Employee Turnover Intention and Professional Orientation: A Study of Detention Workers

ABSTRACT This study examined the relationship between turnover intention and professional orientation among detention case workers. Using a sample of detention workers in two metropolitan detention centers in a southeastern state, the study found that (a) workers' professional attitudes were influenced by some personal (e.g., age) and job variables (e.g., job security and (b) the workers' turnover intention was correlated positively with the punitive orientation and gender (female) but negatively correlated with the perceived job security and job satisfaction. Implications concerning the results of this study are discussed. INTRODUCTION Employee turnover has been a popular research topic among behavior and management researchers for decades. The interest in this topic has to do with the high costs of turnover to organizations (Wanous, 1980). For example, many researchers (Cascio, 1982; Cawsey and Wedley, 1979; Macy and Mirvis, 1983; McEvoy and Cascio, 1985; Smith and Watkins, 1978) estimated that turnover costs for organizations range from $400 to $4,700 per employee. To minimize the cost of turnover, previous studies of turnover (e.g., Cotton and Tuttle, 1986; Pettman, 1973) attempted to identify causes or antecedents of turnover from such sources as personal characteristics, work-related attitudes, and external factors. While supporting the impact of some work-related variables (e.g., pay and job satisfaction) on turnover, previous studies have not fully examined the relationship between employee turnover and professional attitudes. Several researchers (Bartol, 1979a, 1979b; Mobley, Horner, and Hollingsworth, 1978; Price and Mueller, 1981) examined such relationships by studying turnover and professional attitudes among some professional workers. For example, Bartol (1979a) found that turnover expectancy is negatively related to professionalism among computer specialists. This study attempts to understand the relationship between turnover and professional attitude by examining professional orientation among detention workers. Specifically, the study focuses on two issues: (a) the relationship between workers' professional orientation (i.e., attitudes toward detainees) and their personal and job characteristics and (b) the relationship between workers' intention to leave the detention center and their professional orientation. Assuming that workers' turnover intention relates to their professional orientation, the knowledge sources of such attitudes would be useful to researchers and practitioners who are interested in understanding job attitudes of detention workers and developing an appropriate policy for future administration and training purposes. LITERATURE REVIEW Determinants of Turnover Previous research on turnover examined the possible determinants of turnover from three categories: (a) external correlates such as unemployment rate, accession rate, and union presence; (b) workrelated attitudes such as pay, overall job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment; and (c) personal characteristics such as age, gender, education, and marital status (Cotton and Tuttle, 1986; Pettman, 1973). The strength and direction of the relationship between the determinants and turnover varied depending on the individual variables and studies. Regarding the impact of personal characteristics on turnover, for example, studies (e.g., Cotton and Tuttle, 1986) found that turnover is (a) negatively correlated with age, tenure, number of dependents, and marital status and (b) positively correlated with gender (women), education, intelligence, and behavior intentions. Concerning the influence of work-related variables on turnover, studies (e.g., Blau and Boal, 1987, 1989; Cotton and Tuttle, 1986' Good, Sisler, and Gentry, 1988) showed that turnover is negatively correlated with most positive job attitudes: pay, performance, role clarity, overall job satisfaction, satisfaction with specific aspects of a job (e. …