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Cet article présente une étude examinant les relations entre l’ouverture à l’expérience, les dimensions de l’engagement organisationnel et l’intention de quitter, et explore le rôle modérateur potentiel des opportunités de carrière et de déve­loppement. L’engagement affectif médiatise un lien négatif entre l’ouverture aux expériences et l’intention de quitter alors que le lien indirect entre l’ouverture aux expériences et l’intention de quitter par l’intermédiaire de l’engagement par sacrifices perçus est plus négatif lorsque les opportunités de carrière sont élevées. Cette étude montre notamment que le rôle de l’ouverture à l’expérience dans l’intention de quitter dépend du contexte dans lequel les employés évoluent.

This paper presents the results of an empirical study looking at the relationships among openness to experience, organizational commitment, and intention to quit, and explores perceived career and development opportunities as a potential moderator. The results of a study conducted among 201 service workers indicated that affective commitment mediated a negative relationship between openness to experience and intention to quit. Moreover, perceived career and development opportunities moderated the relationship of openness to experience with normative commitment and perceived sacrifice commitment such that these relationships were stronger and positive when career and development opportunities were perceived to be high. Such a moderating effect was not found in the relationship between openness to experience and affective commitment or few alternatives commitment. It was also found that career and development opportunities had a significant direct and positive effect on affective commitment. Perceived career and development opportunities also moderated the indirect relationship between openness to experience and intention to quit through perceived sacrifice commitment such that this indirect effect was significantly more negative when career and development opportunities were perceived to be high. This indicates that people who are open to experience tend to interpret the presence of career and development opportunities as enhancing the cost of staying with the organization. The interaction of openness to experience with contextual conditions enhances our understanding of the mechanisms that drive perceived sacrifice commitment. It namely reveals that this commitment component has more of an economic than a social exchange basis (Blau, 1964). Moreover, this study highlights the importance of considering situational conditions when looking at the influence of personality traits on job attitudes. More generally, this study emphasizes the importance of opportunities to learn in organizations as well as the need for managers to adjust their behavior to employee personality if they wish to limit turnover cases in their staff.