This chapter presented data analysis and findings of each hypothesis in this study. It starts by the descriptive statistics analysis, then, the results of correlation anlysis among person-organization fit (POF), intention to leave (ITL), perceived supervisor support (PSS), and perceived peer support (PPS). The hierachical regression analysis was stated at the end of the chapter.
Descriptive Statistics
The demographic information in descriptive statistics were collected from 377 workers of Generaton Y. The descriptive statistics was divided into 9 questions including gender, age, marital status, education level, number of dependents, tenure in the company, month salary, location of the company, and industry of the company. The frequency and percentage of the demographic information are summarized in Table 4.1.
Gender
Among the 377 participants, there were 137 male participants (36.3%) and 240 female participants (63.7%). In this study, most of the participants were female.
Age
Among the 377 participants, two participants (0.5%) were below 21 years old, 152 participants (40.3%) from 21 to 25 years old, 128 participants (33.9%) from 26 to 30 years old, 78 participants (20.8%) from 31 to 35 years old, and 17 participants (4.5%) from 36 to 37 years old. In this study, most participants were between 21 and 30 years old.
Marital Status
Among the 377 participants, 334 participants (88.6%) were single and 43 participants (11.3%) were married.
Education Level
Among the 377 participants, 14 participants (3.7%) graduated from high school; 255 participants (67.6%) had a bachelor degree; 102 participants (27.1%) received a master degree; and six participants (1.6%) obtained a doctoral degree. In this study, the majority of participants were college graduates who had a bachelor degree.
Number of Dependents
Among the 377 participants, 270 participants (71.6%) reported having no dependents;
45 participants (11.9%) had one dependent; 54 participants (14.3%) had two dependents; and eight participants (2.1%) reported having three or more dependents. In this study, most of the participants had no dependents that they need to take care of.
Tenure
Among the 377 participants, 137 participants (36.3%) reported that they had worked less than a year in their present company, 145 participants (38.5%) 1 to 3 years, 56 participants (14.9%) 3 to 6 years, and 39 participants (10.3%) over 6 years. In this study, a majority of the participants had worked in their current company for 3 months to 3 years.
Monthly Salary
Among the 377 participants, 33 participants (6.1%) earned below 20,000 NT dollars per month; 244 participants (64.7%) earned from 20,001 NT dollars to 40,000 NT dollars per month; 85 participants (22.5%) earned from 40,001 NT dollars to 60,000 NT dolloars per month; and five participants (1.4%) earned more than 60,000 NT dollars per month.
Location of the Company
Among the 377 participants, 285 participants (75.6%) worked in northen Taiwan, while 41 participants (10.9%) in southern Taiwan, 37 participants (9.8%) in central Taiwan, and 14 participants (3.7%) in the other locations. In this study, most participants worked for companies that were located in northern Taiwan.
Industry of the Company
Among the 377 participants, 93 participants (24.7%) worked in the service industry, 66 participants (17.8%) in the manufacturing industry, 50 participants (13.3%) in information and communication industries, 48 participants (12.7%) in public administration and education industries, 43 participants (11.4%) worked in financial and insurance industries, 21 participants (5.6%) in wholesale and retail trade industries, 11 participants (2.9%) in catering and leisure industries, and 44 participants (11.7%) worked in other industries.
Discussion
Based on the descriptive statistics, most of the participants in this study were female, from 21 to 30 years old, and single. Moreover, most of them had a bechelor degree, no dependent to take care of, worked below 3 years in their current company, and had a monthly salary ranged from 20,001 NT dollars to 40,000 NT dollars. Besides, most of them worked in northern Taiwan and worked in service and munufacturing industries. Although the study only collected the data from a small sample, these statistics may still reflect some demographical facts of Generation Y workers in Taiwan.
An interesting fact is that there were around 22% of participants who reproted to be single but had one and more dependents to take care of (See Table 4.2). That is to say, 22% of Generation Y workers in this study had family responsibilities even though they did not marry.
This reflects the trend in developed countries that the younger generations are facing increased burden of family responsibilities. Furthermore, around 27% of participants reported to have obtained a master degree, which makes the Y generation in Taiwan the most highly educated. The researcher believes these issues may be discussed more in the future.
Table 4.1.
Descriptive Statistics on Sample Characteristics
Item Frequency Percentage Item Frequency Percentage
1. Gender 5. Number of
Table 4.1. (continued)
Item Frequency Percentage
9. Industry of the company
Public administration and Education 48 12.7
Wholesale and Retail Trade 21 5.6
Catering and Leisure 11 2.9
Financial and Insurance Activities 43 11.4
Information and Communication 50 13.3
Manufacturing 66 17.8
Service 93 24.7
Others 44 11.7
Total 377 100.0
Table 4.2.
Comparing Marital Status with Numbers of Dependents
Marital Status Numbers of Dependents Freqeuncy Percentage
Single
Correlation analysis was conducted to understand the relationship between two variables.
Table 4.3 presents the means, standard deviations, reliabilities, and correlations among gender, age, marital status, education level, numbers of depedents, tenure, salary. P-O fit, intrinsic factors, extrinsic factors, intention to leave, perceived supervisor support, and perceived peer
According to Table 4.3, P-O fit is negatively correlated to intention to leave (r=-.59, p<.01). This means that in the study sample, those with higher P-O fit have lower intention to leave an organization. Intrinsic and extrinsic factors of P-O fit are also negatively correlated to intention to leave (r=-.58, p<.01; r =-.49, p<.01). In additon, it shows that compared to extrinsic factors, intrinsic factors have higher negative correlation with intention to leave.
This seems to agree with Kickul and Lester (2001) that Generation Y cares more about facors related to the nature of the job itself, i.e., autonomy and control, as well as growth and development, than factors related to the consequence of completing the job, i.e., organizational rewards and organizational benefits, when they consider whether to leave their organizations. Also, P-O fit is positively correlated to perceived supervisor support (r=.74, p<.01), and perceived peer support (r=.43, p<.01).
Among the five demographic factors, intention to leave is positively correlated to gender (r=.15, p<.01 ), which seems to suggest that female participants have higher intention to leave than their male counterparts. Since gender was correlated to intention to leave, independent sample T-test was conducted and the result shows that there was a significant difference between males and females on intention to leave (t=-2.918, p<.01). Female participants (M=4.87, SD=1.24) have higher intention to leave than males (M=4.46, SD=1.43). Therefore, Hypothesis 1a was supported.
In addtion, intention to leave is negatively and moderately correlated to age (r=-.12, p<.05). The result seems to suggest that younger participants have more intention to leave their companies. Therefore, Hypothesis 1b was supported. However, there is no siginificant correlation between education level and intention to leave. Hypothesis 1c was not supported.
The result of a negatively significant correlation betweeen numbers of dependents and intention to leave (r=-.15, p<.01) means the more dependents the participants need to take care of, the lower their intention to leave. Hypothesis 1d was supported. Moreover, The
(r=-.29, p<.01). It means the longer the participants stay in an organization, the lower their intemtions to leave. Therefore, Hypothesis 1e was supported.
Discussion
According to the correlation analysis, the demograpghic items, such as age, numbers of dependents, and tenure all have negative correlation with intention to leave. The results show that female and younger participants may have more intention to leave their organizations.
Besides, participants with more tenure may be more willing to stay than participants with less tenure. In addition, participants with more dependents to take care of may have lower turnover intention. The independent variable P-O fit is negatively and significantly correlated to intention to leave. The results provide innitial positve support to the study hypothesis that P-O fit is related to intention to leave organizations.
Table 4.3.
Mean, Standard Deviations, Correlations, and Reliability (n=377)
Note. Numbers in parentheses represent Cronbach‟s alpha value. **p < .01 *p < .05
POF: Person-Organization Fit, ITL: Intention to Leave, PSS: Perceived Supervisor Support, PPS: Perceived Peer Support.
Mean S.D. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1. Gender .64 .48
2. Age 27.62 3.97 -.17**
3. Education level 2.27 .55 -.13* .25**
4. Numbers of dependents 1.48 .86 -.10* .32** .03
5. Tenure (month) 29.43 30.97 .04 .64** -.00 .36**
6. POF 3.18 .71 -.15** .05 .12* .05 -33** (.90)
7. Intrinsic factors 3.08 .81 -.13** .03 .11* .05 -.01 .28** (.88)
8. Extrinsic factors 3.30 .76 -.14* .08 .12* .04 .05 .32** .65** (.81)
9. ITL 4.72 1.33 .15** -.12* .04 -.15** -.29** -.59** -.58** -.49** (.84).
10. PSS 3.21 .87 -.16** -.06 .04 -.01 .20** .72** .74** .55** -.52** (.93)
11. PPS 3.49 .67 -.13* -.11* -.01 .01 .15** .42** .41** .35** -.30** .44** (.85)
Hierarchical Regression Analysis
Hypothesis 2 predicted that P-O Fit has a negative relationship with intention to leave of Generation Y which was already proved by the correlation analysis. Hierarchical regression analysis was used in order to provide a further analysis of casual direction between P-O fit and intention to leave. Hypothesis 3 predicted that perceived supervisor support moderates the relationship between P-O fit and intention to leave. Also, Hypothesis 4 assumed that perceived peer support moderates the relationship between P-O fit and intention to leave.
Four steps were conducted in hierarchical regression analysis. First, demographic variables such as gender, age, education level, number of dependents, and tenure were entered in the analysis. Second, the independent variable P-O fit was added at the second level. Third, the moderating variables such as perceived supervisor support and perceived peer support were entered. Finally, the interaction terms were entered. Before calculating the interaction terms, P-O fit, PSS, and PPS were all mean-centered by subtracting the mean from the original scores in order to prevent the multicollinearity problem.
In Table 4.4, the result in model 2 shows that P-O fit has a strong negative impact on intention to leave (ß=-.59, p<.001), thus hypothesis 2 is supported. The regression in Table 4.4 also provides tests for Hypothesis 3 and Hypothesis 4. Contrary to what the researcher had expected, PSS shows a fairly small to non-significant moderating effect on the relationship between POF and intention to leave of Generation Y in model 4 (ß=-.08, p<.1).
Moreover, the result shows PSS has a higher and more significant main effect (ß =-.21, p<.001) than the moderating effect in model 4, which means PSS is more suitable as a direct effect (= X variable) than a moderator when explaining intention to leave. As a result, Hypothesis 3 was not supported.
The result shows the interaction of P-O fit and PPS is significant when predicting
between P-O fit and intention to leave of Generation Y is supported.
Table 4.4.
Result of Hierarchical Regression Analysis on the Moderating Effects (n=377)
Variables
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4
ß ß ß ß
Demographic controls
Gender .15** .07 .05 .03
Age - .01 - .04 - .07 - .06
Educational level .06 .13** .11** .10*
Numbers of independents - .09 - .07+ - .08+ - .06
Tenure - .11 - .08 - .09 - .08
Independent Variable
Person-Organization Fit - .59*** - .43*** - .43***
Moderators
Perceived Supervisor Support - .20** - .21***
Perceived Peer Support - .04 - .05
Interaction
POF x PSS - .08
POF x PPS - .11*
R2 .06 .39 .41 .44
Adj. R2 .04 .38 .40 .42
F 4.29** 39.27*** 32.11*** 28.45***
∆ R2 .33 .02 .03
∆ F 202.51*** 6.89** 8.53***
Notes.* p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.
Discussion
The result shows that as expected, P-O fit has a negative and significant effect on intention to leave. For Generation Y, workers with higher P-O fit may have lower turnover intention. However, the result shows that PSS has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between POF and intention to leave, but rather a direct negative effect on intention to leave. It means similar to the effect of P-O fit, high PSS will lower workers‟
intention to leave. It appears that in the cognition of participants in this study, supervisor support was seen as a factor similar to P-O fit. That is, Generation Y employees in this study may see supervisors more as a part of their organizations, thus treatment from their supervisors directly impact the evaluation of their relationship with the organization.
The result shows that PPS has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between P-O fit and intention to leave. To interpret the moderating effect in detail, an interaction plot was drawn. Figure 4.1 depicts the interaction plot of PPS and P-O fit and their effect on intention to leave. To plot the interaction, this study used the top and bottom 25% percentile to divide P-O fit and PPS into high and low level groups. As shown in Figure 4.1, PPS does strengthen the negative relationship between POF and intention to leave, so that when POF is high, participants with higher PPS seem to have lower intention to leave than participants with lower PPS. However, when POF is low, those with high PPS actually have a higher turnover intention. It may be because that when POF is low, those with high PPS may have a higher tendency to take advices from their peers to change jobs, which lead to higher intention to leave. Therefore, peers do have a strong influence on the relationship between P-O fit and Generation Y‟s turnover intention.
Figure 4.1. interaction plot for the moderating effect of perceived peer support.
A summary of hypothesis testing result is shown in Table 4.5.
Table 4.5.
Hypotheses Testing Results Summary
Hypotheses Result
H1 Demographic factors have a significant relationship with intention to leave of Generation Y.
Partially Supported
H1a Gender has a significant relationship with intention to leave of Generation Y.
Supported
H1b Age has a significant relationship with intention to leave of Generation Y.
Supported
H1c Education level has a significant relationship with intention to leave of Generation Y.
Not Supported
H1d Numbers of dependents has a significant relationship with intention to leave of Generation Y.
Supported
H1e Tenure has a significant relationship with intention to leave of Generation Y.
Supported
H2 P-O fit has a negative relationship with intention to leave of Generation Y.
Supported
H3 Perceived supervisor support has a moderating effect on the relationship between P-O fit and intention to leave.
Not Supported
H4 Perceived peer support has a moderating effect on the relationship between P-O fit and intention to leave.
Supported