Search results

This study aims to investigate how meeting the training expectations of Chinese employees influences their intention to stay with their company.

The authors collected data from 292 employees in eight Chinese organizations. Applying partial least squares path modeling, they tested how fulfilling employees' expectations with regard to different training dimensions influences their level of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and perceived movement capital and how variations in these mediating factors in turn influence turnover intentions.

Chinese employees exhibit varying expectations with regard to the content, the organization and the outcome of training. The relationship between meeting such expectations and turnover intentions is mediated by job satisfaction, affective commitment, continuance commitment and perceived movement capital. Fulfilling employees' expectations with regard to specific skills and operational factors reduces turnover intentions. Fulfilling expectations with regard to general skills increases turnover intentions. Fulfilling expectations with regard to intra‐organizational outcomes has a double‐edged effect.

It is promising to analyze the relationship between training and turnover from an employee perspective. It is important to distinguish different dimensions of training and to consider mediated paths in order to depict various conflicting influences. This study contributes to the understanding of Chinese employees' attitude towards training, and to the literature on HRM in China in suggesting that there is an indication of a definitive link between training and turnover, as there is in the West.

Organizations in China need to consider employees' pre‐training expectations when designing their training programs. Meeting employee expectations with regard to the design, organization and implementation as well as the outcome of training offers a promising venue to retain skilled employees.

The authors contribute to the literature by explicitly expounding employees' comprehensive training expectations regarding their turnover intention. Differentiating five dimensions of training and including four mediating factors, the authors are able to disentangle conflicting influences found in the extant literature.