This study examines the behavioral commitment (intent to stay) of a sample of blue-collar employees from a manufacturing firm in
Australia. The purpose was to test an integrated causal model of
behavioral commitment based on four general classes of variables:
structural, pre-entry, environmental, and employee orientations. The
LISREL results indicate that variables rank ordered in terms of
importance for their total causal effects on the decision process of
employees to stay or leave an organization is as follows: job search,
job satisfaction, job security, attitudinal commitment, union
participation, environmental opportunity, physical conditions, job
hazards, met expectations, equity, family responsibility, centraliza
tion, supervisory support, and work group cohesion.
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