The effects of longer commutes, unsolicited job offers, and working in the Seoul metropolitan area on the turnover intentions of Korean employees

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the importance of commuting time in the turnover intentions of Korean employees. This study also examines the impact of unsolicited job offers and working in the Seoul metropolitan area to elucidate the role of commuting time in determining turnover intentions. Design/methodology/approach The present study used two waves of the Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey, a large-scale survey of Korean employees. Binary logistic regression analyses were used to test the research model on 11,469 and 11,587 Korean employees in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Findings The commuting time increases turnover intentions, as do unsolicited job offers and working in the Seoul metropolitan area. Unsolicited job offers increase the turnover intentions of Korean employees more when they suffer from longer commutes, especially if they work in the Seoul metropolitan region. Research limitations/implications The study highlights the role of commuting time as resource loss that diminishes employees’ ability to cope with their job demands, which can be a predictive variable for turnover intentions. This study also considers unsolicited job offers and the Seoul metropolitan area as increasing ease of movement, elucidating the process through which commuting time is related to turnover intentions. Originality/value The present study adopts the resource conservation and ease-of-movement concepts to increase the understanding of the complexity of commuting time in determining turnover intentions.