“This Ain’t My First Rodeo: How Past and Current Negative Event Experience Jointly Affect Employee Turnover Intentions”

Pingshu Li

University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley

Abstract:

Recent event-oriented research has demonstrated that events can influence many different psychological processes and outcomes. Importantly, this research has focused on the impact of single events in isolation, even though there is considerable reason to believe that multiple events might act in concert to affect outcomes. We adopt a multiple-event approach and link employee experience from a past negative event to a current negative event. In doing so, we argue that past negative event experience can mitigate the negative effect of current event disruption on employee outcomes. More specifically, building from job demands-control theory, we propose that job overload mediates the current event disruption and turnover intentions relationship. Shared employee past negative event experience, individual adaptivity, and unit collective resilience positively moderate this mediated relationship. We explore these relationships in two field studies and found (in study 1) that shared past negative event experience mitigated the negative effect of current event disruption on employee turnover intentions. Based on these findings, we designed study 2 to further investigate the proposed mediating and moderating mechanisms, finding additional support for our hypotheses. These findings extend the event-oriented theories and research and have important implications for management practice.