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 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 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: 60.02 MASTER THESIS Supervisor: Dr. Phạm Quốc Hùng Ho Chi Minh City, 2012 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 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.
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. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 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. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction .3 Scope and research methodology.4 Structure of the research.4 Summary for Chapter 1 Chapter 2: Review of the literature .3 Perceived Organizational Support.4 Protean Career Approach.6 Organizational Identification and Turnover Intention.7 Perceived Organizational Support and Turnover Intention.8 Protean Career Approach and Turnover Intention.9 Organizational Commitment and Turnover Intention.10 Organizational Identification and Organizational Commitment.11 Perceived Organizational Support and Organizational Commitment.12 Protean Career Approach and Organizational Commitment.13 Hypothesized research model.24 Summary for Chapter 2 Chapter 3: Methodology .29 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.3 Perceived Organizational Support.4 Protean Career Approach. Translation of the Questionnaire. The pilot study.
Selecting the sample and collecting data. Methods of data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis.5 Testing mediation relationship.45 Summary for Chapter 3 Chapter 4: Data Analysis .2 Profiles of qualified respondents.4 Reliability of the measurements.5 Confirmatory factor analysis.1 Confirmatory factor analysis for Organizational Identification, Perceived Organizational Support, Protean Career Approach and Turnover Intention.2 Confirmatory factor analysis for Organizational Commitment .60 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.1 Effects of Organizational Identification, Perceived Organizational Support, Protean Career Approach on Organizational Commitment (H1) .2 Effects of Organizational Identification, Perceived Organizational Support, Protean Career Approach, Organizational Commitment on Turnover Intention (H2). 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 .1 Discussions of findings.3 Contribution of the current study.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 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure Description Page Figure 2-1 The three components of Organizational Commitment 18 (Affective, Continuance, Normative) based on Meyer & Allen (1991) 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 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 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 50 Organizational Identification, Perceived Organizational Support, Protean Career Approach and Turnover Intention Table 4-3 Assessing Fit Indices - Confirmatory factor analysis for 54 Organizational Commitment Table 4-4 Correlation analysis 59 Table 4-5 Model Summary, ANOVA & Coefficients - The mediating 66 effect of Affective Commitment Table 4-6 Model Summary, ANOVA & Coefficients - The mediating 68 effect of Normative Commitment Table 5-1 Research Purposes, Hypotheses and Results 71 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 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 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 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. 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 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 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com made from the study that can be utilized to reduce attrition among Vietnamese lecturers? The present study will review the literature related to the framework of the study, the methodology utilized for data analysis and discussion of recommendations.2 Research objectives The purpose of this thesis is to find out the intentions of lecturers to quit a job in universities. More specifically, it is targeted at measuring the influence of various factors (including Organizational Identification, Perceived Organizational Support, Protean Career Approach) on their turnover intentions. It also aims at finding out the mediating role of Organizational Commitment that contributes to the intentions of lecturers.