Employee Pronoun Use In Verbatim Comments As A Predictor Of Job Attitudes And Turnover Intentions

It is common in employee attitude surveys to collect open ended comments from employees, yet this data remains largely under-utilized. In the present study, it is hypothesized that employee pronoun use is related to job attitudes and turnover intentions, such that the use of we type pronouns is higher among more satisfied employees; and that the use of non-we type pronouns is higher among less satisfied employees. Results largely did not support hypotheses - although non-we use was negative related to job attitudes, we use was also negative related. It is believed that the reason for the lack of findings lies in the nuanced use of pronouns when communicating to a third party vs. organizational leadership