MEJORA CONTINUA

The consideration made in this study is mostly based on the concept of perceived ease of movement from current job to another job or job alternative. It must be noted that the other job or job alternative is perceived to be outside of the organization. Perceived ease of movement implies that the employee is of the opinion that it could be easy to move from one job to another job or job alternative. This is derived from their perception about the jobs or job alternatives being available or attainable to them. Thus the concept of availability is purely based on employees’ perception of his or her own marketability and availability of opportunities in the labor market.

As various researchers have named the constructs differently (e.g.: “perceived alternative job opportunities”; “perceived availability of alternate jobs”; “perceived ease of leaving”), although having the same meaning, this study uses the term ‘perceived available job alternatives’ (PAJA). This term does not only relate to an external available employment opportunity, but also

to an alternative to being employed. This alternative is subjective and left over to the interpretation of the individual and could span from being self-employed to being unemployed.

A large number of studies have validated the positive relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. Due to the complexity of turnover behavior, the demand for additional research including intervening variables has increased in order to create better understanding of this complex phenomenon.

Studies have introduced intervening variables into the job satisfaction turnover intent relationship like demographic variables such as age and tenure. Some have used so called controllable factors such as life role centrality and life satisfaction (Amah, 2009). Others have used so called uncontrollable factors, like external opportunities (Price, 1977), which relate to the perceived available job alternative concept in this case. The use of external opportunities as an intervening variable having an indirect effect, instead of a direct effect was also supported by Hulin et al. (1985) who recommend a more marginal role for external alternatives in the withdrawal process.

In his book ‘The Study of Turnover’, James Price (1977) examined the determinants and intervening variables associated with voluntary turnover. He then identifies opportunity as an intervening variable affecting the job satisfaction and turnover relationship. In this study this intervening effect regards the moderating effect of PAJA, which is expected to influence the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention in a positive or negative way. Price (1977) argues that external opportunities might strengthen or weaken the employees’ intention to leave no matter the level of satisfaction experienced.

Wheeler et al. (2007) study perceived job mobility, which is defined as an individual’s perception of available alternative job opportunities, as an important moderating variable intervening the relationship between job satisfaction and intent to turnover. Their study which is mostly based on the traditional sequential models of turnover (e.g. Mobley, 1977) and the unfolding model of voluntary turnover (Lee and Mitchell, 1999) concludes with the assertion that employees who think that there are jobs out there and experience low levels of job satisfaction are more likely to report higher turnover intent, especially compared to employees perceiving low job mobility in low job satisfaction situations. This assertion is depicted in Figure 9.

The understanding is that the job satisfaction to turnover intention relationship is conditional upon perceived job mobility levels. Evidence was provided that many employees experiencing low levels of job satisfaction will still choose to stay in the organization because they do not perceive better alternatives.

Figure 9: Interaction between Satisfaction and Perceived Job Mobility on Turnover Intent. Source: Wheeler

(2007)

Griffeth et al. (2005) have mentioned that Jackofsky and Peter (1983) argue that an employee will quit his job when dissatisfied, but only based on the belief that there is availability of other opportunities in the job market.

On the contrary to previously mentioned findings, the research of Kankanamge (2010), conducted in the Sri Lankan cable manufacturing industry, revealed no significant moderating effect of the availability of outside job alternatives on the negative relationship between job satisfaction and perceived desirability of leaving. The study hypothesized that the relationship between job satisfaction and perceived desirability of leaving is weakened by the availability of outside job alternatives. This hypothesis was rejected due to a non significant intervening effect of availability of outside job alternatives, thus not supporting the findings of Price (1977). The researcher argued that the employees had a neutral perception of the outside job alternatives,

resulting in no additional effect on their desirability of leaving, which was based on their level of job satisfaction.

Based on the above-mentioned studies related to PAJA it is attractive to validate the findings and in addition to test the generalizeability of the findings in a different context. In this thesis, the moderating effect of PAJA on the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention will be examined in the alumina industry.

The argument is that currently in the alumina industry, the employees with high PAJA could have higher turnover intention than employees with low PAJA, no matter if they are highly satisfied with their job or not. Based on the previously mentioned literature, the suggestion is that the level of PAJA can weaken, strengthen or have no effect on the negative relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention.

Therefore, the following formulated nil (o) hypotheses and alternative (a) hypotheses pertain to this study:

H2o: Perceived available job alternatives do not moderate the relationship between job satisfaction and employees’ intent to leave the organization.

H2a: Perceived available job alternatives moderate the relationship between job satisfaction and employees’ intent to leave the organization.

Most turnover behavior studies have taken demographics as research variables or control variables (Carr et al., 2008; Wright & Bonett, 2007 and Amah, 2009). Age and tenure have been frequently identified as having impact on turnover intentions.

In this thesis age and tenure in addition to gender, tenure, job level and educational level will be primarily used to demographically profile the research population and as well to test for any effects.