Job-related factors affecting retention of managers and nonmanagers in private and public small service organizations

Abstract

Turnover is costly to individuals, to organizations, and to society. The costs to individuals include the disruption of one's life, and associated stress. Turnover is costly to organizations in terms of recruitment, training and orientation, the disruption of work, and the impact on relationships. Society is affected as expenses related to employee turnover increase the cost of goods and services produced.

The purpose of the study was to identify specific job-related factor items that are important to an employee's decision to remain or leave any employing organization. A comparison was made between the responses of managers and nonmanagers in two small service organizations, one private and one public.

Job satisfaction was also compared. Categories of job satisfaction analyzed were promotions, pay, work, co-workers, supervision, and overall satisfaction. The study examined the relationship between job satisfaction and intention to remain in the employing organization.

The study also compared managers and nonmanagers' levels of job satisfaction, intention to remain in the employing organization, and ratings as to which job related factor items were most important. Finally, the study compared employees of private and public organizations regarding job satisfaction and ratings as to which job-related factor items were most important.

There were significant differences between stayers and leavers. Stayers were more satisfied with promotion, pay, work, supervision, and overall satisfaction than leavers. The study also determined that there were significant differences between managers and nonmanagers regarding which specific job-related factor items were most important. Similarly, differences existed between employees of private and public organizations as to how they rated specific job-related factor items. Significant differences were also found in the level of job satisfaction. Recommendations include: surveys similar to the Job-Related Factors Survey should be conducted with current employees and potential job candidates. As differences existed between managers and nonmanagers regarding which job-related factor items were most important, both managers and nonmanagers should keep this in mind when relating to each other. The significant differences between how employees of private and public organizations rated the job-related factor items needs to be given additional attention via research.