Why people quit: Explaining employee turnover intentions among export sales managers

Predictably, sales organizations invest substantial financial and human resources in developing effective salesforces and yet salespeople are among the highest 'risk group' in terms of staff turnover. For export sales settings, the organizational consequences of this form of turnover are even more severe. This study develops a comprehensive conceptual model of seventeen hypothesized relationships among key structural, supervisory-related, and psychological factors, and examines this nomological network that leads to explaining export sales managers' intentions to quit. The findings reveal the favorable impact of formalization and the unfavorable impact of centralization upon both role ambiguity and role conflict. The study finds that both formalization and centralization relate positively to the export sales management behavior control system. Role stressors deleteriously affect export sales managers' job satisfaction, which in turn affects negatively intentions to quit. The study also discovers moderation effects of psychic distance and export sales managers' experience.