EFFECTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT, JOB INVOLVEMENT…
Transcript of EFFECTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT, JOB INVOLVEMENT…
EFFECTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT, JOB INVOLVEMENT,
AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE ON THE EMPLOYEE
VOLUNTARY TURNOVER PROCESS
by
DONNA E. FLETCHER, B.A., M.A.
A DISSERTATION
IN
PSYCHOLOGY
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Approved
Accepted
December, 1998
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to Dr. Robert Bell, my
dissertation co-chair, for his guidance and support in this accomplishment and for
his guidance during my graduate study. I would like to express my sincerest
gratitude also to Dr. Susan Kirby, my dissertation co-chair, for her guidance and
support in this endeavor. I would like to thank the other members of my
committee, Dr. Pat DeLucia and Dr. Mario Beruvides, who have shared their
wisdom, knowledge and encouragement through excellent teaching and
research. I wish to express special gratitude to Dr. Dennis Cogan for his
guidance and support In my graduate study and to Dr. Ruth Bookstaber for her
wisdom, patience and vision. I would like to thank Dr. Ronald Bremer for his
help, patience and guidance In the analysis of this project.
I would also like to express gratitude to James A. Ridpath and express
appreciation for his knowledge and expertise in flying me safely to the different
geographical locations of the organization for data collection.
I would also like to thank my friends who have been a source of
reassurance and encouragement. I would like to acknowledge the following
people: Cindi Cardwell, Angela Phillips and Sylvia Curtis.
I want to express my love and gratitude to my family for their support and
encouragement. I especially thank my parents, Jessie E. Fletcher and Jack W.
Fletcher for their love and support. In particular, I want to thank Dr. Thomas
Goodin for his support and understanding throughout this endeavor. Finally, I
dedicate this work to my children, Laura, Eric and Sarah, who are a constant
source of inspiration, wisdom and encouragement.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS li
ABSTRACT vi
LIST OF TABLES viii
LIST OF FIGURES ix
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTION 1
Organizational Commitment 2
Job Involvement 4
Psychological Contract 5
Organizational Culture 7
Voluntary Employee Turnover 9
Research Questions and Hypotheses 10
Job Involvement, Organizational Commitment and Tumover 10
Subcultures: Participation, Organizational Commitment, Job Involvement and Voluntary Employee Tumover 11
II. METHOD
Design 13
Sample 13
Measures 15
Demographics 15
Organizational Commitment Scale 15
Job Involvement 16
Organizational Culture 16
Employees Psychological Contract 18
Tumover 18
Procedures 21
III. RESULTS 23
Descriptive Statistics 23
Statistical Analyses 23
Reliabilities 23
Organizational Commitment, Job Involvement
and Turnover 26
Organizational Culture and Tumover 28
Demographics 33
Employee Psychological Contract and
Tumover 38
Altemative Analyses 44
Group Differences in Tumover 55
IV. DISCUSSION 61
Relationship Between Organizational Commitment Job Involvement, and Employee Psychological Contract, How Predictive They are of Employee Voluntary Turnover 61 Relationship Between Organizational Culture and Employee Voluntary Tumover 62
The Effect of Gender, Age, Ethnicity and Salary on Employee Voluntary Tumover 64
IV
The Effect of Employee Psychological Contract on Employee Voluntary Tumover 65
Two Homogeneous Locations and Their Relationship
to All Other Geographical Locations of the Organization 68
Group Differences in Voluntary Tumover 71
Limitations 72
Future Research 74
V. CONCLUSION 75
Overview of Research Findings 75
Implications 77
LIST OF REFERENCES 79
APPENDIX 84
A. EXTENDED REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 84
B. ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT SCALE 96 (Mowday, Steers & Porter, 1979)
C. JOB INVOLVEMENT SCALE 99 (Kanungo, 1982)
D. ORGANIZATIONAL NORMS OPIONNAIRE 101 (Alexander, 1978)
E. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE SCALE 110 (Desphpande, Farley & Webster, 1993)
F. EMPLOYEE PERCEIVED CONTRACT 114 (Robinson, Kraatz & Rousseau, 1994)
G. EMPLOYEE PERCEIVED CONTRACT FULFILLED 116 (Robinson, Kraatz & Rousseau, 1994)
H. EMPLOYEE PERCEIVED OBLIGATION 118 (Robinson, Kraatz & Rousseau, 1994)
ABSTRACT
In the field of tumover research, relationships between the employee and
the employer have been investigated to detennine possible correlations between
psychological antecedents such as organizational commitment and job
Involvement and subsequent organizational behaviors such as the voluntary
tumover process (Porter, Crampon & Smith, 1976; Mowday, Steers & Porter,
1979; O'Reilly & Chatman, 1986). Mowday, Porter and Steers (1982) state that
organizational commitment is negatively related to the employee voluntary
tumover process and is the best predictor of the voluntary tumover process.
Mathieu and Zajac (1990) report in their meta-analysis of organizational
commitment antecedents that the relationship between organizational
commitment and job involvement was the largest observed. Another variable to
be considered relative to organizational behaviors is a contextual one, the culture
of the organization. Organizational culture may have a contextual effect on the
relationship between organizational commitment and a behavior such as
employee voluntary tumover (Randall, 1990).
The present study is designed to examine the relationships between
employee organizational commitment, job involvement, the psychological
contract, organizational culture and the process of employee voluntary tumover.
Variables that will predict the probability of, and rate of, voluntary employee
tumover process are determined.
Participants in this study are managerial and service employees of a large
southwestern organization. The employees completed questionnaires and
opinionnaires on the job site during paid working hours at the various
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geographical locations of the organization. Tumover was assessed each month
for a period of six months after the initial administration of the above-mentioned
questionnaires and opinionnaires. Survival analysis, specifically the Cox
proportional hazard model, was used to assess the relationship of both the
occurrence and the timing of the tumover process to the multiple predictors
measured at one point in time.
Analyses of associations between survival time and qualitative and
quantitative variables yield a predictive model for employee voluntary tumover
containing the variable measure, Employee Perceived Obligation to the
employer. There exists a significant negative association between the variable
and the hazard of voluntary tumover. Demographic variables tested in a
predictive model that proved to be significant are gender, age, ethnicity and
salary. There Is a significant negative relationship between the variables age
and salary and the hazard of employee voluntary tumover. A positive
association between the two variables gender and ethnicity and the hazard of
tumover exists.
VII
LIST OF TABLES
1. Summary of Descriptive Statistics 24
2. Summary of Demographic Frequencies 25
3. Summary of Maximum Likelihood Estimates for Culture 30
4. Summary of Event Values by Ethnicity 40
5. Summary of Event Values by Salary 42
6. Summary of Event Values by Gender 46
7. Life Table Survival Estimates 47
8. Summary of Event Values by Ethnicity 48
9. Life Table Survival Estimates 49
10. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Interval Groups by Demographic Variables 55
11. Summary of Frequency and Percentage of Demographic Variables 56
12. Summary of Descriptive Statistics for Groups by Demographic Variables 57
13. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Interval Groups by Demographic Variables 58
14. Summary of Descriptive Statistics for Age and Employee Perceived Obligation by Level of Salary 59
15. Summary of Frequency and Percentage for Gender and Ethnicity by Level of Salary 60
VIII
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The relationship formed by the employees to the employer for which they
work is often refen-ed to as organizational attachment (Mowday, Porter & Steers,
1982). Involved In the process of the formation of this relationship is an
exchange between the individual employee and the employer, which occurs in
the beginning period of membership in the organization. This exchange
relationship involves each party giving up and receiving something of value and
may include both non-economic and economic factors.
Schein (1980) reports that there are two conditions which exert influence
on an employee's willingness to commit to an organization. The first condition is
the "goodness of fit" or match of the employee's expectations to the
organization's expectations and if there is agreement, then the very nature of
what is being exchanged is the second condition. Mutual expectations relative to
exchange relationships contribute to the "psychological contract." This contract
is an unwritten agreement between the organization and the individual which
specifies expectations of giving and receiving from each other (Rousseau &
Parks, 1993: Robinson, Kraatz & Rousseau, 1994; Robinson, 1995; Morrison &
Robinson, 1997; Sapienza, Korsgaard & Schweiger, 1997).
Mowday Porter and Steers (1982) have stated that a salient factor
Involved In this "contract" Is the nature of the employee's organizational
connection. Employee work attitudes and behaviors may be measured and
examined to obtain a better understanding of the employee organizational
attachment process and its effects on the employee voluntary tumover process.
Organizational commitment and job involvement are two work-related attitudes
that have been researched extensively relative to the tumover process (Mowday,
Steers & Porter, 1979; Steele & Ovalle, 1984; Blau, 1985, 1987; Blau & Boal,
1987; Huselld & Day, 1991; Lee & Mitchell, 1991; Lee, Ashford, Walsh &
Mowday, 1992).
Organizational Commitment
Many definitions exist in the literature for organizational commitment. For
the purposes of this study, the definition of organizational commitment is derived
from Mowday, Porter and Steers (1982). Organizational commitment is defined
in terms of the relative intensity of an employee's Involvement in, and
identification with, a specific organization. Mathieu and Zajac (1990) state that
this definition reflects multiple dimensions since it includes the concept of
identification and incorporates the desire to remain with the organization and
work toward organizational goals.
Three factors of attitudes and behaviors lend salience to the
characterization of organizational commitment. They are (1) acceptance of and a
belief in the values and goals of the organization; (2) desire to maintain
organizational membership; and (3) a willingness to contribute to the
organization. This definition of organizational commitment denotes an active
relationship exchange between the employee and the organization and involves
attitudes and behaviors as manifestations of the actual concept of organizational
commitment. Observed behaviors of the committed employee will be congruent
with the definition constituents (Mowday, Porter & Steers, 1982).
O'Reilly and Chatman (1986) define organizational commitment as a
psychological attachment to the organization predicted by three independent
constructs, those of compliance, Identification and intemalization. Compliance is
defined as Involvement for the extrinsic rewards. Identification Is involvement
with the organization because of the desire for affiliation and is an important
mechanism In the developing process of psychological attachment (Bowlby,
1982). Intemalization Is involvement based on the Individual's acceptance of the
organization's values. The first definitional component of the Mowday, Porter
and Steers (1982) organizational commitment model, acceptance and belief in
the values and goals of an organization, is based on psychological attachment
(O'Reilly & Chatman, 1986).
Mowday Porter and Steers (1982) state that organizational commitment is
a global construct revealing the affective responses of the employee to the whole
of the organization. The development of commitment to the organization begins
at time of employment, continues over a period of time and involves an interplay
of attitudes and behaviors. Porter, Crampon and Steers (1976) report that the
level of commitment reported by employees on the first day of employment
predicted tumover up to several months on the job.
Alternatively, Hunt and Morgan (1994) advocate the multiple commitment
view of organizational commitment. They report organizational commitment to
be defined as multiple commitments to various groups comprising the
organization, such as commitment to the work group, the supervisor and to top
management. Their research supports a reconceptualization of the global
organizational commitment model as a "key mediating construct" with
compliance, intemalization and Identification as the bases of commitment.
Constituency-specific commitments are factors that lead to, and result in, the
concept of global organizational commitment.
Of the consequences and outcomes of organizational commitment,
reduced voluntary tumover may be the most predictable of the behavioral
outcomes (Mowday, Porter & Steers, 1982; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; Lee &
Mitchell, 1991; Lee, Ashford, Walsh & Mowday, 1992). A meta-analysis
conducted by Mathieu and Zajac (1990) reveals high correlations between
organizational commitment and behavioral intentions. Mathieu and Zajac
conclude that organizational commitment may represent a "summary index" of
the employee's work-related experiences and that organizational commitment
may influence the behavioral Intentions In a direct way.
Job Involvement
The organizational commitment meta-analysis conducted by Mathieu and
Zajac (1990) also reveals that among the foci of commitment, the job
involvement and organizational commitment relationship is the largest observed.
The two variables are considered to Influence some work-related behaviors
Independently. Job involvement is defined as a belief descriptive of an
employee's relationship with the present job. This Is not to be confused with the
term work Involvement which may be defined as a nomriative belief about the
value of work In an employee's life. Work involvement is a function of historical
cultural conditioning and socialization whereas, job involvement is a function of
the satisfaction of eminent personal needs (Kanungo, 1982). Kanungo (1982)
suggests a reformulation of the job Involvement construct to be viewed as a form
of psychological identification enhanced by a cognitive or belief state. The
employee's identification process depends on the employee's saliency of both
intrinsic and extrinsic needs and the employee's perceptions about the job's
potentialities to satisfy the employee's needs, a psychological contract relative to
job involvement.
According to Blau and Boal (1987), job involvement Is a better predictor of
voluntary tumover than absenteeism. Blau and Boal (1987) suggest that
organizational commitment and job Involvement sen/e as complements relative
to prediction of the voluntary tumover process. They also report a significant
Interactive relationship between the two variables (Blau & Boal, 1989),
Employees who display high levels of organizational commitment and of job
Involvement may be the least likely to engage in the voluntary tumover process
because they are Involved in and committed to both the job and the organization,
O'Reilly and Chatman (1986) report that job involvement is a consequent
outcome of psychological commitment to an organization. Job involvement Is
included In a category of dependent variables that is relevant to organizational
commitment. There are certain types of positive Involvement which contribute to
the definition of job Involvement. They are conformity, flexibility, motivation and
an acceptance of organizational policies demonstrated through obedience in
employee relationships.
Psvcholoqical Contract
Inherent to the foundation of employee relationships is the beliefs of the
employee relative to the obligations that are reciprocal between them and the
organization. These expectations relative to the reciprocal obligations between
employee and organization are referred to as the psychological contract. This
contract is an employee's cognitive evaluation of the transactional and relational
mutual obligations between employee and organization which is formed during
the employee's beginning period of membership in the organization. This
beginning period of employment is the most critical interval for employee tumover
and reportedly Is the time during which most of the tumover occurs (Mowday,
Porter & Steers, 1982).
Morrison and Robinson (1997) state that the employee holds conceptions
about the organization, and not any one specific agent of the organization,
meaning that the employee perceives the organization with an identity that
assumes anthropomorphism. The entity of the organization that has direct
contact with the employee is management. The role of management Is crucial to
the Implementation of the employee psychological contract, for It is the managers
who may become aware of an employee's perceived contract and respond to that
employee accordingly.
When events and circumstances occur that are considered to be violations
of the employee's psychological contract, the employee may be distressed and
exhibit appropriate attltudinal or behavioral responses (Morrison & Robinson,
1997). Robinson (1995) reports that when employees believe that their
psychological contract has been violated, there is a decrease in the level of the
employee's trust in the employer in addition to a decrease in the level of
satisfaction with and commitment to the organization. These employee feelings
alter the employee's attitude toward the relationship with the organization and the
organization Itself and In many instances lead to behavioral responses such as
voluntary tumover.
Organizational Culture
Wiener (1988) proposes that shared values play a prominent role in the
development of all forms of commitment and in the development of corporate
culture. Schein (1981) defines organizational culture as the organization's basic
underlying assumptions, the fundamental values, beliefs and perceptions.
Schein (1985) makes a distinction between beliefs and assumptions. He defines
beliefs as cognitions and basic assumptions as including beliefs and perceptions,
values and feelings. Ott (1989) reports fifty-eight published sources with
definitions of organizational culture. Organizational culture has been defined in
terms of artifacts (Bates, 1984), pattems of behavior (Deal & Kennedy, 1982),
beliefs and values (Allaire & Firsirotu, 1985) and basic assumptions (Schein,
1981, 1984, 1985).
Ott (1989) makes the point that although there are many existing
definitions of organizational culture which vary relative to the selection of words,
the basic functions do not vary. He offers a functional definition of organizational
culture, which contains four basic functions viewed as the core of the definition.
The first function of organizational culture is that it provides perceptions, or
cognitive interpretations as a guideline for thoughts and actions of organizational
members. The second function is providing shared pattems of beliefs in the
moral codes and values of the organization so that members will know what they
are expected to feel and to value. The third function is defining and maintaining
certain important boundaries that will Identify members and nonmembers of the
organization. The last function is providing an "organizational control system"
that functions to prohibit and prescribe certain behaviors.
Ott (1989) reports the existence of subcultures within the dominant culture
of an organization. The subcultures may vary from the dominant culture and may
exist in any of the organizational groups. The groups may consist of employees
working on a project or employees linked by ethnic or religious background.
These subcultures may overlap and coincide and even conflict. Slehl and Martin
(1984) have Identified three different types of subcultures, those of orthogonal,
enhancing and countercultural.
The orthogonal subculture is identified by its congruency with the
dominant culture, in Its basic assumptions; yet, the orthogonal subculture
upholds some unique individual basic assumptions. In the enhancing subculture,
basic assumptions, values and beliefs are the same as those in the dominant
culture and are upheld with more fervor. The third type of subculture is the
counterculture. Members In this type of subculture uphold beliefs, values and
basic assumptions that are in direct conflict with those of the dominant culture.
These subcultures may serve to refine, enhance or even challenge the dominant
culture. They may be a source of divisive behavior or of functional behavior.
Shared values and beliefs function to form various groups of employees into
different subcultures at differing levels of commitment.
For the purposes of this study, the existing culture In the corporate office
of the organization, where the chief executive officer and other executive officers
reside, were assessed as the dominant culture. The other geographical locations
of the organization were assessed as subcultures of the dominant culture.
Organizational culture is a contextual factor that will exert some influence
on how organizational climates develop relative to work groups and to work-
related behaviors such as tumover (Randall, 1990). Randall (1990) suggests
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that the nature of the relationship of organizational commitment and work-related
behaviors such as tumover is greatly influenced by the cultural context in which
these relationships develop. Randall (1990) advocates empirically exploring the
effects of the organizational context on these relationships. For example, some
organizational behavoirs may be predefined as acceptable to an extent that a
correlation may not exist between organizational commitment and the behavior
(Randall, 1990).
Voluntarv Emplovee Tumover
Voluntary turnover Is defined as the "employee's volitional departure from
the organization" and is theorized as a unidimensional concept (Lee & Mitchell,
1994b). Employees are resources of the organization and a high voluntary
tumover rate may be costly to the organization in terms of replacement costs
(Lee & Mitchell, 1994b). Expanding the understanding of the process of
organizational commitment as related to voluntary employee tumover may have
benefits for organizations, employees and society in general (Mowday et al.,
1982). Employees' commitment level may enhance their eligibility for extrinsic
and Intrinsic rewards. Organizations may benefit by experiencing reduced
withdrawal behaviors, specifically tumover. Society may benefit in terms of
reduced job movement rates and increased national productivity or quality of
work (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990).
The employee tumover process itself may create negative consequences
for the organization and the employees who remain (Mobley, 1982).
Organizations are faced with a loss of performers, productivity losses and
replacement costs. The employees who remain may experience a loss of valued
co-workers and an interruption in social pattems and may consequently
experience decreased satisfaction (Mobley, 1982).
Lee and Mitchell (1994a) refer to the "pull and push" theories of voluntary
employee tumover. The pull theory consists of factors that are extemal for the
employee. Extemal factors may consist of the labor force supply and demand
and job market altematlves. The push theory Is related to employees' intemal
constructs that my affect the voluntary tumover process. These constructs
consist primarily of perceptions and attitudes related to the job.
Mathieu and Zajac (1990) propose that the most popular voluntary
turnover theory has been the Mobley, Griffeth, Hand and Meglino (1979) model.
This model Is an expanded model of the Mobley (1977) intermediate-linkages
model and incorporates both Intemal and extemal constructs that may affect the
voluntary tumover process. The key constructs are job attitudes and job
satisfaction. A sequence of events Implementing the employee's decision
process Involved In staying or leaving is proposed by Steers and Mowday (1981).
First, an employee's affective response to the job, specified as organizational
commitment, job Involvement and job satisfaction are influenced by job
expectations and individual values. The second step is to factor in nonwork
Influences and finally the Intention to leave or stay may lead to the behavior.
Research Questions and Hypotheses
Job Involvement. Organizational Commitment and Tumover
Organizational commitment and job involvement are two work-related
constructs that reportedly are negatively associated with the hazard of employee
voluntary tumover (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990). The two variables are considered to
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influence some work-related behaviors independently. What is the relationship of
the two constructs, organizational commitment and job invovlement, to the
hazard of employee voluntary tumover in an organization?
Hypothesis 1: Employee organizational commitment and job
involvement will interact and be negatively related to employee voluntary
turnover. It is expected that there will be a significant negative association
between employee organizational commitment and job involvement, and the
hazard of employee voluntary tumover.
Subcultures: Participation. Organizational Commitment. Job Involvement and Voluntarv Emplovee Tumover
Organizational culture provides perceptions, or cognitive Interpretations as
a guideline for thoughts and actions of organizational members. Another function
of organizational culture Is providing shared pattems of beliefs in the moral codes
and values of the organization so that members will know what they are expected
to feel and to value. Within the dominant culture of an organization, subcultures
may exist which overlap, coincide or conflict with the dominant culture and
therefore be considered orthogonal, enhancing or countercultural (Slehl & Martin,
1984; Ott, 1989). There are several questions for consideration about the
relationship between organizational culture and employee voluntary tumover. Do
the existing cultures at the various geographical locations of the organization
differ from the dominant culture and do the cultures differ relative to their
individual rates of actual employee voluntary tumover and reported levels of
employee organizational commitment and job involvement? If the subcultures
differ from the dominant culture, will the subcultures be categorized as
enhancing or orthogonal or will they report as countercultures?
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Hypothesis 2: Employees of the existing subcultures at various
geographical locations defined as enhancing or orthogonal subcultures
will demonstrate reduced rate of employee voluntary turnover, and
employees will self-report high levels of the two constructs of
organizational commitment and job involvement, similar to the dominant
culture rate of employee voluntary turnover and levels of employee
organizational commitment and job involvement. Organizational culture is a
contextual factor that will exert some influence on how organizational climates
develop relative to a work-related behavior such as voluntary tumover (Randall,
1990).
Hypothesis 3: The employees of existing subcultures at various
geographical locations identified as countercultural subcultures will
demonstrate an increased rate of employee voluntary turnover, and will
self-report lower levels of the two constructs of organizational commitment
and job involvement as compared to the dominant culture rate of employee
voluntary turnover and levels of employee organizational commitment and
job involvement. Employees in countercultures uphold beliefs, values and
basic assumptions that are in direct conflict with those of the dominant culture
and behaviors of the employees in these cultures may exert a divisive influence
on the organizational climate (Slehl & Martin, 1984).
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CHAPTER II
METHOD
Design
This study is a post facto, between-subjects, multi-group experimental
design. Subjects were randomly selected from a specific population, assessed
on the independent variables and then measured on the dependent variable of
employee voluntary tumover to determine a predictive model of tumover. The
participant employees were administered questionnaires and opinionnaires
during hours of paid employment.
Sample
Managerial, sales, and service employees from a large southwestern retail
organization served as the sample population. One of the reasons this particular
organization was chosen is the existence of its multiple, autonomous,
geographically separate sites. The sample was composed of 574 employees
from the 13 combined geographical locations of the organization which can be
described In temris of age, ethnicity, gender, marital status, salary, level of
education, position title, and department.
Participants range in age from 16 to 72 years (M=35.312 years,
Sd=13.851). The two largest ethnic groups represented in the population were
the Caucasian group, with 391 employees (68.1%) and the Hispanic group with
111 employees (19.3%). The number of female employees in the sample is 314
(54.7%) and the number of male employees is 260 (45.3%). There are five
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groups of the variable marital status and the highest frequency is in the group
"married," with 245 employees (42.9%). The group with the second highest
frequency is the group "single," with 193 (33.8%). Ninety-one participants
(15.9%) are included in the group "divorced."
The two largest groups of the variable salary were group 1, salary range
$10,000 or less, with 301 participants (52.9%) and group 2, salary range
$10,000-$20,000 with 175 employees (30.8%).
Level of education is divided into nine groups, "did not complete high
school," "high school graduate," "some college," "college graduate," "technical
degree," "some graduate school," "Master's degree," "Ph.D.," and "other." The
two groups of the nine groups of level of education reporting the highest number
of employees, are group 2, "completed high school," with a frequency of 188
(32.9%) and group 3, "some college," with 126 (22.0%). Group 1, "did not
complete high school," demonstrated a frequency of 125 (21.8%). There are two
groups of position title, the group containing managers and the group of
nonmanagers. Frequency for the manager group is 115 (20%) and for the group
of nonmanagers, 458 (79.8%).
The variable department is divided into 15 groups representing the
different departments within the organization. The highest frequency of
employees in any one department occurs In the department "restaurant,"
composed of managers, cooks and waitresses, with a total of 149 (26.0%). The
department group of second highest frequency Is "complex," which is composed
of management and housekeeping employees, with a total of 93 (16.2%). And
the third group with 74 (12.9%) is the department group, "truck terminal," which is
composed of managers, cashiers and fuel attendants.
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Measures
Demographics
Demographic information that has been shown to be related to tumover
has been collected and Includes such Items as gender, ethnicity, age, salary,
marital status, level of education completed, and work history (Mowday, Porter &
Steers, 1982).
Organizational Commitment Scale
Organizational commitment was assessed with the15-item Organizational
Commitment Questionnaire devised by Mowday, Steers and Porter (1979).
Representative items are Included In Appendix B. Responses to each item are
measured on a 5-polnt Likert scale ranging from (1) disagree to (5) agree.
Akhtar and Tan (1994) report that this measure yields a three-factor
solution. Identifying three types of commitment that have been referred to as
continuance commitment, normative-affective commitment, and volitlve
commitment. Factor I reflects the concept of withdrawal, whether the employee
stays with or leaves the organization, and Is referred to as continuance
commitment. Items of Factor II indicate the employee's acceptance of the
organization's values and identification with the organization and so is referred to
as normative-affective commitment. Factor III is called volitlve commitment,
indicating the employee's willingness to make a contribution to the success of the
organization.
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Job Involvement
Job involvement was asessed with a 10-item scale devised by Kanungo
(1982). Responses to each Item are measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging
from (1) disagree to (5) agree. Representative items of this measure are
included In Appendix C.
Organizational Culture
Organizational culture was deciphered by a quantitative method.
An opinionnaire and an organizational culture scale were administered to all
employees In order to assess the values and norms of the organization. The
dominant culture and existing subcultures in different geographical were
assessed by the Organizational Culture Scale (Deshpande, Farley & Webster,
1993) and identified as one of the four types of Market, Hierarchical, Adhocracy
or Clan. Norms and values of the cultures were assessed by the Organizational
Norms Opionnaire (Alexander, 1978). Survival analysis was used to compare
the dominant culture and the subcultures with respect to the hazard of employee
voluntary tumover and the employees' self-reported levels of the constructs of
organizational commitment, job involvement and employee perceived obligation.
The Kaplan Meier method of survival analysis was used to compare the survival
curves of the different locations of the organization to detennine a significant
difference In the hazard of employee voluntary tumover. The Cox proportional
hazards model was used to test the effects of each of the organizational culture
covarlates on the hazard of employee voluntary tumover.
Mark Alexander's Organizational Norms Opinionnaire (Alexander, 1978) is
a 42-item scale that requires the employee to assess what the reaction of most
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employees in the organization would be if another person said a particular thing
or behaved in a particular manner. Representative Items from this scale are
included in Appendix D. Responses to each item are measured on a 5-point
Likert scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree with, or discourage It, to (5)
strongly agree with, or encourage it. The instrument's 42 items can be grouped
into ten scales of, organizational/personal pride, performance/excellence,
teamwork/communication, leadership/supen/lsion, profitability/cost effectiveness,
colleague/associate relations, customer/client relations, Innovativeness/creativity.
training/development and candor/openness. The scores for each of the ten
categories are totaled and a mathematical formula applied to obtain a final
percentage score for each category.
Another scale used to measure organizational culture Is the
Organizational Culture Scale (Deshpande, Fariey & Webster, 1993), This
measure is a 16-item scale with responses to each item measured on a 5-point
Likert scale ranging from (1) disagree to (5) agree. Representative items of this
scale are included in Appendix E. There are four classifications of organizational
culture that can be determined by this measure. They are as follows: (1) market
culture, characterized by an emphasis on competition and superiority in the
market; (2) hierarchical culture, characterized by its bureaucracy and smooth
operation; (3) adhocracy culture, emphasizing innovation, risk-taking and
entrepreneurship; and (4) clan culture, with emphasis on loyalty, tradition and
intemal maintenance (Deshpande, Fariey & Webster, 1993).
17
Emplovee Psvchological Contract
Three opionnaires relative to the psychological contract were administered
to all employees. The three opionnaires are the Employee Perceived Contract
with the organization, the Employee Perceived Contract Fulfilled by the employer
and the Employee Perceived Obligation to the employer. The measures were
structured according to infomnation reported by Robinson, Kraatz and Rousseau
(1994).
The Employee Perceived Contract Is a 7-ltem measure designed to
assess the employee's perception of the contract that exists between the
employee and the organization. Representative items of this measure are
included in Appendix F. The Employee Perceived Contract Fulfilled is also a 7-
Item measure designed to assess the employee's perception of contract
fulfillment by the employer. Representative Items are included in Appendix G.
The third measure, Employee Perceived Obligation, is an 8-item one designed to
assess the employee's perceived obligation to the organization, or employer.
Representative Items of this measure are Included in Appendix H.
Tumover
Tumover events relevant to this study are the employee voluntary tumover
events. Tumover was assessed each month for a period of approximately four
months after the Initial administration of the above-mentioned questionnaires and
opinionnaires. All tumover data was obtained directly from the human resource
management department of the organization.
Survival analysis was used to assess the relationship of both the
occurrence and the timing of the tumover process to multiple predictors
18
measured at one point in time. Survival analysis Is suitable for studies in which
the dependent variable Is binary, in this case voluntary tumover. Survival
analysis measures whether the employee will stay or leave and for those who
leave, the time of exit, referred to as the failed event. Time is thus treated as a
continuous variable, making greater use of the available infonnatlon. From this
information, an estimate for each point in time during the study period can be
obtained of the probability that an employee in the sample will leave (Allison,
1995).
Survival analysis also was used to estimate a causal or predictive model
in which the risk of employee voluntary tumover depends on the covariates. The
dependent variable for this study is "length of stay," computed In months from the
time of initial employment until the failed event. The Cox proportional hazard
model, a partial likelihood model. Is the method used for estimation of the
regression model with censored data (Allison, 1995). The Cox regression
method is a combination of the model and estimation method of maximum partial
likelihood. The method yields Wald chi-square statistics for testing the null
hypothesis that all coefficients are zero. The model also yields a summary of the
number of events and censored values.The survivor function was estimated and
plotted in the presence of censoring.
A censored observation is defined as one whose value is not known,
specifically because the subject had not been in the study long enough for the
outcome of Interest to occur (Dawson-Saunders & Trapp, 1994). Censored
observations for this study are the employees who remain with the organization.
The employees who leave the organization by other means not being
Investigated, such as being fired, were deleted from the data, so that two groups
19
of employees remained, those that left voluntarily and those who remained
employed with the organization. Tumover is not observed for these subjects who
remain in the organization, so they are considered to be censored.
The censoring process has been analyzed by the product-limit estimator
of the survivor function. With the product-limit estimator for the probability of
staying beyond time f for an employee, quantiles for tenure and expected tenure
can be estimated (Allison, 1995). Important information is supplied by the
censored observations, since survival analysis treats voluntary turnover time as a
continuous variable. Survival analysis treats censored data very efficiently and
any of the equations, the log rank statistic or proportional hazard model can
accommodate the censoring process of the data (Morita, Lee, & Mowday, 1989).
To extend the analysis of the data, employees were divided Into four
groups based on the survival function to compare employees on the variable,
"length of employment," at 0-3 month interval, 3-6 months, 6-9 months and > 9
months. Descriptive statistics are computed for the significant demographic
variables, gender, age, ethnicity and salary, and the measure of Employee
Perceived Obligation. An analysis of variance is used to determine if the groups
differ significantly.
Similar to regression analysis, sun/ival analysis is used for the prediction
of a certain dependent variable, in this case employee voluntary tumover,
through the use of a set of Independent variables, or covariates, in this case,
employee organizational commitment, job involvement, organizational culture
and the psychological contract. The use of these predictor variables yields more
sensitive and accurate descriptions of the employee voluntary tumover process.
The specific method of sun/ival analysis used is the Cox proportional hazards
20
model, to determine the predictor variables of employee voluntary tumover. This
model allows for the variables to be constant for each individual, or time-varying,
and is capable of yielding a description of the relative hazard (voluntary tumover)
rates of the various subgroups (Morita, Lee, & Mowday, 1989). The life table
method and the Kaplan-Meier method are also utilized to detennine the
conditional probability of failure, the hazard estimate function by interval of
employment, and the point estimates of the time variable, "length of
employment."
Procedures
The employee participants completed the questionnaires and
opinionnaires on the job site during paid working hours at each of the 13
geographical locations of the organization In the southwest area of the United
States. The opportunity to participate was made available during the work shift
change so that employees were able to participate after their shift ended and still
remain on the clock, while participating. Depending upon the number of
employees available at the end of a particular work shift, the number of
participants in a group varied. Each participant was given a booklet composed of
the questionnaires and opionnaires. The researcher explained the nature of the
study and the benefit of the study to the organization and reviewed the
instructions to ensure employee understanding. Participants were infomned that
the researcher would maintain confidentiality with respect to their individual
response information, which would be used only for the purposes of research.
The employees were allowed to be seated in the back dining room of the
restaurant area, separate from customers, and to remain on the clock while they
21
completed the demographic information and the various questionnaires and
opinionnaires. The measures included the 15-ltem Organizational Commitment
Scale, the 10-ltem Job Involvement Scale, the 42-item Organizational Nonns
Opionnaire, the 16-ltem Organizational Culture Scale, the 7-item Employee
Perceived Contract, the 7-ltem Employee Perceived Contract Fulfilled and the 8-
Item Employee Perceived Obligation. This procedure could be completed in
approximately 35 minutes.
22
CHAPTER III
RESULTS
Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive statistics of the variables in this study and the results are
displayed in Table 1. The frequency scores and percentage of sample are
computed for some of the demographic variables such as gender, salary and
position title, and are displayed In Table 2.
Statistical Analyses
Reliabilities
Scale reliabilities are measured with Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The
Cronbach's alpha coefficient value for the Organizational Commitment Scale is
0.53, with values on the individual Items ranging from 0.420785 to 0.554913.
Mowday, Porter and Steers (1982) report values of .82 to .90, depending on their
type of sample population ranging from auto company managers to scientists
and engineers. Comparison of the two studies indicate somewhat lower values
for the Cronbach's alpha in this study with sample population of retail sen/ice
employees. The lower value for the Cronbach's alpha reported in this study may
be an artifact of the sample. Comprehension, literacy and education levels of the
employees in this sample may account for the difference reported in the reliability
score.
For the Job Involvement Questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha value is 0.69,
demonstrating test reliability. The values of the individual Items of the
23
questionnaire range from 0.577493 to 0,768164, Kanungo (1982) reports
Cronbach's coefficient alpha value to range from .70 to .81 in an experimental
sample population chosen for designing the questionnaire.
Table 1, Summary of Descriptive Statistics
Variables Mean RangeStandard Deviation
Organizational
Commitment 55.826 55.00 11.581
Job Involvement 31.743 48.00 9.155
Employee Perceived
Obligation 31.396 35.00 5.940
Organizational
Culture
Clan 3.465
Adhoc 3.468
Hierar 3.773
Market 3.612
Profitability/
Cost Effectiveness -30.527 162.50 32.015
Employee
Perceived Contract 20.526 28.00 6,976
Employee
Contract Fulfilled 23.675 37.00 7.811
4.00
4.00
4.00
4.00
.840
.742
.712
.608
24
Reliability analysis of the Organizational Culture Scale reveals a
Cronbach's alpha coefficient value of 0.90, with individual item scores ranging
from 0.88539 to 0.913063, indicating supportive results for test reliability,
Deshpande, Fariey and Webster (1993) report a range of Cronbach's alpha
values on the four factors of the 16-ltem questionnaire ranging from .42 to .82 in
their sample population from 50 different firms.
Table 2. Summary of Demographic Frequencies
Variable Frequency Percent
Gender
Male
Female
Position Title
Managers
Nonmangers
Salary
$10,000 or Less
$10,000-20,000
$20,000-35,000
$35,000-50,000
$50,000 or more
314
260
115
459
301
175
59
19
15
54,7
45.3
20.0
80.0
52.9
30.8
10.4
3.3
2.6
An additional scale measuring organizational culture is the Organizational
Norms Opinionnaire (Alexander, 1978). The instrument's 42 Items can be
grouped into ten scales of, organizational/personal pride,
25
perfomriance/excellence, teamwori communication, leadership/supervision,
profitability/cost effectiveness, colleague/associate relations, customer/client
relations, Innovativeness/creativity. training/development and candor/openness.
There are three scales measuring the employee psychological contract,
the Employee Perceived Contract Scale, the Employee Perceived Contract
Fultilled Scale, and the Employee Perceived Obligation Scale. For the 7-item
Employee Perceived Contract Scale, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient is 0.84,
with individual item scores ranging from ,814338 to .842535, For the 7-item
Employee Perceived Contract Fulfilled Scale, the coefficient alpha is 0,82, with
individual Item scores ranging from 0.775768 to 0.828310. The Cronbach's
alpha for the third scale. Employee Perceived Obligation is 0.71, with individual
Item scores ranging from 0.651294 to 0.712505.
Organizational Commitment. Job Involvement and Tumover
Analyses of associations between survival time and qualitative and
quantitative variables are performed with the Cox proportional hazards model to
estimate a predictive model in which the risk of voluntary tumover depends on
covariates. Also, estimates of survivor functions are produced using the Kaplan-
Meier method and the life-table, or actuarial method (Allison, 1995).
For model building, the Cox proportional hazards model is used,
specifically the methods of stepwise regression and the score method, to test the
incremental effect of each variable while controlling for all others. The
independent variables for the first analysis were Organizational Commitment, Job
Involvement, Employee Perceived Contract, Employee Perceived Contract
Fulfilled, Employee Perceived Obligation and Organizational Culture.
26
Initial analysis of variables yielded significant chi-square scores for
Organizational Commitment (8.9894, p<.0027). Job Involvement (4.4608,
p<.0347) and Employee Perceived Obligation (25.7185, p<.0001). When the
variable with the lowest p-level and the highest chi-square score. Employee
Perceived Obligation, is entered Into the model first, no other variable met the
p<.05 level for entry Into the model. The Wald chi-square (21.64872, p<.0001)
for the measure. Employee Perceived Obligation, the parameter estimate
(-0.080325) and risk ratio (0.923) Indicate a significant strong negative
association between the variable and the hazard of voluntary tumover. For those
employees who self-report high levels of perceived obligation to the employer,
the hazard of voluntary tumover decreases by 7.7%.
When quantifying the effect of a covariate on sun/ival time, the signs of the
coefficient indicate the direction of the relationship. The coefficient numerical
magnitudes can be transformed for Interpretation. Use the formula 100[(eBeta)-
1]=% change in the odds that an event will occur for a one-unit increase in the
covariate (Allison, 1995). For a quantitative variable such as age, an estimated
per cent change In the hazard for each one-unit increase in the covariate may be
calculated by the fonnula 100(risk ratio-1)=percent change.
When the two variables. Organizational Commitment and Job
Involvement, are entered into the Cox proportional hazard model together,
the Wald chi-square for Organizational Commitment (4.77450, p<0.0289), the
parameter estimate (-0.025672) and the risk ratio (0.0975) for the variable
indicate a significant negative association between the variable and the hazard of
employee voluntary tumover. The Wald chi-square for Job Involvement
(0.37809, p<0.5386), the parameter estimate (-0.009254) and the risk ratio
27
(0.991) indicate a negative association between the variable and the hazard of
employee voluntary tumover that Is not significant when the two variables are in
the model together.
When Job Involvement and Organizational Commitment are each entered
into a model alone, the Wald chi-square (10.35660, p<0.0013) for Organizational
Commitment is larger than the Wald chi-square (5.58885, p<0.0181) for Job
Involvement. Each of the variables demonstrates a significant effect on the
hazard of voluntary tumover only when each of the variables is the only variable
entered Into the regression analysis. Organizational Commitment decreases the
hazard of voluntary tumover by 2.8% and Job Involvement, by 2.6%. These
results support hypothesis 1 that employee organizational commitment and job
involvement are negatively related to employee voluntary tumover.
Organizational Culture and Tumover
For the Organizational Culture Scale (Deshpande, Fariey & Webster,
1993), there are four different types of culture that are factored from the
measure. The four types of culture represented are Mari<et, Hierarchical,
Adhocracy and Clan, with the highest possible mean score on any one variable
being 5.0. Testing for the effects of the covariates. Market, Hierarchical,
Adhocracy and Clan on the hazard of voluntary tumover and stratifying on the 13
different locations, the Wald model chi-square (6.936, p<.01393) indicates a
significant effect for each of the covariates on the hazard of voluntary tumover
when stratifying on location with 13 groups.
28
The parameter estimates and risk ratios for each covariate are displayed
in Table 3. For each covariate, the estimates and risk ratios indicate a strong
negative association between the covariates and the hazard of voluntary
tumover. Comparison of the different locations and the mean scores for each
covariate reveal that for all locations except two, the highest mean score Is for
Hierarchical (3.89423) and the second highest Is for the culture type Clan
(3.80357).
The hierarchical culture emphasizes the importance of rules, regulations
and order. Business transactions are controlled by sun/eillance, direction and
evaluation. The achievement and consistency of cleariy stated goals are
determinants of business effectiveness. The clan culture promotes participation,
teamwork and coheslveness, with more importance being placed on personal
satisfaction and organizational coheslveness rather than market share and
financial objectives. Participation ensures the commitment of the members of the
organization.
For the dominant culture of the organization, one of two locations reporting
a different type of culture, the highest mean score of the four culture types is
Adhocracy (3.96429) and the second highest. Clan (3.80357) and for the Wilcox
location, the highest mean of the four is Hierarchical (3.89286) and the second
highest, Adhocracy (3.59694). Within the adhocracy culture, the primary
emphasis Is on values of creativity, adaptability and entrepreneurship. The
strategic emphasis is on new directions for growth and new markets in an
atmosphere of flexibility and tolerance.
These findings do not support hypothesis 2, that the subcultures, at the
various geographical locations, of the dominant culture will be defined as
29
Clan
Adhoc
Hierar
Mari<et
-0.044791
-0.076263
-0.224922
-0.076286
enhancing or orthogonal subcultures. The findings do lend support to hypothesis
3, that the existing subcultures are identified as countercultures to the dominant
culture, which is represented by the employees residing in the corporate office.
Table 3. Summary of Maximum Likelihood Estimates for Culture
Culture Parameter Estimate Risk Ratio
0.956
0.927
0.799
0.027
The tumover rates of all the countercultures are higher than the tumover
rate of the dominant culture; no tumover occurred in the dominant culture during
the study. The Wilcoxon chi-square (24.7011, p<0.0163) from the Kaplan-Meier
method of survival analysis indicates that the survival curves of all locations differ
significantly with respect to the hazard of employee voluntary tumover. These
findings also support hypothesis 3 that the countercultural subcultures will
demonstrate an increased rate of employee voluntary tumover.
Additional survial analysis is performed to compare the dominant culture
and the countercultures with respect to the effects of covariates on the hazard of
voluntary tumover. The Kaplan-Meier and life table methods of sun/ival analysis
are used to test for significant difference in the survival curves of the two groups
of culture and to test for the effects of the variables, Hierarchical, Organizational
Commitment, Job Involvement and Employee Perceived Obligation.
30
First, the variable Hierarchical, from the Organizational Culture Scale, Is
tested in the two groups of culture and the Wilcoxon chi-square (4.9592,
p<.0260) indicates a significant difference in the survival curves for the two
groups, dominant culture and countercultures. The mean score on the variable.
Hierarchical, for the dominant culture (3.53571) Is lower than the mean score for
the countercultures (3.7802). The dominant culture employees demonstrate the
highest mean score for the culture type, Adhocracy. The employees of the
countercultures report their culture type as Hierarchical as compared to the
dominant culture employees, defining their culture as Adhocracy. These results
support hypothesis 3 that the various geographical locations are countercultures
to the dominant culture.
The two variables of Organizational Commitment and Job Involvement
were tested in the two groups of culture, dominant culture and countercultures,
with respect to the hazard of employee voluntary tumover. For the variable,
Organizational Commitment, the Wilcoxon chi-square statistic (8,0899, p<0,0045)
is slightly larger than the Wilcoxon chi-square (5,4593, p<0.0195) for Job
Involvement. The survival curves for both groups of culture differ significantly
with respect to the effects of the two variables. The mean score for the measure
Organizational Commitment in the dominant culture location (62.2667) is higher
than the mean score in the countercultures (55.6355), as predicted in hypothesis
3. The mean score for the measure Job Involvement in the dominant culture
location (32.800) is higher than the mean score (31.588) in the countercultures,
also supporting hypothesis 3.
The two groups of culture, dominant and counterculture, were further
tested for the effects of the variable, Employee Perceived Obligation, on the
31
hazard of employee voluntary tumover. The largest Wilcoxon chi-square statistic
(15.6935, p<0.0001) with the lowest p-level for the variable, Employee Perceived
Obligation, demonstrates a significant difference in the survival curves of the two
groups of culture when testing for the variable. The mean score for the measure
in the dominant culture (34.733) is also greater than the mean score reported in
the countercultures (31.3183), as predicted in hypothesis 3,
These results support hypothesis 3 that the subcultures of the dominant
culture are countercultures and that the employees there self-report lower scores
on the measures of Organizational Commitment, Job Involvement and Employee
Perceived Obligation,
The Organizational Norms Scale also was used to measure the values
and nonns of the existing cultures. All ten of the factored variables from the
measure were entered into a Cox proportional hazards model using stepwise
regression to create a predictive model of the hazard of employee voluntary
tumover with respect to the norms and values of the existing cultures. Of the ten
variables, there is only one that demonstrates a significant effect with respect to
the hazard of voluntary tumover. The Wald chi-square (9.924511, p<0.0016) for
the variable, Profitability/Cost Effectiveness, the parameter estimate (0.010554)
and the risk ratio (1.011) indicate a significant positive association between the
variable and the hazard of voluntary tumover. For each one-unit increase in the
covariate, the hazard of voluntary tumover increases by 1,1%, The reverse
wording used here is due to the fact that for this scale, the negative scores
indicate a positive employee attitude relating to the variable, meaning that
employees agree that other employees regard the variable as Important to the
organization. For example, the mean score of this factor (-30,527%) is within a
32
range from -100% to +100% with -100% meaning that the employee positively
agrees that all other employees regard profitability and cost effectiveness in the
organization as very important. These results indicate that for those employees
who agree that other employees regard this variable as important, the hazard of
employee voluntary tumover decreases by 1.1%.
Demographics
A model of the hazard of employee voluntary tumover containing
demographic variables was generated by the Cox proportional hazards model.
The variables entered into the model were gender, age, shift, ethnicity, location
of employment, level of education, marital status, salary and children.
There are four demographic variables that demonstrate a significant
association to the hazard of employee voluntary tumover, gender, age ethnicity
and salary. Gender is represented as male or female and age is the actual age
as self-reported by the employee. The variable ethnicity is divided into eight
groups, Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, African
American/Hispanic, Caucasian/Hispanic, Native American and a group for any
other ethnicity. There are five levels of the variable salary, categorizing by
income calculated in annual salary. The first level of salary is $10,000 or less,
the second, $10,000-$20,000, the third, $20,000-$35,000, the fourth, $35,000-
$50,000 and the fifth level Is $50,000 or more.
The final model contains four demographic variables that report significant
Wald chi-square scores, indicating a significant association with the hazard of
employee voluntary tumover. The variables are gender (5.6698, p<.0173), age
(30.6594, p<.0001), ethnicity (20.9421, p<.0001) and salary (14.8839, p<.0001).
33
For the quantitative variable, age, the parameter estimate (-0,029846)
and the risk ratio (0.971) indicate a strong negative relationship between the
variable and the hazard of voluntary tumover. For each one-year increase in
age, the hazard for voluntary tumover decreases by 2.9%, 100(.971-1)=2,9%
(Allison, 1995).
For the quantitative variable, salary, the parameter estimate (-0.763494)
and the risk ratio (.466) indicate a strong negative association between the
variable and the hazard of voluntary tumover. Results of the formula indicate
that for every one-unit increase in the variable salary, there is a 53,4% decrease
in the hazard of voluntary tumover. Salary Is divided into five groups with the
lowest paid group representing the $10,000 and less, the second, $10,000-
$20,000, the third, $20,000-$35,000, the fourth, $35,000-50,000 and the fifth
group, $50,000 or more.
In the survival analysis, testing for the effects of the variable, gender, the
parameter estimate (0.521141) and the risk ratio (1.684) indicate a strong
positive association between the variable and the hazard of voluntary tumover.
These estimates Indicate that males are .5938 times more likely to engage in
employee voluntary tumover than females.
The variable, gender, is further tested by using the Kaplan-Meier and life-
table methods of survival analysis for interpretation of tumover by intervals of
length of employment. When testing for the homogeneity of survival curves over
the strata of gender, male and female, specifically comparing time intervals of
employment, 0 to 24 months by three, there were no significant differences in the
survival curves of females as compared to the sun/ival curve for males.
34
Results from the Kaplan-Meier, comparing tumover by gender on the
Intervals of length of employment, there are some similarities in the tumover for
males and females as indicated in the life-table survival estimates. For males
and females, the highest number of voluntary tumover failed events is in the time
inten/al 3-to-6 months employed. The life table method of analysis yields two
statistics for quantifying the risk of failure, a failed event being voluntary tumover
of the employee. The statistics are the conditional probability of failure and the
hazard function. Conditional probability of failure (0.0498) for males at the 3-6
month interval quantifies the risk of failure during the interval, given that they
made it to the start of the Inten/al. The hazard function (0.017021) for males at
the 3-6 month Interval quantifies the Instantaneous risk that a voluntary tumover
event will occur.
For females, the number of employees failed in any given interval is the
highest in the 3-6 month interval, that number being 11. The conditional
probability of failure for females at the 3-6 month Inten/al (.0370) is somewhat
lower than that of males. The hazard function (0.01257) for females at the 3-6
month interval is highest at this interval as compared to all other intervals and
also lower than that of males.
The Kaplan-Meier sun/ival estimates show that by 7 months employed, 25
males had failed. At 7 months, the survival estimate (0,8992) indicates that the
estimated probability that a male will survive or remain employed 7 months or
longer Is 89.92%. This sun/ival estimate function steadily decreases until at 51
months employed the survivor function (0,7341) indicates a decreased probability
of sun/ival. The point estimate for males at the 25% quantile is 51 months. This
35
estimate indicates the smallest event time such that the probability of voluntary
tumover eariler than this time is >.25. Most interesting is the 50th percentile,
which is the median failure time. At the 50% quantile for males, the point
estimate Is 260 months.
In comparison to males, the group females' survival estimate (0.9272) for
7-months employed indicates that the estimated probability (92.72%) that
females will survive 7 months or longer is somewhat higher than that for males.
The point estimate for females at the 25% quantile is void meaning that the
function never reaches a failure probability of > .235, which occurs at 47 months
for females as compared to 51 months for males. The conditional probability of
failure and the hazard function estimates are higher for males than for females,
meaning that the hazard of voluntary tumover is greater for males than for
females.
Results of survival analysis testing for the effects of the variable ethnicity,
specifically the parameter estimate (0.147584) and risk ratio (1.159), indicate a
positive association between the variable and the hazard of voluntary tumover.
The variable ethnicity is dichotomized into groups of Caucasian and all other
ethnicities combined and Is compared by time Inten/als of employment. The
variable is dichotomized, instead of using the 8 groups of ethnicity, to avoid a
reduction in power since the number of failure events is relatively low compared
to the number of censored events In the study. When a substantial number of
cases are censored, the effect on the estimates of the mean can be great
(Allison, 1995). The number of Caucasian (379) is quite large and when all other
ethnicities are added into one group (171), the two groups are more nearly
balanced In number.
36
The Wilcoxon chi-square statistic (20.0631, p<.0001) indicates a
significant difference in the two sun/ival curves when stratifying on the
dichotomized variable, ethnicity. For the group "all other ethnicities," the sun/ival
function at 7 months employed (0.8304) is somewhat lower than the survival
function (0.9525) for the group, "Caucasian." The point estimate for the group,
"all other ethnicities," at the 25% quantile is 15 months as compared to the point
estimate for the group, "Caucasian," which is void at the 25% quantile because
the function never reaches a probability of >.2020 which occurs at 88 months.
The life-table survival estimate tables reveal the number of voluntary
tumover failure events In each Interval stratified on the two groups. For the
group, "all other ethnicities," the highest number of failed events in a designated
interval (15) occurred In the 3-6 month employed inten/al as compared to the
number of failed events (8) in the group, "Caucasian," for the 3-6 month interval.
For the group, "Caucasian," the highest number of failed events (11) occurred in
both the 6-9 and 9-12 month inten/als.
The conditional probability of failure for the group, "all other ethnicities,"
(.0920) at the 3-6 month interval Is higher than for the group, "Caucasian,"
(.0213) during the same inten/al of employment. For the group, "Caucasian," the
conditional probability of failure at the 6-9 month inten/al (.0317) and at the 9-12
month interval (.0364), the two inten/als reporting the highest number of failed
events (11 each), is signiticantly lower than the probability of failure rate for the
group, "all other ethnicities," (.0920) during the 3-6 month interval.
Comparison of the hazard function estimates for the two groups Indicates
that the group, "all other ethnicities," displays Its highest hazard function estimate
37
for any Inten/al (.03254) during the 3-6 month inten/al while the group
"Caucasian," experiences Its highest hazard function estimate (.012346), still
lower than the function for the other group, at the 9-12 month inten/al.
The difference in the sun/ival cun/es is significant for the two groups, the
group, "all other ethnicities," displaying a higher rate of failure events in the form
of voluntary tumover at an eariier time Inten/al and an increased hazard function
estimate than the group, "Caucasian." The conditional probability of failure and
the hazard function estimates for the group, "Caucasian," are lower than for the
group, "all other ethnicities." The group, "all other ethnicities," demonstrates an
Increased hazard of voluntary tumover at an eariier interval of length of
employment.
Emplovee Psvchological Contract and Turnover
The effects of the significant variable. Employee Perceived Obligation,
from the predictive model of voluntary tumover, was tested in a series of Cox
proportional hazards models, stratifying on each of the demographic variables
that also proved to have significant effects on the hazard of voluntary tumover.
The first analysis, testing for the effects of the covariate Employee
Perceived Obligation on the dichotomous variable ethnicity, yielded a Wald chi-
square for the model (16.217, p<.0001), a parameter estimate (-0.071027) and
risk ratio (0.931) of the covariate which indicates a significant negative
association between the covariate and the hazard of voluntary tumover. For
those employees who are Caucasian and who self-report high scores on the
measure, Indicating a perceived high level of obligation to their employer, the
hazard of voluntary tumover decreases. The hazard of employee voluntary
38
tumover for those employees who are Caucasian Is 93,1% of those who are not.
The reciprocal of .931 indicates that those employees who are not Caucasian are
1.07 time more likely to engage in voluntary tumover. The mean score of the
measure. Employee Perceived Obligation, for the group, "all other ethnicities,"
(30.9379) was slightly lower than the mean score of the group, "Caucasian,"
(32.1753).
A second analysis was performed using the variable ethnicity, this time
dividing the variable Into the 8 different groups reported from the demographic
information. The total number of employees in each group and the number of
failed events are listed in Table 4. The Wald chi-square statistic (14.718,
p<.0001), the parameter estimate (-0.068658) and the risk ratio (0.934) for the
covariate, Employee Perceived Obligation, again indicate a significant negative
association between the covariate, as stratified on the 8 groups of ethnicity, and
the hazard of voluntary tumover. The group with the largest absolute number of
failure events (51) is the Caucasian group (365), reflecting a failure rate of
13.97%, while the next group, Hispanic (98) with a lower number of failed events
(25) demonstrates a higher failure rate percentage at 25.51%. Figure 1 displays
a plot of the survival cun/es for each of the 8 groups of ethnicity by employment
"length of stay."
In the next analysis, testing the global null hypothesis with the same
covariate. Employee Perceived Obligation, this time stratifying on gender, the
Wald chi-square (21.482, p<.0001), the parameter estimate (-0.078125) and the
risk ratio (0.925) for the covariate stratified on gender, indicate a significant
negative association between the covariate and the hazard of voluntary tumover.
39
Table 4. Summary of Event Values by Ethnicity
Ethnicity Total Event
51
2
25
0
2
57
2
6
Caucasian
African American
Hispanic
Asian Pacific Islander
Black Hispanic
Caucasian Hispanic
Native American
Other
365
12
98
4
3
2
9
8
The hazard of voluntary tumover for those employees who are female
Is 92.5% of those who are male and the reciprocal of .925 indicates that males
are 1.08 times more likely to engage in voluntary tumover. The mean score
(31.9749) on the measure for males Is slightly higher than that of females
(31.6481).
The next analysis Is perfonned using the third demographic variable from
the Cox proportional model, salary, divided into the five levels of salary. Again,
the Cox proportional hazard model is used to test the effects of the covariate.
Employee Perceived Obligation, on the hazard of voluntary turnover as stratitied
on the five groups of salary. The total number of employees in each group of the
40
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variable salary and the number of failed events for the groups are displayed in
Table 5. The Wald chi-square statistic (8.194, p<.0042), the parameter estimate
for the covariate (-0.055424), and the risk ratio (0.946) indicate a significant
negative association between the covariate and the hazard of voluntary tumover
when stratified on the five groups of the variable salary. For each one-unit
Table 5. Summary of Event Values by Salary
Salary Total Event
1 275 69
2 161 20
3 54 5
4 19 0
5 14 0
increase in the level of salary, the hazard of voluntary tumover decreases by
5.4%. The two groups with the largest total number of employees and the largest
number failed in each group are the groups of the two lowest levels of annual
salary. The failure rate in the group with the lowest level of annual salary,
$10,000 or less, is 25,09%. Moving up to the next level of salary, $10,000 to
$20,000, the percentage rate of failure decreases to 12.42%. As the unit-level of
annual salary increases, the hazard of voluntary tumover decreases.
The fourth significant demographic variable, age, was entered into the Cox
proportional hazard model to test for the effects of the covariate, Employee
Perceived Obligation, stratifying on the variable age. There is significance at the
42
p<.05 level as measured by the Wald chi-square (4.682, p<.0305). In order to
increase power of the analysis, age is stratified into five groups, <20, 25, 35, 45,
>50.
When testing for the effects of the covariate. Employee Perceived
Obligation, on the hazard of voluntary tumover and stratifying by five groups of
the variable age, the Wald chi-square (6.390, p<.0115), the parameter estimate
for the covariate, (-0.047662) and the risk ratio (0.953) indicate a significant
negative association between the covariate and the hazard of voluntary tumover.
For each one-unit increase in age group, the hazard of employee voluntary
tumover decreases by 4.7%.
The age group, 25 years old, reports the largest sample size (132), the
highest number of actual failed events (33), a lower percentage (25.0%), and a
lower mean score on the measure Employee Perceived Obligation (31.1970).
The next group to report the second highest number of actual failed events (22),
the smallest sample size (69), a higher percentage (31.8%) and the lowest mean
score (27,6812) on the measure, Employee Perceived Obligation, is the group
<20 years old. The highest percentage of tumover events occurs in the group,
<20 years old, the group which also self-reports the lowest levels of perceived
employee obligation. The group, 25 years old, demonstrates the second highest
percentage of tumover events and a slightly higher mean score on the measure
of employee obligation. The mean score on the measure. Employee Perceived
Obligation, increased with the age of the employee with the highest mean score
reported by the >50 group (33.5158),
43
Altemative Analyses
Two of the thirteen locations of the organization are thought to be
homogeneous with respect to survival curves depicting the hazard of voluntary
turnover, and the two sites In Wyoming and Arizona are believed to significantly
differ from all other locations. Support for this belief is in the fact that percentage
of voluntary participation at each of the two latter sites is higher than that of each
of the other sites. Percentage of participation at each of the two sites is 87.47%
and 66.84%, respectively. Since percentage of voluntary participation at each of
the other sites was considerably lower, selection bias is suspected at the other
sites of the organization. In other words. It is suspected that those employees
who would self-report high levels of commitment and obligation are the ones who
would volunteer for the study.
For this reason, an analysis of homogeneity was perfonned comparing the
one site located at Rawlins, Wyoming to the other site, in Tonopah, Arizona. The
total number of employees participating in the study at the first site (107) and the
number of voluntary tumover failed events (29) is comparable to the total of the
second site (121) and the number failed (28). Using the Kaplan-Meier method of
analysis, the Wilcoxon chi-square (1.0635, p<.3024) indicates that there is no
significant difference in the survival curves for the two locations, so the two sites
are considered to be homogeneous with respect to the hazard of voluntary
turnover.
The two sites, Wyoming and Arizona were compared with respect to the
time variable, "length of stay," or time employed, as reflected in the point
estimate for the 25% quantile and the survival estimates. The point estimate for
the first site (11 months) at the 25% quantile is much lower than the point
44
estimate for the second site (23 months). Comparison of the two sites with
respect to the life table survival estimates indicates that for the first site the
highest number failed (9) Is the same in both the 6-9 month interval and the 9-12
month inten/al, while for the second site the highest number of actual failed
events (5) is the same In both the 3-6 month and 6-9 month inten/als.
Since the two sites are considered homogeneous with respect to their
survival curves and the hazard of voluntary tumover, a further analysis is
perfonned by dichotomizing on location, to compare the two sites, Wyoming and
Arizona, to all other locations to test for homogeneity of survival curves with
respect to the hazard of voluntary turnover. Comparison of the two groups of
location with respect to size and number of failed events indicates that the total of
participating employees (322) in the first group, "all other locations," is greater
than the total (228) in the second group of two locations; however, the number of
voluntary tumover failed events (57) for the second group, "two locations,"
exceeds the number (42) for the tirst group, "all other locations." The Kaplan-
Meier method of analysis yields a Wilcoxon chi-square (12.3323, p<,0004) which
Indicates that the survival curves of the two groups differ significantly.
Comparison of the two groups of location with respect to the time variable
"length of stay," reveals a difference in the point estimate for the 25% quantile.
The group, "two locations," has a point estimate of 18 months for the 25%
quantile while the group, "all other locations," is void for the statistic at the 25%
quantile because the point estimate never reaches >.1929 in the 88 month. The
sun/ival function estimate for the group, "two locations," in the eighteenth month
(0.7469) Is less than the sun/ival function estimate (0.8071) of the group, "all
other locations," for month 88.
45
The life table sun/ival estimates by interval of "length of stay" indicate that
the group, "all other locations," experiences the highest number of voluntary
tumover failed events (10) in the 3-6 month inten/al while the group, "two
locations," reports the highest number of voluntary tumover failed events in the 6-
9 month inten/al. Conditional probability of failure (0.0318) and the hazard
function estimate (0.010787) for the group, "all other locations," at the 3-6 month
interval is lower than the conditional probability of failure (0.0700) and the hazard
function estimate (0.02418) for the group, "two locations," during the 6-9 month
interval. These results Indicate that the hazard of voluntary tumover is higher for
the two locations in Wyoming and Arizona, than for all other locations.
The same analysis of comparing the two groups of location is perfonned
with the Kaplan-Meier and life table methods of survival analysis, stratifying on
each of the demographic variables. There is a significant difference In the
sun/ival curves with respect to the hazard of voluntary tumover when stratifying
on the variable gender according to the Wilcoxon chi-square (23.0998, p<.0001)
statistic. A summary of event values by gender is displayed In Table 6. Group 0
is the group, "all other locations," and Group 1 is the group, "two locations," Life
table survival estimates at each Inten/al are presented in Table 7.
Table 6. Summary of Event Values by Gender
Total Failed 18 34 24 23
Males GrpO Males Grpi Females GrpO Females Grpi
151 97
171 131
46
Table 7. Life Table Survival Estimates
Male GrpO
GrpO
Grpi
Grpi
Interval 0-3 3-6 6-9 9-12
Inten/al 0-3 3-6 6-9 9-12
Inten/al 0-3 3-6 6-9 9-12
Interval 0-3 3-6 6-9 9-12
Failed 4 5 1 3
Failed 4 5 3 3
Failed 3 7 9 5
Failed 1 6 5 6
Cond. Prob. 0.02650 0.03400 0.00769 0.02680
Female Cond.Prob,
0.0234 0.0299 0.0194 0.0216
Male
Failure
Failure
Cond.Prob.Fallure 0.0309 0.0745 0.1071 0.0741
Female Cond.Prob.Fallure
0.0763 0.0462 0.0431 0.0612
Hazard 0.0089 0.0115 0.0025 0.0090
Hazard 0.0039 0.0045 0.0037 0.0041
Hazard 0.0104 0.0257 0.0377 0.0256
Hazard 0.0025 0.0064 0.0065 0.0085
The largest number of voluntary tumover failed events (9) with the highest
conditional probability of failure (0.1071) and the highest hazard function
estimate (0.037736) occurred in the 6-9 month interval for males in the group,
"two locations."
The two groups are compared by gender with respect to the point estimate
of the time variable "length of stay." For males in the group, "two locations," the
point estimate at the 25% quantile is 11 months and for males in the group, "all
other locations," the point estimate for the 25% quantile Is void because the
47
estimate is never > .1569 in month 38, For females in the group, "all other
locations," the 25% quantile is void since the point estimate is never >,2231 at
month 88 and for females in the group, "two locations," the 25% quantile is also
void with the point estimate never >.2490 in month 79. These results are similar
to the previous findings for gender and indicate that males demonstrate a greater
hazard for voluntary tumover than females and at an eariier interval of length of
employment.
The next demographic variable used in the analysis of the two groups of
location is the variable ethnicity, divided into two groups, "all other ethnicities,"
and "Caucasian." The variable ethnicity is reduced to two comparable groups to
enhance the power of the analysis. The Wilcoxon chi-square (27.6027, p<.0001)
Indicates a significant difference in the survival curves for the two groups as
stratified on ethnicity. The summary of event values by ethnicity Is presented in
Table 8. The results of the life table sun/ival estimates are displayed In Table 9.
The group, "all other locations," is group 0 and the group, "two locations," is
group 1.
Table 8. Summary of Event Values by Ethnicity
Total Failed All Ethnicities GrpO 78 15 All Ethnicities Grpi 93 31 Caucasian GrpO 244 27 Caucasian Grpi 135 26
48
Table 9. Life Table Survival Estimates
All Other Ethnicities GrpO
GrpO
Grpi
Grpi
Interval
0-3 3-6 6-9 9-12
Interval 0-3 3-6 6-9 9-12
Interval 0-3 3-6 6-9 9-12
Interval 0-3 3-6 6-9 9-12
Failed
5 5 2 2
Failed 3 5 2 4
Cond. Prob. 0.0641 0.0685 0.0323 0.0392
Caucasian Cond.Prob.
0.0123 0.0207 0.0089 0.0200
All Other Ethnicities Failed
3 10 5 4
Failed 1 3 9 7
Failure
Failure
Cond.Prob.Fallure 0.0323 0.1111 0.6580 0.0635
Caucasian Cond.Prob.Fallure
0.0741 0.0224 0.0726 0.0683
Hazard
0.0220 0.0236 0.0109 0.0133
Hazard 0.0041 0,0069 0,0030 0,0067
Hazard 0,1092 0.0392 0.0226 0.0218
Hazard 0.0024 0.0075 0.0251 0.0235
The hazard function estimates are higher for the group, all other
ethnicities," in both groups of location with the group, "two locations," reporting
the highest hazard function estimates at the 0-3 month inten/al employed and the
3-6 month interval. These results are similar to previous findings that the group,
"Caucasian," demonstrates a reduced hazard of voluntary tumover as compared
to the group, "all other ethnicities."
49
Further analysis was perfonned on the two groups of location, stratifying
again on the two groups of ethnicity and testing for the effects of the covariate
Employee Perceived Obligation. The Wald model chi-square (14.077, p<,0002),
the parameter estimate (-0.066864) and the risk ratio (0.935) for the covariate
indicate a significant negative association between the covariate and the hazard
of voluntary tumover In the two groups of location as stratified on the two groups
of ethnicity. Mean Scores of the measure Employee Perceived Obligation were
slightly higher for the group, "Caucasian" (32.7382, 31.1818) at both groups of
location than for the group, "all other ethnicities," (31.2361, 30,6996) at both
groups of location.
Using the same groups of location and stratifying on the variable gender,
and testing for the effects of the covariate. Employee Perceived Obligation, the
Wald chi-square (18.987, p<.0001), the parameter estimate (-0.074201) and the
risk ratio (0.928) indicate a significant negative association between the covariate
and the hazard of voluntary tumover for the two groups of location, stratifying on
the two groups of gender. Interpretation of the risk ratio indicates that males are
1.077 times more likely to engage in voluntary turnover at any given point.
These results are also similar to previous findings for gender.
The difference in mean scores of the covariate for this analysis appears in
the groups of location with the group, "two locations," demonstrating lower mean
scores for the measure, Employee Perceived Obligation, in both groups of male
(31.2500) and female (30.7840) than the group, "all other locations," with higher
male (32.4615) and female (32.3148) mean scores. For males in the group, "all
other locations," the ratio (11.19%) of actual number of failed events (16) to the
total (143) of participating employees was the lowest ratio of any group as
50
compared to the ratio (35,42%) of the actual number of failed events (34) to the
total (96) for males In the group, "two locations," Figure 2 displays a plot of the
sun/ival function estimates of the four groups, "males at all other locations,"
"males at the two locations," "females at all other locations," and "females at the
two locations."
The next survival analysis was stratitied on the demographic variable,
salary. There is a significant effect for the covariate Employee Perceived
Obligation on the hazard of voluntary tumover in the two groups of location, when
stratifying on the five groups of salary (7.16318, p<.0074). The parameter
estimate (-0.052591) and the risk ratio (0.949) indicate a significant negative
association between the covariate and the hazard of voluntary tumover. For
each one-unit increase in the variable salary, the hazard of voluntary tumover
decreases by 5.1%. The mean scores reported on the measure of the covariate
tend to increase with an increase In unit of salary with the highest mean score
(38.0000) for the measure Employee Perceived Obligation reported by the
employees in the $50,000 or more annual income group, specifically in the
location group, "two locations," and the lowest mean score (30.1 111) reported by
the employees In the $10,000 or less Income group also in the same location
group, "two locations." Figure 3 displays a plot of the sun/ival function estimates
of five groups of salary, "salary level 1 at all other locations," "salary level 1 at the
two locations," "salary level 2 at all other locations," "salary level 2 at the two
locations," and "salary level 3 at all other locations."
There Is also a significant effect for the covariate Employee Perceived
Obligation on the hazard of voluntary turnover in the two groups of location, when
stratifying on the five groups of age (5.022, p<.0250). The parameter
51
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estimate (-0.043272) and the risk ratio (0.958) indicate a significant negative
association between the covariate and the variable age. For each one-unit
Increase in the variable age, as grouped Into the five groups, the hazard of
voluntary tumover decreases by 4.2%. The ratio (37.14%) of the highest number
of actual failed events (13) to the total participants (35) is in the age group, <20
years, in the group, "two locations." The ratio (35.71%) of the second highest
number of actual failed events (25) to the total participants (70) is in the age
group, 25 years, also in the group, "two locations." The highest percentage of
tumover Is represented In the two groups of age, <20 years and 25 years, at the
two locations that differ significantly from all the other locations of the
organization. For this set of analyses the highest number of voluntary tumover
failed events was found in the two groups, <20 years old and 25 years old, the
same groups to demonstrate the highest tumover events in previous analyses,
stratifying on the five groups of age.
Mean scores on the measure tend to Increase with an increase in age
group until age 35, with the lowest mean score (27.6765) reported in the group
<20 at "all other locations," and the highest mean score (34.0278) reported in the
group 35 years in the group, "all other locations."
These results Indicate that when comparing the two groups of location and
stratifying on the variable age, as divided into five groups, employees in the
group, "all other locations," demonstrate higher mean scores on the measure.
Employee Perceived Obligation, and a lower hazard of voluntary turnover than
the group, "two locations." Also, the same age groups, <20 and 25 years old
demonstrate the highest hazard of voluntary tumover, similar to previous findings
in the survival analysis stratifying on the variable age.
53
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54
Group Differences in Tumover
From the previous analyses, findings indicate that there are three intervals
of employment "length of stay" in which the greatest number of voluntary
tumover failed events consistently occur. The inten/als are the 0-3 month
employed, the 3-6 month employed and the 6-9 month employed. These three
inten/al groups were compared to a fourth group, >9 months employed. An
ANOVA Is perfonned to test for significant difference in the four groups. The
results of the ANOVA for inten/al groups by demographic variables is displayed
In Table 10. Table 11 presents the frequencies and percentages of the
demographic variables. Table 12 displays the descriptive statistics for the
different groups on the demographic variables of age and on the measure of
Employee Perceived Obligation. The four groups of "length of stay" differ
significantly on the demographic variables of age, ethnicity, salary and on the
measure Employee Perceived Obligation, The demographic variable, gender, is
not significant by group.
Table 10. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Interval Groups
by Demographic Variables
Source df MS F p
Age 3 1912.85 10.52 .0001
Ethnicity 3 32.24 11.58 .0001
Salary 3 24.16 9.11 .0001
Employee Perceived Obligation 3 91.93 2.65 .0480
55
Table 11. Summary of Frequency and Percentage of Demographic Variables by Group
Gender Male
Female
Ethnicity Caucasian
African/American
Hispanic
Asian/Pacific Islander
Black/Hispanic
Caucasian/Hispanic
Native American
Other
Salary $10,000 or less
$10000-20,000
$20,000-35,000
$35,000-50,000
$50,000 or more
Groupl
8 1.45
7 1.27
5 .90 1
.18 7
1.27 0 0 0 0 1 .18 0 0 1
.18
9 1.64 4 .73 1 .18
0 0 0 0
Group 2
12 2,17
11 1,99
8 1,45
1 .18 4 .72 0 0 1 .18 5 .90 2 .36 2 .36
21 2.83 2 .36
0 0 0 0 0 0
Group 3
40 7.23
38 6.87
51 9.22
3 .54
17 3.07
0 0 0 0 3 .54 3 .54 1
.18
53 9.65 21 3.83 3 .55
0 0 0 0
Group 4
189 34,18 248
44,85
316 57,14
8 1.45
76 13,74 4
,72 2
.36 20
3.62 5
.90 6 1.08
206 37.52
143 26.05 53 9.65 18 3.28
14 2.55
56
Table 12, Summary of Descriptive Statistics for Age and Employee Perceived Obligation by Group
Group 1
Age Employee Perceived Obligation
Group 2
Age Employee Perceived Obligation
Group 3
Age Employee Perceived Obligation
Group 4
Age Employee Perceived Obligation
Mean
26.93 29.46
Mean
29.26 30.09
Mean
29.78 31.19
Mean
37.16 32.08
Std.Dev.
10.08 4.82
Std.Dev.
14.49 6.93
Std.Dev.
11.33 5.82
Std.Dev.
13.87 5.23
Min.
16 21
Min.
16 14
Min.
16 16
Min.
16 9
Max.
53 40
Max.
72 40
Max.
64 40
Max.
68 40
Considering these results, salary may be the one variable that accounts
for the employee voluntary turnover. Other ANOVA's were performed on the five
levels of salary by each of the demographic variables of age, gender and
ethnicity and by the measure Employee Perceived Obligation. The five levels of
salary differ significantly on the demographic variables of age, gender and
ethnicity and on the measure of Employee Perceived Obligation. Results of the
ANOVA's for salary by demographic variable are displayed in Table 13.
Summary of descriptive statistics for age and employee perceived obligation by
57
level of salary are displayed In Table 14. Summary of frequencies and
percentages for gender and ethnicity by level of salary are displayed in Table 15.
Table 13. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Salary by
Demographic Variables
Source df MS F p
Age
Gender
Ethnicity
Employee Perceived Obligation 30
5
1
7
10
61.94
31.47
4.28
2.78
2.38
36.28
4.89
3.41
.0001
.0001
.0001
.0001
58
Table 14. Summary of Descriptive Statistics for Age and Employee Perceived Obligation by Level of Salary
Salary Level 1 Mean Std. Dev. RangeMin. Max.
Age 32.63 14.66 42 16 67
Employee Perceived Obligation 29.97 6.04 35 5 40
Salary Level 2
Age 36.46 12.56 56 16 72
Employee Perceived Obligation 31.72 5.45 32 8 40
Salary Level 3
Age 40.12 9.76 39 22 61
Employee Perceived Obligation 34.78 4.76 26 14 40
Salary Level 4
Age 45.68 10.13 39 28 67
Employee Perceived Obligation 35.63 3.15 10 30 40
Salary Level 5
Age 48.92 10.34 32 32 64
Employee Perceived Obligation 37.36 3.38 10 30 40
59
Table 15. Summary of Frequency and Percentage for Gender and Ethnicity by Level of Salary
Salary
Gender Male
Female
Ethnicity Caucasian
African/Amer
Hispanic
Aslan/Pac.lsl
Black/Hlsp.
Cauc./Hlsp.
Native Amer.
Other
Level 1
105 19.13
184 33.52
173 36.51
. 7 1.28
70 12.75
. 2 .36
3 .55
22 4.01 6 1.09 6 1.09
Level 2
81 14.75 89 16.21
121 22.04
3 .55
30 5.46
2 .36
0 0 7 1.28 4 .13
3 .55
Level 3
33 6.01
24 4.37
50 9.11 2
.36 4 .73
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .18
Level 4
15 2.13
4 .73
19 3.46 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Level 5
13 2.37 1 .18
14 2.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
60
CHAPTER IV
DISCUSSION
The present study examined the relationships between employee
organizational commitment, job Involvement, the psychological contract,
organizational culture and the process of employee voluntary tumover. Analyses
of associations between qualitative and quantitative variables and sun/ival time
yielded a predictive model for employee voluntary tumover. Survival analysis
was used to assess the relationship of both the occurrence and the timing of the
turnover process to the multiple predictors measured at one point in time.
Relationship Between Emplovee Organizational Commitment And Job Involvement. How Predictive They are of Employee
Voluntarv Tumover
Findings from the analysis Indicate that the constructs of organizational
commitment and job involvement demonstrate a significant negative effect on the
hazard of employee voluntary tumover as stated In the first hypothesis. For
those employees self-reporting high levels of organizational commitment and job
Involvement, the hazard of employee voluntary tumover decreases by 2.8% for
organizational commitment and 2.6% for job involvement. These findings, that
the two variables demonstrate a negative association with the hazard of
voluntary tumover, are consistent with those of Blau and Boal (1987) and Morita,
Lee and Mowday (1989).
Further exploratory analyses Including the variables of psychological
contract yielded a predictive model of employee voluntary turnover. This model
61
contains one of the variables of psychological contract. Employee Perceived
Obligation to the employer. When this variable was entered into the analysis
model, none of the other variables. Including organizational commitment and job
involvement were significant. This measure alone is a good predictor of the
hazard of employee voluntary tumover since the measure accounted for a
greater amount of the variance at a lower p-level (25.7185, p<.0001). These
results indicate that for each one-unit increase in the score of the measure, the
hazard of voluntary tumover decreases by 7.7%.
Relationship Between Organizational Culture and Employee
Voluntary Tumover
Results of the Kaplan-Meier method of survival analysis indicating that the
survival curves with respect to employee voluntary tumover differ significantly
from the survival curve existent in the dominant culture support the hypothesis
that the subcultures are in fact countercultures of the dominant culture.
Additional support exists in the results of testing for the effects of the four types
of organizational culture, Mari<et, Hierarchical, Adhocracy and Clan on the
hazard of voluntary tumover. Culture demonstrates a significant negative
association with the hazard of voluntary tumover. Comparison of the different
locations and the mean scores for each covariate reveal that for all locations
except the dominant culture, which exists at the corporate office of the
organization, the highest mean score is for the type. Hierarchical. The highest
mean score reported in the dominant culture is for the culture type, Adhocracy.
Employees in the corporate office report the culture as characteristic of the
Adhocracy type, with strategic emphases toward innovation and new growth,
whereas employees in the other geographical locations report culture as the
62
Hierarchical type, with emphasis on stability, smooth operations and predictability
(Deshpande, Fariey & Webster, 1993).
The countercultures demonstrate higher rates of voluntary tumover than
the dominant culture, as hypothesized, and the sun/ival cun/es of all locations
differ significantly with respect to voluntary tumover (24.7011, p<.0163). And as
hypothesized, employees in the countercultures also self-report lower levels of
organizational commitment and job involvement. Higher mean scores on the
measure Employee Perceived Obligation are reported for employees in the
dominate culture, as compared to lower mean scores on the measure for
employees In the countercultures.
From the Organizational Nomns Scale, used to evaluate the nonns and
values of the organization's culture, one of the factors, Profitability/Cost
Effectiveness, demonstrates a significant positive effect on the hazard of
voluntary tumover. The mean score on this scale (-30.527%) indicates that
employees ' evaluation of other employees' attitudes with respect to the
Profitability/Cost Effectiveness factor is rated in the -30% range of a scale from
-100% to +100%. A score of -100% indicates that the employee positively
agrees that all other employees regard the profitability and cost effectiveness of
the organization as very important. The effects of this variable on the hazard of
voluntary tumover differed significantly in the two groups of culture, the dominant
as compared to the countercultures, with the countercultures reporting a lower
mean score (30.1508) on the variable as compared to a higher mean score
(41.3462) for the dominant culture. Employees In the countercultures report
lower mean scores on the measures of organizational commitment, job
63
involvement, obligation to the employer and the Importance of profitability and
cost effectiveness of the organization.
The Effect of Gender. Age. Ethnicity and Salary on Employee Voluntarv Tumover
Four of the demographic variables, gender, age, ethnicity and salary,
demonstrate effects on the hazard of employee voluntary tumover. For the two
quantitative variables of age and salary, the association to the hazard of
voluntary tumover is negative and for the variables gender and ethnicity, the
association is positive.
The variable salary demonstrates a strong negative effect on the hazard of
voluntary tumover, with the hazard decreasing 53.4% for each one-unit increase
in the level of salary. For each one-year Increase in age, the hazard of voluntary
turnover decreases by 2.9%.
The variable gender demonstrates a significant positive association with
the hazard of voluntary turnover; although when testing for the homogeneity of
survival curves with respect to gender, male and female, the difference is not
significant. The positive association for gender is relative to being female. Males
are 1.08 times more likely to engage in voluntary turnover.
There are some similarities in the number of failed events for males and
females as compared on specific intervals of length of employment. The highest
number of voluntary turnover failed events occurs in the time interval, 3-6
months, for both males and females. The conditional probability of failure
(0.0498) and the hazard function (0.017021) of males in the 3-6 month inten/al
are both higher than the conditional probability of failure (.0370) and the hazard
function (0.01257) for females. When comparing the estimated probability of
64
sun/ival at 7-months employed for both males and females, females demonstrate
a higher estimated probability of sun/ival (0.9272) as compared to that of males'
(0.8992). So, when comparing all locations of the organization with respect to
the survival estimates of gender, females demonstrate a higher estimated
probability of sun/ival.
There is a significant difference in survival curves for the variable,
ethnicity, when dichotomized as "Caucasian" and "all other ethnicities."
The group, "all other ethnicities," demonstrates a higher number of actual failed
events than the group Caucasian when compared In the 3-6 month inten/al
employed. When comparing the groups with respect to the conditional
probability of failure and the hazard function estimate, the group, "all other
ethnicities," demonstrates higher estimates for both constructs of failure.
The group, "all other ethnicities," demonstrates a 9.2% probability of failure at the
3-6 month Interval employed as compared to a 2.13% probability of failure for the
group Caucasian during the same interval. The group, "all other ethnicities,"
engage in voluntary turnover more frequently and at an eariier time Interval of
employment than do the group Caucasian.
The Effect of Employee Psychological Contract on Employee Voluntary Tumover
The variable. Employee Perceived Obligation, demonstrates a significant
effect on the hazard of voluntary tumover. No other variables were found to be
significant at the p<.05 when this variable was entered into the predictive model.
The variables of organizational commitment and job Involvement were not
significant because the variable. Employee's Perceived Obligation to the
employer accounted for all the variance in the model. These findings indicate
65
that a measure of the employee's perceived obligation to the employer also
reflects the employee's level of commitment to, and satisfaction with, the
organization. Robinson (1995) reports that commitment to, and satisfaction with,
the organization are reduced when there Is a violation of the psychological
contract.
The effect of the variable. Employee Perceived Obligation, was tested by
survival analysis, stratifying in separate analyses on each of the demographic
variables that also demonstrated a significant effect on the hazard of voluntary
turnover.
The psychological contract variable Is first tested by stratifying on the
dichotomous variable of ethnicity. The variable. Employee Perceived Obligation,
demonstrates a significant negative association to the hazard of voluntary
tumover by ethnicity. Results indicate that the hazard of voluntary tumover for
those employees who are Caucasian is 93.1% of those employees who are not.
The mean score on the measure for the group, "all other ethnicities," is lower
than the Caucasian group mean score. Consequently, employees in the ethnic
group, "all other ethnicities," when compared to the group Caucasian and testing
for the effects of Employee Perceived Obligation, are 1.07 times more likely to
engage in voluntary tumover than the group of Caucasian employees.
Results from a second analysis of the same variable stratifying on all 8
groups of ethnicity Indicate a significant negative relationship between the
variable. Employee Perceived Obligation, and the hazard of voluntary tumover
and specifically target the group with the highest percentage (25.51%) of
voluntary tumover failure rate, the Hispanic group.
66
When the variable measuring the employee's perceived obligation to the
employer Is stratified on gender, a significant negative association to the hazard
of voluntary tumover Is reported. The voluntary tumover rate of failed events for
the male employees is 20.9% as compared to 15.68% for female employees.
Male employees are 1.08 times more likely to engage in voluntary tumover even
though males as a group self-report a slightly higher mean score (31.9749) on
the measure Employee Perceived Obligation than the mean score (31.6481) of
the group, "females."
Results of the next analysis testing the effects of the covariate Employee
Perceived Obligation on the hazard of voluntary tumover and stratifying on the 5
groups of salary indicate a negative association between the covariate and the
hazard of voluntary turnover. Specifically, for each one-unit Increase in the level
of salary, the hazard of voluntary tumover decreases by 5.4%.
Group supports this tinding In comparison of the mean scores on the
measure. Employee Perceived Obligation, for the groups and comparison of the
failure rates. The lowest mean score (30.4182) on the measure is reported by
the group, "$10,000 or less," annual salary and the highest mean score
(37.3571), by the group, $50,000 or more, with the mean scores incrementally
Increasing in proportion to the level of salary. The highest rate of voluntary
failure events (25.09%) Is reported in the "$10,000 or less" salary group and the
failure rate (12.42%) decreases considerably at the next level of salary, $10,000-
$20,000."
Results of the analysis testing the effects of the covariate Employee
Perceived Obligation and stratifying on five groups, of the variable age, <20, 25,
35, 45, and >50, Indicate a signiticant negative association between the covariate
67
and the hazard of voluntary tumover. For each one-unit increase in age, the
hazard of voluntary tumover decreases by 4.7%. The group <20 years reports
the highest percentage of failure events (31.8%) and the lowest mean score
(27.6812) on the measure. Mean scores on the measure increased with the age
of the employee with the highest mean score (33.5158) reported by the >50 age
group. These results indicate that an increase in both employee age and
employee score on the measure of obligation to the employer decreases the
hazard of voluntary turnover for the employee.
Two Homogeneous Locations and Their Relationship to All Other Geographical Locations of the Organization
Two sites of the organization are homogeneous with respect to survival
curve and hazard of employee voluntary tumover. When the two locations are
compared to the group, "all other locations," results indicate that the two
locations significantly differ from "all other locations," with respect to survival
curves and the hazard of voluntary tumover.
Comparative analysis of the conditional probability of failure and the
hazard function estimate for the two groups indicates that employees in the
group, "two locations," demonstrate a higher conditional probability of failure and
higher hazard function estimate than employees in the group, "all other
locations." Comparing the groups on the point estimate at the 25% quantile,
results indicate that the group, "two locations" reaches the 25% quantile in month
18 while, for the group, "all other locations," the 25% quantile is void since the
point estimate Is never greater than .1929 in month 88. These two analyses
Indicate that employees in "all other locations" sun/ive longer than employees in
the "two locations."
68
Further analysis of the location groups Is perfonned, stratifying on the four
significant demographic variables, gender, age ethnicity and salary. When
stratifying on the variable gender, there is a significant difference in the sun/ival
cun/es with respect to the hazard of voluntary tumover. Males in the group, "two
locations," demonstrated the largest number of actual failed events, the highest
conditional probability of failure and the highest hazard function. Comparing the
two groups on the point estimate at the 25% quantile, males in the group, "two
locations," reach the 25% quantile In month 11, while the 25% quantile is void for
males In the group, "all other locations," since the estimate is never greater than
.1569 In month 38. Comparing the two groups of location on gender, for females,
the 25% quantile in both groups of location is void. These results indicate that
males are engaging in voluntary turnover more often than females and
specifically, males In the group, "two locations."
Using the same groups of location and stratifying on the variable gender,
and testing for the effects of the covariate, Employee Perceived Obligation, the
results Indicate a significant negative association between the covariate and the
hazard of voluntary tumover. Interpretation of the risk ratio Indicates that males
are 1.077 times more likely to engage In voluntary turnover at any given point.
The difference In mean scores of the covariate for this analysis appears in the
groups of location with the group, "two locations," reporting lower mean scores
for the measure. Employee Perceived Obligation, in both groups of male and
female. Males demonstrate the highest percentage of failed events in the group,
"two locations." Males in the group, "two locations," engage in voluntary tumover
more frequently and report lower mean scores on the measure of employee
obligation to the employer.
69
When the two groups of location are compared and stratified on the
dichotomized demographic variable, ethnicity, results indicate a significant
difference In the sun/ival cun/es and the hazard of voluntary tumover. The
hazard function estimates are higher for the group, "all other ethnicities, in both
groups of location with the group, "two locations," reporting the highest hazard
function estimates at the 0-3 month inten/al employed and the 3-6 month interval.
These results indicate that employees in the group, "all other ethnicities," are
more frequently engaging in voluntary tumover at eariy intervals of employment,
as compared to employees in the group Caucasian,
When the two groups of location are stratified on the dichotomous
ethnicity variable and tested for the effects of the covariate. Employee Perceived
Obligation, the chi-square (14.077, p<.0002), the parameter estimate
(-0.066864) and the risk ratio (0.935) for the covariate indicate a significant
negative association between the covariate and the hazard of voluntary tumover.
The employees who self-report high levels of perceived obligation to the
organization are less likely to engage in voluntary tumover. The group, "all other
ethnicities," in both groups of location reported lower mean scores on the
measure, Employee Perceived Obligation, than did the group, "Caucasian."
The next demographic variable on which the two groups of location were
stratified is level of salary. There is a significant effect for the covariate
Employee Perceived Obligation on the hazard of voluntary tumover in the two
groups of location stratifying on the demographic variable, salary. For each one-
unit increase In the level of salary, the hazard of voluntary tumover decreases by
5.1%. The mean scores reported on the measure of the covariate tend to
increase with an Increase In unit of salary. The highest mean score (38.00) was
70
reported by the employees in the location group, "two locations," in the $50,000
or more annual Income group and the lowest mean score, in the same location
group in the $10,000 or less income group.
A significant negative effect for the covariate. Employee Perceived
Obligation, on the hazard of voluntary tumover in the two groups of location is
also reported when stratifying on the five groups of age. For each one-unit
Increase in the variable age, the hazard of voluntary tumover decreases by 4.2%.
The highest percentage of tumover is represented in the two groups of age, <20
years and 25 years. In the group, "two locations." The lowest mean score on the
covariate measure is reported in the age group, "<20," at "all other locations,"
and the highest mean score is reported in the group 35 years also in the group,
"all other locations."
Group Differences in Voluntary Tumover
Survival analyses of groups by inten/als of employment using the Kaplan-
Meier method indicate that there are three length of stay employment intervals in
which the highest number of voluntary tumover failed events occur. The intervals
are the 0-3 months employed, the 3-6 months employed and the 6-9 months
employed. These three groups of intervals were compared to a fourth group, >9
months employed.
The four groups differ significantly on the demographic variables of age,
ethnicity, and salary and the measure Employee Perceived Obligation. The
mean ages of the employees in the three groups of employees who leave the
organization in the tirst 9 months of employment are all In the 26 to 29 year
range, while the mean age of employees who remain with the organization longer
71
than 9 months Is 37.16. This analysis supports previous findings that employees
In the group, "all other ethnicities," are engaging in voluntary tumover more
frequently than the group, "Caucasian." Younger employees and employees
reporting the lower levels of salary are the ones engaging in voluntary tumover
during the tirst 9 months of employment.
ANOVA's of the variable salary by each of the demographic variables of
gender, age, ethnicity and by the measure. Employee Perceived Obligation,
indicate that the five levels of salary differ significantly by each of the
demographic variables and the measure. Over 80% of the employees in the four
interval groups report In the lowest two levels of salary, 52.6% for level one and
31.0% for level 2.
Salary may be the most Important detennining factor for the event of
employee voluntary tumover, especially in the early intervals of employment, for
males, for younger employees and for the group, "all other ethnicities," These
results indicate also that level of salary demonstrates an effect on the attitude of
the employee, with those employees engaging in voluntary tumover also
reporting lower levels of perceived obligation to the organization.
Limitations
The first and probably the most crucial limitation of this study is the factor
of length of time in which the study is conducted. This variable limited the
amount of failed tumover events that could be collected. Some of the
geographical locations of the organization reported only a few failed tumover
events during the 7-month period that the data was collected. If the study could
have been extended over a period of a year or possibly longer, an increased
72
amount of tumover data could have been collected. The increased amount of
tumover data at each site would have allowed for more comparable tumover
rates at each of the geographical locations. Also, the number of censored cases
would have decreased which allows for Improved estimate of the upper tail of the
distribution (Allison, 1995),
Another limitation of the study is that there are only two geographical
locations represented with a large percentage of participation in the study. At the
other geographical locations, participation was decreased. The employees at all
locations, especially those, who were not management, demonstrated a
skepticism about participation in the study, which in some cases bordered on an
element of fear of job security. Some employees verbalized a fear of
management having access to their responses on the questionnaires and
consequently being tired If they participated in the study. This limitation may be
overcome in the future with increased support from management. Employees
need reassurance from management that the study is important to the
organization and to the benefit of the employees to help Improve the work
environment, and reassuring the employees that management does not have
access to any of the Individual response data. This attitude of fear that existed In
many locations, greater at some than others, is perhaps a product of the rigidity
of the structured hierarchical culture existing in the counterculture locations and
also, a mistrust of management.
Future Research
Findings from this study indicate that future research may focus on the
relationship between the employee and the employer, specifically the employee
73
psychological contract. Robinson, Kraatz and Rousseau (1994) state that the
study of the employee psychological contract is valuable because the
perspective Is one that extends the organizational attachment constructs of
commitment and citizenship. They also suggest that managers pay special
attention to managing the beliefs fonning the obligations and to understanding
the employee's perceptions of obligation to the organization and the employee's
perception of obligation from the employer.
Another factor for future research of voluntary employee tumover is
management styles and trust issues between management and employees.
These factors may have influenced data collection and accounted for the
increased participation of employees at two of the sites and the reduced
participation at all other sites.
74
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
Overview of Research Findings
The investigation of the relationships between employee organizational
commitment, job involvement, the psychological contract, organizational culture
and the process of employee voluntary tumover produced interesting findings
about which variables demonstrate significant associations to the hazard of
employee voluntary tumover. Findings from the analysis Indicate that the
constructs of organizational commitment and job Involvement demonstrate a
significant negative effect on the hazard of voluntary tumover.
Further exploratory analysis of variables for a predictive model of
employee voluntary tumover yielded a predictive model with only one of the
constructs, that of Employee Perceived Obligation, the employee's self-reported
perceived obligation to the organization, or employer. This measure alone is a
good predictor of the hazard of employee voluntary tumover, accounting for over
25% of the variance in the model. These findings indicate that a measure of the
employee's perceived obligation to the employer also retiects the employee's
level of commitment to, and satisfaction with, the organization. So, the factor of
organizational commitment Is embedded within the construct of the employee's
perceived obligation to the employer. Robinson (1995) reports that violation of
the employee psychological contract decreases employee commitment to,
satisfaction with and trust in the organization.
75
The employee's perceived obligation to the organization also
demonstrates a signiticant negative association to the hazard of voluntary
tumover when stratified by the significant demographic variables, ethnicity,
gender, salary and age. The ethnic group demonstrating the highest percentage
of voluntary tumover failure rate (25.51 %) is the Hispanic group. The gender
group, males, reports a higher percentage (20.9%) of voluntary tumover failure
rate than females. For each one-unit increase in each of the variables, salary
and age, the hazard of employee voluntary tumover decreases.
When voluntary tumover is compared relative to employment "length of
stay," tindings Indicate that employees who leave the organization in the tirst 9
months of employment report In the age range of 26 to 29 years. These tindings
are specific to the group, "all other ethnicities," and to the two lowest levels of the
variable, annual salary, $10,000 or less and $10,000 to $20,000.
Further analysis of the variable salary Indicate that the five levels of salary
differ significantly by each of the demographic variables, age, gender and
ethnicity and the measure, Employee Perceived Obligation. Salary is the most
Important determining factor for the event of employee voluntary tumover,
especially In the early intervals of employment, for males, for younger employees
and for the group, "all other ethnicities." The level of salary influences the
attitude of the employee, with those employees who report lower levels of
perceived obligation to the organization, engaging In voluntary turnover.
Another relationship investigated is the association between
organizational culture and the hazard of employee voluntary tumover. Culture
demonstrates a significant negative association with the hazard of voluntary
tumover, when testing for the effects of the four types of organizational culture,
76
Martlet, Hierarchical, Adhocracy and Clan. For all locations except the dominant
culture, which exists at the corporate office of the organization, the highest mean
score is for the type, Hierarchical. The highest mean score reported in the
dominant culture is for the culture type, Adhocracy.
The dominant attributes of the Hierarchical culture are rules, regulations,
order and unifomnity. Strategic emphases are on stability, smooth operations
and predictability with bonding occurring through policies, procedures and rules.
On the opposing diagonal scale of culture is Adhocracy with dominant attributes
of adaptability, creativity and entrepreneurship. Strategic emphases are on new
resources, growth and Innovation with bonding occurring via flexibility and risk.
Employees In the countercultures report lower mean scores on the
measures of organizational commitment, job involvement and employee
perceived obligation. The counterculture employees also report lower mean
scores on the factor, "Profitability/Cost Effectiveness." There Is a significant
association between this factor and the hazard of voluntary turnover. Employees
reporting lower scores on the factor are the ones most likely to engage in
voluntary tumover.
Implications
The constructs of employee organizational commitment and job
Involvement may be embedded in the construct of employee perceived obligation
to the organization. The most predictive variable of employee voluntary tumover
is the employee's obligation to the organization, or employer. Embedded In this
construct is the organizational attachment constructs of employee's level of
commitment to and satisfaction with the organization.
77
There is an Implication from these tindings for management personnel in
an organization. The role of management Is cmcial to the implementation of the
employee psychological contract, for it is the managers who have direct contact
with the employees and who may become aware of an employee's perceived
contract and respond to that employee accordingly. These issues further
implicate the importance of trust issues between management and employees.
Management styles may also be an Important factor in the management of the
employee's beliefs relative to the reciprocal obligations of employee and
organization.
These tindings also Imply that the culture of an organization demonstrates
a significant effect on the process of employee voluntary tumover. The shared
values intiuence not only the work-related behaviors such as tumover, but also,
the development of employee beliefs such as perceived obligation and
commitment to the organization. These findings imply that culture may be
assessed as an Important contextual factor influencing the development of
employee behaviors and beliefs.
78
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Porter, L W., Crampon, W. J., & Smith, F. J. (1976). Organizational commitment and managerial tumover: A longitudinal study. Organizational Behavior and Human Perfonnance. 15. 87-98.
Randall, D. M. (1990). The consequences of organizational commitment: A methodological Investigation. Joumal of Organizational Behavior. 11. 361-378.
81
Robinson, S. L. (1995), Violation of psychological contracts: Impact on employee attitudes. In L. E. Tetrick & J. Bariining (Eds.), Change employment relations (pp. 91-108). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Robinson, S. L., Kraatz, M. S. & Rousseau, D. M. (1994). Changing obligations and the psychological contract: A longitudinal study. Academy of Management Joumal. 37 (1). 137-152.
Rousseau D. & Parks, J. (1993). The contracts of individuals and organizations, in L. L. Cummings & B. M. Staw (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior. Vol. 15. (pp. 1-47). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Sapienza, H. J., Korsgaard, M A. & Schweiger, D. M. (1997). Procedural justice and changes in psychological contracts: A longitudinal study of reengineering planning. Academy of Management Proceedings '97. 354-358.
Schein, E. H. (1980). Organizational psychology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Schein, E. H. (1981). Does Japanese management style have a message for American managers? Sloan Management Review. 23. 55-68.
Schein, E. H. (1984). Coming to a new awareness of organizational culture. Sloan Management Review. 25. 3-16.
Schein, E. H. (1985). Organizational culture and leadership, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass,
Slehl, C. & Martin, J. (1984). The role of symbolic management: How can managers effectively transmit organizational culture? In J. G. Hunt, D. M. Hosking, CA. Schriesheim & R. Stewart (Eds.), Leaders and managers: Intematlonal perspectives on managerial behavior and leadership (pp. 227-269). New York: Pergamon Press.
Steele, R. P. & Ovalle, N. K. (1984) A review and meta-analysis of research on the relationship between behavioral intentions and employee tumover. Journal of Applied Psychology. 69. 673-686,
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82
Stevens, J. M., Beyer, J., & Trice, H. M. (1978). Assessing personal, role, and organizational predictors of managerial commitment. Academy of Management Joumal. 21. 380-396.
Wiener, Y. (1988). Fomns of value systems: A focus on organizational effectiveness and cultural change and maintenance. Academy of Management Review. 13. 534-545.
83
APPENDIX A
EXTENDED REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Organizational Attachment
The relationship fomned by the employees to the employer for which they
work is often referred to as organizational attachment (Mowday, Porter & Steers,
1982). Involved in the process of the fonnation of this relationship is an
exchange between the individual employee and the employer, which occurs in
the beginning period of membership In the organization. This exchange
relationship involves each party giving up and receiving something of value and
may Include both non-economic and economic factors.
Schein (1980) reports that there are two conditions, which exert influence
on an employee's willingness to commit to an organization. The first condition is
the "goodness of fit" or match of the employee's expectations to the
organization's expectations and If there is agreement, then the very nature of
what is being exchanged is the second condition. Mutual expectations relative to
exchange relationships contribute to the "psychological contract." This contract
is an unwritten agreement between the organization and the individual, which
specifies expectations of giving and receiving from each other (Rousseau &
Pari<s, 1993: Robinson, Kraatz & Rousseau, 1994; Robinson, 1995; Morrison &
Robinson, 1997; Sapienza, Korsgaard & Schweiger, 1997).
Mowday, Porter, and Steers (1982) have stated that a salient factor
involved in this "contract" is the nature of the employee's organizational
connection. Employee wori< attitudes and behaviors may be measured and
examined to obtain a better understanding of the employee organizational
84
attachment process and Its effects on the employee voluntary tumover process.
Organizational commitment and job involvement are two wori<-related attitudes
that have been researched extensively relative to the tumover process (Mowday,
Steers & Porter, 1979; Steele & Ovalle, 1984; Blau, 1985, 1987; Blau & Boal,
1987; Huselld & Day, 1991; Lee & Mitchell, 1991; Lee, Ashford, Walsh &
Mowday, 1992).
Organizational Commitment
Many detinitions exist in the literature for organizational commitment. For
the purposes of this study, the definition of organizational commitment Is derived
from Mowday, Porter and Steers (1982). Organizational commitment is defined
in tenns of the relative intensity of an employee's involvement in, and
identification with, a specific organization. Mathieu and Zajac (1990) state that
this detinition retiects multiple dimensions since It includes the concept of
identification and incorporates the desire to remain with the organization and
work toward organizational goals.
Three factors of attitudes and behaviors lend salience to the
characterization of organizational commitment. They are: (1) acceptance of and
a belief in the values and goals of the organization; (2) desire to maintain
organizational membership; and (3) a willingness to contribute to the
organization. This definition of organizational commitment denotes an active
relationship exchange between the employee and the organization and involves
attitudes and behaviors as manifestations of the actual concept of organizational
commitment. Observed behaviors of the committed employee will be congruent
with the detinition constituents (Mowday, Porter & Steers, 1982).
85
O'Reilly and Chatman (1986) define organizational commitment as a
psychological attachment to the organization predicted by three independent
constructs, those of compliance, identification and intemalization. Compliance is
detined as Involvement for the extrinsic rewards. Identification is involvement
with the organization because of the desire for affiliation and is an important
mechanism In the developing process of psychological attachment (Bowlby,
1982). Internalization Is Involvement based on the Indlviduars acceptance of the
organization's values. The first definitional component of the Mowday, Porter
and Steers (1982) organizational commitment model, acceptance and belief in
the values and goals of an organization. Is based on psychological attachment
(O'Reilly & Chatman, 1986).
Mowday Porter and Steers (1982) state that organizational commitment is
a global construct revealing the affective responses of the employee to the whole
of the organization. The development of commitment begins at time of
employment, continues over a period of time and Involves interplay of attitudes
and behaviors. Porter, Crampon and Steers (1976) report that the level of
commitment reported by employees on the first day of employment predicted
turnover up to several months on the job.
Alternatively, Hunt and Morgan (1994) advocate the multiple commitment
view of organizational commitment. They report organizational commitment to
be detined as multiple commitments to various groups comprising the
organization, such as commitment to the wori< group, the supervisor and to top
management. Their research supports a reconceptualization of the global
organizational commitment model as a "key mediating construct" with
compliance, intemalization and identitication as the bases of commitment.
86
Constituency-specific commitments are factors that lead to, and result in, the
concept of global organizational commitment.
Of the consequences and outcomes of organizational commitment,
reduced voluntary tumover may be the most predictable of the behavioral
outcomes (Mowday, Porter & Steers, 1982; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; Lee &
Mitchell, 1991; Lee, Ashford, Walsh & Mowday. 1992). A meta-analysis
conducted by Mathieu and Zajac (1990) reveals high correlations between
organizational commitment and behavioral intentions. Mathieu and Zajac
conclude that organizational commitment may represent a "summary index" of
the employee's work-related experiences and that organizational commitment
may influence the behavioral intentions in a direct way.
Job Involvement
The organizational commitment meta-analysis conducted by Mathieu and
Zajac (1990) also revealed that among the foci of commitment, the job
involvement and organizational commitment relationship was the largest
observed. The two variables are considered to influence some work-related
behaviors independently. Job involvement is detined as a belief descriptive of an
employee's relationship with the present job. This Is not to be confused with the
temri wori< involvement, which may be defined as a nonnative belief about the
value of wori< in an employee's life. Wori< involvement is a function of historical
cultural conditioning and socialization whereas, job Involvement Is a function of
the satisfaction of eminent personal needs (Kanungo, 1982). Kanungo (1982)
suggested a refomnulatlon of the job involvement construct to be viewed as a
form of psychological Identification enhanced by a cognitive or belief state. The
87
employee's identification process depends on the employee's saliency of both
intrinsic and extrinsic needs and the employee's perceptions about the job's
potentialities to satisfy the employee's needs, a psychological contract relative to
job Involvement.
According to Blau and Boal (1987), job Involvement is a better predictor of
voluntary tumover than absenteeism. Blau and Boal (1987) suggest that
organizational commitment and job involvement serve as complements relative
to prediction of the voluntary tumover process. They also report a significant
interactive relationship between the two variables (Blau & Boal, 1989).
Employees who display high levels of organizational commitment and of job
Involvement may be the least likely to engage in the voluntary turnover process
because they are involved in and committed to both the job and the organization.
O'Reilly and Chatman (1986) report that job involvement is a consequent
outcome of psychological commitment to an organization. Job involvement is
Included in a category of dependent variables that is relevant to organizational
commitment. There are certain types of positive involvement, which contribute to
the definition of job involvement. They are conformity, flexibility, motivation and
an acceptance of organizational policies demonstrated through obedience in
employee relationships.
Psychological Contract
Inherent to the foundation of employee relationships Is the beliefs of the
employee relative to the obligations that are reciprocal between them and the
organization. These expectations relative to the reciprocal obligations between
employee and organization are referred to as the psychological contract. This
88
contract Is an employee's cognitive evaluation of the transactional and relational
mutual obligations between employee and organization, which is fomned during
the employee's beginning period of membership in the organization. This
beginning period of employment is the most critical interval for employee tumover
and reportedly Is the time during which most of the tumover occurs
(Mowday, Porter & Steers, 1982).
Morrison and Robinson (1997) state that the employee holds conceptions
about the organization, and not any one specific agent of the organization,
meaning that the employee perceives the organization with an identity that
assumes anthropomorphism. The entity of the organization that has direct
contact with the employee is management. The role of management is cmcial to
the Implementation of the employee psychological contract, for it is the managers
who may become aware of an employee's perceived contract and respond to that
employee accordingly.
When events and circumstances occur that are considered to be violations
of the employee's psychological contract, the employee may be distressed and
exhibit appropriate attltudinal or behavioral responses (Morrison & Robinson,
1997). Robinson (1995) reports that when employees believe that their
psychological contract has been violated, there is a decrease in the level of the
employee's trust In the employer in addition to a decrease in the level of
satisfaction with and commitment to the organization. These employee feelings
alter the employee's attitude toward the relationship with the organization and
may lead to behavioral responses such as voluntary tumover.
89
Organizational Culture
Wiener (1988) proposes that shared values play a prominent role in the
development of all fomns of commitment and In the development of corporate
culture. Schein (1981) defines organizational culture as the organization's basic
underlying assumptions, the fundamental values, beliefs and perceptions.
Schein (1985) makes a distinction between beliefs and assumptions. He defines
beliefs as cognitions and basic assumptions as including beliefs and perceptions,
values and feelings. Ott (1989) reports fifty-eight published sources with
detinitions of organizational culture. Organizational culture has been detined in
temns of artifacts (Bates, 1984), pattems of behavior (Deal & Kennedy, 1982),
beliefs and values (Allaire & Firsirotu, 1985) and basic assumptions (Schein,
1981, 1984, 1985).
Ott (1989) makes the point that although there are many existing
detinitions of organizational culture which vary relative to the selection of words,
the basic functions do not vary. He offers a functional definition of organizational
culture, which contains four basic functions viewed as the core of the detinition.
The tirst function of organizational culture is that it provides perceptions, or
cognitive Interpretations, as a guideline for thoughts and actions of organizational
members. The second function is providing shared pattems of beliefs in the
moral codes and values of the organization so that members will know what they
are expected to feel and to value. The third function is defining and maintaining
certain important boundaries that will identify members and nonmembers of the
organization. The last function is providing an "organizational control system"
that functions to prohibit and prescribe certain behaviors.
90
Ott (1989) reports the existence of subcultures within the dominant culture
of an organization. The subcultures may vary from the dominant culture and may
exist in any of the organizational groups. The groups may consist of employees
wori<ing on a project or employees linked by ethnic or religious background.
These subcultures may overiap and coincide and even conflict. Siehl and Martin
(1984) have Identified three different types of subcultures, those of orthogonal,
enhancing and counterculture.
The orthogonal subculture is identified by its congruency with the
dominant culture, in Its basic assumptions; yet, the orthogonal subculture
upholds some unique individual basic assumptions. In the enhancing subculture,
basic assumptions, values and beliefs are the same as those in the dominant
culture and are upheld with much fervor. The third type of subculture is the
counterculture. Members in this type of subculture uphold beliefs, values and
basic assumptions that are in direct contiict with those of the dominant culture.
These subcultures may serve to retine, enhance or even challenge the dominant
culture. They may be a source of divisive behavior or of functional behavior.
Shared values and beliefs function to form various groups of employees into
different subcultures at differing levels of commitment.
For the purposes of this study, the existing culture in the corporate office
of the organization, where the chief executive officer and other executive officers
reside, were assessed as the dominant culture. The other geographical locations
of the organization were assessed as subcultures of the corporate office, or
dominant culture.
Organizational culture is a contextual factor that will exert some influence
on how organizational climates develop relative to wori< groups and to wori<-
91
related behaviors such as tumover (Randall, 1990). Randall (1990) suggests
that the nature of the relationship of organizational commitment and wori<-related
behaviors such as tumover is greatly influenced by the cultural context in which
these relationships develop. Randall (1990) advocates empirically exploring the
effects of the organizational context on these relationships. For example, some
organizational behaviors may be predefined as acceptable to an extent that a
correlation may not exist between organizational commitment and the behavior
(Randall, 1990).
Voluntary Employee Tumover
Voluntary tumover is defined as the "employee's volitional departure from
the organization" and is theorized as a unidimensional concept (Lee & Mitchell,
1994b). Employees are resources of the organization and a high voluntary
tumover rate may be costly to the organization in terms of replacement costs
(Lee & Mitchell, 1994b). Expanding the understanding of the process of
organizational commitment as related to voluntary employee tumover may have
benefits for organizations, employees and society in general (Mowday et al.,
1982). Employees' commitment level may enhance their eligibility for extrinsic
and intrinsic rewards. Organizations may benefit by experiencing reduced
withdrawal behaviors, specifically tumover. Society may benefit in temns of
reduced job movement rates and increased national productivity or quality of
wori< (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990).
The employee tumover process Itself may create negative consequences
for the organization and the employees who remain (Mobley, 1982).
Organizations are faced with a loss of perfomners, productivity losses and
92
replacement costs. The employees who remain may experience a loss of valued
co-wori<ers and an Interruption in social pattems and may consequently
experience decreased satisfaction (Mobley, 1982),
Lee and Mitchell (1994a) refer to the "pull and push" theories of voluntary
employee tumover. The pull theory consists of factors that are extemal for the
employee. Extemal factors may consist of the labor force supply and demand
and job market altematlves. The push theory is related to employees' intemal
constructs that my affect the voluntary tumover process. These constructs
consist primarily of perceptions and attitudes related to the job.
Mathieu and Zajac (1990) propose that the most popular voluntary
tumover theory has been the Mobley, Griffeth, Hand and Meglino (1979) model.
This model is an expanded model of the Mobley (1977) intemnediate-linkages
model and Incorporates both Intemal and extemal constructs that may affect the
voluntary tumover process. The key constructs are job attitudes and job
satisfaction. Steers and Mowday (1981) propose that a sequence of events
implement the employee's decision process in staying or leaving. First, an
employee's affective response to the job, relative to organizational commitment,
job involvement and job satisfaction, are intiuenced by job expectations and
individual values. The second step is to factor in nonwori< influences. And finally
the intention to leave or stay may lead to the behavior.
Lee and Mitchell (1994a) expand the existing traditional theories of
voluntary employee turnover to incorporate psychological and cognitive
components relative to a decision-making process involving a type of decision
theory referred to as image theory (Beach, 1990). The model proposed is the
unfolding model of voluntary employee tumover, named so because of the four
93
decision paths, which unfold over time and differ in the requirements of
psychological processes and cognitive processing. Lee and Mitchell (1994a)
propose that the decision to leave an organization be precipitated by some event
in the employee's environment which serves as a "shock to the system." The
term "shock" sen/es as a conceptual mechanism for jarring events, which may be
categorized in three different types. The first category of events is personal
events, which are extemal to the job such as the death of a loved one. The
second type Is personal events related to the job or specific role such as the
event of missing a promotion. The final category of shocks is related to
organizational events, such as the event of downsizing, initiated by the
organization.
These shocks may serve as the catalyst to one of the four decision paths
leading to a decision to quit or remain with the organization. Shocks are also
positive job-related factors and also neutral events that are work and personal
related. Lee and Mitchell (1994a) state that employees' decisions to stay with, or
leave, an organization are based on compatibility criterion rather than on a
process of maximizing expected utilities.
Mowday, Porter and Steers (1982) report that one of the structural
correlates of commitment is related to the organization's decision-making
processes. Specifically "increased participation In decision making" was found to
be related to commitment. Employee participation In the process of making
decisions Is considered to be a related factor In the process of decentralization.
Stevens, Beyer and Trice (1978) report that employees in an organization
experiencing decentralization reportedly felt higher levels of commitment to the
organization. Those employees who experience Increased activity in the
94
decision-making process may then be more committed to the organization and
more likely to remain with the organization.
95
APPENDIX B
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT SCALE (Mowday, Steers & Porter, 1979)
1. I am willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond that normally expected in order to help this company be successful.
1 disagree
CVJ
slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 slightly agree
5 agree
2. I talk up this company to my friends as a great company to work for.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
3. I feel very little loyalty to this company.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
4. I would accept almost any type of job assignment in order to keep working for this company.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
5. I find that my values and the company's values are very similar.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
96
6. I am proud to tell others that I am part of this company.
1 disagree
CVJ
slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 slightly agree
5 agree
7. I could be just as happy working for a different company as long as the type of work were similar.
1 disagree
2 slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 slightly agree
5 agree
8. This company really inspires the very best in me in the way of job performance.
1 disagree
CVJ
slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 slightly agree
5 agree
9. It would take very little change in my present circumstances to cause me to leave this company.
1 disagree
2 slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 slightly agree
5 agree
10.1 am extremely glad that I chose this company to work for, over others I was considering at the time I joined.
1 disagree
2 slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 slightly agree
5 agree
97
11. There's not too much to be gained by sticking with this company indefinitely.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
12. Often, I find it difficult to agree with this company's policies on important matters relating to its employees.
1 disagree
2 slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 slightly agree
5 agree
13.1 really care about what happens to this company.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
14. For me this is the best of all possible companies for which to work.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
15. Deciding to work for this company was a definite mistake on my part.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
98
APPENDIX C
JOB INVOLVEMENT SCALE (Kanungo, 1982)
1. The most important things that happen to me involve my present job.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
2. To me, my job is only a small part of who I am.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
3. I am very much involved personally in my job.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
4. I live, eat and breathe my job.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
5. Most of my interests are centered around my job.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
99
6. I have very strong ties with my present job which would be very difficult to break.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
7. Usually I feel detached from my job.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
8. Most of my personal life goals are job-oriented.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
9. I consider my job to be very central to my life.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
10. I like to be really involved in my job most of the time.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
100
APPENDIX D
ORGANIZATIONAL NORMS OPINIONNAIRE (Alexander, 1978)
If an employee in this company were to . . .
1. criticize the company and the people in i t . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
2. try to improve things even though everything is running smoothly . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider It agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not important encourage encourage
3. listen to others and try to get their opinions . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
4. think of going to a supervisor with a problem . . . most other employees would: 1 2 3 4 5
strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
5. look upon himself/herself as being responsible for reducing costs . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider It agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not important encourage encourage
101
If an employee in this company were to . . .
6. take advantage of a fellow employee . . , most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not important encourage encourage
7, keep a customer or client waiting in order to look after personal matters , . , . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider It agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
8. suggest a new Idea for doing things . . , most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
9. actively look for ways to expand his/her knowledge in order to be able to do a better job . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider It agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not Important encourage encourage
10. talk freely and openly about the company and its problems . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
102
If an employee in this company were to . . .
11. show genuine concem for the problems that face the company and make suggestions about solving them . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not important encourage encourage
12. suggest that employees do only enough to get by . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
13. go out of his/her way to help other members of the work group . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
14. look upon the supervisor as a source of help and development.. . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
15. purposely misuse equipment or privileges . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
103
If an employee in this company were to . . .
16. express concem for the well-being of other members of the company . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not important encourage encourage
17. attempt to tind new and better ways to sen/e the customer or client, , , most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
18. attempt to experiment in order to do things better in the work situation . . .most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not Important encourage encourage
19. show enthusiasm for going to an company-sponsored training and development program .. . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
20. suggest confronting the boss about a mistake or something in the boss's style that is creating problems . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
104
If an employee in this company were to . . .
21. look upon the job as being only eight hours and the major reward as the month-end paycheck . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
22. say that there is no point In trying harder, as no one else does . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not important encourage encourage
23. wori< on his/her own rather than wori< with others to try to get things done . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider It agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
24. look upon the supervisor as someone to talk openly and freely to ., , most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider It agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
25. look upon making a profit as someone else's problem . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not important encourage encourage
105
If an employee in this company were to . . .
26. make an effort to get to know the people he/she wori<s with . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not Important encourage encourage
27. sometimes see the customer as a burden or problem to getting the job done . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
28. criticize a fellow employee who is trying to improve things in the woric situation . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
29. mention that he/she was planning to attend a recently announced company training program . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not important encourage encourage
30. talk openly about problems facing the wori< group, including personalities or personal problems with others . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
106
If an employee in this company were to . . .
31. talk about wori< with satisfaction . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not Important encourage encourage
32. set very high personal standards of perfonnance , , , most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not important encourage encourage
33. try to make the wori< group operate more like a team when dealing with problems or issues . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not Important encourage encourage
34. look upon the supervisor as the one who sets the standards of performance or goals for the work group . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
35. evaluate money spent by the company in temns of the benefits they will provide for the organization . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
107
If an employee in this company were to . . .
36. always try to treat the customer or client as well as possible , , . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not important encourage encourage
37. think of going to the boss with an idea or suggestion . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not Important encourage encourage
38. go to the boss to talk about what training he/she should get in order to do a better job . . . most other employees would: 1 2 3 4 5
strongly disagree disagree consider It agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
39. be perfectly honest in answering this questionnaire . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage It or discourage not important encourage encourage
40. wori< harder than what Is considered the nomnal pace . . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
108
If an employee in this company were to . . .
41. look after himself/herself before the other members of the wori< group , . . most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider It agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
42. do his/her job even when the supervisor is not around . , , most other employees would:
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree disagree consider it agree with, strongly agree or discourage it or discourage not important encourage encourage
109
APPENDIX E
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE SCALE (Deshpande, Fariey & Webster, 1993)
A. KIND OF COMPANY
"This company is . . . " 1. . . . a very personal place. It is like an extended family. People seem to
share a lot of themselves.
1 strongly disagree
CVJ
disagree 3
neither disagree or agree
4 agree
5 strongly
agree
2. . . . a very dynamic and entrepreneurial place. People are willing to stick their necks out and take risks.
1 strongly disagree
CVJ
disagree 3
neither disagree or agree
4 agree
5 strongly
agree
3. . . . a very formalized and structural place. Established procedures generally govem what people do.
1 strongly disagree
2 disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 agree
5 strongly
agree
4. . . . production oriented. The major concem is with getting the job done, without much personal Involvement.
1 strongly disagree
2 disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 agree
5 strongly
agree
110
B. LEADERSHIP
"The head of this company is . . . " 5. . . .generally considered to be a mentor, a sage, or a father figure.
1 strongly disagree
2 disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 agree
5 strongly
agree
6. . . . generally considered to be an entrepreneur, an innovator, or a risk taker.
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree neither disagree agree strongly disagree or agree agree
7. . . . considered to be a coordinator, organizer, or an administrator.
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree neither disagree agree strongly disagree or agree agree
8. . . . generally considered to be a producer, technician, or hard-driver.
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree neither disagree agree strongly disagree or agree agree
C. WHAT HOLDS THE COMPANY TOGETHER
"The glue that holds this company together is . . . "
9. . . . loyalty and tradition. Commitment to this fimn runs high.
1 strongly disagree
CVJ
disagree 3
neither disagree or agree
4 agree
5 strongly
agree
111
"The glue that holds this company together is . .
10. . . . a commitment to innovation and development. There is an emphasis on being first.
1 strongly disagree
2 disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 agree
5 strongly
agree
11. . . . formal rules and policies. Maintaining a smooth-running company is important here.
1 strongly disagree
2 disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 agree
5 strongly
agree
12. . . . the emphasis on tasks and goal accomplishment. A production orientation Is commonly shared.
1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree neither disagree agree strongly disagree or agree agree
D. WHAT IS IMPORTANT
"This company emphasizes . . ." 13. . . . human resources. High cohesions and morale in the fimn are important.
1 strongly disagree
2 disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 agree
5 strongly
agree
14. . . . growth and acquiring new resources. Readiness to meet new challenges is important.
1 strongly disagree
2 disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 agree
CJl
strongly agree
112
"This company emphasizes . . ."
15. . . . permanence and stability. Efficient, smooth operations are important.
1 strongly disagree
CVJ
disagree 3
neither disagree or agree
4 agree
5 strongly
agree
16. . . . competitive actions and achievement. Measurable goals are Important,
1 strongly disagree
2 disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 agree
5 strongly
agree
113
APPENDIX F
EMPLOYEE PERCEIVED CONTRACT (Robinson, Kraatz & Rousseau, 1994)
1. My employer has promised to provide me with rapid advancement in the company.
1 disagree
CVJ
slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 slightly agree
5 agree
2. My employer has promised to provide me with pay based on current level of performance.
1 disagree
2 slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
3. My employer has promised to provide me
1 disagree
2 slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4. My employer has promised to provide me
1 disagree
5. Myen^
1 disagree
2 slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
iployer has promised to provide me
2 slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 slightly agree
with high
4 slightly agree
5 agree
pay.
5 agree
with training.
4 slightly agree
with long-
4 slightly agree
5 agree
-term job
5 agree
114
6. My employer has promised to provide me with career development.
1 disagree
2 slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 slightly agree
5 agree
7. My employer has promised to provide me support with personal problems.
1 disagree
CVJ
slightly disagree
3 neither disagree
or agree
4 slightly agree
5 agree
115
APPENDIX G
EMPLOYEE PERCEIVED CONTRACT FULFILLED (Robinson, Kraatz & Rousseau, 1994)
How well has your employer fulfilled these obligations?
1. My employer has allowed me to rapidly advance in the company.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
2. My employer has provided me with pay based on my current level of performance.
1 2 3 4 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly
disagree or agree agree
3. My employer has provided me with high pay.
1 2 3 4 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly
disagree or agree agree
4. My employer has provided me with training.
1 2 3 4 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly
disagree or agree agree
5 agree
5 agree
5 agree
5. My employer has provided me with long-term job security.
1 2 3 4 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly
disagree or agree agree
5 agree
116
6. My employer has provided me with career development.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
7. My employer has provided me with support for personal problems.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
117
APPENDIX H
EMPLOYEE PERCEIVED OBLIGATION (Robinson, Kraatz & Rousseau, 1994)
1 . I often work extra hours for this company.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
2. I feel very loyal to this company.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
3. I volunteer to do extra tasks that are not required by my job.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
4. I would give advance notice if I took a job with another company.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
5. I would transfer to another location if asked.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
6. I do not support companies who compete with this company.
1 2 3 4 5 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly agree
disagree or agree agree
118
7. If I hear information of a private nature about the company, I feel obligated to protect this information.
1 2 3 4 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly
disagree or agree agree
8. 1 plan to be in the company at least two years.
1 2 3 4 disagree slightly neither disagree slightly
disagree or agree agree
5 agree
5 agree
119