Job satisfaction, blat and intentions to leave among blue-collar employees in contemporary Russia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine antecedents of intentions to leave among blue-collar employees in domestic Russian organizations. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a sample of 1,210 blue-collar employees in 80 domestic organizations across 14 industries and eight regions in Russia. Findings – The analysis shows that wage satisfaction is the strongest negative predictor of Russian employees’ intentions to leave compared to core job-related and interpersonal relations satisfaction. For non-blat employees, the relationships with intentions to leave are negative and significant for all three types of satisfactions, whereas for employees with blat only the relationship between core job-related satisfaction and intentions to leave is significant. Originality/value – The present study, first, reveals that wage satisfaction is the most important but not the only way to retain blue-collar employees in Russia and, second, points toward the complex nature of blat’s influence on employees’ organizational behavior in contemporary Russian organizations. By so doing, the analysis provides a still rare empirical illustration of how relationships and variables explaining turnover intentions and its antecedents are contingent on economic, cultural and institutional contexts.