Relationship between job quality and turnover intentions in Malaysian ICT industry : affective commitment as mediator and age as moderator

Abstract

In recent years, the concept of job quality has received a substantial and renewed interest among scholars and policy makers. Despite being introduced as early as in the 1960’s, not much work has been done in this area and until these days, there is no consensus among scholars on what job quality actually is and how to measure it. As the need to provide better job becomes more salient in many nations, researchers and policymakers have begun to realise the seemingly beneficial impacts of job quality on employee well-being. While this concept continues to flourish in Europe and other developed countries, developing countries such as Malaysia has fallen behind in recognising its importance. The present study was therefore carried out with the objectives to examine the relationship between job quality, turnover intention, and affective commitment in the context of Malaysia’s ICT industry. The study also analysed the moderating role of age in the above relationship. The participants of this study were 412 respondents from various ICT companies in Klang Valley and Northern Peninsular Malaysia. Factor analysis using SPSS showed that job quality consisted of eleven factors: appreciation, empowerment, teamwork, superior feedback, role clarity, role conflict, interesting work, conducive place, pay, responsibility, and communication among departments. Further analysis using structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated that job quality was positively related to affective commitment and negatively related to turnover intention. Affective commitment fully mediated the relationship between job quality and turnover intention. The moderating effect of age was also found in this study where older employees valued appreciation more than younger employees. The findings of this study serves as a valuable information to researchers and practitioners especially towards improving the job quality in Malaysia’s ICT industry.