The influence of leader behaviour, psychological empowerment, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment on turnover intention
Date
2011-03
Authors
Dhladhla, Thamsanqa John
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch
Abstract
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In recent decades, organisations have continued to lose their skilled and experienced
employees due to voluntary turnover. As a result, managers, researchers and practitioners
have taken interest in understanding the factors that affect employees’ turnover decisions.
However, although several existing studies have identified numerous factors related to
turnover behaviours among employees, most of the empirical research studies utilise
explanatory models that do not sufficiently address the mediating processes that lead to
turnover intention. This study examined the collective effects of perceived leader behaviour,
psychological empowerment, satisfaction and commitment on turnover intention. In doing so,
the present study tested an explanatory structural model that suggests how these variables
jointly influence turnover intention. Therefore, an ex post facto correlation study was
conducted using a sample of military personnel (n = 318) in which study participants
completed five questionnaires that measured the endogenous latent variables (i.e.,
psychological empowerment, job satisfaction and organisational commitment) and the single
exogenous latent variable (i.e., leader behaviour) in the structural model. Item analysis and
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were used to assess the measurement properties of the
respective measures. The results showed adequate evidence that the manifest indicators used
in the study were indeed valid and reliable measures of the latent variables they were linked
to. The proposed structural model was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) and
the goodness-of-fit statistics showed that both the hypothesised measurement model ( =
182.97; df = 67; p-value = 0.0000; RMSEA = 0.074) and the structural model ( = 182.91;
df = 68; p-value = 0.00000; RMSEA = 0.073 ) were found to fit the data reasonably well. The
results supported a model where turnover intention was explained to result from a
combination of organisation-related and job-related attitudes. In turn, these attitudes were
affected by leadership behaviours. The results showed that turnover intention resulted more
strongly and directly from low levels of organisational commitment than from job satisfaction
per se. The results also suggested that turnover intention was the result of high levels of
psychological empowerment. Leader behaviour had a strong direct effect on both
psychological empowerment and organisational commitment, but not a unique effect on job
satisfaction, while psychological empowerment had a strong direct effect on both job
satisfaction and turnover intention than on organisational commitment. The results also
indicated that job satisfaction had an insignificant effect on organisational commitment.
In addition, psychological empowerment mediated the effect of leader behaviour on turnover
intention, while job satisfaction did not mediate the relationship between leader behaviour
and turnover intention. Finally, the results suggested that psychological empowerment played
mediated the effect of leader behaviour on job satisfaction and organisational commitment.
The study adds to the existing literature in two ways. First, the findings indicated that
turnover intention results strongly from the combination of leader behaviour, psychological
empowerment and organisational commitment, with psychological empowerment and
organisational commitment playing a dominant role, with their direct- as well as mediating
effects on turnover intention. Second, the present study partially replicated earlier studies of
turnover intention in a new setting, i.e., within a military sample and within a non-Western
context. In this way, the study confirmed the generalisability of earlier findings that relate to
the development of turnover intention. A unique finding of the present research was the
positive relationship found between psychological empowerment and turnover intention,
suggesting that turnover process models may be more organisation-specific than previously
thought (e.g., Alexander, 1998). The study limitations and recommendations provide avenues
to be explored for possible future studies and recommendations for human resource
management practice are discussed.
Description
Thesis (MComm)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.
Keywords
Leadership, Intention to quit, Psychological empowerment, Job satisfaction, Dissertations -- Industrial psychology, Theses -- Industrial psychology, Labor turnover