On the use of "Intent to ..." variables in organizational research: An empirical and cautionary assessment

Organizational research often relies on surrogate variables. By "surrogate" we do not refer to family of construct, factor, or latent variables. Rathe r, we address the situation where one variable is literally the substitute for another variable that is generally unavailable. Consider, for example, the use of "intent to turnover" or "intent to transfer" variables commonly used when actual turnover or transfer data are unavailable. We demonstrate that reliance on such surrogate variables may lead to some misinterpretatio n. This tendency may be particularly apparent when the relationship between the surrogate and the actual variable is low. This may be further exacerba ted when the relationship between the surrogate variable and a third variab le is modest as well.