Predictors of Motivation for Job Changing: Maintenance versus Motivation Seekers

Abstract

99 adult males, who had left their jobs or were in the process of leaving and were seeking new positions through a career management firm, served as subjects in a test of an extension of Herzberg's two-factor theory of job satisfaction. A systematic relationship was expected between personality variables and the reasons people leave their jobs. A stepwise multiple regression of .341 indicated that people who leave their jobs seeking greater satisfaction possess different personality characteristics than those people who leave their jobs because they are dissatisfied with their present jobs. Implications for future research include the possibility of predicting which people leave their jobs based on their personality characteristics and the situational factors surrounding their jobs.

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