Personality traits in relation to the turnover intentions of the qualified employees in the manufacturing industry
Personality traits in relation to the turnover intentions of the qualified employees in the manufacturing industry

Summary/Abstract: Background: Turnover has a significant negative impact on an organization. This phenomenon can have an impact within an organization; when employees leave there may be a reduction in the productivity of employees who remain because of reduced employee morale. Turnover can affect the organization's overall performance and results (Abbasi, & Hollman, 2008; Tnay, Othman, Siong, & Lim, 2013). The Slovak Republic is one of the countries where the manufacturing industry has expanded, with large manufacturing companies such as Volkswagen Slovakia, a.s., Kia Motors Slovakia, a.s., PCA Slovakia s.r.o., Samsung Electronics Slovakia s.r.o., Schaeffler Skalica s.r.o., and U.S. Steel Košice. Therefore research about turnover and turnover intentions in this area is more than necessary. Turnover is generally described as a voluntary act of leaving a current job, or organization (Milovanovic, 2017). In our study we will deal with personality traits in relation to the turnover intentions of qualified employees in the manufacturing industry. In his meta-analytic study, Zimmerman (2008) notes that in the past, researchers have focused in the context of reducing turnover intentions, on the working environment and its changes, and on how to increase the level of job satisfaction, which is an effective turnover predictor (Griffeth, Hom, & Gaertner, 2000; Zimmerman, 2008), while neglecting the personality aspect. Staw, Bell and Clausen (1986; in Zimmerman, 2008) further underline this gap, pointing out that previous research has focused mainly on situational factors, the characteristics of work as the primary determinant of job satisfaction, with little regard for the dispositional causes of working attitudes. Maertz and his colleagues (Maertz, & Campion, 2004; Maertz, & Griffeth, 2004) stated that conscientiousness is likely to influence the moral and ethical motivation forces that influence the turnover intentions of individuals. Employees with a higher level of extraversion are more likely to search for social relationships, and thus tend to have more contacts with others within the organization. As a result, extroverts can socialize faster in an organization and adapt to organizational culture (McCrae, & Costa, 1997), and socially integrate and thus have a lower probability of fluctuating tendencies (Maertz, & Campion, 2004, Zimmerman, 2008). Cote (2005) theorizes that those employees who are experiencing negative emotions (such as sadness and anger) are less likely to receive social support from their colleagues, but instead will experience an interpersonal conflict that will increase their level of stress and thus increase the likelihood of turnover. According to the literature, there are several reasons why some staff members are expected to be less likely to fluctuate. The first reason is adaptability and compliance (Maertz, & Griffeth, 2004). The second reason is interpersonal aspects (Zimmerman, 2008) and thirdly, their willingness to obey the rules and aspects of dependency cause employees to perceive a strong commitment to remain in the organization (Maertz, & Griffeth, 2004). Employees with a higher level of openness to experience are more likely to leave the organization to explore other options, no matter how they feel about their work (Zimmerman, 2008). The relationship between aspiration level and turnover tendencies has been explored very little. Bigliardi, Petroni, and Dormio (2005) found that design engineers reported a lower level of turnover intentions when there were adequate opportunities within the organization to satisfy work aspirations. Factors such as the position of an "experienced" employee in the organization, loss of personal relationships, loss of income, health insurance or costs can all influence the decision to leave the job accepting the choices of uncertainty and risk. Vardmann with colleagues found that the relationship between turnover intentions and turnover is stronger in those with lower risk perceptions than those with a higher level of risk taking (Vardaman, Allen, Renn, & Moffitt, 2008). Objective: The aim of the paper is to find out what the relationships are between the personality traits and the turnover intentions of qualified employees in the manufacturing industry. Method: The participants in the research were respondents who were offered a job by our employment headhunting company. These respondents were not looking for jobs at the time of research, but were already employed. They were contacted via the LinkedIn service (on-line anonymous data collection), and offered a specific job position at a place of work in the Slovak Republic. The research sample consists of 229 respondents, of which 63.3% (145) were men and 36.7% (84) were women, aged between 21 and 60 (M = 35.39, SD = 9.50). The respondents were qualified employees in the sense of having the requisite special education, experience or qualifications for the jobs offered to them. The employees work in the manufacturing companies which are focused on plastics, automotive parts, and are subcontractors for automotive companies. 53.3% (122) of the respondents at the time of data collection were in a position without management duties, while 46.7% (107) were in a management position. The average length of work experience (overall, not just in their current work) ranged from 6 months to 42 years (M = 13.59, SD = 10.44). In their current jobs our respondents length of employment ranged from newly employed to 30 years (M = 6.83; SD = 6.37). The research tools used in the research was the Scale of Turnover Intentions (Colarelli, Dean, & Konstans, 1987, Kuvaasa, 2006, Chen, Ployhart, Thomas, Anderson, & Bliese, 2011), NEO-FFI (Ruisel, & Halama, 2007) and subscales from GET2 questionnaire (Caird, 2006). Results: Using Pearson's correlation coefficient and linear regression, we found that within the personality traits there is a positive significant relationship between neuroticism and turnover intentions (r = ,277; p < ,01) ; the higher the level of neuroticism the employee has, the higher the level of turnover intentions. We also found a weak positive relationship between the willingness to risk (r =, 338; p < ,01) and the aspiration level (r = ,206; p < ,01) and the turnover intentions level; the higher the level of willingness to risk and aspiration level, the higher the level of turnover intentions. The personality traits of qualified employees in the manufacturing industry explain approximately one-fifth of turnover intentions variation. We found that neuroticism (β = ,367; p < ,01) and willingness to risk (β = ,309; p < ,01) were significant predictors of turnover intentions among workers. Other personality variables (extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, agreeableness, and aspiration level) did not contribute significantly to explaining the turnover intentions variance. Conclusion: Neuroticism, level of aspiration and willingness to risk are related to the turnover intentions of qualified employees in the manufacturing industry. Neuroticism and willingness to risk are significant predictors of turnover intentions and, together with other personality traits, explain one-fifth of turnover intentions variation. Cross-sectional data collection can be considered as one of the study’s limitations. Due to the nature of the variable (turnover intentions) it would be better to observe this construct for longer periods of time and also observe those employees who have actually experienced turnover. Due to the number of employees in the manufacturing industry within the Slovak Republic, we can not consider our sample as representative. In future research, it would be interesting to observe the turnover intentions of qualified employees in the manufacturing industry within the job positions, since they differ in the nature of the work. The results of such research could be considered more valid. The main benefit of our research is the examination of the turnover intentions of a specific sample - qualified employees in the manufacturing industry - which is very current due to the boom in the manufacturing industry in the Slovak Republic, as staff turnover has far-reaching consequences for the economy and performance of an organization.

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