Intention to leave federal public companies: A study based on the theory of planned behavior and organizational entrenchment

Intenção de sair em empresas públicas federais: Um estudo à luz da teoria do comportamento planejado e do entrincheiramento organizacional

Abstract

Objective:  To verify whether attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (components of the theory of planned behavior), as well as organizational entrenchment, are predictors of the intention to leave a federal public company.

Originality/value:  This is the first Brazilian study to use the complete model of the theory of planned behavior, together with organizational entrenchment, to explain the formation of the intention to leave a public company.

Design/methodology/approach:  Cross-sectional survey approach. The sample of 535 professionals from the National Supply Company (CONAB) was recruited nationwide. The data was analyzed using two multiple linear regression models.

Results:  One of the regression models indicated that attitudes (measured using a job satisfaction scale), subjective norms, and organizational entrenchment predict the intention to leave CONAB. The regression model, including the dimensions of the constructs, showed that satisfaction with the nature of the work, satisfaction with promotions, limited alternative jobs, and subjective norms are predictors of the intention to leave the organization. This second model explained 50.95% of the variance in the intention to leave CONAB, a high percentage.

Contribution/implications:  The study increases the internal precision of the perceived behavioral control scale in the context of the intention to leave a public organization. Some factors can be managed, at least in part, to prevent good public employees from deciding to resign; these include job design, a promotion policy that truly values merit (and not just length of service), and the positive perception of family members and people of importance to the employee regarding the significance and value of public service.

Keywords:
organizational entrenchment; intention to leave; job satisfaction; public companies; quantitative research

Resumo

Objetivo:  Verificar se as atitudes, as normas subjetivas e o controle comportamental percebido (constitutivos da teoria do comportamento planejado), assim como o entrincheiramento organizacional, são preditores da intenção de sair de empresas públicas federais.

Originalidade/valor:  Esse é o primeiro estudo brasileiro a utilizar o modelo completo da teoria do comportamento planejado, juntamente com o entrincheiramento organizacional, para explicar a formação da intenção de sair de empresas públicas.

Design/metodologia/abordagem:  Survey com corte transversal. Amostra de 535 profissionais da Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento (CONAB) distribuídos em todo o território nacional. Os dados foram analisados por meio de dois modelos de regressão linear múltipla.

Resultados:  Um dos modelos de regressão indicou que as atitudes (mensuradas por meio de uma escala de satisfação no trabalho), as normas subjetivas e o entrincheiramento organizacional são preditores da intenção de sair da CONAB. O modelo de regressão com as dimensões dos construtos indicou que a satisfação com a natureza do trabalho, a satisfação com as promoções, a limitação de alternativas de trabalho e as normas subjetivas são preditoras da intenção de sair da organização. Este segundo modelo explicou 50,95% da variância da intenção de sair da Conab, percentual considerado alto.

Contribuição/Implicação:  O estudo contribuiu para aumentar a precisão interna da escala de controle comportamental percebido no contexto da intenção de sair de organizações públicas. Verificou-se que há fatores que podem ser gerenciados, pelo menos em parte, para evitar que bons empregados públicos decidam pedir demissão, como o desenho das funções, uma política de promoção que valorize verdadeiramente o mérito (e não apenas o tempo de serviço) e a percepção positiva de familiares e de pessoas importantes para o empregado sobre a importância e a valorização da função pública.

Palavras-chave:
entrincheiramento organizacional; intenção de sair; satisfação no trabalho; empresas estatais; pesquisa quantitativa

INTRODUCTION

It is well established that the quality of public services is linked to the manager’s ability to recruit, select, and retain qualified professionals (Vandenberg & Nelson, 1999). The voluntary departure of talented employees and/or those with important knowledge generates both tangible and intangible costs (Ghapanchi & Aurum, 2011) that impact organizational productivity (Allen et al., 2010). In 2022, the turnover rate in the public administration service in Brazil was 76.52%, including departures of tenured employees under labor contracts and of outsourced workers exclusively dedicated to the public administration. This percentage is higher than the national turnover rate, which was 54.86% that year (Brasil, 2024). Turnover requires realigning the remaining teams with the work environment and selecting new employees, which, as a rule, occurs through a public government entrance exam. This is a slow process that requires planning and, if not carried out correctly, can further complicate the personnel management problem in the medium and long terms (Cavalcante & Carvalho, 2017).

There is consensus on the importance of measuring turnover in public service. However, the main limitation (Brasil, 2020) is that changes proposed after identifying the causes of turnover affect only the employees who remain in the organization. Furthermore, studies that evaluate the employee’s journey from entry to eventual departure require time and resources and are uncommon in the organizational context (Price, 2004).

In this context, theories about the decision-making process for engaging in a particular behavior provide evidence for predicting an employee’s decision to leave an organization voluntarily, as well as evidence on the relationship between this decision and the actual act of resignation (Cuffa et al., 2024). One of the main social and behavioral theories (Bosnjak et al., 2020), the theory of planned behavior (TPB), establishes behavioral intention as the main cognitive predictor of behavior (Ajzen, 1991). In management, this theory has primarily been used in marketing research to examine product purchase behavior (Iwaya et al., 2022). In the organizational context, the focus has been on measuring intention to leave and its determinants (Steil et al., 2019). Behavioral intention refers to a person’s decision to act and the effort they are willing to make to perform this action (Abraham & Sheeran, 2004). Here, the intention to leave the organization is, therefore, the employee’s decision to resign and the effort they are willing to make to carry it out.

The intention to perform a behavior (in this study, voluntarily leaving the organization) is the main construct of the TPB (Ajzen, 1991, 2011). The propositions of this theory indicate that people carry out a behavior when they evaluate it positively (attitude toward the behavior), when they believe that people important to them want them to execute the behavior (subjective norms), and when they perceive that the behavior is under their control (perceived behavioral control) (Steil et al., 2019). Behavioral intention is a universal phenomenon (Ajzen, 2011), but its understanding is primarily based on evidence from North American and European studies (Steinmetz et al., 2016). Regarding the intention to leave an organization, Mowday et al. (1982) proposed a model in which the intention to leave is the final cognitive element before actual departure. Brazilian studies (Agapito et al., 2015; Oliveira & Costa, 2019) and international ones (Lin & Huang, 2020) show that the intention to leave is associated with the behavior of leaving the organization (Joo et al., 2015; Treuren & Frankish, 2014).

The main limiting aspect of these studies on the intention to leave an organization is their theoretical fragmentation, as the construct of behavioral intention has been disconnected from the theory of which it is an integral part, the TPB. In other words, researchers have investigated the intention to leave the organization without considering its formally established antecedents: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. In an extensive literature review, Cuffa (2020) identified 65 studies on the intention to leave a public organization; of these, only four were conducted in Brazil, and none used the complete TPB model. It is worth noting that the constructs established in a theory need to be understood within the context of that theory, as they are part of a single system of ideas; this is similar to Ohm’s law, for which voltage, current, and resistance constitute a unified system of concepts about electricity.

This study was designed to address this gap and to utilize the full TPB model to determine whether it predicts the intention to leave a public company. The guiding question for this study is: What are the predictors of the intention to leave a public company, in light of the TPB? Therefore, this study aims to investigate which variables influence the intention of professionals at a public company to leave. To that end, a survey was conducted with 535 employees of the National Supply Company (CONAB), distributed throughout Brazil. Identifying the antecedents that predict the intention to leave a public company is relevant, as it advances empirical understanding of the cognitive antecedents of voluntary departure behavior within a robust conceptual framework.

Furthermore, qualified professionals resign more often than they are dismissed (Hofaidhllaouri & Chhinzer, 2014); therefore, knowledge of the factors related to their intention to leave the organization voluntarily may help managers retain them (Falatah et al., 2021). After this introduction, the article presents four more sections. First, the theoretical framework is outlined, and then the methodology is explained. The third section contains the analysis and discussion of the results, and the fourth section presents the final considerations.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This section describes the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), with voluntary departure from the organization being the behavior of interest. The construct of organizational entrenchment will also be presented, along with the theoretical justification for its selection as a possible predictor of the intention to leave a public organization.

Theory of planned behavior and intention to leave the organization

The TPB originated from the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). Developed in the 1960s by Fishbein and Ajzen, the TRA posits that behavioral intentions are the immediate determinants of volitional behavior. The central assumption of the theory is that although there is no guarantee of perfect correspondence between intention and behavior, people tend to act in accordance with their intentions (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977). An intention refers to a person’s decision to act and the effort they are willing to make to carry out that behavior (Abraham & Sheeran, 2004). Behavioral intentions are formed by behavioral and normative beliefs, represented by attitudes (positive or negative evaluations of a behavior) and subjective norms (social expectations about a behavior) (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1988). Attitude, composed of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components, influences the evaluation an individual makes about their behavior. In turn, normative beliefs are shaped by social bonds throughout life and represent the influence of perceived social pressure on behavioral intentions (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1975).

Although it represents an advance in understanding the cognitive determinants of behavior, the TRA faced challenges in predicting behaviors that involve skills, resources, or external opportunities (Iwaya, 2020). The TPB was proposed to address this issue. The TPB incorporates perceived behavioral control (PBC) as a third predictor of behavioral intention. PBC reflects an individual’s perception of their ability to execute a behavior and the beliefs that facilitate or hinder its execution (Ajzen, 1991). Therefore, the intention to perform a behavior will be greater as attitude, subjective norms, and PBC become more favorable. As a result of its simplicity and its ability to explain behaviors with incomplete volitional control, the TPB has been widely used to predict behaviors in various fields, such as decisions regarding the use of pesticides (Savari & Gharechaee, 2020) or decisions to maintain social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic (Iwaya et al., 2020).

In the public sphere, studies that use the full TPB model to predict the intention to leave an organization are rare (Cuffa, 2020). Existing studies are limited to correlating the intention to leave with attitudinal constructs, especially job satisfaction (Deng et al., 2021; Koch et al., 2020; Labrague & De Los Santos, 2021; Paranaíba, 2014; Said & El-Shafei, 2021). Other studies associate different variables, such as work–family conflict, perceptions of organizational justice (Torres, 2015), affective commitment (Ceribeli & Ferreira, 2016), career expectations, and expectations regarding the company’s future (Ferreira & Neiva, 2018), with the intention to leave the organization. Although these studies use the intention to leave the organization as a construct, they do so outside the complete context of the TPB.

The current state of knowledge regarding the intention to leave a public organization, considering the full TPB model, demonstrates the existence of a negative correlation between an attitudinal construct, job satisfaction, and the intention to leave the organization (Deng et al., 2021; Koch et al., 2020; Labrague & De Los Santos, 2021; Paranaíba, 2014; Said & El-Shafei, 2021). These correlational studies do not include subjective norms or PBC; therefore, they lack predictive power regarding the intention to leave the organization. Based on the conceptual framework of the TPB, of which behavioral intention is an integral part, and to empirically verify whether the intention to leave a public organization is related to the full TPB model, the following hypotheses were developed:

• H1: Attitude. A CONAB employee’s positive attitude towards the company is negatively associated with their intention to leave the organization.

• H2: Subjective Norms. The more positive the opinion of people considered important to a CONAB employee regarding their continued employment, the lower their intention to leave the organization.

• H3: Perceived Behavioral Control. The less control a CONAB employee perceives over their departure from the organization, the lower their intention to leave.

Ajzen (1991) points out that the TPB can be extended, once the model’s variables have been taken into account, to assess whether the inclusion of new constructs accounts for a significant proportion of the variance in behavioral intention. Since the focus of this study is on employees’intention to leave public organizations, it was considered useful to include organizational entrenchment as a possible predictor, as will be explained in the next section.

Organizational Entrenchment (OE)

Public employees generally have more benefits, greater job security, and a stronger guarantee of employment than private-sector employees governed by general employment laws. As a result, they face a higher risk of entrenchment (Magalhães, 2008). Organizational entrenchment is “the tendency of an individual to remain in the organization due to possible losses of investments and costs associated with their departure, and due to the perception of few alternatives outside that organization” (Rodrigues, 2009, p. 75).

The term “entrenchment” originated in the context of World War I, when soldiers protected themselves in trenches to reduce the likelihood of suffering harm. The concept has its roots in the theory of side bets, proposed by Becker (1960), which emphasizes the investments an individual makes in their career, making it difficult for them to leave. These investments, both personal and organizational, are the foundation of entrenchment (Zacher et al., 2015). Entrenchment goes beyond the psychological component, as the individual starts to foresee possible material losses (such as their salary and the benefits they have obtained) if they give up their career (Carson et al., 1997). Thus, a process of stagnation and a need to maintain the status quo is observed, often at the expense of a potential desire for change (Meireles, 2015).

Organizational entrenchment has three dimensions (Rodrigues, 2009): (1) Adjustment to social position (APS)—this refers to the fear of losing investments made in training or the loss of status/recognition obtained in the organization; (2) Impersonal bureaucratic arrangements (IBA)—this is associated with the fear of the financial loss of salaries and benefits; and (3) Limited alternatives (LA)—the individual does not foresee other job opportunities if they decide to leave the company, because of their age, the knowledge demanded in the market, or the scarcity of vacancies (Rodrigues, 2009). Therefore, the construct measures the extent to which an individual feels “trapped” in their company (Lopes, 2019).

The inclusion of organizational entrenchment is considered relevant in this study because an employee may intend to leave the organization yet perceive themselves as entrenched. If this occurs, entrenchment may alter the valence of the employee’s attitude toward resigning from the organization (whether they see resignation as more positive or more negative) and, consequently, affect the decision (the behavioral intention) to resign. Similarly, entrenchment may influence PBC by altering an individual’s perception of their actual ability to resign from the organization, because their beliefs may hinder this action. In this case, perceiving oneself as entrenched would be a hindering belief and, as such, would influence the formation of one’s intention to leave or remain in the organization.

Silva et al. (2019) posit that entrenched employees are not synonymous with inefficient employees. However, greater organizational support will be required for individuals in this condition to achieve their organizational goals. In the absence of such support, the individual may remain in the organization solely due to a lack of attractive alternatives in the job market (Nobre et al., 2017). Based on the conceptual framework presented, the following hypothesis is outlined.

• H4: The greater the entrenchment of a CONAB employee, the lower their intention to leave the organization.

METHODS

The study is a cross-sectional survey and was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Santa Catarina (CAAE: 49995721.2.0000.0121).

Measures

The Intention to Leave Scale (EIR) was used to measure the intention to leave the organization (Siqueira, 2014). This unidimensional instrument consists of three items related to how much a person thinks about leaving, plans to leave, and wants to leave the organization where they work. The items are answered on a five-point Likert scale. The internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) is .95.

The Reduced Job Satisfaction Scale (RJSS), comprising 15 items (Siqueira, 2008), was employed to measure job satisfaction. The scale encompasses five dimensions: satisfaction with coworkers, satisfaction with supervision, satisfaction with the nature of the work, satisfaction with promotions, and satisfaction with salary, all rated on a seven-point Likert scale. The minimum internal consistency of the scale’s dimensions, as measured by Cronbach’s alpha, is .82. The RJSS has been used in investigations of the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational turnover intention (Cuffa, 2020; Ramalho Luz & Oliveira, 2018; Paranaíba, 2014). As job satisfaction is an attitudinal construct, the RJSS serves as a proxy for attitudes within the TPB framework—a procedure accepted in research on behavioral intention (Cuffa et al., 2024).

Subjective norms were measured using the unidimensional Subjective Norms Scale (Cuffa, 2020), which comprises three items on a five-point Likert scale and has a Cronbach’s alpha of .82. To measure PBC, an adaptation of the instrument developed by Cuffa (2020) was used, as the original exhibited low internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .50). The following section details the validation process of the adapted instrument. Organizational entrenchment was measured using the Organizational Entrenchment Measure (OEM), which comprises three dimensions (social position adjustment, impersonal bureaucratic arrangements, and limited alternatives), 18 items, and a six-point Likert scale (Rodrigues & Bastos, 2015). The minimum internal reliability of the scale’s dimensions (Cronbach’s alpha) is .84.

Validity evidence for the perceived behavioral control scale

To improve the internal reliability of the PBC measure developed by Cuffa (2020), a nine-item scale was constructed following the methodology proposed by Pasquali (2013), which includes a theoretical evaluation of the items, divided into content and semantic analysis. A review by three experts—specialists in the construct and in psychometrics—identified two items with a Content Validity Coefficient (CVCt) below .70 and unsatisfactory Kappa values, and these items were subsequently excluded (Hernández-Nieto, 2002). Seven CONAB employees then performed a semantic analysis of the remaining items using a five-point Likert scale (Pasquali, 2013). One of the seven respondents rated it as only moderately clear, and it was therefore removed, leaving the scale with six items. Bivariate correlation analysis between the items indicated no item overlap (Pasquali, 2005).

The sample comprised 535 participants, with PBC measured by six items (an adequate ratio of 81 participants per item for exploratory factor analysis [EFA]; (Hair et al., 2019). The correlation matrix yielded inter-item associations exceeding .30, the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) index was adequate (.84), and Bartlett’s test of sphericity rejected the null hypothesis, confirming the suitability of the sample for factor analysis: χ² (15) = 1,689.14, p < .0001. Factor loadings for all six items were satisfactory (Hair et al., 2019). Communality (h²) values for PBC1 (.23) and PBC6 (.18) were low and, accordingly, these items were excluded (Hair et al., 2019). The final scale comprised four items (PBC2, PBC3, PBC4, and PBC5), all with communality values above .50 and factor loadings exceeding .70. The final correlation matrix yielded a KMO of .801, confirming the suitability of the sample for EFA: χ² (6) = 1,472.67, p < .0001. The final structure was unidimensional, with a Cronbach’s alpha of .90 for the four items.

Population and sample

The target population comprised all employees of the National Supply Company (CONAB) throughout Brazil, totaling 3,764 individuals. The sample was non-probabilistic and convenience-based (Levine et al., 2008). Based on the criterion of at least 5 respondents per item for a 60-item questionnaire, the minimum required sample size was 300 participants (Hair et al., 2009). The final sample comprised 535 respondents.

Data analysis

The sample was characterized using sociodemographic data, including age, sex, marital status, and presence of children. The normality of the dependent variable—organizational turnover intention—was assessed using the Shapiro–Wilk test. The following assumptions were adopted for the multiple regression analysis: (a) detection of influential cases via Cook’s distance (Hair et al., 2019); (b) verification of the absence of multicollinearity through correlation coefficients (r > .80), tolerance values (> .10), and VIF (< 5); (c) assessment of homoskedasticity through scatter plot inspection and Stata software output; (d) normality of residuals (Shapiro–Wilk test, with values above .01 considered acceptable); and (e) confirmation of linear relationships between variables via the t-test. The regression analyses were performed using the ordinary least squares (OLS) method (Levin et al., 2012).

RESULTS

The 535 employees who completed the questionnaire ranged in age from 19 to 75 years, with a mean age of 46.87 years (SD = 12.49). Sixty-three percent of the respondents were male, 59.81% held a postgraduate degree, and 74.77% were married. Most respondents had children (65.98%; see Table 1).

Table 1
Sociodemographic characteristics of survey respondents

Variable	Category	F	%
Sex	Male	336	62.80%
	Female	199	37.20%
Education	Completed Elementary School	4	0.75%
	Completed High School	69	12.90%
	Completed Undergraduate Degree	142	26.54%
	Completed Postgraduate Degree	320	59.81%
Marital Status	Single	104	19.44%
	Married	400	74.77%
	Widowed	4	0.75%
	Divorced	27	5.05%
Children	Yes	353	65.98%
	No	182	34.02%

For the regression analyses, the following variables were used: turnover intention (TI_TOTAL), job satisfaction (JS_TOTAL), subjective norms (SN_TOTAL), organizational entrenchment (OE_TOTAL), and perceived behavioral control (PBC_final). All regression assumptions were met. The variable PBC_final did not achieve statistical significance (p > .05) and was therefore excluded from the model.

Following the removal of influential cases (n = 44), a revised regression was conducted with 493 cases, yielding the following results: R² = .48; F(3, 487) = 150.12, p < .001. The results indicate that job satisfaction (representing attitude in the TPB model) (β = −.25, t = 4.20, p < .001), subjective norms (β = −.48, t = 5.10, p < .001), and organizational entrenchment (β = −.10, t = 4.42, p < .001) are significant predictors of intention to leave CONAB. These results support the following hypotheses: H1—employee positive attitudes toward the organization are negatively associated with turnover intention; H2—the more positive the views of individuals important to CONAB employees regarding their continued employment, the lower the employees’ intention to leave; and H4—the higher the degree of organizational entrenchment, the lower the intention to leave. H3 was not supported: perceived behavioral control was not significantly associated with turnover intention at CONAB.

To explore these findings further, a second regression model was developed, incorporating the dimensions of the job satisfaction and organizational entrenchment constructs, as well as subjective norms and PBC. Ten independent variables were included in total: five representing the arithmetic means of each dimension of the job satisfaction questionnaire (JS_F1_col, JS_F2_sal, JS_F3_sup, JS_F4_now, JS_F5_pro) and three representing the arithmetic means of each dimension of the organizational entrenchment questionnaire (OE_f1_spa, OE_f2_iba, OE_f3_la), plus PBC_final and SN_TOTAL, with turnover intention (TI_TOTAL) as the dependent variable.

Through a hierarchical elimination procedure, six variables that failed to reach statistical significance (p > .05) were removed. Four independent variables remained in the final model: satisfaction with the nature of work (JS_F4_now), satisfaction with promotions (JS_F5_pro), subjective norms (SN_TOTAL), and limited alternatives (OE_f3_la). As in the first model, influential cases were identified and removed, reducing the sample to n = 493. The final model yielded the following results: R² = .50, F(4, 486) = 128.24, p < .001. Specifically, the results of the second model indicate that satisfaction with the nature of work (β = −.25, t = 3.50, p < .001), satisfaction with promotions (β = −.09, t = 0.70, p < .001), subjective norms (β = −.44, t = 5.91, p < .001), and limited alternatives (β = −.11, t = 1.26, p < .001) are predictors of turnover intention, together explaining 50.95% of the variance in intention to leave CONAB. Table 2 summarizes the results of both regression models.

Table 2
Summary statistics for the regression models

Model	R2	Adjusted R2	F Change	RMSE	p-value
1	.480	.477	150.12	.806	.000
2	.505	.501	128.24	.786	.000
Model 1: (Constant); Independent variables: JB_TOTAL, SN_TOTAL, OE_TOTAL. Model 2: (Constant); Independent variables: JS_TOTAL, OE_f3_la, JS_F4_now, JS_F5_pro.

DISCUSSION

The first finding concerns the support for H1. Attitude, as measured by job satisfaction, was negatively associated with CONAB employees’ turnover intention. This result is consistent with findings from both domestic (Steil et al., 2019) and international studies (Dunzer, 2012; Falatah et al., 2021; Koch et al., 2020; Yücel, 2012). More specifically, the results indicate that for each 1-point increase in the mean job satisfaction score among CONAB employees, turnover intention decreases by 5%, demonstrating the predictive effect of job satisfaction on turnover intention.

In the model examining the job satisfaction dimensions, satisfaction with promotions and satisfaction with the nature of work were particularly salient. A similar pattern was found in a recent study of 224 IT professionals employed by public companies in the state of Santa Catarina (Cuffa et al., 2024), providing additional evidence of the relevance of these two dimensions among Brazilian public-sector workers. The perceived lack of clarity regarding the job requirements for different positions and functions, and the absence of explicit criteria for hierarchical progression within CONAB’s current career and salary plan (CONAB, 2009), may be related to this finding. The absence of objective rules for career advancement and the lack of meritocracy in the Brazilian public service have previously been associated with reduced job satisfaction, particularly among younger employees (Paranaíba, 2014). Limited autonomy in task execution and restricted career development opportunities have also been linked to organizational turnover intention (Gan et al., 2020; Park et al., 2018; Said & El-Shafei, 2021). Attitudes towards resigning from a public company (specifically CONAB) thus constitute a determinant of turnover intention.

The second noteworthy finding concerns subjective norms (H2), which emerged as strong negative predictors of turnover intention at CONAB. The views of close relatives regarding the importance of public service (Cuffa, 2020), the opinions of supervisors and significant colleagues (Jimmieson et al., 2008), and family members’ perceptions of the financial security afforded by public employment (Silva & Steil, 2022) all underscore the predictive significance of subjective norms in this study. A study of IT company employees in Santa Catarina (Cuffa et al., 2024) also identified a negative correlation between subjective norms and turnover intention. These findings collectively provide evidence of the importance of incorporating social and family environmental factors in understanding the determinants of a public employee’s intention to leave their organization.

In what appears to be the first published study of its kind in Brazil, organizational entrenchment (H4) was tested as a predictor of organizational turnover intention, and the hypothesis was confirmed: the higher the perceived degree of entrenchment, the lower the intention to leave CONAB. Given the characteristics of public employment—including greater job security and salary levels generally superior to those in the private sector (Magalhães, 2008)—organizational entrenchment emerged as a theoretically plausible extension of the TPB in the context of public sector employees.

From a conceptual standpoint, this result advances understanding of the relationship between the decision to resign (turnover intention) and the perceived need to remain in the organization (entrenchment). There is evidence that professionals sometimes harbor turnover intention without acting on it immediately (Steil et al., 2020), as the conversion of intention into behavior depends on certain properties of intentions, especially their temporal stability (Cooke & Sheeran, 2013; Sheeran & Abraham, 2003). While the importance of these properties of behavioral intention is acknowledged, it is hypothesized that the object of the intention and the degree of volitional control may also function as inhibitory factors in the conversion of intention into behavior.

In this study, in which the behavioral intention is the employee’s actual departure from a public company, self-perceived entrenchment may constitute a new inhibitory factor in the conversion of turnover intention into the actual behavior of resigning. This is because the dimension of organizational entrenchment that influenced turnover intention was the limited alternatives. If an employee perceives themselves as lacking employment alternatives because of their age, their competency profile, or labor market scarcity, they may not act on the intention to leave, even in the presence of a genuine intention to do so. Chen and Xu (2021) found that public sector employees tend to be more risk-averse and place a high premium on employment security, reinforcing the argument that organizational entrenchment may inhibit the intention–behavior gap. When an employee’s continued presence in the organization is motivated by a lack of alternatives, this is associated with an increased risk of unproductive work behavior—a matter with substantial implications for public organizations on which this study’s findings shed light.

Perceived behavioral control (H3) did not remain in the final regression models, nor was it associated with turnover intention in the studies by Shim and Lee (2023) at the international level or by Cuffa et al. (2024) in the Brazilian context. Regarding the role of PBC within the TPB, Ajzen (1991) notes that PBC typically varies as a function of context and action, and that “intentions can be determined not only by attitudes, norms, and perceived control, but also by one or more additional variables” (Ajzen, 2011, p. 1121). Even though the decision to leave a public organization is voluntary, it represents a high-stakes life decision that may involve other variables—such as having the financial resources to sustain oneself if a new employment opportunity or income source is not immediately available. Following this logic, it is proposed that a perception of limited alternatives (a dimension of organizational entrenchment) among the study participants may have reduced their PBC regarding resigning, thereby precluding PBC from playing a significant role in the formation of turnover intention at CONAB.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

This study was conducted to examine whether attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and organizational entrenchment predict the intention to leave federal public companies. To meet this objective, four hypotheses were formulated. The findings indicate that H1 (attitudes), H2 (subjective norms), and H4 (organizational entrenchment) predict turnover intention in a public company, whereas H3 (perceived behavioral control) was not associated with turnover intention in this study. It was also observed that satisfaction with promotions and satisfaction with the nature of work are the job satisfaction dimensions that most strongly predict turnover intention, while the organizational entrenchment dimension that impacts intention to leave is limited alternatives.

In theoretical terms, this study contributes in multiple ways to advancing knowledge about turnover intention in public companies. First, the application of the complete TPB model demonstrated its robustness in explaining complex behaviors with substantial personal and organizational implications. The second contribution lies in extending the TPB by including the organizational entrenchment construct. Incorporating entrenchment into the regression model yielded an explanatory capacity of 50.95% of the variance in turnover intention—a notably high proportion. The study also refined the instrument for measuring PBC, and the revised instrument demonstrated acceptable validity for use in scientific research in the Brazilian context. Finally, the study suggests that organizational entrenchment may have reduced respondents’ PBC regarding voluntary resignation, thereby precluding PBC from playing a significant role as a predictor of turnover intention. The authors invite the scientific community to replicate this study to determine whether these results hold across other types of public organizations.

In practical terms, the findings of this study can inform the development and improvement of policies and actions to reduce turnover intention in both the studied organization and other Brazilian public companies with similar characteristics. The study provides relevant information for managers wishing to understand their decisive role in shaping job satisfaction, organizational entrenchment, and employees’ voluntary exit intentions. Although managers of federal public organizations are subject to governmental and state regulations that largely fall outside their immediate scope of intervention, this study identifies, by specifying the precise dimensions of job satisfaction and organizational entrenchment that determine turnover intention, factors that can, at least in part, be managed internally by federal public organizations.

The findings and limitations of this study should be considered in future research. The PBC measure may require further adaptation; although it yielded adequate psychometric results, it was applied for the first time in this study. Moreover, the initial hypothesis that PBC would demonstrate predictive power in the formation of voluntary turnover intention—particularly given its status as a high-stakes decision with incomplete volitional control—was not confirmed. The finding that organizational entrenchment predicts turnover intention may offer a plausible explanation for this result. To further advance the explanation of voluntary turnover intention from the combined perspectives of the TPB and organizational entrenchment, it is recommended that this research be replicated across the full range of Brazilian public organizations and analyzed using more robust techniques, such as structural equation modeling, which would illuminate the entire network of relationships among the model’s variables. Longitudinal research designs incorporating the variables of interest are also recommended, as such an approach would allow examination of the temporal stability of behavioral intentions.

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History

• Received
  03 July 2023
• Accepted
  24 Apr 2026