal: An evaluation of a causal model. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 39, 110–128.
• Lipka, Phillip, “Sexual Minorities in the Workplace: An Examination of Individual Differences That Affect Responses to Workplace Heterosexism” (2010). All Dissertations. Paper 539.
• The original source document where this instrument was utilized (Lipka, 2010) can be accessed here: http://tigerprints.clemson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1539&context=all_dissertations

Items of the Job Withdrawal Measures

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.