Antecedents to Temporary Employee’s Turnover Intention

1. Antecedents to Temporary Employee’s Turnover Intention Jurnal Leadership – Organizational Studies Liliana - 2007002051

2. Focus • In an exploratory study using temporary workers, a model based on social exchange and social identity theories was developed and tested. Results revealed that, for both the temporary employee attitudes toward the client organization and the temporary employee attitudes toward the temporary agency, there was a positive association between job satisfaction and organization commitment and negative associations between job satisfaction and turnover intention and organizational commitment and turnover intention. • Concerning the "crossover effects", results showed that job satisfaction with the client organization had a weak positive association with organizational commitment for the temporary agency and organizational commitment for the temporary agency had a weak negative association with turnover intention for the client organization.

3. Additionally, managers, in order to effectively manage temporary workers, must take into consideration that a temporary worker faces a rather unique employment situation in which he or she must identify with two organizations, the client organization where one is assigned to work and the temporary agency who is the nominal employer. Because of the complicated employment situation experienced by temporary workers, there is a need to examine how temporary workers' attitudes influence work behaviors as they pertain to temporary employees' work being performed not only in the client organizations but also how they pertain to the temporary agencies.

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5. Theories • Employees feel committed to organizations when organizations show commitment to an employee's well being (Wayne, Shore, and Liden, 1997; Liden, et al., 2003). For temporary employees, organizational support may come from either the temporary agency (e.g., pay, benefits), or the client organization (nature of assignment, supportive work atmosphere), or both organizations. • Temporary employees may reciprocate the support they receive from either one or both of the two organizations by showing favorable attitudes for both the temporary agency and the client organization. • Investigations have shown that job satisfaction and organizational commitment are antecedents to turnover intention (Horn and Griffeth, 1995). In line with these results, in the proposed model, job satisfaction and organizational commitment are depicted as antecedents to turnover intention.

6. Theories • For this study, job satisfaction was defined as positive emotions an employee has toward his or her job (Locke, 1976); organizational commitment as the extent to which individuals feel loyal to their organization (Price, 1997); and turnover intention as one's propensity to leave (Lyons, 1971). • Concerning the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention, there is a substantial body of literature that has reported that job satisfaction is negatively associated with turnover intention (Griffeth, Horn, & Gaertner, 2000; Vandenberg & Lance, 1992). Extending these findings to our model, we propose that there is a direct path relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. Based on the social exchange and social identity theories, we posit that turnover intention for each organization will be influenced by job satisfaction for the corresponding organization.

7. Hypothesises • Hypothesis 1a: Job satisfaction for the temporary agency will be negatively associated with one's turnover intention for the temporary agency. • Hypothesis Ib: Job satisfaction for the client organization will be negatively associated with one's turnover intention for the client organization. • Hypothesis 2a: Job satisfaction for the temporary agency will be positively associated with organizational commitment for the temporary agency. • Hypothesis 2b: Job satisfaction for the client organization will be positively associated with organizational commitment for the client organization. • Hypothesis 3a: Organizational commitment for the temporary agency will be negatively associated with one's turnover intention for the temporary agency. • Hypothesis 3b: Organizational commitment for the client organization will be negatively associated with one's turnover intention for the client organization.

8. Hypothesises • Hypothesis 4a: Job Satisfaction with the temporary agency will be positively associated with organizational commitment for the client organization. • Hypothesis 4b: Job Satisfaction with the client organization will be positively associated with organizational commitment for the temporary agency. • Hypothesis 4c: Organizational commitment with the temporary agency will be negatively associated with turnover intention for the client organization. • Hypothesis 4d: Organizational commitment with the client organization will be negatively associated with turnover intention for the temporary agency.

9. Research Design - Sample • Participants were temporary workers employed by a nationally franchised temporary organization. • Participants included 472 males, 769 females, and 16 people who did not respond to the gender question. Approximately 57% of the respondents were married. The percentage of participants who fell into the different categories for age included: - 13% in the 16 to 21 age group; - 22% in the 22 to 27 age group; - 17% in the 28 to 33 age group; - 15% in the 34 to 39 age group; - 19% in the 40 to 50 age group; - 9% in the 51 to 60 age group; - 5% in the Over 60 age group. • Of the 77% of the respondents who had either a high school diploma or education beyond high school, over 57% of the respondents had continued with their education after graduating from high school.

10. Measures Job Satisfaction • Since pay was the responsibility of the temporary agency, the scores of two items associated with pay and the three JDS items that were modified were summed to create the job satisfaction with the temporary service. Cronbach's reliability coefficient was .90. The remaining 15 items were summed to create a general job satisfaction score for how satisfied the temporary employees were with the client organization for which they worked. Cronbach's reliability coefficient was .95. We conducted a principal component analysis with varimax rotation for the job satisfaction items and found that the items loaded on the respective factors (job satisfaction for the client organization and job satisfaction for the temporary agency).

11. Organizational Commitment • Organizational commitment was measured using the modified OCQ questionnaire (Mowday, et al. 1979) that excluded items associated with intent to quit. Organizational commitment was measured by modifying the items to indicate commitment to the client organization and commitment to the temporary agency. The Cronbach reliabilities for these two scales were .92 and .90 respectively. We conducted a principal component analysis with varimax rotation for the organizational commitment items associated with both the client organization and the temporary agency. The items loaded on the respective factors (organizational commitment for the temporary agency and organizational commitment for the client organization).

12. Turnover Intention (Propensity to Leave) • Participants were asked to rate their chances they would quit as a temporary associate within the next 3 months, 6 months, and 2 years. Anchor points on five-point Likert item scales ranged from 5 (Very High Chance) to 1 (No Chance At All). Cronbach's reliability coefficient was .84. Turnover intention for the client organization was assessed using two items. Participants were asked what the chance was that he or she would quit the assignment at the client company either tomorrow and as soon as they can. Control Variables • Control variables considered for this study are age, gender, education level, experience at the client site in number of days, and whether the employee is looking for a full time job or not. Education level was measured on a scale ranging from "some high school" to "postgraduate degree". We measured whether the employee is looking for a job or not by the dichotomous variable "yes" or "no". Duality of Measures • The factor analyses for the job satisfaction measures and organizational commitment measures showed that items associated with the temporary agency loaded on the temporary agency factor and items associated with the client organization loaded on the client organization factor. Thus, the factor structure of these measures indicates the dual nature of attitudes temporary employees have for the temporary agency only and the client organization only.

13. Results • The descriptive statistics and correlations are presented in Table 1. Regression analysis was used for hypotheses testing and the regression results are shown in Table 2. • To summarize the findings regarding the model, the results are also provided in Figure 2. The control variables were regressed in the first step and then the independent variables were regressed. The results are shown in Tables 3a-3f. • Hypothesis Ia and Hypothesis Ib were both supported. Job satisfaction for the temporary agency was negatively associated with turnover intention for the temporary agency (Beta= -.29, p<.01) while job satisfaction for the client organization was negatively associated with turnover intention for the temporary agency (Beta=-.46, p<.01). • As the results indicate, Hypothesis 2a and 2b were also both supported. Job satisfaction for the temporary agency was positively associated with organizational commitment for the temporary agency (Beta= .61, p<.01). Job satisfaction for the client organization was positively associated with organizational commitment for the client organization (Beta= .72, p<.01).

14. Hypothesis 3a stated that organizational commitment for the temporary agency will be negatively associated with turnover intention for the temporary agency. As shown in Table 2, this hypothesis was supported (Beta= -.26, p<0.01). Hypothesis 3b stated that organizational commitment for the client organization will be negatively associated with turnover intention for the client organization. Again, this hypothesis was supported (Beta= -.32, p<0.01). • To test the mediating effect of organizational commitment on both its relationship with job satisfaction and its relationship with turnover intention, Baron and Kenny's (1986) procedure for conducting the mediational analysis using regression was used. In this procedure, they recommend the following four step procedure to establish whether certain conditions exist to determine if mediation is present.

15. Our results indicate that organizational commitment for the temporary agency mediated the relationship between job satisfaction for the temporary agency and turnover intention for the temporary agency. As Table 2 indicates, conditions 1, 2, and 3 were satisfied for the mediating effect: 1) job satisfaction for the temporary agency significantly impacted turnover intention for the temporary agency; 2) job satisfaction for the temporary agency significantly impacted organizational commitment for the temporary agency; and 3) organizational commitment for the temporary agency had an effect on turnover intention for the temporary agency after controlling for job satisfaction for the temporary agency. The results showed that the beta weight for job satisfaction for the temporary agency (Beta=.05, p>0.05) satisfied the requirement for step 4. The effect of job satisfaction for the temporary agency on turnover intention for the temporary agency became insignificant when organizational commitment for the temporary agency was introduced into the regression equation as a mediating variable. All four conditions for mediation were satisfied.

16. Concerning the mediating role of commitment for the client organization, as Table 2 indicates, conditions 1, 2, and 3 of Baron and Kenny's procedure were satisfied. The beta weight for job satisfaction (Beta= -.26, p<0.01) found when both organizational commitment and job satisfaction were a part of the regression equation indicated that there was a reduction in magnitude (from -0.46). Thus, the results indicate a partial mediation. • Regarding the crossover effects, Hypothesis 4a, job satisfaction for the temporary agency will be positively associated with organizational commitment for the client organization, was not supported (Beta= .02, p>.05). Hypothesis 4b, job satisfaction for the client organization will be positively associated with organizational commitment for the temporary agency (Beta= .07, p<.05) was supported. The results also indicate that Hypothesis 4c, organizational commitment for the temporary agency will be negatively associated with turnover intention for the client organization (Beta= -07, p<.05) was supported while Hypothesis 4d, organizational commitment for the client organization will be negatively associated with turnover intention for the temporary agency (Beta= -06, p>.05), was not supported.

21. Discussion • Employees who had a more favorable attitude toward the client organization related aspects of job such as independence, challenging work, amount of work, learning and growth on the job, and help from supervisors and co-workers at client site are more committed to the client organization and had less intention to quit the client organization. • The mediation influence of organizational commitment for the temporary agency was identified but the mediation influence of organizational commitment was only partially supported for the client organization. Although the mediation was partial regarding the attitude for the client organization, the magnitude of direct effect of job satisfaction was reduced from 0.46 to 0.26 when organizational commitment was introduced as a mediator.

22. We found more evidence that job satisfaction may be a more distal cause of turnover intention than organizational commitment (Griffeth et al., 2000) for temporary workers as well as permanent workers. • Regarding the crossover effects, no support was found for the crossover effect of job satisfaction for the temporary agency being positively associated with organizational commitment for the client organization but weak support was found for the crossover effect where job satisfaction for the client organization was positively associated with organizational commitment to the temporary agency. Although there was support for one of the crossover effects, the beta weight for the relationship was much weaker than the beta weights for the relationship between job satisfaction for the temporary agency and organizational commitment for the temporary agency. Thus, it appears that satisfaction for the temporary agency had a much stronger influence on organizational commitment for the temporary agency when compared to job satisfaction for the client organization.

23. A temporary employee who is trying to quit a client is more likely to quit because the employee is dissatisfied with the aspects associated with the client (e.g. support or supervision at client site) than with aspects associated with the temporary agency (e.g. pay or support from supervisors at the temporary agency). • Organizations that routinely employ temporary workers need to focus upon improving working conditions for temporary employees to increase employee organizational commitment and reduce turnover. High employee turnover could be expensive for the organizations because client organizations typically have to expend time and resources for training and socialization of temporary employees. • Frequent turnover of temporaries may also disrupt work schedules. The turnover of temporary workers could be critical if the client organization is employing temporaries in areas such as customer service management.

24. More specifically, the findings enhanced our knowledge of the relationships between job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention temporary employees have for both the temporary agency and the organization in which they work. We greatly expanded the knowledge in this area by finding that organizational commitment for the temporary agency was more a function of job satisfaction for the temporary agency than job satisfaction for the client organization and turnover intention for the temporary agency is more a function of the temporary agency organizational commitment than client organizational commitment. Likewise, organizational commitment for a client organization was more of a function of job satisfaction for the client organization than job satisfaction for the temporary agency, and turnover intention for the client organization is more a function of client organizational commitment than the temporary agency organizational commitment.