TY - JOUR
T1 - The end is the beginning – the role of residual affective commitment in former interns’ intention to return and word-of-mouth
AU - Breitsohl, Heiko
AU - Ruhle, Sascha
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Interns are ubiquitous in organizations, yet relatively rarely studied, particularly after their temporary organizational membership has ended. Adopting an organizational commitment perspective, we conducted two studies to investigate two important outcomes of former interns’ membership: intention to return to their former employer, and word-of-mouth, that is, promoting the organization as an employer. In Study 1 (N = 436; lagged design), we found that residual affective commitment, that is, the remaining commitment after leaving an organization, related to former interns’ subsequent intention to return and word-of-mouth. In Study 2 (N = 236; cross-sectional design), we replicated our findings, and further found that intention to return was related to (lack of) alternative employment, hiring expectation, and attractiveness of the organization’s location. Location attractiveness also interacted with residual affective commitment on both intention to return and word-of-mouth, albeit in different directions. Overall, our findings suggest that the internship experience relates to future behaviours important for recruiting new (and old) employees. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our studies.
AB - Interns are ubiquitous in organizations, yet relatively rarely studied, particularly after their temporary organizational membership has ended. Adopting an organizational commitment perspective, we conducted two studies to investigate two important outcomes of former interns’ membership: intention to return to their former employer, and word-of-mouth, that is, promoting the organization as an employer. In Study 1 (N = 436; lagged design), we found that residual affective commitment, that is, the remaining commitment after leaving an organization, related to former interns’ subsequent intention to return and word-of-mouth. In Study 2 (N = 236; cross-sectional design), we replicated our findings, and further found that intention to return was related to (lack of) alternative employment, hiring expectation, and attractiveness of the organization’s location. Location attractiveness also interacted with residual affective commitment on both intention to return and word-of-mouth, albeit in different directions. Overall, our findings suggest that the internship experience relates to future behaviours important for recruiting new (and old) employees. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our studies.
UR - http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1359432X.2016.1167039
U2 - 10.1080/1359432X.2016.1167039
DO - 10.1080/1359432X.2016.1167039
M3 - Article
SN - 1359-432X
VL - 25
SP - 833
EP - 848
JO - European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
JF - European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
IS - 6
ER -