Investigating Turnover Intentions During Organizational Change: The Role of Negative Appraisals, Psychological Contract Violation, and Resistance to Change

Abstract

COVID-19 has been regarded as environmental disruption that catalyzed a multitude of organizational changes in nonprofit organizations. This study centers on the nonprofit workers’ experience of change. Specifically, this study investigates to what extent and how negative appraisals in the midst of the pandemic are related to intentions to leave the organization about a year after the start of the pandemic, at a point in time when the initial shock had settled into a sense of the “new normal.” Findings indicate that harm but not threat appraisals predict psychological contract violation and that psychological contract violation is related to behavioral resistance to change as well as intentions to leave. Unexpectedly, neither threat appraisal nor resistance to change was related to turnover intentions. We discuss contributions to theory, research, and practice.