Explaining employee turnover in an Asian context

Employee turnover is giving sleepless nights to HR managers in many countries in Asia. A widely-held belief in these countries is that employees have developed 'bad' attitudes due to the labour shortage. Employees are believed to job-hop for no reason, or even for fun. Unfortunately, despite employee turnover being such a serious problem in Asia, there is a dearth of studies investigating it; in particular studies using a comprehensive set of variables are rare. This study examines three sets of antecedents of turnover intention in companies in Singapore: demographic, controllable and uncontrollable. Singapore companies provide an appropriate setting as their turnover rates are among the highest in Asia. Findings of the study suggest that organisational commitment, procedural justice and a job-hopping attitude were three main factors associated with turnover intention in Singapore companies.

Insights into the Indian call centre industry:can internal marketing help tackle high employee turnover?

Purpose – Increasing turnover of frontline staff in call centres is detrimental to the delivery of quality service to customers. This paper aims to present the context for the rapid growth of the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector in India, and to address a critical issue faced by call centre organisations in this sector – the high employee turnover. Design/methodology/approach – Following a triangulation approach, two separate empirical investigations are conducted to examine various aspects of high labour turnover rates in the call centre sector in India. Study one examines the research issue via 51 in-depth interviews in as many units. Study two reports results from a questionnaire survey with 204 frontline agents across 11 call centres regarding employee turnover. Findings – This research reveals a range of reasons – from monotonous work, stressful work environment, adverse working conditions, lack of career development opportunities; to better job opportunities elsewhere, which emerge as the key causes of increasing attrition rates in the Indian call centre industry. Research limitations/implications – The research suggests that there are several issues that need to be handled carefully by management of call centres in India to overcome the problem of increasing employee turnover, and that this also demands support from the Indian government. Originality/value – The contributions of this study untangle the issues underlying a key problem in the call centre industry, i.e. employee turnover in the Indian call centre industry context. Adopting an internal marketing approach, it provides useful information for both academics and practitioners and suggests internal marketing interventions, and avenues for future research to combat the problem of employee turnover.

Should I stay or should I go? Explaining turnover intentions with organizational identification and job satisfaction

The social identity approach is a powerful theoretical framework for the understanding of individuals behaviour. The main argument is that individuals think and act on behalf of the group they belong to because this group membership adds to their social identity, which partly determines ones self-esteem. In the organizational world, social identity and self-categorization theories state that a strong organizational identification is associated with low turnover intentions. Because identification is the more general perception of shared fate between employee and organization, we propose that the relationship between identification and turnover will be mediated by job satisfaction as the more specific evaluation of ones task and working conditions. In four samples we found organizational identification feeding into job satisfaction, which in turn predicts turnover intentions.

Individual spirit at work and its relationship with employee work attitudes and organisational outcomes:An empirical examination in corporate Thailand

The purpose of this thesis is to conduct empirical research in corporate Thailand in order to (1) validate the Spirit at Work Scale (2) investigate the relationships between individual spirit at work and three employee work attitudinal variables (job satisfaction, organisational identification and psychological well-being) and three organisational outcomes (in-role performance, organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB), and turnover intentions) (3) further examine causal relations among these organisational behaviour variables with a longitudinal design (4) examine three employee work attitudes as mediator variables between individual spirit at work and three organisational outcomes and (5) explore the potential antecedents of organisational conditions that foster employee experienced individual spirit at work. The two pilot studies with 155 UK and 175, 715 Thai samples were conducted for validation testing of the main measure used in this study: Spirit at Work Scale (Kinjerski & Skrypnek, 2006a). The results of the two studies including discriminant validity analyses strongly provided supportive evidence that Spirit at Work Scale (SAWS) is a sound psychometric measure and also a distinct construct from the three work attitude constructs. The final model of SAWS contains a total of twelve items; a three factor structure (meaning in work, sense of community, and spiritual connection) in which the sub-factors loaded on higher order factors and also had very acceptable reliability. In line with these results it was decided to use the second-order of SAWS model for Thai samples in the main study and subsequent analysis. The 715 completed questionnaires were received from the first wave of data collection during July - August 2008 and the second wave was conducted again within the same organisations and 501 completed questionnaires were received during March - April 2009. Data were obtained through 49 organisations which were from three types of organisations within Thailand: public organisations, for-profit organisations, and notfor-profit organisations. Confirmatory factor analysis of all measures used in the study and hypothesised model were tested with structural equation modelling techniques. The results were greatly supportive for the direct structural model and partially supportive for the fully mediated model. Moreover, there were different findings across self report and supervisor rating on performance and OCB models. Additionally, the antecedent conditions that fostered employees experienced individual spirit at work and the implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.

The role of line managers in employee career management:an attachment theory perspective

Line managers increasingly play a key role in organizational career development systems, yet few studies have examined the nature of this role or its implications for employee career attitudes and behaviors. In two studies, we used attachment theory to explore this issue. In Study 1, in-depth interviews (N = 20) showed that employees viewed career management as a relational process in which line managers are expected to act as ‘caregiver’ to support individualized career development. Study 2 was a large-scale international survey (N = 891). Participants scoring higher on attachment avoidance in their line manager relationships reported more negative perceptions of career growth opportunities, lower participation in organizational career development activities and higher turnover intentions. Trust in the organization partially mediated the relationship. Theoretical and practical implications for HRM are discussed.

A study of employee affective organisational commitment and retention in Pakistan:the roles of psychological contract breach and norms of reciprocity

Social exchange theory and notions of reciprocity have long been assumed to explain the relationship between psychological contract breach and important employee outcomes. To date, however, there has been no explicit testing of these assumptions. This research, therefore, explores the mediating role of negative, generalized, and balanced reciprocity, in the relationships between psychological contract breach and employees’ affective organizational commitment and turnover intentions. A survey of 247 Pakistani employees of a large public university was analyzed using structural equation modeling and bootstrapping techniques, and provided excellent support for our model. As predicted, psychological contract breach was positively related to negative reciprocity norms and negatively related to generalized and balanced reciprocity norms. Negative and generalized (but not balanced) reciprocity were negatively and positively (respectively) related to employees’ affective organizational commitment and fully mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and affective organizational commitment. Moreover, affective organizational commitment fully mediated the relationship between generalized and negative reciprocity and employees’ turnover intentions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Relationship between organisational justice and employee outcomes:a cross-national study

This study examined the influence of organizational justice perceptions on employee work outcome relationships as moderated by individual differences that are influenced by societal culture. Power distance, but not country or individualism, moderated the relationships between perceived justice and satisfaction, performance, and absenteeism. The effects of perceived justice on these outcomes were stronger among individuals scoring lower on power distance index, and most of these study participants were in the U.S. (versus Hong Kong) sample. Limitations of the study and the implications of the findings for managing cross-culturally are discussed.

Workplace justice, citizenship behavior, and turnover intentions in a union context: examining the mediating role of perceived union support and union instrumentality

This study examined the relationship between workplace justice afforded by the grievance system and the union outcomes of citizenship behavior and turnover intentions and the mechanisms that underpin these relationships. Respondents (N = 187) were members of a large public sector union in Singapore. Results revealed that perceived union support and union instrumentality fully mediated the relationship between the dimensions of workplace justice and citizenship behavior directed toward the union (OCBO) and citizenship behavior directed at other union members (OCBI). Union instrumentality partially mediated the procedural justice–turnover intentions relationship.

Exchange fairness and employee performance:An examination of the relationship between organizational politics and procedural justice

Data obtained from a manufacturing firm and a newspaper firm in India were used to examine the relationship between organizational politics and procedural justice in three separate studies. Study 1 constructively replicated research on the distinctiveness of the two constructs. Confirmatory factor analyses in which data from the manufacturing firm served as the development sample and data from the newspaper firm served as the validation sample demonstrated the distinctiveness of organizational politics and procedural justice. Study 2 examined the antecedents of the two constructs using data from the manufacturing firm. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results revealed formalization and participation in decision making to be positively related to procedural justice but negatively related to organizational politics. Further, authority hierarchy and spatial distance were positively related to organizational politics but unrelated to procedural justice. Study 3 examined the consequences of the two constructs in terms of task and contextual performance using data from the newspaper firm. Results of SEM analysis revealed procedural justice but not organizational politics to be related to task performance and the contextual performance dimensions of interpersonal facilitation and job dedication. © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Trust as a mediator of the relationship between organizational justice and work outcomes:test of a social exchange model

Data obtained from full-time employees of a public sector organization in India were used to test a social exchange model of employee work attitudes and behaviors. LISREL results revealed that whereas the three organizational justice dimensions (distributive, procedural and interactional) were related to trust in organization only interactional justice was related to trust in supervisor. The results further revealed that relative to the hypothesized fully mediated model a partially mediated model better fitted the data. Trust in organization partially mediated the relationship between distributive and procedural justice and the work attitudes of job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and organizational commitment but fully mediated the relationship between interactional justice and these work attitudes. In contrast, trust in supervisor fully mediated the relationship between interactional justice and the work behaviors of task performance and the individually- and organizationally-oriented dimensions of citizenship behavior.

Service acculturation:a dyadic study of managerial and employee effects upon service firm performance

The majority of previous research into service quality and services marketing has concentrated upon the measurement of service quality outcomes, rather than the enhancement of the process by which service is delivered. In this study a conceptual model of the service acculturation process is proposed, modelling the input of service managers and employees in the delivery of service quality to customers. The conceptualisation is then empirically tested utilising a dyadic study of the New Zealand hotel industry. Results indicate that 1) a strong commitment to service is important for both managers and employees; and 2) that employees’ teamwork may have an adverse effect on perceived quality of customer service. Implications of the results and future research directions are subsequently discussed.

Trade-offs in customer-employee focus:Implications on boundary-spanning capabilities

In pursuing their particular strategic goals, organisations place differential emphasis in their activities on employees and customers. Those who focus predominantly on employees see them as key resources contributing to successful achievement of goals, while those who focus on customers believe that customer commitment is the prime source of financial prosperity and competitive advantage. In all firms, there is potential for conflict and subsequent trade-offs in the emphasis placed on employee resources and customers. This paper investigates the implications of these potential trade-offs on firms' boundary-spanning capabilities (those capabilities that enable firms to interact effectively with their customers, their suppliers, their strategic allies and others in their business networks) in European and Australasian markets. The results suggest that those companies which achieve a strong but balanced focus on both employees and customers have heightened boundary-spanning capabilities. The comparison between UK and Australian businesses indicates that the balance is more highly developed in Australasian than European (UK) markets. © 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.