SUPPORTIVE WORK RELATIONSHIPS,
TASK SIGNIFICANCE AND TURNOVER INTENTION:
THE MODERATING EFFECT OF AGE
MASTER THESIS
MSC. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT University of Groningen, Faculty of Business and Economics
May 2011 Sary Notschaele Rensumaheerd 52 9736AC Groningen S.C.Notschaele@student.rug.nl Student number 0178306 050-5421494 Supervisor Dr. F. Walter 2nd Supervisor Prof. Dr. O. Janssen
ABSTRACT
This study examines the importance of social relationships at work and task significance in the light of prevention premature departure from an organisation. A research model was tested with social support (from colleagues and supervisor) and task significance as predictors, and age as moderator and turnover intention as a dependent variable. The type of function (teacher, supporting staff and management) and the perceived chance of finding a comparable job acted as control variables in the tests.
Data were obtained from employees from a large educational organisation in the Netherlands; 323 employees participated in the survey. The findings indicate that, in line with expectations, support from colleagues and supervisor influences people’s turnover intention in an inverse way. No significant relationship was found between task significance and turnover intention. The hypotheses, regarding the moderating effect of age on the relationships between social support, and task significance on the one hand and turnover intention on the other hand, are not confirmed.
1. INTRODUCTION
A challenging problem for many managers is that firms need to compete not only in product markets but also in labour markets. Firms compete with others to secure appropriately skilled staff (Coff, 1997). For this reason, retention of employees is a growing objective for many organisations; especially retention of both younger and older employees. Many older employees will leave an organisation due to (early) retirement or sickness. For example, in the Netherlands about half the workforce leave the labour market around the age of 60 years (Otten, Arts, Soermann, and Ybena, 2010). The net labour participation of older people is low; in the Netherlands only 36 % of people in the age group of 60 to 65 year are in work engaged (Otten et al, 2010). At the same time, fewer young people will enter the company and fill the vacancies. Because of demographic trends, fewer young employees are available to fill the gaps; birth rates have decreased over the past 20 years in most western countries (Otten et al, 2010). For most companies, the consequence is that recruiting young employees is difficult. Also, turnover rates show that the time people work with the same employer is not very long; external mobility is high. In 2006, 45% of the Dutch employees had worked for shorter than 5 years with the current employer (Bekker and Kerkhofs, 2007). As a result, many organisations find it a growing problem to employ enough qualified employees. For those organisations it is important to put extra effort into retaining their employees.
are being met (Boxall and Purcell, 2008). Some researchers have focussed on work characteristics and their potential influence on turnover intention; for example Ng and Butts (2009) examined characteristics of the work environment such as information sharing and job significance. Work characteristics are usually employed to measure and assess employees’ work satisfaction (Morgeson and Humphrey, 2006), and relatively less attention has been paid to the influence of work characteristics on turnover intention. Also, research has been conducted on the relationship between age and voluntary turnover; the outcomes of these studies vary from no relation to a small relation (Healy, Lehman and Mc Daniel, 1995). No conclusive answer has emerged. There are reasons to expect that the relation between work characteristics and turnover intentions changes over a persons’ life-time, so age might have a moderating effect on these relations. For instance, older people are less likely than younger people to be motivated by opportunities for external job mobility (Segers, Inceoglu, and Vloeberghs, 2008). Interestingly, however, a potential moderating role of age on the work characteristics – turnover intentions linkage has rarely been examined to date.
as defined by Morgeson and Humphrey (2006): “the degree to which a job provides opportunities for advice, assistance, friendship, and support of supervisor and co-workers”. Continuing previous research, I assume that these factors are very important to people considering decisions about staying with or leaving a company. Secondly, the moderating role of age on the relations described above is a new aspect of research on turnover intentions. In the present study this relation is assessed.
In sum, the research questions are: What is the impact of the perception of work relationships and job significance on employees’ turnover intentions? And what is the moderating impact of employees’ age on these relations? See Figure 1.
Addressing these questions may contribute to the development of new knowledge and may also deliver specific insights and practical opportunities to prevent employees from seeking early departure from their company. Employers and HRM officers may use the outcomes of this
research to develop HRM policies; policies relating to the task significance of jobs and to the social relationships among colleagues and the employee – supervisor relationship.
2. TURNOVER INTENTION, SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS, WORK SIGNIFICANCE AND AGE 2.1. Turnover and Turnover Intention
Nowadays mobility of employees is high. Turnover rates compiled by the Organisatie voor Strategisch Arbeidsmarktonderzoek (OSA) show that, for example, in the Netherlands, the time people work with the same employer is not very long; external mobility is large. In 2006, 31% of the employees had worked more than 10 years with the same employer; 24 % had worked with the current employer for 5 to 10 years and 45% had done so for shorter than 5 years (Bekker and Kerkhofs, 2007). Retirement is not included in the given rates. Mobility can be measured in two-year periods. In the last measured period by the OSA, the mobility of the youngest group (aged 15-24) was the largest: 51 %. This means that in the period of 2004 – 2006 more than half of the youngest group changed company. The next age group (aged 25-34) shows 31 % external mobility (Bekker and Kerkhofs, 2007). The percentages decrease to 19% for the following age group (35-44) and 9 % for the oldest age group (55-64). As a result of this high mobility, many companies find it very important to attract and retain their capable employees. This task is not easily accomplished. Retaining employees is a growing issue for employers.
If the comparison favours the alternatives, it will inspire a behavioural intention to quit, followed by actual withdrawal and job search (Mobley, 1982).
Azjen’s (1985) Theory of Planned Behaviour similarly states that a person’s intention to quit his or her current job is critically important for actual turnover behaviour. Such turnover intention is a function of three major factors: individuals’ attitudes towards jobs, subjective norms or beliefs about what referent others think about jobs, and perceived control over the application process. Stone, Isenhour, and Lukaszewski (2008) argue that “attitudes toward jobs are a function of two major factors: beliefs that jobs have certain attributes (e.g., high pay levels, job challenge, friendly co-workers, opportunities for advancement or promotion) and beliefs about the degree to which these attributes are desirable or undesirable“. Boxall and Purcell (2008) stress the importance of considering benefits and costs in individuals’ attraction to organisations and in job choice decisions. Employees will accept a job in a company when they expect that the benefits of doing so outweigh the costs, while considering the alternatives to the offered employment relationship. Thus the individual’s perception of attraction to or withdrawal of a company influences potential turnover intentions.
2.2. Social relationships in the workplace
2.2.1. Perceived Social Support
When employees perceive social support, turnover intention will be reduced. Employees may experience social support in their job when they are enjoying friendship, assistance and advice from their co-workers (Morgeson and Humphrey, 2006). Experiencing social support at work may provide an opportunity to fulfil the psychological need for relatedness, to feel connected and attached to others (Greguras and Diefendorff, 2009). Attachment theory tells us that individuals are born with innate behaviours that function to attract and maintain proximity to attachment figures (supportive others) who will protect them against psychological or physical threats when individuals are in distress (Mikulincer and Shaver, 2005). The availability and responsiveness of supportive others result in a sense of security (Mikulincer and Shaver, 2005). In adult live, psychological attachment with others can benefit individuals functioning at work and will increase levels of overall work satisfaction (Hazan and Shaver, 1990). Secure attachment is found to be positively related to physical and psychological well-being at the workplace (Joplin, Nelson, and Quick, 1999). In supportive relationships, secure attachment with co-workers can be developed and will increase satisfaction and the sense of well-being at the workplace. As a result, supportive relationships with co-workers may fulfil the psychological need for relatedness, attachment and security.
people cope with stress, and promoting their well-being (Kaufmann and Beer, 1986). Employees, who experience a high amount of social support, will see the workplace as providing an environment with ample opportunities for learning, perceiving supportive, caring and helpful colleagues (Van der Heyden et al, 2010). Intentions to stay are reinforced by perceptions of belonging to a team, and of care and support among colleagues. Opportunities for meeting people and developing relationships form a necessary provision in the job design for developing social support (Sims, Szilagyi, and Keller, 1976). Consequently, when employees feel support from their team and their co-workers, turnover intention will be reduced (Moynihan and Pandey, 2007).
Hypothesis 1: Employees’ perception of social support in the workplace is negatively related to turnover intention.
2.2.2. Perceived Supervisor Support
Another important part of employees’ work environment is the relationship with their supervisor (Van der Heyden et al., 2010). Supportive supervisor conduct will reduce turnover intentions. Employees perceive support from their supervisor when they receive personal attention, assistance and advice from their direct supervisor (Morgeson and Humphrey, 2006). In previous research is was found that some supervisors fall short in providing support and in devoting attention to their subordinates (Van der Heijden et al., 2001); supervisor support is not provided to every employee.
position employees and supervisors occupy in an organisation (the employee is more dependent) and the power of supervisors (within boundaries) to take decisions on the employment status of individual employees (Boxall and Purcell, 2008). Also, managers’ responsiveness to employees’ suggestions and a fair treatment of employees are a factor in the relationships between supervisors and subordinates. Large variations in managers’ responsiveness and taking care of the interests of their subordinates are observed in surveys of employees’ perception of their managers (Georgiades and Purcell, 2007). As a result, in the eyes of subordinates the differences between supervisors and subordinates influence the feeling of support experienced by most subordinates.
exchange relation, people feel supervisors’ personal attention and assistance (support) and consequently intend to stay.
Demonstrating personal care and support by management elicits psychological attachment to the department and the organisation (Rousseau, 1998). Moreover, subordinates tend to view their supervisor as a personal extension or personification of the organisation and management (Eisenberger, Huntington, and Sowa, 1986); but not all employees hold a positive view of their treatment by the organisation. Employees who feel valued and respected by their supervisor are likely to reciprocate with trust, loyalty and attachment. For this reason, they are inclined to reduce their turnover intention (Boxall and Purcell, 2008). Longitudinal studies have shown that over time workers’ commitment to the current organization weakens rather than strengthens. This is due to the fact that many workers feel that (implicit) promises and obligations are not fulfilled by their managers (Coyle and Kessler, 2002). As a result, the experiences of employees with their supervisor colours employees’ perception of their supervisor and their feeling of receiving support. Accordingly, the perception of employees of the support given by their supervisor influences their turnover intention.
Hypothesis 2: Employees’ perception of supervisor support is negatively related to employees’ turnover intention.
2.3. Task significance
deeper understanding of the social impact and social value of one’s work is the basis. Task significance is seen as critical because of the prevailing interest in doing work that benefits other people and that contributes to society as a whole (e.g., Colby, Sippola, and Phelps, 2001); organisations are increasingly concerned with providing employees with such opportunities (Thompson and Bunderson, 2003).
When workers occupy such significant jobs they perceive themselves as important members of the company, influencing the well-being of colleagues (Ng and Butts, 2009). Conversely, when employees consider their jobs of little importance and as having little influence on others’ lives, they are likely to see themselves as unimportant members of the organisation and with few reasons to stay (Hackman and Oldham, 1980).
When employees consider their work as not very significant and perceive their work as unimportant, actions can be taken to show the importance of their work or to improve the work content (job enrichment). Hence, enriching employees’ job scope by increasing the significance of the job therefore has been shown to reduce turnover intention (Mc Evoy and Cascio, 1985). So testing the relation between the perception of task significance and turnover intention produces the following hypothesis.
Hypothesis 3: Employees’ perception of task significance is negatively related to employees’ turnover intention.
2.4. Psychological changes accompanying age and social relationships
Over a lifetime social relationships tend to become more important; when people are growing older they feel a stronger need for attachment to other people (Ryff, 1989). Specifically, when people are ageing, changes in emotional experiences and social relationships occur. These changes will take place in every domain of life. Human ageing brings changes that occur in biological, psychological, and social functioning through time and, therefore, affect each individual on personal, organisational, and society levels (De Lange, Taris, Jansen, et al., 2006; Sterns and Miklos, 1995). Carstensen (1995) stated that with psychological ageing the motivation for contacting others shifts from gaining resources (instrumental) to obtaining affective rewards (emotional satisfaction) and supporting one’s identity. As a result, older workers value social relations at work more for satisfying their emotional needs in contrast to younger workers’ instrumental use of contacts.
As people grow older, work atmosphere and pleasant social relationships become more important and more strongly determine work satisfaction (Thunnissen, 2001). Because middle-aged and older adults (40-80 years) rate high-quality relationships as critical for their well-being (Ryff, 1989); poor relationships with colleagues to older employees will constitute a reason to leave the company prematurely (Thunnissen, 2001). Younger workers, by contrast, are generally more motivated to fulfil their growth needs and to pursue challenging job opportunities (Moss and Frieze, 1993), than to fulfil social needs. For this reason they are more inclined to leave their current company for getting higher salaries and more promotions (Cheramie, Sturman and Walsh, 2007). Older employees are more strongly oriented towards maintaining the status quo and preventing the losses inherent in leaving when it comes to their relationships at work (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004).
employment (“psychological”) contracts (Boxall and Purcell, 2008). Lacking this kind of support, balance in the exchange relationships between employee and organisation and in the accompanying perceived costs and benefits will change in a negative way for older employees. To them the perceived (psychological) costs become too high and the benefits become too low to stay with the company. As explained before, for older employees the benefits of pleasant, supportive relationships matter more in considering their exchange relationships at work than for younger employees. When older employees are experiencing too little in the way of perceived benefits they will develop turnover intentions.
Taken together, findings suggest that age influences the relation between the perception of social relationships and turnover intention; age may have a moderating effect on perceived social support and supervisor support and turnover intentions.
Hypothesis 4a: Age has a moderating effect on the relation between perceived social support and turnover intentions. Specifically, this relationship will be more pronounced for older than for younger employees.
Hypothesis 4b: Age has a moderating effect on the relation between perceived supervisor support and turnover intentions. Specifically, this relationship will be more pronounced for older than for younger employees.
2.5. Psychological changes accompanying age and task significance
employees, and in this way encourages their staying with the company. Conversely, to older people task significance is less important in considering staying with or leaving the company. The psychological need of demonstrating to friends their capacities in performing a significant job is less important for older people, because they have more stable, long-term relationships at work and at home (Carstensen, 1995). Hence, a low level of job significance will result in a higher level of turnover intention for younger employees than for older employees.
3. METHOD
3.1. Measurements
The measurement items relating to the independent and dependent variables were based on validated scales. All items are measured by a five-point Likert Scale with answers varying from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) with the statement.
Social Support was measured by five items from the 6-item Social Support scale in the
Work Design Questionnaire of Morgeson and Humphrey (2006). The 6th item, “supervisor’s concern about welfare of employees working for him/her”, is included in the measurement of Supervisor Support. The statements were about friendship, knowing other people, meeting people, friendly conduct of colleagues, and personal interest. Cronbach’s alpha value was .80.
Supervisor Support is measured with four items. Three items of the Eisenberger,
Huntington, and Sowa’ (1986) “Perceived Supervisor Support scale” were included: “I am very satisfied with my supervisor”, “My supervisor cares about my welfare”, “I like working with my supervisor”. Also the above mentioned item on supervisors’ concern is included. Cronbach’s alpha was .96.
Task Significance was measured by the 4-item scale of the Work Design Questionnaire
of Morgeson and Humphrey (2006), which includes “The results of my work are likely to significantly affect the lives of other people” and “The job itself is very significant and important in a broader scheme of things”, and one item of Mc Knight’s questionnaire: “This job is one where a lot of other people outside this organisation may be affected by how well this job gets done”. Cronbach’s alpha was .83.
Age was measured as a continuous variable; it is operationalized by recording the year of
birth and afterwards calculating the age of the respondents.
Control variables were used in order to reduce the possibility of unmeasured influences
variable is measured with one item. The type of function might influence people’s binding with the organisation and their intention to stay (most for management functions, and least for supportive functions). The question on Perceived Job Chance was: “When I leave my current job, I expect to find a job as good as the current one easily”. People who do not expect to find a comparable job are likely to realize a low score on turnover intention. Older people are found to be less confident about finding another job than younger people, and literature on job loss suggests that older people have less opportunity to find re-employment quickly and will suffer a loss in quality of replacement jobs (Feldman et al, 2002).
Turnover intention is measured by the 3-item scale of Laufer and Kristof (2001) with the
items: “I would prefer another job to the one I have now”; “If I have my way, I won’t be working with this company a year from now”, and “I have seriously thought about leaving this company”. One item of Mc Knights scale is added to this scale: “I will be with this company 5 years from now”. Cronbach’s alpha was .81 for this variable.
The reliability of the scales was tested by calculating Cronbach‘s alpha; all items were tested. The four variables had acceptable reliability levels, values between .78 to .96. The variables were satisfactory, exceeding the threshold value of .70 suggested by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994).
3.2. Analysis
4. RESULTS
The results of the survey and the findings from the correlation analysis and moderated hierarchical regression analysis are presented in Table 1 and Table 2.
4.1. Descriptive statistics
Table 1 shows the means, the standard deviation and correlations of all variables .
TABLE 1.Descriptive Statistics and Correlations
Variables Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Perceived Job Chance 3.06 1.1.
2. Function 1.74 0.61 .14* 3. Age 47.15 9.67 .25** .17** 4. Task Significance 3.69 .69 .14* .36** .15* -5. Social Support 3.90 .57 .00 .11 .01 .23** 6. Supervisor Support 3.60 .99 .10 -.12* -.15* .06 .48** 7. Turnover Intention 2.69 . 94 .01 .09 .01 .01 .42** .41**
-** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level ( 2-tailed) * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level ( 2-tailed)
4.2. Moderated hierarchical regression analysis.
Results of the moderated hierarchical regression analysis are described in Table 2. The first step shows that, after taking into account the control variables, Social Support (ß= -.32, p<.001) and Supervisor Support (ß= -.24, p<.001) are both significantly negatively related to Turnover Intention. Hence, support is provided for Hypotheses 1 and 2. No support is found for Hypothesis 3 (“Task significance is negatively related to employees’ turnover intention”); no significant relation was established (ß= .05, p= .43).
The second step of the analysis concerns the moderating effect of age on the relation between perceived Social Support and Turnover Intentions and on the relation between perceived Supervisor Support and Turnover Intentions, as stated in Hypotheses 4a and 4b. The hypotheses are tested by inserting the interaction terms of Social Support, and Supervisor Support respectively, with Age. The outcomes show very small relations: -. 04 (p= .52) and -.12 (p= .84) respectively, with no significant relation. As a result, no support is found for hypotheses 4a en 4b.
TABLE 2. Moderated Hierarchical Regression Analysis
Variables entered Turnover
Intention Step 1
R² (Adjusted R²) .23 Step 2
Perceived Job Chance Function
Z Task Significance Z Social Support Z Supervisor Support Z Age
Z Social Support * Z Age Z Supervisor Support * Z Age Z Task Significance * Z Age
R² R² (Adjusted R²) -.03 .11 .05 -.33 * * * -.24 * * * -.09 -.04 -.01 .03 .00 .23 * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level ( 2-tailed)
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level ( 2-tailed) *** Correlation is significant at the 0.001 level (2-tailed).
5. DISCUSSION
5.1. Discussion of the outcomes
The purpose of this study was to examine relations between the perception of supportive work relationships, and job significance on the one hand and employees’ turnover intentions on the other hand. Additionally, the moderating effect of employees’ age on these relations was tested. The results show a significant inverse relationship between social support and turnover intentions and a significant inverse relationship between supervisor support and turnover intentions. This means that relatively high degrees of perceived social support and supervisor support make people more inclined to stay in the company.
In contrast to my expectations, no significant relation was found between task significance and turnover intentions. The opposite result came forward in the research of Ng and Butts (2009) on turnover intentions; they found a positive effect on intentions to stay, above and beyond the control variables. They suggest that task significance might be helpful to promote employees’ perceptions of organisational membership (Ng and Butts, 2009).
young people and communicating with them on a regular base could contribute to new insights, norms and values. Dorenbosch (2009) stipulates the importance of providing stimuli to keep employees energetic, proactive and vital at the workplace when they are growing older. The interaction with young people could have this stimulating effect. Additionally, research on the effect of generation on work attitude showed similar levels of turnover intentions (Kowske, Rasch, and Wiley, 2010), and no differences were found between age-cohorts (generations). According to this study, employees’ intention to leave has more to do with individual circumstances than with generational traits (Kowske et al., 2010). Furthermore, some research findings suggest that in early life stages emotional reactions tend to be more intense than in later life stages and that younger people typically are less capable of controlling and regulating their emotions than are older people (Ackerman, 1996). Compared to older employees, younger workers are therefore more inclined to leave the company when they face adversity at work (Feldman and Ng, 2009). We have seen before that research on age and turnover intentions showed mixed outcomes; this outcome follows the same pattern.
opposite. It is suggested that employees in midlife begin to place more emphasis on intrinsic rewards from their work like the feeling performing something worthwhile; experiencing meaningful, significant work (Hedge, Borman, and Lammlein, 2006). When we combine these two opposite findings, we may imagine that they could cancel each other out. Both influences together could cause a scattered image of the moderating effect of age on the relation between task significance and turnover intention. These two effects together may explain why the moderating effect of age is not found in this survey.
5.2. Limitations
There are some limitations that call for attention when we interpret the results of this study. First, because all measurement scales were self-reported, the influence of common-method bias could have played a role in the outcomes (Ng and Butts, 2009).
The second limitation is that research is performed on the basis of a single measurement; repeated measurement could enhance the possibility of drawing causal conclusions. Another limitation is that the survey was carried out in one large organisation (one source) in the Netherlands; this may raise questions about the ability of generalising the results to international organisations and their employees.
Though I have included two control variables in the analyses (Function, Perceived Job Chance), I did not control for other variables that might influence the relations of the research model. This could come true, for example, the level of education. In this organisation this level is higher than average; especially because the teachers possess a bachelor or master degree.
5.3. Practical implications
The results of this research suggest that to employees, social support is an important reason to stay with the company; to enhance their retention, social support should be made possible through the job design of an organisation. In order to enjoy social support among co-workers it is important to interact and meet each other in daily work. So, for jobs with a low degree of interaction, enrichment of the interaction makes it better possible to enjoy social support. In job design, employers could improve employees’ ability to interact more frequently (Bishop, Scott and Burroughs, 2000). Another suggestion is to stimulate a friendly atmosphere and to facilitate people getting to know each other at work. Many HRM departments stimulate this, organising all kind of social events and get-togethers (Whitener, E.M. 2001). Also actions and programs with regard to conflict reduction could promote such a friendly atmosphere (Crawley and Graham, 2002).
5.4. Recommendations for further research
As it has been demonstrated that social support contributes to the intentions of employees to stay with the firm, future research is needed to collect more insight into this relationship. Researchers could investigate mediators and moderators of the relations between social support and turnover intention. Research could explore features of the work environment that may influence the effects of social support on turnover intention. For example, excessive workload as a feature of the work environment may have an impact on the relationship between social support and turnover intention. Excessive workload can start a process of dissatisfaction, turnover intention and finally turnover (Mobley et al., 1979); supportive colleagues may influence these relationships. Because supportive colleagues could help to cope with a high workload, the experienced impact of a high workload may decrease for employees and consequently reduce their intentions to leave. Supportive fellow employees can provide opportunities to express and discuss work-related problems, such as high workload and the accompanying stress, and to exchange information and strategies to cope with this work problem (Feldman and Brett, 1983). Supportive behaviour of colleagues will have a moderating effect on the perceived work load and turnover intention. Research may explore the effect of such a feature of the work environment on people’s intention to stay within or leave the organisation.
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