The effect of organizational commitment on professional Employees’ Turnover intention: Evidence from United Bank S.Co

Abstract

Employees’ level of commitment to their organization is presumed to a positive effect on organizational performance. Although turnover is important if less performing and committed employees leave their organization, it causes detrimental effects when employees quit their job. Building on the social exchange theory, this study is aimed to determine the effect of organizational commitment on professional/skilled employees’ turnover intention in the case of United Bank S.Co. Recently, high labour turnover has become a major problem for the banking industry in Ethiopia. Thus, well experienced and qualified professionals in the banking industry leave their positions which in turn create undesirable cost and harming organizational productivity. United Bank S.Co is one of the victims of skilled labour turnover in the country. Perceptual data related to the level of organizational commitment and intention to leave the organization was gathered via structured questionnaire from 205 professional employees of the bank. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze quantitative data. Regression analysis results showed that out of the three organizational commitment dimensions, only normative commitment had caused a statistically significant effect (β=-0.235, p< 0.05) on turnover intention. However, in contrary to theory, the study didn’t report any significant effect of affective and continuance commitment on turnover intention. This implies that other factors could also have an impact on professional employees’ intention to leave their organization. Based on the findings of the study, the bank management is highly recommended to develop retention strategies that would help it to retain and benefit from its professional employees. As a result, the bank will be able to decrease turnover rate and turnover-related costs and increase the firm’s overall performance.