Factors Influencing Employee Intention to Quit an Organization: A Case of Graduate Students in USIU-Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the various factors that take place in Kenyan organizations that can trigger an employee’s intention to quit a case of graduate students in USIU-Africa. The following research questions guided the study: To what extent is the perceived leadership styles of managers affect employees’ intention to quit: To what extent does employees’ organization based self-esteem impact intention to quit: To what extent does perceived supervisor support impact employee intention to quit: To what extent does organization justice influence employee intention to quit an organization. The population of the study was composed of 60graduate students of USIU under the various graduate programs. The graduate students were chosen at random from their respective graduate courses in the different schools. Descriptive survey research design was used for this study and close- ended questionnaires were used to collect primary quantitative data for this study. Data that was collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Data findings of this study are presented using tables and figures. The findings indicated that the correlation between leadership and turnover intent was statistically significant, r = -.482, p. < 0.01, two tailed. However, the direction of the relation is negative, whereas the strength of this relationship was low at 3 > | r | < .5. The findings showed that the correlation between organization based self-esteem and perceived supervisor support was statistically significant, r = .620, p. < 0.01, two tailed. The direction of the relationship was positive; whereas the strength of the relationship was higher at 3 < | r | > .5 The findings indicate that perceived supervisor support has a significant correlation with organizational justice, r = .688, p. < 0.01, two tailed. The direction of the relationship is positive whereas its strength is rather high at 3 < | r | > .5 The findings indicate that organizational justice and turnover intent was found to be statistically significant at r= -.355, p. < 0.05, two tailed. However, the direction of the relationship is negative, whereas its strength was also low at 3 > | r | < .5. This study concluded that leadership that an organization adopt affects the intention of the employees to quit their work and this is because leadership style is directly related to the organizational justice that is extended to the employees; employees’ organization based self-esteem affects the intention of the employees to quit their jobs; there is strong relationship between perceived supervisor support and the employees’ intention to quit; there is a strong relationship between organizational justice and the employees’ intention to quit especially where the employees are treated with fairness, their financial and emotional needs are given a high priority by the management . This study recommended that transformational leadership style is the most appropriate for organizations as it takes into account not the interest of the leaders but those of the employees as encourages innovation and freedom of expression. Secondly, organizations need to provide environments in which the employees will realize their self-worth and hence seek to demonstrate it through their contribution to the realization of the goals and objectives of the organization. Thirdly, organizations should be help employees in accomplishing their tasks rather than finding fault in their work. And finally, by creating a fair working environment should be the goal of organizations that are especially facing higher levels of turnovers.