Behavioral Intentions and Retention of Technical and Scientific Staff in Research and Development Organizations

Different reasons influence intentions of technical and scientific professionals to stay or leave their current jobs, impacting the ability of companies to retain these professionals. This paper identified the antecedents of intentions to leave, intentions to stay, and retention of such technical and scientific professionals in private research and development organizations from the Greater Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. Data was collected via online questionnaires between December, 2014 and March, 2015. Job satisfaction and supervisory support were negatively related to the intention to leave the organization, and positively related to the intention to stay in the organization. Training and development opportunities and organizational culture presented negative relation only to the intention to leave the organization. The article discusses these results and presents suggestions for future studies.