This study aims to investigate the differences in the determinants of turnover intentions between Saudi and non-Saudi physicians, and to identifying the key determinants of turnover intentions for Saudi and non-Saudi physicians working in the Ministry of Health (MOH) hospitals in the city of Riyadh. Determinants of turnover intention and a proposed turnover intention model were adopted from Price Causal Model of Turnover (2001). A cross-sectional survey was conducted of 507 randomly selected physicians. With 62% response rate, significant findings were presented and discussed. Managerial and research implications were highlighted with recommendations for future research.

Physician turnover is a critical issue facing Ministry of Health (MOH) hospitals in Saudi Arabia. In the literature on employee turnover, there has been no agreement on the determinants of employee turnover or their measurement. This may be because the factors that determine turnover vary according to the research discipline, the employee profession and/or the organizational context. Therefore, the general purpose of this study is to comprehensively investigate physicians' turnover intentions in MOH hospitals in the city of Riyadh. Turnover Intention was the main dependent variable in this study because of the difficulty of studying the actual physician turnover and the importance of this variable for the employers. A specific turnover intention model was proposed based on the Price (2001) Model of Employee Turnover. Following the estimation of prevalence rate of physicians' turnover intention in the target population, the proposed model along with demographic information was utilized to first determine if there were relationships between the physicians' demographic characteristics and their turnover intentions, and second to identify the key determinants of physicians' turnover intentions in MOH hospitals in the city of Riyadh. Finally, the study sought to identify any differences in the determinants of turnover intention between Saudi and non-Saudi physicians in the targeted population.