What effect does quality of communication have on
turnover intentions as mediated by met expectations and
moderated by the level of education?
Author: Petra Luiken
Student number: 10970215 University of Amsterdam
Faculty of Business and Economics Amsterdam Business School
Executive Programme in Management Studies Track: Leadership and Management Thesis supervisor: mw. dr. C.K. (Claudia) Buengeler Date of submission: 29-06-2017
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Table of contents
1. Introduction ... 4
2. Theoretical Background and Hypotheses ... 7
2.1 Turnover intentions ... 7
2.2 The role and relationships of quality of communication ... 8
2.3 Mediating role of met expectations ... 9
2.4 Moderating Role of Level of Education ... 11
3. Methods ... 13 3.1 Participants ... 13 3.2 Procedure ... 13 3.3 Measures ... 13 4. Results ... 15 4.1 Statistical Procedure ... 15 4.2 Correlation Matrix ... 15 4.3 Linear Regression ... 17
4.4 Testing indirect and conditional effects... 17
5. Discussion ... 20
5.1 Implications ... 22
5.2 Limitations & Strength ... 23
5.3 Future research ... 25
6. Conclusion ... 26
7. Reference List... 27
8. Appendices ... 30
Appendix A: Cover letter ... 30
2 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
This document is written by student Petra Luiken who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document.
I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents.
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Abstract
Drawing from the theoretical framework of Porter and Steers (1973), this study investigates the relationship between quality of communication and turnover intentions mediated by met expectations. Specially, I proposed that level of education moderates the negative relationship between quality of communication and turnover intentions via the mediator.
The results obtained on a sample of 128 employees showed that met expectations indeed mediate the negative relation between quality of communication and turnover intentions. In addition, I found no support that level of education significantly moderates the negative relationship between quality of communication and turnover intentions via met expectations. In other words, the relation did not become stronger when the level of education was higher rather than lower. These findings provide partial support to the theory of Porter and Steers (1973).
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1. Introduction
In most European countries, the number of active volunteers has increased over the past decade (Oostlander, Güntert, Van Schie, & Werner, 2013). In 2015, for instance, almost 50% of the Dutch citizens of 15 years or older volunteered at least once. This figure remained unchanged since 2012 (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2015). The high numbers not only show that many people are interested in doing some volunteer work but it also has a huge impact on local communities, the society in general and volunteers themselves (Oostlander, Güntert, Van Schie, & Werner, 2013).
COC Netherlands has been advocating the rights of lesbian women, gay men,
bisexuals and transgender (LGBT’s) individuals since 1946 and is therefore the oldest LGBT interest group in the world. COC strives for the decriminalization of sexual orientation and identity and for equal rights, emancipations and social acceptance of LGBT’s in the
Netherlands and all over the world. COC Headquarters is based in Amsterdam with 35 paid employees; however, the backbone of the organization are the 20 local chapters of COC throughout the Netherlands which are run by volunteers. The local chapters with hundreds of volunteers are in close contact with the community, get to know the challenges of the lesbian women, gay men, bisexuals and transgenders in their area and are able to address these issues with COC Netherlands and their local government. Without these volunteers, COC would be unable to fight for decriminalization of sexual orientation, gender identity, equal rights,
emancipation and social acceptance of LGBT’s in the Netherlands in the way they are doing it nowadays. Therefore, keeping volunteers within an organization such as COC is relevant.
Losing volunteers will not only have a negative impact on the capacity of an
organization and the quality of the service and programs (Galindo-Kuhn & Guzley, 2002), it is also expensive for an organization as it produces costs due to the fact that the position needs to be filled again and new staff needs to be trained (Flinkman, Leino-Kilpi, & Salanterä,
5 2010). Therefore, identifying how to keep volunteers such as those working for COC and other organizations that depend on volunteering work is the main focus of this research.
To keep volunteers attached to an organization it is essential to understand what
influences volunteers’ satisfaction, what is for them an important reason to stay, what are their motives and drives and what will help keep them connected to the organization.
Understanding helps ensure that volunteers stay in the long term (Vecina & Chacón, 2013). Porter and Steers (1973) focused their research on factors related to turnover and met expectations have a central role in this. They predict that when individual expectations are not substantially met the employees’ behavior withdrawal behavior would increase. They point out that an organization has several options to provide employees a more realistic view of the nature of the job and what an organization expects and can offer in return. This would help to meet expectations which will decrease turnover intentions of employees. Porter and Steers (1973) mentions that one of the most important actions a company can take is to increase the communication regarding the nature of the job. This will benefit the employees understanding of what is expected from him/her and increases the chances that the volunteer survive on the job. Their research also strongly suggests that future research should focus on the differential expectations levels at the time of entry into the organization and the extent to which the expectations are met during their employment. This research will thus look at met
expectations as an important mediator of the relationship between quality of communications and turnover intentions.
A trend at COC Netherlands is that highly educated volunteers, with a University degree or young professionals working at corporate organizations, are entering the
organization. They are dedicated and increasingly interested in making a difference in the world. This follows up a trend which became visible in the United States in 2005 when a research disclosed that 68% of people between the ages of 18 and 26 prefer to work for a
6 company that provides professional volunteer opportunities. That same year the UCLA
Higher Education Research Institute reported a 25-year high in first-year students’ belief that it is “essential or important to help others.” (Eisner, Grimm, Shannon, & Susannah, 2009, p. 37).
Gazioglua and Tansel (2006) investigated the level of education in relation to satisfaction among paid workers. They found that there is a relation between level of education and job satisfaction and that job satisfaction is a good predictor of quitting.
The higher the education level is the lower the satisfaction. The differential dissatisfaction is highest in the case of degree and post-graduate degree holders. Clark and Oswald (1996) put forward that due to expectation differentials between different levels of education, the causal relationship between education and job satisfaction is ambiguous. As this research is all done at organizations with paid employees it is interesting to test if it is the same for an
organizations mainly based on the effort and commitment of volunteers. It suggest that the level of education of volunteers will have an impact on the relationship between quality of communication and met expectations and therefore on turnover intentions.
Therefore my research question is:
What effect does quality of communication have on turnover intentions as mediated by met expectations and moderated by the level of education?
As there is limited amount of research done related to expectations, level of education and turnover intentions within the Dutch LGBT community this research has therefore an important theoretical contribution. This information will not only be beneficial for COC Netherlands but also for other organizations within the field and where volunteers play an important role. The results are important for the director and board of COC Netherlands and
7 othervolunteer organizations, as they will have, due to this research, more insight on the influences and reasons of volunteers who might have the intention to leave and if the expectations are related to level of education or not. Especially, the impact of quality of communication on the turnover intentions is interesting as there might be a direct relation between these two variables and is not investigated at an organization which works mainly with volunteers.
2. Theoretical Background and Hypotheses
This section provides an overview of literature related to the dependent variable turnover intentions and the independent variable quality of communication. Also theory related to the met expectations and the level of education will be discussed.
2.1 Turnover intentions
Turnover intentions, or the intention of leaving the organization, is one step behind actual leaving the organization. When employees leave an organization it produces costs due to the fact that the position needs to be filled again and the new employee needs to be trained. Besides that it has a negative impact on organizational productivity (Flinkman, Leino-Kilpi, & Salanterä, 2010) and on organizational learning that comes with longer tenure in an organization (Alfes, Shantz, & Saksida, 2015). Although having a job opening could be an opportunity for another volunteer (Miller, Powell, & Seltzer, 1990) the negative effect of losing a volunteer should outweigh its potential positive effect.
In their framework on met expectations, Porter and Steers (1973) highlighted four categories of factors which predict withdrawal behavior; these include organization-wide factors (e.g. pay and promotion), immediate work environment factors (e.g. supervisory style, work unit size and the nature of the peer group interaction), job-related factors (related to
8 satisfaction and dissatisfaction but also to task repetitiveness, job autonomy and role clarity) and personal factors (e.g. age, tenure with the organization and personal characteristics). Porter and Steers (1973) mention that increased communication related to the nature of the job is perhaps the most important action an organization needs to take in order to provide more clarity on the job and role. To clarify one’s job role better it helps to set realistic expectations related to the job which should decrease turnover intentions. As this can be a crucial factor in that process it is important to investigate if this is also the case at an organization which mainly relies on volunteers.
2.2 The role and relationships of quality of communication
Organizational communications is becoming more and more investigated as it is imperative in all dimensions of the organization’s performance as well externally with customers and suppliers as internally with the employees (Marques, 2010). Marques (2010) indicated that communication is the foundation of successful human interaction regardless of the setting in which it occurs. Additionally, he argued that there are five foundational criteria of successful organizational communication. These criteria are;
Timely. when a message arrives too late it is meaningless. Therefore receivers must get the message on time when the information is meaningful.
Clear. Whatever method is used to send a statement it must be one that will likely result in the message being received clearly.
Accurate. As clarity and accuracy are closely linked to each other they also represent different needs. A message needs to be seen as important by the receiver otherwise it will not be picked up.
Credible. A message should be believed or it will be discarded. The chosen method of communication is an important factor in this case.
9 Conciseness, professionalism and a sincere way of communicating were added as criteria by the participants. Other research refers to quality of communication to whether the
communication is relevant, accurate, reliable and timely (Byrne & LeMay, 2006).
According to Porter and Steers (1973) job related-factors can relate to the withdrawal process. Their research showed that job applicants who were provided with a clear picture of their jobs prior to employment are more likely to remain. Youngberg (1963) and Macedonia (1969) confirmed these results.
Concluding, previous research suggests that quality of communication as describe earlier helps set better expectations and should make employees stay in an organization. Therefore, I predict the following:
Hypothesis 1 (H1): Quality of communication is positively related to met expectations. Hypothesis 2 (H2): Quality of communication is negatively related to turnover
intentions.
2.3 Mediating role of met expectations
The concept of met expectations used by Porter and Steers (1973) is viewed as the difference between what a person encounter in the job in the way of positive and negative experience and what he/she expected to encounter. They predict that when the expectations of a person are not substantially met the propensity to withdraw would increase. A realistic view of the job can only be created if the employee knows all the ins and outs. This includes the content of the job, the responsibilities, the time needed for certain tasks, the amount of standardized or simple work and the overall challenges.
When a person has at least this kind of information he or she can create a realistic picture of the job and link certain expectations towards it. One of the options to provide a person with a complete overview of the job tasks, challenges and content is via clear communication of it.
10 The outcome of the survey of Lyons (1971) also confirmed the results of the research done by Weitz (1956), Youngberg (1963) and Macedonia (1969) which stated that perceived role clarity was negatively related to voluntary turnover and propensity to leave. The clearer it is for an employee what his/her are tasks the higher the chance that that person has a realistic view of the job. When an employee receives on forehand information about the content of the job, the approximately time needed to fulfill a task and the challenges of the job it will help the employee to have a better understanding of what he/she needs to do and what can be expected. Not surprisingly, role clarity is positively related to job satisfaction which is associated with continuing participation (Youngberg, 1963). Katzell (1968) also found that employees who remained at their job generally felt that their original expectations were essentially met on the job, while that was not the case for the employee who left. Those employees felt that their expectations were not met. Having correct expectations of the job is influenced by the quality of communication
Concluding, quality of communication affects turnover intentions via met expectations.
Therefore, I predict:
Hypothesis 3 (H3): Met expectations are negatively related to turnover intentions. Hypothesis 4 (H4): Met expectations mediate the negative relationship between quality of communication and turnover intentions.
For all organizations depending on volunteers, it is important to keep as many volunteers as possible as they are all contributing to the continuity of the organization. Particularly, volunteers with professional skills are highly needed in the non-profit sector as they can use their expert knowledge to help save money by providing technological services,
11 developing programs and strategic planning and due to their personal commitment they can be good fundraisers (Eisner, Grimm, Shannon, & Susannah, 2009).
For these particular tasks it is important that volunteers are able to take well considered decisions, think outside the box if needed, can create a network, are able to develop a vision, take on leadership roles and keep focus to make sure the goal will be achieve. These tasks can be more easily assigned to volunteers with higher level of education.
Therefore, I focus on the level of education as a moderator of the relationship between quality
of communication and turnover intentions.
2.4 Moderating Role of Level of Education
Within a paid organization as well as in a voluntary environment there are different job levels and tasks which request a different range of responsibility. Having a position as a board member and develop strategic plans requires different skills than a job at a helpdesk. Both are very important jobs but it requires a completely different skill set and a different educational background.
Gazioglua and Tansel (2006) found that there is a relation between level of education and job satisfaction. The ‘degree and postgraduate degree’ holders have lower level of satisfaction than individuals with lower levels of education. The level of satisfaction is a predictor of quitting. Research that has been done on level of education in relation towards met expectations is limited.
As mentioned above there is some research which highlight the level of education towards satisfaction and therefore to turnover intentions but studies focused on the impact of different levels of education are even more limited. Rogers (1991) investigated the impact of high and low level of education in relation to expectations. He indicates that the level of education has the tendency to raise a person’s expectations. He mentions that education change an individual in many ways. It can broaden horizons and adopt new ways of thinking.
12 It will bring new skills, improve old ones and it can shape attitudes. This all together can raise a person’s aspirations and expectations. This means that the expectation towards the quality of communication and the content of the job also rise. When expectations are rising it will also be harder to meet these expectations.
Therefore I suggest:
Hypothesis 5 (H5): The level of education moderates the negative relationship between quality of communication and turnover intentions via met expectations such that the relation becomes stronger when the level of education is higher rather than lower.
The model in Figure 1 summarizes the conceptual model with the study hypotheses.
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3. Methods
3.1 Participants
Participants were all volunteers of COC. It is estimated that in total there are 1000 people volunteering for COC. Of this amount 128 volunteers filled in the survey completely. This is an estimate response rate of nearly 13%. Which is compared to other studies quite a low percentage. Average age of the research sample is 39.83 years (SD =15.39), almost 43% of the respondents are women, 43% are men (including 3 transpersons) and 14% of the respondents did not answer this question. On average the participants are volunteering 6.36 hours per week (SD = 6.46) and for a length of 5.64 years (SD = 7.18). 64% of the
participants are also involved in a paid job, 31% are not.
3.2 Procedure
An email with an explanation of the research was sent to the board of all local chapters. In the email there was also a request to send the link of the survey to all their
volunteers. In some cases the link was posted on their intranet page. Some boards sent the link with an attendant email to personal email addresses and in some cases the link was put on a closed Facebook group with the request to fill in the survey. Participation was completely voluntary and due the usage of a general link also anonymous.
3.3 Measures
All measures were adapted from existing English scales that were translated into Dutch. The translation has been done via the widely used approach for translation – back translation by Brislin (1970). Where necessary, items were adjusted to be more appropriate to volunteer work. For all questions the Likert scale was used but the levels were diverse and different per variable.
14 Quality of communication. Quality of communication was assessed with three items adapted from Den Hartog et al, (2013) which were also similar to that of Kernan and Hanges (2002). The items asked volunteers opinion about whether the organization provides them sufficient information about their tasks, if that information is also useful and whether they understand the provided information. The scale used was a 7-point Likert scale (1= strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). The questions demonstrated a high internal consistency α = .85
Turnover intentions. Volunteers turnover intentions was measured with three items at a 5-point Likert scale (1= strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) adapted from Colarelli (1984). Sample items are ‘I frequently think of quitting my volunteer work’ and ‘If I have my own way, I will be working for COC one year from now’. Reliability level is α = .80.
Met expectations. Volunteers were asked to answer how well their expectations related to immediate supervisor/contact person, kind of work, co-volunteers, reward aspect, future career and the organization identification had been met. These questions came from Lee and Mowday (1987) and were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. (1 = less than expected, 5 = more than expected). The questions demonstrated a reliability of α = .79
Level of education. Level of education was a question at the end of the survey and mandatory to fill in. There were 7 answers possible (1 = Elementary school, 2 = High School, 3 = LBO, 4 = MBO, 5=HBO, 6= University, 7= Other) For the analyses this variable was recoded into 1 for higher education (HBO and University) and 0 for the rest.
Control variables. In the data analyses, several additional variables were controlled for in order to rule out alternative explanations for the findings. Function within the local chapter and hours spent per week on volunteer work were controlled for because these variables might plausibly influence the expectation volunteers have or the level of motivation volunteers experience.
15 For the function within the organization dummy codes variables were made. The amount of hours spent on volunteer work has been filled in by the participant itself and round up in full or half hours. Because the 20 local chapters are based across the Netherlands also gender and age were controlled for. Gender was coded 0 for male and 1 for female. The transgender persons were added to the group of the gender they belong to at this moment.
4. Results
4.1 Statistical Procedure
Recoding. The survey consists of 5 reversed questions. These questions have been recoded. The original data was kept in the dataset. The survey contained also general questions which are partly used as control variables. For the questions related to level of education and function within the organization dummy codes were made.
Computing Scale Means. New variables as a function of existing variables were created for hypotheses testing. I calculated the means of all items that were used to describe a variable.
Analyses. For testing the hypotheses hierarchical Linear Regression Analyses and PROCESS Model 4 and 8 were used (Hayes, 2013).
4.2 Correlation Matrix
Table 1 shows the mean, standard deviations and correlations for the variables in the present study. The highest positive correlation has been found between the variables quality of communication and met expectations (r = 35, p = <.005). This was also in line with the assumption made in Hypothesis 1. On the other hand, the highest negative correlation has been found, which is in line with the assumption made in Hypothesis 2, between met expectation and turnover intentions (r = -.34, p = <.005).
16 Table 1. Correlation Matrix
17 4.3 Linear Regression
To test the hypothesis that there is a relationship between quality of communication and turnover intentions a hierarchical linear regression analyses was conducted. In the first step of the regression analyses the dependent variable, turnover intentions, was entered with the control variables; Age, gender, hours per week doing volunteer work and function. The result shows F = .330 indicating no significant influence of these control variables on turnover intentions. After entering the independent variable, quality of communication, in step 2 the total variance explained by the model grew from 7,5% to 9 ,5% but the effect of quality of communication on turnover was still not statistically significant as F = .149.
Table 2 presents the regression analyses for quality of communication and turnover intentions.
Table 2. Hierarchical Regression Model of Turnover Intentions
Table 2. Hierarchical Regression Model of Turnover Intentions
R R2 ∆R2 B SE β t Step 1 .27 .07 Gender -.14 .16 -.09 -.87 Age -.00 .00 -.01 -.11 Step 2 .30 .09 .01 Gender -.14 .16 -.09 -.88 Age -.00 .00 -.01 -.09 Quality of Communication -.18 .12 -.15 -1.45
4.4 Testing indirect and conditional effects
To answer the other hypotheses and to investigate if there is a moderating or mediating effect I employed Hayes’s (2013) PROCESS macro for SPSS, which uses an analytical framework based on ordinary least squares regression to estimate direct and indirect effects. For all tests the bootstrap sample has set on 10.000 and the level of confidence for all confidence intervals has set on 95%.
18 Hypothesis 1 states that quality of communication is positively related to met
expectations. As predicted the produced results shows that this hypothesis can be supported as there is a significant result b = .3646, 95% CI [0.227, 0.501], t = 5.26, p = .000
Hypothesis 2 had already been tested with hierarchical linear regression analyses. The result obtained from those regressions is also in line with the outcome obtained via PROCESS model 4. Hypothesis 2 is not supported as b = - .1594, 95% CI [- 0.399, 0.089], t = - 1.25, p = .211 which means that there is not found a significant negative effect between quality of communication and turnover intentions.
Hypothesis 3 predicts a negative relationship between met expectations and turnover intentions. The results shows that there is indeed a significant negative relationship between these two variables as b = - .5968, 95% CI [- 0.917, - 0.276], t = - 3.69, p = .000
and therefore this hypothesis is supported. This result shows that at the moment expectations are not met there is a chance that the turnover intentions will increase.
Hypothesis 4 states that met expectations mediate the negative relationship between quality of communication and turnover intentions. This hypothesis was supported by the test of the indirect effect using model 4 of PROCESS as b = - .2176 95% CI [- 0.382, - 0.075]. These results indicate that there is indeed a negative indirect relationship of quality on communication on turnover intentions through met expectations.
Finally, Hypothesis 5 states that the level of education moderates the negative relationship between quality of communication and turnover intentions via met expectations such that the relation becomes stronger when the level of education is higher rather than lower. To test this hypothesis we performed moderated mediation analyses. Namely, Model 8 of PROCESS. The result of the performed moderated mediation analysis shows that there is no significant indirect relationship at the different levels of education between quality of
19 communication and turnover intentions via met expectations b = .7388, 95% CI [-1.205, 2.682], t = 0.75, p = .452 This means that there is no support found for hypothesis 5.
In addition to testing hypothesized paths, and although not formally hypothesized, I performed additional analyses to examined whether level of education moderated the relationship between quality of communication and turnover intentions.
Also this effect was indicating non-significant interaction between the quality of
communication and level of education in affecting turnover intentions b = 2.7453, 95% CI [-7.052, 1.561], t = - 1.26, p = .208
Table 3. Overview of the outcome of PROCESS Model 4
Consequent
Met Expectations Turnover Intentions
Antecedent Coeff. SE p Coeff. SE P
Quality of Communication .364 .069 <.005 -.154 .123 >.005 Met Expectations - - - .596 .167 <.005 Constant 2.163 .352 <.005 2.647 .628 <.005 R2 = .271 R2 = .203 F (10,109) = 4.0609, p<.005 F (11,108) = 2.4892, p<.005
Effect SE p LLCI ULCI
Direct effect .062 .130 >.005 -.196 .322 Total effect -.154 .123 >.005 -.399 .089 Boot SE Boot
LLCI Boot ULCI
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5. Discussion
To have more understanding of the impact and consequences on volunteers in regards to met expectations it can help an organization to keep volunteers (longer) on board. A low turnover rate of volunteers will be beneficial for organizations in a way that it keeps the hiring costs for new volunteers low. It also will not decrease the service level an organization can provide as the knowledge and experience will stay within the company. In the end it will make organizations much more stable and sustainable.
The theory of Porter and Steers (1973) has been used to test this model related to the volunteers of COC Netherlands and although most results are in line with the finding of Porter and Steers (1973) there are also some unexpected outcomes.
First, the assumption that quality of communication is positively related to met expectations (H1) was tested. The outcome showed indeed that there is a positive relation which is consistent with previous research of Youngberg (1963), Macedonia (1969) and Porter and Steers (1973). Thus, the better the quality of communication is towards volunteers the higher the chance that the expectations are met. This will help volunteers to have a more realistic view of their tasks and therefore have a better understanding of what they can expect.
Second, the assumption that quality of communication was negatively related to turnover intentions (H2) was tested. There was no support found for this hypothesis which is surprisingly, as this is not according the theory of Porter and Steers (1973). A reason that this assumption is not supported may have something to do with the motivation of doing this kind of volunteer work. Over 90% of the respondents mentioned in the survey that they are doing this volunteer work because they want to do something for the LGBT community. 83% of the respondents mentioned that they are volunteer of COC because they want to help others. It can be that the motivation for helping the community is that high that poor quality of
21 communication will not have any impact on their motivation and therefore will not increase their turnover intentions.
The third assumption which was tested is supported and also in line with theory of Porter and Steers. Met expectations are negatively related to turnover intentions (H3). This means that at the moment a volunteer has expectations, and it doesn’t matter if these
expectations are high or low, which are not met the turnover intentions might increase. These expectations can arise from workplace aspects such as received support from the direct supervisor, job duties and the received reward. To decrease turnover intentions it is important to meet expectations at all levels.
The assumption that met expectations mediate the negative relationship between quality of communication and turnover intentions (H4) was supported. This outcome is also in line with research that was done earlier by Lyons (1971) at agents of an insurance company. Those results showed that agents who had a clear picture of the job duties were more likely to stay in the job. Clear pictures were provided through a booklet where all responsibilities were mentioned, tasks were explained and average time spend on certain activities was written down. This provided a more realistic view of the job duties which resulted in a higher chance of surviving on the job.
Finally, Hypothesis 5 was tested which included the moderating effect. The assumption was that the level of education moderated the negative relationship between quality of communication and turnover intentions via met expectations in such a way that the relation becomes stronger when the level of education is higher rather than lower.
Surprisingly, I found no support for this assumption. This is also not in line with previous research from Rogers (1991) which indicated that the education level has the tendency to raise a person’s expectations. Also research from Clark and Oswald (1996) has found that degree and postgraduate degree holders tend to have lower levels of satisfaction than individuals with
22 a lower education. Hence, education level may increase turnover intention despite high
quality if communication because met expectations are reduces. As research of Gazioglua and Tansel (2006) show, level of satisfaction is a predictor of quitting. The outcome of my
research show no support for that. This could be explained by the homogeneity of the sample group as 85% of the respondents have a HBO or WO education. Only 15% has an education which has been classified as a lower education. This may have cause the fact that there is no support for this hypothesis.
5.1 Implications
This study shows a number of theoretical implications. First, this research shows that the model of Porter and Steers (1973) is still valid when it comes to met expectations. Many years after the outcome of their report it shows that the basics of being satisfied with your work have a lot to do with expectations. Time did not change the basic value of that.
Secondly, as this research has been done at an LGBT organization it expands the literature taking place in this specific organization. There has been done limited amount of research at volunteer organizations that are active within the LGBT field. This research gives more insights in the motivation and expectations of volunteers connected to an organization which is operating in a niche market. This makes that this research is not only beneficial for COC but can also be used by other organizations within the field.
Besides the contribution to the literature there are also some practical implications. First, the results show that meeting expectations is very important if an organizations wants to keep their volunteers. This is something that was probably known at COC Headquarters but local chapters might have been unaware of. To improve this, or at least get this back on the radar of local boards it is wise to give a short workshop about it during one of the yearly Federation days. At the moment board members, coordinators and other volunteers that are hiring new volunteers are more aware of the importance of creating correct expectations, they
23 will keep that in mind during interviews. This will help to have new volunteers attached at the organization longer.
Second, as this study shows that there is no difference in the importance related to met expectations between volunteers and paid workers (Lyons, 1971) we know that providing a booklet helps to provide new people a more realistic view of their job tasks. (Lyons, 1971). At the moment it is not a standard routine that new volunteers get a booklet which provides instructions about their task, how many hours they can expect a certain task will take up, what the challenge are of certain tasks etc. If COC can introduce this at all local chapters it will help new volunteers, the board and ultimately the whole organization as the chance is higher that volunteers will stay on board longer.
Third, asking the volunteers’ opinion about this important subject gave many of them the feeling that their point of view is also important for COC Netherlands. The result of that was that many participants emailed me afterwards to let me know that if there will be changes in policies due to the outcome of this research they are willing to help. The support of the group volunteers was already huge but grew even further due this survey. This can help COC Headquarters and local chapters if new policies or actions needs to be rolled out.
5.2 Limitations & Strength
Like most studies also this study has some limitations which we need to keep in mind. First, the sample used to test the hypotheses is not really diverse when it comes to level of
education. Over 85% of the participants has a level of education which has been classified as high (HBO and WO). This may have as a result that the opinion of the volunteers with a lower education has been underexposed. Future studies should try to have a more diverse sample related to level of education. This may decrease the possibility of a response bias in the sample.
24 Second, the theories used in the theoretical framework mostly dated back to the
nineteen seventies and the eighties. The outcome of the research showed that most of the theories are still supported but it would have been good if there also would be some articles used from studies published after 2000. It was not mandatory but it could have strengthened the theoretical framework. This limitation can be overcome in future research.
The third limitation is that the answers all came from only a quantitative research which provides limited outcomes. Although in many questions the scale was a 7 point Likert scale the respondents have limited options for response.
The fourth limitation is that everything was measured from the same persons, which inflates correlations and created a problem with the common-method-variance.
Despite these limitations this research also has some strengths.
First, the returned surveys came back from a wide variety of local chapters. The diversity in this gives a good overall view and make the results more useful for the board of COC Netherlands.
Second, this study gives more insight in the intrinsically strong motivation of COC volunteers. We know now that quality of communication is not negatively related to turnover intentions which is quite surprising. This might be related to the fact that a lot of volunteers also belong to the LGBT community which strengthens their connection towards COC and motivation to do volunteer work. COC was not aware of this and as it is something which works beneficial for COC it might also be interesting for other volunteer organizations that work with volunteers who are driven by the same kind of motivation.
25 5.3 Future research
There is still much to learn about the motivation and expectation levels of volunteers. If organizations will look closely at how they can provide a realistic view of the tasks,
management support and even organizational culture they will benefit from it later on. To receive more information on this the following things can be taken up at future research.
First, in this research I address one specific aspect towards met expectations and turnover intentions namely, quality of communication. I have investigated the impact of this on turnover intentions. Future research might further explore which aspects have an impact on turnover intentions at an organization that has volunteers who are mainly intrinsically motivated. If there is more knowledge on aspects which influence the motivation of
intrinsically motivated employees organizations have greater clarity regarding which aspect they need to take up and cannot be ignored.
Second, future research might also have a closer look into level of education. As the sample of this research was quite high on volunteers with a high level of education (HBO or WO) it can be quite interesting to do this research with a more diverse sample. Earlier research has shown that level of education can have an impact on met expectations and turnover intentions. That is not found in my research but it should have made sense if it was found. A possible reason for the missing support on this might be caused by the homogeneity of the sample group related to level of education. Therefore, there is a good reason to focus on that in future research.
Third, as also mentioned in the research of Porter and Steers (1973) future research can look more in detail into the differential expectation level at the time a volunteer enters the organization. This might be interesting for understanding better at which level of expectations a volunteer might think sooner about leaving the organization.
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6. Conclusion
The goal of this study was to examine what effect quality of communication has on turnover intentions as mediated by met expectations and moderated by level of education. The result of this study shows that met expectations mediates the negative relationship
between quality of communication and turnover intentions. On the other hand, the moderator, level of education, did not have a significant moderating effect. This outcome was not as expected.
As volunteers are really meaningful for the LGBT movement it is important that an organization as COC is doing its best to keep these volunteers on board as long as possible. This research has pointed out that level of education does not affect the influence of
communication on turnover intentions via met expectation. To keep volunteers attached to COC Netherlands it is crucial that expectations are met. As long as the organization is able to cover that the chance will grow that a volunteer feel it is worthwhile to remain with the organization. This will not only help COC but at the end the complete LGBT movement which is even better.
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8. Appendices
Appendix A: Cover letter
Beste Besturen van COC Lidverenigingen,
Sommige van jullie zullen mij kennen maar vast niet iedereen. Mijn naam is Petra Luiken en sinds vorig jaar werk ik bij COC Nederland als Programma Manager Nationaal. Naast deze baan studeer ik ook Bedrijfskunde aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Mijn studie is bijna klaar en daarom ben ik druk bezig met mijn scriptie. Omdat vrijwilligers zo ontzettend belangrijk zijn voor het COC en de beweging heb ik besloten mijn scriptie daaraan te wijden.
Ik wil onderzoeken wat het hebben van verwachtingen voor impact heeft op het plezier in het vrijwilligerswerk en wat communicatie en opleidingsniveau daar voor rol in spelen.
Er kan uit deze vragenlijst veel bruikbare info komen waardoor wij nog beter inzichtelijk krijgen wat vrijwilligers nodig hebben voor nog meer plezier en wellicht uiteindelijk een langere carrière bij het COC!
Om een goed beeld te krijgen is het van belang dat zoveel mogelijk vrijwilligers de vragenlijst in vullen. Zouden jullie daarom deze vragenlijst zelf in willen vullen en onder jullie vrijwilligers willen verspreiden? Dat mag per mail, facebook of welke manier van interne communicatie jullie
gebruiken.
Vergeet dan vooral niet deze link mee sturen. Die verwijst namelijk naar de vragenlijst
https://uvafeb.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eLKZPrEcB1DVR7T
Om het jullie nog wat makkelijker te maken heb ik onder de streep een tekstje geschreven die je zou kunnen sturen naar vrijwilligers met de link naar de vragenlijst. Zeker niet verplicht natuurlijk maar misschien wel zo makkelijk! :)
Voor vragen bel me vooral op 06-23747953 of mail mij op Pluiken@coc.nl. Mijn dank is erg groot!
Groet, Petra Luiken
--- Beste vrijwilligers,
Petra Luiken, Programma Manager COC Nederland, is bezig met haar scriptie voor haar opleiding Bedrijfskunde aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Haar scriptie gaat over motivatie van ons, de COC Vrijwilligers!
Ze onderzoekt o.a wat/of het hebben van verwachtingen en de kwaliteit van communicatie van invloed is op het plezier en tevredenheid bij het vrijwilligerswerk.
Met het invullen van deze vragenlijst (zie link onderaan) helpen jullie haar enorm en uiteindelijk ook jezelf. Mocht er uit haar onderzoek blijken dat er op bepaalde punten acties moeten worden uitgezet ter verbetering van de situatie zal ze dat ook oppakken. Dus je wint er dan zelf ook wat mee!
31 Om bij de vragenlijst te komen klik dan op deze link:
https://uvafeb.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eLKZPrEcB1DVR7T
Voor vragen en opmerkingen kun je haar bellen op 06-23747953 op mailen op pluiken@coc.nl
Dank jullie wel. Groet,
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Appendix B: Survey scales
Turnover intentions - Colarelli (1984)
5-point Likert scale: from 1= strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree
If I have my own way, I will be working
for COC one year from now Ik ben niet van plan om binnen nu en 12 maanden te gaan stoppen als vrijwilliger van het COC
I frequently think of quitting my volunteer work
Geregeld denk ik erover na om te stoppen als COC vrijwilliger I am planning to search for a new job
during the next 12 months
Binnenkort zal ik stoppen als vrijwilliger bij het COC
Quality of communication - Den Hartog et al (2013)
7-point Likert scale: from 1= strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree To what extent do you agree with the
following statements on the communication and the information
In hoeverre ben jij het met deze stellingen eens?
COC provides a sufficient amount of information to me
Het COC heeft mij hierover voldoende informatie gegeven
The information provided by COC is useful
De informatie die ik hierover kreeg was bruikbaar I understand the information
communicated by COC
De informatie die ik hierover kreeg begreep ik
Met expectations - Lee & Mowday (1987)
5-point Likert scale: from 1= less than expected to 5 = more than expected In general my experiences : In het algemeen zijn mijn ervaringen met: My immediate supervision Mijn directe begeleider/contactpersoon with the kind of work that I do Het soort werk dat ik doe
with the amount of work that I do De hoeveelheid werk wat ik doe with the other volunteers De andere vrijwilligers
with the reward aspects Het waarderingsaspect
matters affecting my career future Taken die van invloed zijn op mijn toekomst matters affecting my identification
with COC
33 Level of Education
What is your highest level of education Wat is je hoogst genoten opleiding? Elementary school Basisschool
High School Middelbare school
LBO LBO
MBO MBO
HBO HBO
University Universiteit
