When are high performers more or less likely to turnover? A mediated test of the performance-turnover relationship highlighting the moderating roles of visibility and reward contingency

Despite the importance of understanding the conditions under which high performing employees are more or less likely to voluntarily leave an organization, the nature of the relationship between job performance and voluntary turnover has proven to be elusive. At least two important shortcomings of theory and research in this area to date are noted: the lack of tests of a mediated model of the performance-turnover relationship despite the fact that most contemporary turnover theories view voluntary turnover as a process with mediating relationships; and the lack of attention paid to the potentially important moderating variable of visibility or observability of performance. Thus, a model of the performance-turnover relationship is proposed and tested which highlights the important mediating roles of the availability of alternative employment opportunities and job satisfaction, as well as the important moderating roles of visibility and the nature of the reward system. The model is evaluated in two studies. The first uses two samples to directly test the mediating relationships and indirectly test the moderating relationships using structural equation modeling. The second directly tests the entire mode using structural equation modeling multi-group analysis. The results provide some support for the model and hypotheses, and directions for future development of these ideas are discussed.