Paper Example on Employee Motivation and Turnover Intention

In any organization, company, or institution, employees are a significant element of the day-to-day operations. The employees work towards achieving the objectives of the organization, and their performance is measured concerning the outputs that they give in the progress of their work. Work commitment and turnover for the employees are points of concern for the management of the employees since they affect the overall production levels of the organization.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Commitment to work is a force that binds an employee to a relevant course of action towards the achievement of a target (Meyer, 2014). According to Meyer (2014), commitment is better expounded through the three-component model (TCM) where there is an affective commitment; normative commitment, and the obligation of an employee to remain in an organization and continuance commitment (Meyer, 2014). Employee turnover intention refers to the plan of the employees to leave the job they currently hold. The employees may intend to leave the job voluntarily when they have a better opportunity to explore, and they may also leave involuntarily when their employers are dissatisfied with their work in the organization (Saeed et al., 2014). High employee turnover can significantly affect the quality of services offered to the clients in an organization (Alkhateri et al., 2018).

Motivation is a drive that makes employees engage their efforts towards the work that they are doing (Shahzadi et al., 2014). Employees may be driven by intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is where an employee performs a task because it is rewarding to them. In contrast, in extrinsic motivation, the employee performs a task because they earn something from doing it or they are likely to face some form of punishment if they do not perform the task (Legault, 2016). In an organizational setting, the most common form of motivation is extrinsic motivation, where employees perform their duties to get salaries or promotions in their workplace. Motivation has been found to increase the performance of the employees because they seek to get rewarded for their hard work (Saeed et al., 2014).

Problem Statement

Due to the increased loads of work, the employees of the Catholic University of Bukavu, one of the leading universities in Congo, may experience burnout or develop poor attitudes towards their jobs in the university. Burnout and negative attitudes contribute to decreased commitment in the work that they do. They may also facilitate turnover intentions in the employees where they would feel that they need to leave the job for better alternatives. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of employee motivation on work commitment and turnover intention of the employees of the Catholic University of Bukavu.

Research Objectives

• To investigate the contribution of employee motivation on work commitment
• To evaluate the effects of employee motivation on turnover intention

Hypotheses

• H1. Employee motivation has no significant contribution to work commitment
• H2. Employee motivation has no significant effect on turnover intention

Literature Review: Theoretical Framework

Employee Motivation and Work Commitment

Individuals seek jobs based on different reasons. Once they become employed, they are keen on fulfilling their intentions as well as those of the organization. In a study by Geldenhuys et al. (2014), the relationship between psychological meaningfulness and organizational commitment was investigated. The findings of the research showed that an increase in the meaningfulness of the job for the employees facilitated organizational commitment in them. Sohail et al. (2014) carried out a regression analysis for the relationship between job satisfaction and job commitment and found a positive relationship between the two variables. Job satisfaction was as a result of motivation, and the more motivated the employees were, the higher their job satisfaction.

Leadership in an organization can be a motivating or de-motivating factor for the employees. Naile and Selesho (2014) carried out a study to find out how leadership affected employee motivation. After analyzing transformational and autocratic leadership styles, it was established that the quality of leadership was a motivating factor to the work commitment of teachers in an academic institution. Transformational leadership, according to the findings, did not increase job satisfaction but was instrumental in increasing the commitment of employees to their work (Naile and Selesho, 2014). Tentama and Pranungsari (2016) also carried out a study in academic institutions and established that job motivation for teachers was more dominant in facilitating organizational commitment compared to job satisfaction. Commitment can be described as effective, continuance, or normative. (Meyer, 2014). Al-Madi et al. (2017) conducted an extensive study where they assessed the relationship of employee motivation on the three variables of commitment. From the study, it was established that there was a significant impact on employee motivation on their work commitment. Many employees believe that compliments were their key motivating factors (Nazir et al., 2016).

Employee Motivation and Turnover Intention

Employees' turnover intentions can be facilitated by employers or employees. The employer can fire the employee on grounds of misconduct or for retrenchment purposes while the employee can decide to resign from their jobs to find greener pastures (Alkhateri et al., 2018). According to Long et al. (2013), Bonenberger (2014), and Gautam (2019), human resource practices like compensation, managing performance, training, and employee relations in small and medium enterprises, health facilities and in the banking industry, respectively, have a significant impact on the turnover intentions of the employees. Also, Saeed et al. (2014) attribute job satisfaction and performance as well as leader membership exchange as having a negative influence on employees' turnover intention.

Ozbag et al. (2014) focused on three motivating factors; skill variety, feedback, and autonomy in exploring the relationship between burnout and turnover intention. The findings revealed that the employees who experienced high levels of burnout were likely to leave their jobs. The findings also indicated that there was no significant moderation effect relationship between the motivating job factors and turnover intention. Kim (2015) carried out an analysis that revealed that public service motivation contributed to turnover intention and emotional exhaustion and burnout also had mediating effects on turnover intention. Kim (2018) also carried out a study that addressed burnout among employees, motivation, and turnover intention and found out that intrinsic motivation had a significant negative effect on turnover intention and burnout while extrinsic motivation only had a positive effect on burnout. The highest number of employees in today's workforce belongs in the Generation-Y group, and according to Parthiban and Mahfar (2019), the work motivation that the employees receive is moderate, but the turnover intention is high. Also, the three factors of motivation used for the study; interpersonal, nature of the job given and compensation do not affect the turnover intentions of the Gen-Y employees, which is contrary to other studies that had been carried out previously.

Conceptual Framework. Research design

Study Population

The study will be carried out in the Catholic University of Bukavu, where 100 employees will be selected to participate. The study will involve the teaching staff and other support staff at the university.

Sampling Procedures

The participants will be selected through simple random sampling to avoid bias, and the participants will be entirely voluntary.

Data Collection Techniques

Data for the study will be collected using questionnaires that will have both open and closed questions. The questionnaires will focus on employee motivation and how they receive the effects of their work commitment and turnover intention. The questionnaires will also have 5-point Likert scales to assess the extremity of the situations the employees may have regarding the topic in question.

Data Analysis

Data analysis will be carried out after the questionnaires have been returned. The responses will be transferred to an SPSS program for ease of analysis, presentation, and interpretation. Descriptive and inferential statistics will be produced to facilitate the analysis of the data collected.

References

Alkhateri, A. S., Abuelhassan, A. E., Khalifa, G. S., Nusari, M., & Ameen, A. (2018). The Impact of Perceived Supervisor Support on Employees' Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction and Effective Organizational Commitment. International Business Management, 12(7), 477-492.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gamal_Khalifa/publication/329586406_The_Impact_of_Perceived_Supervisor_Support_on_Employees_Turnover_Intention_The_Mediating_Role_of_Job_Satisfaction_and_Affective_Organizational_Commitment/links/5c2c83cb458515a4c706a16f/The-Impact-of-Perceived-Supervisor-Support-on-Employees-Turnover-Intention-The-Mediating-Role-of-Job-Satisfaction-and-Affective-Organizational-Commitment.pdf

Al-Madi, F. N., Assal, H., Shrafat, F., & Zeglat, D. (2017). The Impact of Employee Motivation on Organizational Commitment. European Journal of Business and Management, 9(15), 134-145. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dia_Zeglat/publication/328420397_The_Impact_of_Employee_Motivation_on_Organizational_Commitmen/links/5bcda6cc92851cae21b8f137/The-Impact-of-Employee-Motivation-on-Organizational-Commitmen.pdf

Bonenberger, M., Aikins, M., Akweongo, P., & Wyss, K. (2014). The Effects of Health Worker Motivation and Job Satisfaction on Turnover Intention in Ghana: A Cross-sectional Study. Human resources for health, 12(1), 43. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1478-4491-12-43

Gautam, P.K. (2019). Comprehensive Reward System, Employee Motivation, and Turnover Intention: Evidence from Nepali Banking Industry. Quest Journal of Management and Social Sciences, 1(2), 181-191. https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/qjmss/article/download/27418/22688/

Geldenhuys, M., Laba, K., & Venter, C. M. (2014). Meaningful Work, Work Engagement, and Organisational Commitment. S.A. Journal of Industrial Psychology, 40(1), 01-10. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S2071-07632014000100004&script=sci_arttext&tlng=es

Kim, J. (2015). What increases Public Employees' Turnover Intention? Public Personnel Management, 44(4), 496-519. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0091026015604447

Kim, J. (2018). The contrary Effects of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations on Burnout and Turnover Intention in the Public Sector. International journal of manpower. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJM-03-2017-0053/full/html

Legault, L. (2016). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lisa_Legault/publication/311692691_Intrinsic_and_Extrinsic_Motivation/links/59d68704458515db19c4fd10/Intrinsic-and-Extrinsic-Motivation.pdf

Long, C. S., Ajagbe, M. A., & Kowang, T. O. (2014). Addressing the Issues on Employees' Turnover Intention in the perspective of HRM Practices in SME. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 129, 99-104. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814028353/pdf?md5=3b15d832879289644e2227f333a254bb&pid=1-s2.0-S1877042814028353-main.pdf&_valck=1