The Effect of High Potential Status, Promotions and Strategic Expectation- Enhancing Practices on Leader Turnover

High potential programs are utilized by organizations seeking to develop a strategic advantage through rapidly developing their top talent. Despite the increasing use of these programs research on employees' responses to these program has been limited. Being identified as a high potential leader carries with it the assumption of increased access to developmental resources and attaining desirable leadership roles in the future. It also signals to leaders not selected as high potential that they could be a lower priority and have less opportunities within that organization in the future. The present study sought to compare the organizational commitment and turnover rates of these two groups to determine if high potential status has an effect on employee outcomes. The results demonstrated that leaders identified as high potential had higher levels of organizational commitment and were less likely to leave their organization over a 6 year period. However, long-term oriented performance management practices, which are referred to as strategic expectation enhancing practices, also predicted organizational commitment and turnover. A conditional indirect effect was observed in which strategic expectation enhancing practices only resulted in increased organizational commitment and retention for non-high potential leaders. These results have several implications for theoretical development and practical application regarding high potential programs in organizations.;Keywords: high potential, turnover, organizational commitment, signal theory.