The Decision to Stay or Leave: The Role of Spirituality in Attenuating Burnout

Volunteer retention is critical for the success of non-profit organizations, with the specific decision of the volunteer to leave or stay meriting research. Burnout is a common and critical antecedent of the decision to leave (Leiter & Maslach, 2009). The purpose of this study was to determine whether volunteer spirituality attenuated the relationship between burnout and turnover decisions in a sample of non-profit volunteers. As predicted, regression analyses showed that spirituality moderated the relationship between burnout and the decision of intent to leave, with volunteers higher in spirituality indicating significantly lower turnover intentions regardless of level of burnout