An Empirical Study on Leave-taking Status of Different Types of

An Empirical Study on Leave-taking Status of Different Types of
Knowledgeable Employees
ZOU Zhaoju
School of Accounting , Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan, 430205.
College of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan,430072;
Abstract There are some problems in former literatures on turnover status of knowledgeable employees,
such as lack of study on different type of knowledgeable employees with different characteristics and on
knowledgeable employees in organization under Chinese condition. So ,this paper classifies the
knowledgeable employees into different types and after widely survey, it finds that: (1)there are
distinctly differences among different types of employees about turnover status; (2)the younger the
knowledgeable employees are, the more possibly they leave; (3) the knowledgeable employees with
technology and engineer careers are less likely turnover; (4)the knowledgeable employees with higher
position are less likely turnover; (5)the knowledgeable employees with higher level of education are less
likely turnover.
Keywords: Knowledge employees; Turnover; Characteristics; Organization
1 Introduction
（ ）
Peter F. Drucker 2006 thinks that knowledgeable employees and their productivity will be the most
valuable assets in 21th century .Then the contests between organizations will focus on the
knowledgeable workers, especially those with ability. All this leads to more turnover among the
knowledgeable workers. But many organizations do not hope this to take place, because the turnover of
the knowledgeable employees usually results in bad influence. So they do much to attract and hold the
knowledgeable workers. Many literatures have study the turnover reasons of the knowledgeable
employees and have make out many constructive contributions.
Steers and Mowday (1981)think that job expectation and job value will affect the subjective attitude
of employees which in turn will affect the intent of turnover or keeping back(such as considering some
non-work factors including mate’s work or leaving time for the family ),at last the intent induces
action of turnover. Steers studied the reasons of turnover from the point of commonness of the
knowledgeable workers. But the reasons of turnover for different knowledgeable employeeswith
different characteristics are varied. lee and Mitchell (1994) brought forward shock to the system and
psychoanalytic quantity before decision and action of turnover based on the Imagine Theory. Price and
Mueller studied the turnover from many fields such as economics, sociology, psychology, and so on.
Their findings exhibit good forecast ability in explaining the psychology change of works’ turnover. And
they also introduce the unit variable(2000). But they did not go on their research deeply. Lee and price
also study the knowledgeable employees as a whole, lacking study according to different characteristics.
In china Ding Xiuling(2002) considers that it is inner factors including economic, politic and
organizational culture factors that induce voluntary turnover of knowledgeable workers, that is, workers’
individual anticipation is not same to that of organization. Her study basically followed former views.
Zhang Mian(2003) surveys ten IT corporations in Xian An and finds that the action of turnover
exhibits characteristics of occupations. That is, the turnover bears characteristics of engineering and
techniques. All this shows that the turnover of knowledgeable employees bears characteristics of
different sorts. So this paper will study the turnover action and the influencing factors according to
different characteristics of knowledgeable workers.
Because there is great difference between our country and foreign countries in culture and social
conditions, so it is evident that the reasons of turnover of knowledgeable employees in our country and
foreign countries are different and former findings based on foreign objects are inapplicable to our
country. So this paper will study the turnover status of knowledgeable employees according to different
characteristics (such as different age, position, occupation ,and so on) in order to find out the reasons of
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their turnover action and intent and institute more pertinent management projects. This paper includes
six parts: the first part introduces the aim and background of the study;the second part gives some
theoretic hypotheses; the third part designs the study; the fourth part analyzes the data and gives the
conclusion; the fifth part makes some discussion ; the last part is the conclusion .
2 Theoretic Hypotheses
The occupation career of everyone usually takes change with age. And when he /she get old he/she
will change the viewpoint about the occupation. These changes will take place when a person gets
mature, or has a chance to grow, or gets a change to be promoted (schein,1978). So there are two
hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1: there exists distinct difference about turnover status among different age of
knowledgeable workers.
Hypothesis 2: the younger the knowledgeable employee sare, the more possibly they leave.
Social cognizing occupation theory thinks that when a person chooses a job, he will be affected by
manifold factors such as individual background, environment, personality, interest, and so on. At the
same time, individual occupation interest will be shaped by the combination of self-efficiency and
results anticipation about occupation. After the occupation interest was shaped, it will promote
generation of individual aim (Gao Shanchan, 2005). So the difference of occupation will affect
individual idiosyncracy and his occupational action. So there is the third hypothesis:
Hypothesis 3: there is distinct difference about turnover status among knowledgeable employees with
different occupation sorts .
Researchers hold that the higher a person’ position is , the more possibly he expects to succeed and
the stronger his motivation of success is. So we give the fourth and fifth hypotheses:
Hypothesis 4: there is distinct difference about turnover status among knowledgeable employees with
different positions.
Hypothesis 5: the higher a person’s position is, the more possibly he leaves.
The educational background usually shows the level of education and the higher level of education
means higher expectation about himself and more chances to obtain employment again. So there come
Hypothesis 6 and 7:
Hypothesis 6: there is distinct difference about turnover status among knowledgeable employees with
different educational background.
Hypothesis 7: the higher a person ‘s level of education is, the more possibly he leaves .
3 Study Design
3.1 Choice of turnover factors
Many researches have indicate that the factors of age, degree of satisfaction about work,
organizational promise, chance of promotion, impartiality, aegis from colleagues and superiors, freedom
of work, market chance, and so on are negativly correlative with turnover action; on the other hand, the
factors of working load, the educational background, and so on are positively correlative with turnover
action. So this paper chooses the following variables: (1)factors of personal characters: such as age,
position, level of education, occupation;(2)outer factors :such as the chance to obtain employment
again;(3)factors of organizational environment: such as the prospects of the organization, working
condition, working intensity, freedom of work, individual chance of promotion, degree of satisfaction
about rewards, relation with colleagues, challenge of work;(4)psychology factors such as degree of
satisfaction about work, organizational promise. Since the factor of organizational promise is too
way-out, we replace the factor of organizational promise with the factor of identify with organizational
guideline.
3.2 Study method
By questionnaire investigation and directly interview we collected 1800 samples from most provinces
and cities in our country, among which 1500 questionnaires are carried out on web and the other 300
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ones are directly interviewed and surveyed on the spot in the cities of Pekin, Shanghai, Guangzhou,
Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chongqing, Xian. Every questionnaire is designed according to formerly selected
factors and a new factor of possibility of turnover. The new factor denotes turnover status of
knowledgeable workers, that is, it means the possibility of fluidity. Then every factor is set up five ranks
and the five ranks are respectively endowed five figures from 1 to 5, that is , 1 means the lowest rank
and 5 means the highest rank. Then we analyze the data by SPSS(Statistics Package for Social Science )
11.o software.
4 Data Analysis and The Results
4.1 Data collation
Among 1500 questionnaires we draw back 733 ones and find 146 ones are iffy, so the callback rate of
web investigation is 48.87% and the efficiency rate of investigation is 80.08%; the 300 questionnaires of
field survey are draw back totally and find 56 ones are iffy, so the efficiency rate of field survey is
81.33%. That is to say, we totally get 831 efficient questionnaires back and after analyze them we find
that they come from most provinces and cities except sitsang and touch on widely industries.
By testing the data we find that most factors excep working intensity are remarkably correlative with
the factor of the possibility of turnover(p 0.01, remarkably test under level of 1%) ,which is accordant
with the former studies. Besides, the correlation coefficient between factors of working intensity and
possibility of turnover is positive, which indicates that the more intense the work is ,the more possibly
the knowledgeable employees leave. And this finding is also accordant with that of others. So the data in
this paper are valid.
4.2 Results
Because we can not decide if the samples are normal school, we use non-parametric test to analyze
the data.
4.2.1 Age
In general, until 30 years old can a person get mature and until 40 years old can he get intellect. So we
divide workers’ age into three phases: 29 years old and younger than it , 30-39 years old , 40 years old
and older than it. And in order to simplify the analysis, we use three letters A1, A2, A3 to denote
respectively the three phases of age. Then we analyze the samples in these three phases of age with
discrepancy remarkable test about their influencing factors of turnover., as shown in table 1. And in this
table, the factors of degree of satisfaction about work, the prospect of organization, the working
condition, the freedom of work, working intensity, the chance to promote, degree of satisfaction about
rewards, the chance to obtain employment again, the relationship with the colleagues , identify with
the organizational guide, challenges of work are respectively denoted by the letters of 1, 2, 3, 4,
. And they are
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11.. The factor of the possibility of turnover is denoted by
adapted to the table 2, 3, 4. The data in table 1 indicate that the knowledgeable employees of three
phases of age are remarkably different at the factor of the possibility of turnover, and there are great
differences between the influencing factors of turnover among these three phases of age of
knowledgeable employees
In addition, we compare the means of the factors which are more different than other factors between
the three phases of age and find that :the knowledgeable employees which are 29 years old or younger
than it pay more attention to the development of themselves as well as the working condition, degree of
satisfaction of rewards, the relation with colleagues; those that are from 30 years to 39 years old pay
more attention to the working condition, working environment and occupation opportunity; those that
are 40 years old or older than it pay more attention to reducing the working stress. So the hypothesis 1
is tenable.
After testing the relativity of age and the possibility of turnover, we find that the correlation
coefficient is r=o.259 and p=0.011<0.05, which means that age is remarkably negativlye correlative to
the possibility of turnover, so the hypothesis 2 is tenable.
＜
αααααα α
β
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αααα
Table 1: value of P of discrepancy remarkable test(Mann-Whitney U) of turnover status of
knowledgeable employees with different phases of age
β
A1 vs A2
A1 vs A3
A2 vs A3
Notes:
α
1
α
2
α
3
α
4
α
5
α
6
α
7
0.037 0.043 0.045 0.048 0.638 0.928 0.264 0.009
0.011 0.033 0.023 0.474 0.029 0.434 0.034 0.029
0.046 0.047 0.705 0.381 0.522 0.047 0.040 0.417
remarkable test under the level of 5%(bi-hypothesis test), p<0.05
difference between correlative influencing factors.
α
8
0.043
0.002
0.014
means
α
9
α
10
α
11
0.021 0.214 0.036
0.521 0.264 0.028
0.109 0.030 0.985
that there is remarkable
4.2.2 Types of occupations
We stapled the occupations into four sorts: engineering and technique, government and administration,
organizational management, culture, education and sanitation. And we use the letters of O1, O2 ,O3 , O4 to
denote respectively the four kinds of occupations. By using kruskal wallis(p=0.043<0.05) to test the
possibility of turnover of knowledgeable employees with different occupations, we find that their
actions of turnover are remarkably different, as shown in table 2. In table 2 most factors are remarkably
different to the factor of the possibility of turnover except two occupation sorts, that is, government and
administration, culture, education and sanitation. So the hypothesis 3 is tenable.
By comparing the means of factors which are more different than other factors among the different
occupations sorts we find that the workers of engineering and technique are more caring working
condition, the freedom of work and the challenges of work; those of government and administration are
more caring promotion; those of organizational management are more caring the prospects of
organization, individual development ,rewards and identify with the organization; those of culture,
education and sanitation are more caring working environment and rewards.
Table 2: value of P of discrepancy remarkable test(Mann-Whitney U) of turnover status of knowledgeable
employees with different occupation
β
α
1
α
2
α
3
α
4
α
5
α
6
O1 vs O2 0.029 0.468 0.310 0.024 0.020 0.259 0.045
O1 vs O3 0.023 0.677 0.027 0.729 0.016 0.590 0.048
O1 vs O4 0.037 0.786 0.942 0.018 0.032 0.439 0.139
O2 vs O3 0.017 0.514 0.016 0.012 0.964 0.532 0.002
O2 vs O4 0.728 0.498 0.552 0.046 0.112 0.730 0.043
O3 vs O4 0.021 0.350 0.220 0.002 0.245 0.834 0.004
Notes: remarkable test under the level of 5%(bi-hypothesis test),
difference between correlative influencing factors.
α
7
0.148
0.044
0.447
0.045
0.295
0.017
p<0.05
α
8
0.031
0.026
0.763
0.023
0.549
0.862
means
α
9
α
10
α
11
0.462 0.911 0.022
0.043 0.025 0.036
0.745 0.008 0.006
0.725 0.152 0.014
0.286 0.327 0.302
0.240 0.023 0.025
that there is remarkable
4.2.3 Position
In study we plot out position into four levels: generic employees, the basic level managers, the
middle-level managers and high-level managers. And we use the letters of P1, P2 , P3 , P4 to denote
respectively the four kinds of position .By using kruskal wallis(p=0.043<0.05) to test the possibility of
turnover of knowledgeable employees with different positions, we find that their actions of turnover are
remarkably different, as shown in table 3. From the table 3 we also find that there is no remarkable
difference between middle-level and high-level managers about their turnover status and there exists
great difference in the affecting factors of their turnover. between knowledgeable employees with
different positions
By comparing the means of factors which are more different than other factors among the
knowledgeable employees with different positions we find that: generic employees are more caring the
degree of satisfaction of work, rewards and individual development; basic level managers are more
caring working environment, freedom of work and development of work; middle-level managers are
more caring the development of organization and themselves and the identify with the organization;
high level managers are more caring the leisure of work and the identify with the organization. So the
hypothesis 4 is tenable.
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After testing the relativity of the level of position and the possibility of turnover, we find that the
correlation coefficient is r=o.376 and p=0.000<0.01, which means that the higher a person’s position is ,
the less possibly he leaves. This is reverse to the hypothesis 5. So the hypothesis 5 is not tenable.
Table 3: value of P of discrepancy remarkable test(Mann-Whitney U) of turnover status of knowledgeable
employees with different positions
β
α
1
α
2
α
3
α
4
α
5
α
6
P1vs P2
0.008 0.042 0.499 0.167 0.038 0.711 0.441
P1vs P3
0.000 0.006 0.028 0.143 0.244 0.294 0.049
P1 vsP4
0.043 0.025 0.645 0.080 0.277 0.033 0.521
P2 vs P3 0.037 0.026 0.201 0.013 0.047 0.129 0.142
P2vs P4
0.027 0.014 0.004 0.018 0.023 0.011 0.309
P3vs Pp4 0.512 0.951 0.047 0.489 0.693 0.088 0.018
Notes: remarkable test under the level of 5%(bi-hypothesis test),
difference between correlative influencing factors.
α
7
0.005
0.000
0.017
0.005
0.007
0.853
p<0.05
α
8
α
9
α
10
α
11
0.017 0.001 0.841 0.478
0.006 0.972 0.023 0.087
0.008 0.242 0.014 0.519
0.447 0.000 0.006 0.009
0.180 0.284 0.028 0.213
0.499 0.178 0.032 0.470
means that there is remarkable
4.2.4 Level of education
The degree of education is usually classified into three levels: junior college and under it, the
undergraduate and the postgraduate. And we use the letters of E1, E2 , E3 to denote respectively the three
level of education By using kruskal wallis(p=0.022<0.05) to test the possibility of turnover of
knowledgeable employees with different positions, we find that their actions of turnover are remarkably
different. The results of discrepancy remarkable test of the affecting factors about turnover of
knowledgeable employees with different level of education are showed in table 4. it is clear that there
exists great difference in the affecting factors of their turnover between knowledgeable employees with
different education background .
By comparing the means of factors which are more different than other factors among the
knowledgeable employees with different education background we find that: the knowledgeable
employees with education background of junior college are more caring working condition and
rewards; the workers with education background of undergraduate are more caring working
environment and individual development; the workers with education background of postgraduate are
more caring individual and organizational development and identify with organization. So the
hypothesis 6 is tenable.
But after testing the relativity of the level of education and the possibility of turnover, we find that the
correlation coefficient is r=o.2476 and p=0.015<0.05, which means that the higher a person’s level of
education is , the less possibly he leaves. This is reverse to the hypothesis 7, so the hypothesis 7 is not
tenable.
Table 4: value of P of discrepancy remarkable test(Mann-Whitney U) of turnover status of knowledgeable
employees with different education background
β
E1vs E2
E1vs E3
E2 vs E3
Notes:
α
1
α
2
α
3
α
4
α
5
α
6
α
7
α
8
0.019 0.930 0.036 0.089 0.022 0.909 0.007 0.114 0.740
0.013 0.022 0.009 0.003 0.010 0.401 0.004 0.001 0.318
0.010 0.008 0.041 0.045 0.329 0.356 0.364 0.042 0.112
remarkable test under the level of 5%(bi-hypothesis test), p<0.05 means
difference between correlative influencing factors.
α
9
α
10
α
11
0.169 0.216 0.320
0.890 0.005 0.285
0.307 0.008 0.894
that there is remarkable
5 Discussion
We arrayed the absolute values of correlation coefficients of all factors with the possibility of
turnover and find that the priority five ones are in turn that: the degree of satisfaction about rewards, the
degree of satisfaction about work, the prospect of organization, identify with organizational guideline
and working condition. The absolute value of every coefficient is bigger than 0.5, which means these
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five factors are the main reasons that lead the knowledgeable employees to leave in our country
At present, the workers with occupations of engineering and technique or which are middle- or
high-level managers are usually recognized much because they are the core resources of an organization.
The study shows that : (1) the fluidity of the knowledgeable employees with occupation of engineering
and technique is lower than that of other types and for this type of employees much attention must be
paid to the working condition, the freedom of work, rewards and the challenges of work, that is , the
organization should provide good working condition, enhancing the challenges of work, providing better
rewards; (2)the fluidity of the knowledgeable employees with higher positions is lower than that of other
types and for this type of employees much attention must be paid to more communication with the
middle-level managers and keeping them know more about the guidelines of organization;
strengthening the cultural construction to form identify and coherence with organization; formulate
sound system to promote them; assigning the work soundly to reduce the stress of work; institute
effective system to inspirit them and improving the working condition.
In addition, since the knowledgeable employees under 30 years are less possible to leave and they
are more stable and mature in the career, organization should foster and appoint them. On the other hand,
the younger workers are more likely to leave and they usually favor the challenges of work and
individual development. So organization should assign more challenging work and provide
corresponding opportunities and rewards for them.
But the reasons for hypothesis 5 is not tenable are that: (1)the workers with higher positions will more
care the risk and opportunity cost of turnover; (2)the workers with higher positions are more
conscientious and can not leave at will, because they usually sign a mental contract with the
organization; (3) the workers with higher positions have some kind of sensation with the organization
after stayed in it long time. Or they have approbated the value view of the organization; (4) the workers
with higher positions are usually old. And the reasons for hypothesis 7 is not tenable are that: (1) the
deeper of a person’s degree of education is ,the more he is rewarded(r= 0.312; the value of test
p=0.002<0.01); (2) the deeper of a person’s degree of education is, the more possibly he is promoted(r=
0.321; the value of test p=0.001<0.01 ); (3)the former two are positively enhancing the degree of
satisfaction of work. So the higher a person’s level of education is ,the less possibly he leave.
6 Conclusion
Today the knowledgeable employees are core resources of an organization. Many researchers and
experts have advanced many views. But there are still some problems: (1) regarding the knowledgeable
employees as a whole and lacking studies according to different characteristics ; (2) most views are
educed from foreign objects by foreign researchers. So they are not adapted to our country. This paper
sorts the knowledgeable employees into different types according to their age, occupation, position,
degree of education, and so on. At last , the conclusions are as follows : (1)there exists remarkable
differences about turnover status among knowledgeable employees with different phases of age and
the younger the workers are ,the more possibly they leave; (2) there exists remarkable differences
about turnover status among knowledgeable employees with different occupations and the workers
with occupation of engineering and technique are less likely taking leave; (3) there exists remarkable
differences about turnover status among knowledgeable employees with different positions and the
higher the workers’ positions are, the less likely they leave; (4) there exists remarkable differences
about turnover status among knowledgeable employees with different degree of education and the
deeper the workers’ degree of education is, the less likely they leave; (5)the key factors to affect
knowledgeable employees to leave are in turn that: the degree of satisfaction about rewards, the degree
of satisfaction about work, the prospect of organization, identify with organizational guideline and
working condition.
But the samples included in this study are from administrators of government , the workers of
culture, education and sanitation whose mental status is greatly different from that of workers in
corporation. They usually think themselves as formal workers and their lives are ensured and stable. In
spite of the work is good or bad, they do not hope to leave. And this kind of people will affect the
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validity of our study. Besides, we only choose 12 factors as variables, possibly neglecting some
important factors. So, there need studies about the actions and affecting factors of turnover according to
different industries in the future.
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[3]Zhang Mian, Zhang De, an empirical study on path model of resignation intent of skilled workers in
IT industry, management review of nan kai in Chinese, 2003(4): 12-20.
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