The relation between psychological empowerment and turnover intention, Windhoek
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Date
2016
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Abstract
Finding ways to reduce turnover within organisations is challenging, especially during economically difficult times and with high levels of skill shortages. The main aim of this study is to investigate the relation between psychological empowerment and turnover intention. Instead of using money only to retain employees, managers and organisations can find ways to reduce turnover intention of employees. Psychological empowerment is a set of cognitions regarding an individual’s job orientation in relation to meaning, competence, self-determination and impact. Psychological empowerment is linked to identifying and removing conditions from an organisation that increases powerlessness amongst the employees. Turnover intention is the subjective probability that an employee will leave his/her work within a certain period of time. Turnover intention was found to be the strongest predictor of actual turnover. It was found that when employees experience higher levels of psychological empowerment they will also experience lower levels of turnover intention and increased levels of productivity within the organisation. A cross-sectional survey was used to assess the correlation between psychological empowerment and turnover intention at a parastatal in Windhoek (n=101). Making use of Spearman’s rank order correlation, psychological empowerment was negatively related to turnover intention (r = -0.46, p < 0.05; medium effect). Removing disempowering practices from the organisation will reduce employees’ level of turnover intention. The unique nature of this study, especially within the Namibian context, paves the way for future research on a large scale but also adds to the existing body of knowledge within industrial/organisational psychology and to aspects of employee retention within the world of work.
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Keywords
Turnover intention, Psychological empowerment
Citation
Mashuna, G. & Pieters, W. R. (2016). The relation between psychological empowerment and turnover intention, Windhoek. Namibia Journal of Managerial Sciences, 2(2), 126-151.