When and why entrepreneurial employees want to quit their job: Exploring two conflicting mechanisms

Past turnover research has posited personality traits as important antecedents to quit intentions. Nevertheless, previous literature has not investigated the relationship between employees’ entrepreneurial tendencies—a constellation of domain specific traits—and turnover. Drawing on dispositional trait theory and attraction‐selection‐attrition theory, we propose engagement and intentions to start a business as mediators of the relationship between entrepreneurial tendencies and quit intentions. We test our predictions in a sample of full‐time employees from the United Kingdom (N = 224). In line with our hypotheses, an inconsistent mediation is found, where both positive and negative links between entrepreneurial tendencies and turnover intentions were mediated by engagement and intentions to start a business respectively. Thus, entrepreneurial employees were more likely to be engaged, but at the same time also more likely to be considering starting their own business, leading to a conflicting relationship to turnover intentions. The current study informs the human resource management literature concerning the motivational mechanisms explaining turnover intentions among entrepreneurial employees. It also provides practical insights with regards to the effective management of this workforce

The entrepreneurial organization: The effects of organizational culture on innovation output

As organizations face growing economic pressures, leaders need to create work environments that support and encourage entrepreneurial behavior in their workforce to drive organizational innovation and growth. In this vein, the current article examines the effect of an entrepreneurial culture on an employee's innovation output and explores three mechanisms by which this may be achieved. In a sample of 438 working adults, the relationship between entrepreneurial culture and innovation output was fully mediated by work engagement. Furthermore, entrepreneurial culture positively moderated the relationship between an individual's entrepreneurial personality and innovation output. These findings contribute new theoretical insights to the corporate entrepreneurship literature and have important practical implications for organizations aiming to become more entrepreneurial

Do women prefer “nice guys”? The effect of male dominance behavior on women’s ratings of sexual attractiveness

We examined whether or not different behavioral expressions of dominance by a male affected how introverted and extraverted women rated his sexual attractiveness. We assessed 81 women on the extraversion scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Scale (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1991), and they then watched a 1-minute silent video of a male confederate in 3 dominance conditions (closed body posture [low], open body posture [medium], and open body posture with gesticulation [high]) and rated the male for sexual attractiveness. Results showed that higher dominance behavior significantly increased the confederate’s attractiveness, accounting for 10% of the variance in attractiveness ratings. However, the women’s personalities appeared to have no significant effect on these ratings. These results are discussed in relation to extant literature on the phenomenon that women do not select “nice guys” in preference to other men

The impact of organizational structure and work autonomy in fostering entrepreneurial tendencies and job performance

Purpose: Research examining the influence of organizational factors on entrepreneurial tendencies and performance within organizations is scarce. This study investigated the effect of organizational structure and work autonomy on entrepreneurial tendencies, locus of control, and performance. // Methodology: Data were obtained online using validated self-report questionnaires in a sample of 181 currently employed individuals. // Findings: The results showed organizational structure components to be related to work autonomy and performance, but not to individual level variables. However, work autonomy related to entrepreneurial tendencies and locus of control, indicating potential indirect effects of organizational structure on individual level variables via work autonomy. Entrepreneurial tendencies and locus of control were positively related to performance. // Originality/Value: Whilst the mediating effect of a number of individual level traits has been examined in the past, very little research has looked at how organizational factors may influence entrepreneurial tendencies. Fostering entrepreneurial tendencies in employees may facilitate corporate entrepreneurship and performance within organizations