Page 1 of 15

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 11

December 2015

Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 719

Role of empowerment and leadership in turnover intentions

among the Generation Y academicians in Saudi Arabian

Higher Educational Institutes

Dr. Nazar Omer Abdallah Ahmed; Faria Rabbi; Muhammad Farrukh ; Abdul Waheed

[1] College of Science and Humanities Studies, Business Administration Department, Prince Sattam bin

Abduaziz University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

[2,3] Institute of Graduate Studies, Kota Damansara, SEGi University, Malaysia

[4] Donglinks School of Economics & Management University of Science & Technology Beijing,China

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate the

factors influencing on turnover intention and

how employee engagement mediates the

relationship among three independent

variables (IDVs) Employee Empowerment,

Transformational Leadership and Innovation

with turnover intention. Data is collected with

distribution of questionnaire to Gen. ‘Y’

academicians working in higher education

institutes of KSA. The study will adopt

quantitative approach to test the hypothesis

with the help of some statistical analysis such

as correlation & regression. This study is

believed to enhance the literature gap, since,

not much research emphasized on mediating

effect of employee engagement on turnover

intention among Gen Y academicians in KSA

HEIs context.

Key words: turnover intentions, Gen Y

academicians, employee engagement,

Employee turnover has become

an important issue, especially in the higher

educational institutes. In order to have an

ongoing development in research and

teaching Universities must put efforts to

retain their talented academic staff. It has

become very vital for the institutes as the

tacit knowledge which resides in the mind

of academicians and is hard to be replaced.

Furthermore, loss of talented academicians

might cause a destructive brunt on the

research output and the image of

institution as higher education institutions

are more dependent on their academic

staff’s abilities and commitment as

compared to other industries (Robyn & Du

Preez, 2013). By doing efforts to retain

talented human resources are never simple

task for any an organizations. Employees

may develop intention to leave the

organization for many factors. Robyn and

1- BACKGROUND OF RESEARCH

Page 2 of 15

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 11

December 2015

Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 720

Du Preez (2013) had found that employee

engagement has an adverse effect on

intention to quit on academicians. In other

words, declining of employee engagement

might cause the employees to develop the

intention to leave (Makhbul, Rahid &

Hasun, 2011; Andrew & Sofian, 2012;

Karatepe, 2013). This intention can be

used as a predictor of actual turnover

based on the theory of planned behavior

(Ajzen, 1991) where intention is said to be

the most immediate determinants of actual

behavior (Alam & Mohammad, 2010).

The intention to quite the organization

may have a negative impact on the

organization as the employee is mentally

disengaged with his profession activities, thus

this might reduce his/her performance which

will ultimately affect the organization

performance. This intention is backed by the

social exchange theory (Homans, 1958) where

employees tend to weigh the potential benefits

versus risks of social relationships and decide

to abandon or terminate the relationship when

risk outweighs the benefits. The intention to

quit is prevailing more in the generation Y

academicians according to Raman and

Ramendran in 2011, Gen Y is expected to be

dominant force in the industry in near future

as the demand of young academicians in KSA

is increased with the rapid growth of the

higher education industry.

Better comprehension on the desire of

Gen Y academicians is needed to decrease

their turnover intentions. Taking into account

the attributes and qualities of generational

contrasts, Park and Gursoy (2012) found that

Gen Y has higher expectation to leave contrast

with other generations. Gen Y is said to be

dynamic scholars, excited to grasp change,

anticipating to grow new aptitudes, ready to

process information rapidly, are continually

looking for new methodologies and anxious to

respond to the upcoming challenges.(Raman

et al., 2011; Robyn and Du Preez, 2013). In

light of the qualities, Generation Y is thought

to be more anxious to assume responsibility of

choice making with respect to their particular

undertaking and role in the organization

(Martin, 2005). Thus, employee empowerment

may help in reducing the turnover intention of

Gen Y academicians.

Maxwell and Broadbridge (2014) perceived

Gen Y as mechanical shrewd new kind of

specialists, demonstrating higher readiness to

utilize new ways and instruments to do things.

Gursoy, Maier and Chi (2008) found that Gen

Page 3 of 15

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 11

December 2015

Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 721

Y employees are exceptionally quick to learn

and appreciate questioning things. Gen Y has

a slant to scrutinize each principle and more

inclined to challenge the working environment

standards on the grounds that they would

prefer not to stay in the inflexible and

confined set of working environments just.

Dulin (2008) likewise, uncovered that Gen Y

individuals are uneasy working under

formality where it might be troublesome for

them to corroborate, communicate and

exchange ideas. Hence, it can be said that Gen

Y employees will probably lead by leaders

with transformational authority style as

advancement and change is energized under

this style and it is normal that execution of

empowerment in private higher institutes

would reduce the turnover intentions.

1.2- Intention to quit/ turnover intention

Mobley’s in 1977, turnover process model

was the first model of turnover that has been

widely studied and remains dominate in the

field. The model was hypothesized by

intermediate linkages between job satisfaction

and voluntary turnover. Mobley stated that an

employee’s decision to leave his job occurs in

multiple stages and involves a very complex

cognitive decision based on the employee‟s

experience in the organization. Defined

turnover intention as a mindset employee will

develop prior to the decision of turnover. In

other words, turnover intention can be defined

as the intention of employees to quit the

organization (Kaur, Mohindru & Pankaj,

2013). According to the Theory of Planned

Behavior (Ajzen, 1991), the intention

developed is said to be an accurate indicator

of the subsequent behavior, in which, referring

to turnover. It can also be expressed that

turnover intention is the antecedent for actual

turnover behavior as intention is said to be the

most immediate determinants of actual

behavior (Alam & Mohammad, 2010;

Makhbul, Rahid & Hasun, 2011). Turnover

intention is expressed in many forms by

different scholars, thus the associated terms

include the intention to quit, intention to leave,

and intent to turnover (Takase, 2009). All

these associated terms are referring to the

same scenario where all of them are referring

to an employee‟s plan for leaving his current

job and finds another job in the near future

based on employee‟s own assessment to quit

an organization willingly (Meeusen et al.,

2011; Takase, 2009).

Takase in 2009 indicated that turnover

intention is a multi-stage process which

includes the following components: (1)