Committee Chair

Cunningham, Christopher J. L.

Committee Member

Deepak, Pratibha; O'Leary, Brian J.

Department

Dept. of Psychology

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

The present study used the intentional change theory to understand why so many people choose to leave their jobs, by exploring the possible influence of a discrepancy between a person’s ideal and real selves (RISG) and their perceptions of the learning and development resources that their employers provided. These two predictors were hypothesized to predict turnover intentions and organizational commitment over and above the effect of key covariates. Perceived barriers to learning and development was also expected to moderate these relationships. Results supported these hypotheses, from analyses of data gathered from a sample of 248 insurance workers. RISG and perceived adequacy of learning and development resources predicted approximately 60% of the variance in turnover intentions and organizational commitment. These effects disappeared when accounting for barriers. The implications of this study are that understanding a workforce's RISG is a critical aspect to take into consideration when designing learning and development systems.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

5-2025

Subject

Job enrichment; Labor turnover--Psychological aspects; Organizational change--Psychological aspects; Organizational commitment

Keyword

turnover; organizational commitment; learning and development; change

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

ix, 52 leaves

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Date Available

5-31-2026

Download

Available for download on Sunday, May 31, 2026

Share

COinS