An exploration of employee commitment and turnover intention: a case study of Nigeria's public sectors

Abstract

This thesis focuses on employee commitment and turnover intention in the public sector organisations in Nigeria. Turnover intention refers to the withdrawal process in which an employee begins to think about leaving their job. Notably, it is not the act of leaving a job but a key predictor of leaving. In principle, the intention to leave an organisation will result in actual turnover if managed poorly. As it is one of the key factors responsible for employee turnover, it is therefore imperative to understand the root causes of employee turnover intention in contemporary workplace. By achieving such understanding, employers can devise hiring and retention initiatives that can increase employee retention and reduce turnover intention and thus turnover in the modern workplace. The focus on turnover intention is especially significant in the public sector. While extant studies suggest that poor leadership and inadequate pay (issues prevalent in the public sector) may influence employee decision to leave an organisation this is not the case for public sectors, especially in the Nigerian context. Research evidence suggests that, irrespective of the challenges facing employees in the public sector, job turnover was high for private sector organisations in Nigeria compared to public sectors. A reason for this was that the public sector was more stable, and employees were assured of pay. However, evidence exists to suggest that while employees may not be leaving the public sectors, their turnover intention is high, and many are seeking greener pastures. Recent studies suggest that employee commitment is the backbone to reduce turnover intention among employees. The thesis set out to investigate the contextual meaning of employee commitment and turnover intention within the context of the Nigerian public sectors. Using a qualitative approach, data were collected from 21 participants using a semi structured interview technique and findings revealed the meaning of commitment within the Nigerian public sectors. This subsequently showed a lack of sense of ownership from the public sector employees in Nigeria. Overall, the thesis found that turnover intention in the Nigerian public sector was low and conditional on the continuation of the prevailing organisational, employment sector and national culture. Based on the above findings, the thesis contributes to the literature by developing a framework. Also, the study contributes to the knowledge of organisational culture and employee commitment turnover relationship in the public sector in Nigeria and a host of other contributions outlined in the main thesis. Thus, the implication of this study is that it highlights the challenges of fostering employee commitment in the Nigerian public organisations that will enable practitioners to develop interventions that will improve internal control. This paper makes the following recommendations for future studies. First, data could be collected in the western context to enable future comparative analysis. Secondly, the framework could be tested using a quantitative approach to test for the generalizability of the findings. Furthermore, Nigerians resident in Nigeria (unlike diaspora like myself) may endeavour to undertake similar studies in order to check whether the information and approaches of the participants will be different.