Explaining turnover intention with organizational identification, perceived organizational support,

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS, HO CHI MINH CITY

----------

Nguyễn Thị Hải Thúy

EXPLAINING TURNOVER INTENTION

WITH ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTIFICATION,

PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT,

PROTEAN CAREER APPROACH AND THE MEDIATING

ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

MASTER THESIS

Ho Chi Minh City, 2012

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS, HO CHI MINH CITY

----------

Nguyễn Thị Hải Thúy

EXPLAINING TURNOVER INTENTION

WITH ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTIFICATION,

PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT,

PROTEAN CAREER APPROACH, AND THE MEDIATING

ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT –

A STUDY OF LECTURERS IN VIET NAM

Major: Business Administration

Code: 60.34.01.02

MASTER THESIS

Supervisor: Dr. Phạm Quốc Hùng

Ho Chi Minh City, 2012

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deepest appreciation and gratitude to my

Supervisor, Dr. Pham Quoc Hung, a highly responsible and greatly respectable

scholar, who has given me much support, guidance, and encouragement throughout

my graduation study. This research study could not have been completed without

his surprising expertise, valuable insights, tactful guidance, timely constructive

feedback, and unbelievable attention to detail. Dr. Pham Quoc Hung has been a

wonderful model for me to follow as an advisor, scholar, and a human being. I

cannot thank him enough for always being there to contact, remind and motivate me

when I lost hope and strength.

I would like to offer my heart-felt thanks to Dr. Tran Ha Minh Quan, who

has been a whole-hearted and thoughtful watcher of my eMBA19, for his moral

support and timely encouragement at every stage of the study process.

I am deeply thankful and grateful to my parents-in-law, Le Van Ninh and

Nguyen Thi Kim Lien, for their ongoing support and encouragement, empathy and

sympathy to the completion of my graduation study. My master course could not

have been finished without their support and encouragement. They always help me

with the housework and childcare so that I could whole-heartedly invest in my

master course.

I would like to send my endless love and gratitude to my parents, Nguyen

Dang Dien and Tran Thi Dung, for their inspiration, reminder and even urge during

my life of study.

I am very fortunate to have my husband, a partner and also a friend, Le Viet

Hung, whose unconditional love kept me alive throughout my master study. His

love enriches my life beyond imagination. I truly thank him for his help with the

data collection and development of the survey.

Finally, I am extremely blessed to have my two daughter and son, Gato and

Fifa, to inspire me and give me a great perspective in life. It is their presence that

gives me the true understanding of my presence in life.

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ABSTRACT

The primary purpose of the present study is to develop and test a model that

examines the turnover intention of lecturers through the influence of Organizational

Identification, Perceived Organizational Support, Protean Career Approach and the

mediating effect of Organizational Commitment. Based on the previous research

frameworks, the study tests positive or negative link of various factors on turnover

intention of lecturers. Moreover, the current study introduces a mediator –

Organizational Commitment – as a variable that plays an important role in

governing the relationships between the independent variables and the dependent

variable.

The data for the study was gathered from 300 currently employed lecturers in

Viet Nam. As hypothesized, the research model was proved to be reliable for further

testing. The results also indicate that these various factors all contribute to some

extent to turnover intention of lecturers. Especially, the mediator, Organizational

Commitment, was proved to significantly influence the relationships of

Organizational Identification – Turnover Intention, Perceived Organizational

Support – Turnover Intention, and Protean Career Approach – Turnover Intention.

Finally, the findings of the study are targeted at providing university

management an insight into the various factors that feed into lecturers’ turnover

intention with the hope that this can help them measure lecturers’ turnover intention

for better retention of this highly-qualified assets.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Abbreviations

Chapter 1: Introduction ..........................................................................................1

1.1 Research background ...........................................................................................1

1.2 Research objective................................................................................................3

1.3 Scope and research methodology.........................................................................3

1.4 Structure of the research.......................................................................................4

Summary for Chapter 1

Chapter 2: Review of the literature .......................................................................6

2.1 Turnover Intention................................................................................................6

2.2 Organizational Identification................................................................................8

2.3 Perceived Organizational Support.......................................................................10

2.4 Protean Career Approach....................................................................................12

2.5 Organizational Commitment...............................................................................15

2.6 Organizational Identification and Turnover Intention........................................19

2.7 Perceived Organizational Support and Turnover Intention................................19

2.8 Protean Career Approach and Turnover Intention..............................................20

2.9 Organizational Commitment and Turnover Intention.........................................21

2.10 Organizational Identification and Organizational Commitment......................21

2.11 Perceived Organizational Support and Organizational Commitment..............22

2.12 Protean Career Approach and Organizational Commitment............................23

2.13 Hypothesized research model...........................................................................24

Summary for Chapter 2

Chapter 3: Methodology .......................................................................................27

3.1. Research design.................................................................................................27

3.2. Questionnaire development...............................................................................29

3.2.1 Turnover Intention...........................................................................................29

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3.2.2 Organizational Identification...........................................................................29

3.2.3 Perceived Organizational Support...................................................................29

3.2.4 Protean Career Approach.................................................................................30

3.2.5 Organizational Commitment............................................................................30

3.3. Translation of the Questionnaire........................................................................32

3.4. The pilot study...................................................................................................34

3.5. Target population...............................................................................................35

3.6. Sample size .......................................................................................................36

3.7. Sample characteristics........................................................................................36

3.8. Selecting the sample and collecting data...........................................................37

3.9. Methods of data analysis....................................................................................38

3.9.1. Data screening................................................................................................38

3.9.2. Reliability........................................................................................................39

3.9.3. Confirmatory factor analysis..........................................................................40

3.9.4. Multiple regressions.......................................................................................43

3.9.5 Testing mediation relationship........................................................................45

Summary for Chapter 3

Chapter 4: Data Analysis ......................................................................................47

4.1 Data cleaning......................................................................................................47

4.2 Profiles of qualified respondents........................................................................47

4.3 Normality check.................................................................................................48

4.4 Reliability of the measurements.........................................................................48

4.5 Confirmatory factor analysis.............................................................................49

4.5.1 Confirmatory factor analysis for Organizational Identification, Perceived

Organizational Support, Protean Career Approach and Turnover

Intention....................................................................................................................49

4.5.2 Confirmatory factor analysis for Organizational Commitment ......................53

4.6 Correlation analysis............................................................................................57

4.7 Hypothesis testing...............................................................................................60

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4.7.1 Effects of Organizational Identification, Perceived Organizational Support,

Protean Career Approach on Organizational Commitment (H1) .............................60

4.7.2 Effects of Organizational Identification, Perceived Organizational Support,

Protean Career Approach, Organizational Commitment on Turnover Intention (H2)

...................................................................................................................................62

4.7.3. The mediating effect of Organizational Commitment on Organizational

Identification – Turnover Intention, Perceived Organizational Support – Turnover

Intention, and Protean Career Approach – Turnover Intention relationships (H3)

...................................................................................................................................63

Summary of Chapter 4

Chapter 5: Discussion ............................................................................................71

5.1 Discussions of findings.......................................................................................71

5.2 Practical implications..........................................................................................77

5.3 Contribution of the current study........................................................................78

5.4 Limitations and Future research....................................................................,.....79

Summary of Chapter 5

REFERENCES

APPENDIX A: English & Vietnamese Questionnaire

APPENDIX B: Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the Qualified Samples.

APPENDIX C: Assessment of Normality

APPENDIX D: Reliability Test

APPENDIX E: Standardized Regression Weights & Squared Multiple Correlations

APPENDIX F: Multiple Regressions for Hypotheses Testing

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Description Page

Figure 2-1 The three components of Organizational Commitment

(Affective, Continuance, Normative) based on Meyer & Allen

(1991)

18

Figure 2-2 Hypothesized Research Model 25

Figure 3-1 The research process 28

Figure 3-2 Mediating relationship 45

Figure 4-1 Hypothesized first-order 24-item CFA Model 51

Figure 4-2 Modified first-order 20-item CFA Model 52

Figure 4-3 Hypothesized first-order 18-item CFA Model 55

Figure 4-4 Modified first-order 11-item CFA Model 56

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LIST OF TABLES

Table Description Page

Table 3-1 Description of Scales adopted in the study 33

Table 3-2 Demographic characteristic questions and range of responses 33

Table 3-3 Desired range of values for a good fit 41

Table 4-1 Summary of Cronbach Alpha measures across variables 49

Table 4-2 Assessing Fit Indices - Confirmatory factor analysis for

Organizational Identification, Perceived Organizational

Support, Protean Career Approach and Turnover Intention

50

Table 4-3 Assessing Fit Indices - Confirmatory factor analysis for

Organizational Commitment

54

Table 4-4 Correlation analysis 59

Table 4-5 Model Summary, ANOVA & Coefficients - The mediating

effect of Affective Commitment

66

Table 4-6 Model Summary, ANOVA & Coefficients - The mediating

effect of Normative Commitment

68

Table 5-1 Research Purposes, Hypotheses and Results 71

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

No. Variables Description

1 OI Organizational Identification

2 POS Perceived Organizational Support

3 PCA Protean Career Approach

4 AC Affective Commitment

5 CC Continuance Commitment

6 NC Normative Commitment

7 OC Organizational Commitment

8 TIN Turnover Intention

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1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research background

Employee turnover is a widely researched topic with a huge amount of

literature, and investigations into the causes of employee turnover are abundant.

One way to better understand employee turnover in organizations is therefore to

examine the various literature reviews that have appeared over time. However, a

careful reading of these reviews reveals that although much progress has been

made, much remains to be learned about the major causes of employee turnover and

models to turnover process.

The first formal reviews on this are the work of Brayfield and Crokket

(1955) and Herzberg et al. (1957), which both find evidence of a significant

relationship between employee dissatisfaction and subsequent turnover. Shortly

after this, March and Simon (1958) introduce (a) the perceived desirability of

leaving the organization and (b) the perceived ease of movement from the

organization, which largely affect turnover. Lefkowitz (1971) points to (a) the

employee‟s initial job expectations concerning the nature of the job; (b) job

satisfaction; (c) the physical work environment; (d) financial compensation; (e)

intrinsic aspects of the job; and (f) supervisory style and work-group dynamics as

influences on turnover. Porter and Steers (1973) argue that satisfaction modestly

related to turnover; major influences on turnover found in person, job, work

environment, and organization-wide factors, importance of met expectations. Price

(1977) examines various way in which turnover is defined and measured. He

concludes that turnover was influenced by dissatisfaction plus opportunity to leave.

He also considers organizational outcomes of turnover. Mobley et al. (1979)

concentrates on several variables in determining turnover which include age, tenure,

overall satisfaction, job content, intention to stay, and organizational commitment.

Mobley hypothesizes that dissatisfaction leads to thinking of quitting, intention to

search, intention to stay or leave, and finally, actual turnover.

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2

Mowday, Porter and Steers (1982) suggest that an employee‟s intent to leave

can influence subsequent turnover in at least two ways. First, it may cause turnover

fairly directly, which means some people decide to leave their jobs even when

alternative jobs are not available. Second, an employee‟s intent to leave may

further influence actual turnover indirectly by causing the employee to initiate

search behavior for preferable alternative jobs. This is to emphasize that turnover

intention is an important step preceding actual turnover.

From the preceding discussion, clearly, no one can deny the fact that

employee turnover is of great importance to organizations. Job-quitting in the mid

of the course results in high costs in the recruitment and training of new staff.

Organizational productivity is also one of the challenges that arises from employee

turnover. In the case of universities, the cost of high turnover rate is even higher as

lecturers with knowledge and competence are the key assets and it affects the

academic and research activities of the universities. When lecturers quit their jobs in

the mid of semester, the consequence is very high as it is difficult for both the

university to arrange the substitute people and for students to accept new lecturers

in the mid of the course.

In the last decade, universities in Viet Nam have gone through many

fundamental changes. The Vietnamese government has invested much funds and

effort for the development of university education. As a result, the number of

universities (both public and non-public) in Viet Nam has increased dramatically in

recent years. The accession of Viet Nam into WTO in 2007 has also posed a big

challenge to Viet Nam university management since as of 1 January 2009, 100%

foreign-invested education entities are permitted (Working party on the accession of

Viet Nam, Schedule CLX – Viet Nam, Part II, 27 October 2006, 34). Qualified

lecturer‟s retention has become a challenge for University Management as

competition has become harsher.

Are Vietnamese lecturers loyal and committed to their work? What are the

various factors that may influence their turnover intentions? What inferences can be

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