Investigating the Factors Affecting Employee turnover intention in the higher education sector of private universities in Egypt

Abstract

Background: Turnover intent has emerged as a fundamental notion in managing employee career achievement and company stability at all levels in the twenty-first century. The phenomenon of high turnover in higher education environments has adverse effects on academic institutions, since from the point of view of higher education administration, recurring employee turnover requires a significant investment of human and financial resources to address the various challenges that arise, such as the recruitment of new staff, the identification and selection of qualified candidates, and the provision of continuous training (Ajayi & Olatunji, 2019; Harris & Ellis, 2018). Statement of the problem: The purpose of the thesis is to build a conceptual framework to identify the factors that influence the intention of turnover of employees in private universities in Egypt. After carrying out an exhaustive theoretical review, the reasons for turnover have been grouped into three: organizational, reward, and individual. Regarding organizational reasons, three hypotheses of organizational factors that may influence turnover intention have been proposed: talent management, workload, and the relationship between leaders and teachers. Regarding the motives related to the rewards, two hypotheses have been proposed that may influence the intention to turn over: extrinsic rewards and intrinsic rewards. Finally, three factors have been proposed concerning individual factors that influence turnover intent: emotional intelligence, organizational commitment, and personal-work-life balance. Additionally, for each of the factors, the direct effects on turnover intention and the mediating effect that the job satisfaction variable can exert have been analyzed. Methodology: This study follows a sequential exploratory design with a mixed qualitative-quantitative methodology. The first step in the process was to analyze qualitative data from 15 people from private universities based on structured questions. The analysis of the responses made it possible to validate the proposed conceptual model. Next, a quantitative study was carried out from a sample of 396 people to contrast the 16 proposed hypotheses. The sample included both male and female respondents. The data was collected through a structured questionnaire based on the proposed scales. To validate the hypotheses, a SEM structural equations model was used, statistically analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. Results: The study concluded that two organizational factors (talent management, work overload), reward systems (extrinsic and intrinsic), and three individual factors (organizational commitment, work-life balance, and emotional intelligence) directly influence turnover intentions and also through the mediating role of job satisfaction. However, the leader-teacher relationship has no impact. Conclusions: From an academic point of view, a joint model has been developed and validated with three types of approaches: organizational, reward and individual, and a mediating variable, job satisfaction on the intention of turnover in private universities, using an approach mixed method. By incorporating multiple factors, the study provides a holistic understanding of the phenomenon, contributing to the existing body of knowledge on turnover intention. For this reason, it offers a significant theoretical perspective on why academics consider leaving their posts, thus shedding light on the importance of this topic. Consequently, the critical importance of this study is that it extends current knowledge of turnover intentions to the private education sector in the Middle East, where a gap currently exists. From a management point of view, the study offers different possibilities for private universities to use policies that reduce the intention to rotate their teaching staff.