How can managers reduce employee intention to quit
Summary (2 min read)
Participants
- Education levels varied from completing some time at high school to completing a degree.
- In terms of years of service, 11 participants had worked at the store for less than one year, 33 for one to three years, 60 for four to six years, 27 for seven to ten years, and 42 for more than ten years.
Measures
- A questionnaire adapted from the comprehensive workplace scale developed by Tate et al. (1997) for their tri-nation study was used in this study .
- The factors assessed were stressors, job stress, job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, locus of control, self-esteem, support offered by supervisors and intention to quit.
- Items were answered on a five-point Likert scale, from agree to disagree.
Procedure
- Participants were provided with a plain language statement outlining the objectives of the study, the questionnaire and an invitation to participate.
- These packages were distributed to staff through their managers/supervisors.
- Each package included a reply-paid envelope to enable participants to return the questionnaire directly to the researchers.
- The response rate from the 200 questionnaires distributed was 86.5 per cent.
Results
- The data were analyzed on an IBM/PC using SPSS/PC for Windows (Version 10) and AMOS (Version 4) using Anderson and Gerbing's (1988) recommended two-stage approach to structural equation modeling (SEM) where the first stage represents the confirmatory measurement model and the second involves testing the structural model.
- All factors except for the two-item intention to quit factor were entered into the measurement model and allowed to correlate.
- The correlations, means, standard deviations, and Cronbach's alpha for each variable are presented in Table I .
Structural model
- The hypothesized model presented in Figure 1 was tested using SEM.
- The data provided good support for the hypothesized model (see Table II ) and the χ 2 difference test indicated a significant improvement in fit between the independence and the hypothesized models, χ 2 (20, n=173), 282.50, p=0.000.
- The locus of control factor failed to contribute to any other endogenous variable in the model, and for parsimony, the authors removed it and re-ran the analysis (see Table II , model 2).
- Figure 2 represents the final model with the standardized path coefficients.
- As hypothesized, stressors exerted a direct impact on feelings of stress and a negative impact upon perceptions of supervisor support, and job satisfaction.
Mediational effects
- While the majority of hypothesized direct effects were significant, there were also important indirect effects that contributed to the criterion variables [1] .
- As the focus of this study was on intention to quit, only total effects in relation to that variable are presented (Table III ).
- This was not supported in the model.
- There were only indirect effects present in the final model through the other variables.
Discussion
- The impact of job stressors on the dispositional and job engagement variables included in the current model accounted for 52 per cent of the variance in employees' intention to quit.
- Feelings of stress (e.g. feeling emotionally drained; tense) not only contributed to a reduced sense of job satisfaction, but also was the variable with the next highest contribution to intention to quit (total effect β=0.36).
- While the ques ons related to perceived support were highly homogeneous and attempted to match the support-provider (that is, the supervisor) to the situation (that is, the workplace), they may not have provided the best match.
- As proposed by Igbaria and Greenhaus (1992) , intentions to quit may be the best indicator of quitting behaviour, and unless longitudinal studies are undertaken, the degree to which stated quitting intentions are acted on cannot be assessed.
- Finally, there may be other factors that "pull" individuals away from a job.
Conclusion
- Intention to quit is largely influenced by job dissatisfaction, lack of commitment to the organization and feelings of stress, which in the current model are influenced by job stressors.
- For managers who are concerned about the impact intention to quit and possible turnover, these variables are factors over which they may have some control.
- Supervisor support is a similarly influential mediator within the model and can reduce the impact of stressors on psychological states and intentions to quit.
- This in turn may reduce intention to quit, and subsequent turnover, thereby saving organizations the considerable financial cost and effort involved in the recruitment, induction and training of replacement staff.
- The story does not end there, and other variables, described by us as the push-pull factors, need to be examined in longitudinal studies.
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