心理契約違反與離職意圖之關係研究: 以職涯高原為調節變數

全文

(1)The Relationship Between Psychological Contract Breach and Intention to Leave: Moderating Effect of Career Plateau. by Shao-Tang Wei. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINSTRATION Major: International Human Resource Development. Advisor: Yi-Chun Jane Lin, Ph.D.. National Taiwan Normal University Taipei, Taiwan January, 2014.

(2) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Helen Keller said that “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” To be honest, I found that my whole graduate life was also like a great adventure which made me stronger than I used to be no matter in psychology or in physiology. I would like to show my deep appreciation to whom have helped and supported during my graduate life. First of all, I would like to begin by thanking my thesis advisor Dr. Yi-Chun Lin for giving me valuable advices and contributions for my thesis. Without her efforts and advices, I would not have been able to complete my thesis. Also I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Rosa Yeh and Dr. His-An Shih for your feedback and encouragement. To the other professors and assistant, Dr. Ted Tsai, Dr. Vera Chang, Dr. Tony Shih, Dr. Steven Lai and Sandra, thanks for sharing their valuable knowledge and experiences with me. I would also like to express my thanks to my dear classmates. First, I would like to thank Howard who is not only a mentor but also a friend for being my backup in IHRD. Second, I would like to thank Cheryl Hsieh, Alan Yu and Roy Huang who are my best thesis partners for their encouragement and sharing. Also I would specially like to mention Karen C, Rossana, Carmen, Alex, Annie Hsu, Carol Chien, Agnes Yen, Karen Liu, Kelly Hung, and Ximena Cheng my friends. Thanks for their supports and spending this unforgettable graduate life with me, it was the best ever. Finally, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my parents, my sisters and my girlfriend. Thanks for their endless love and continuous supports for any decisions I made in my life. Your supports have given me the strength to achieve my objectives in my rest of life. I love you all so much. All good things come to an end. I wish everyone have a bright and colorful life in the future..

(3) ABSTRACT Since 2008, the finical crisis has resulted in flattening of organizational hierarchies, downsizing, and outsourcing of organization, which reduced layers of middle management. It causes a number of people not easily to find a job. These changes had decreased a number of promotional opportunities and experiencing difficulty of upward hierarchically movement became pervasive among employees in any kinds of industries in this knowledge-based business world. Hence, employees’ career path and development become a very crucial concern in the workplace. The purpose of the study aimed to investigate the relationships among psychological contract breach, career plateau and the intention to leave. To be more specific, this study had two objectives. First, this study explored the impact of psychological contract breach affecting the intention to leave. Second, this study examined the moderating effect of career plateau on the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. This study utilized the quantitative approach and data were collected by paper – based questionnaires through 444 banking employees in Taiwan. The statistic software of SPSS v18.0 was used to analyze by hierarchical regression. The result indicated that psychological contract breach was positively related to intention to leave. Meanwhile, career plateau also played as a moderating link between psychological contract breach and intention to leave.. Keywords: Psychological contract breach, Career plateau, Intention to leave. I.

(4) II.

(5) TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... I TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. III LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ V LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... VII CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 Background of the Study ....................................................................................... 1 Statement of the Problem ....................................................................................... 3 Research Purpose ................................................................................................... 5 Research Questions ................................................................................................ 5 Definitions of Key Terms ....................................................................................... 6 Significance of the Study ....................................................................................... 7 Research Procedure ................................................................................................ 8 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................... 9 Psychological Contract Breach .............................................................................. 9 Intention to Leave ................................................................................................ 14 Moderating Effect of Career Plateau ................................................................... 18 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ........................................................................... 29 Research Framework ........................................................................................... 29 Hypotheses ........................................................................................................... 30 Research Design................................................................................................... 31 Data Collection .................................................................................................... 32 Control Variables ................................................................................................. 35 Questionnaire Design ........................................................................................... 36 Back Translation .................................................................................................. 36 Pilot Test .............................................................................................................. 37 Data Analysis ....................................................................................................... 39 CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ................................................... 43 Descriptive Statistics ............................................................................................ 43 Correlation Analysis............................................................................................. 44 Confirmatory Factor Analysis .............................................................................. 46 Hierarchical Regression Analysis ........................................................................ 47 Psychological contract breach and intention to leave .......................................... 47 CHAPTER V DISCUSSION AND SUGGESTIONS .............................................. 55 Discussion ............................................................................................................ 55 Implications.......................................................................................................... 58 III.

(6) Research Limitations ........................................................................................... 60 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 62 APPENDIX A: BANKS OF QUESTIONNAIRE DISTRIBUTION .......................... 68. IV.

(7) LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Contractual Continuum……………………………….…………………...12 Table 2.2 Summary of the Career Plateau Definitions …………...…………………18 Table 2.3 Model of the Managerial Careers……………………....……………….…21 Table 2.4 Examples of Positive and Negative Responses to the Career Plateau Stress from Perspective of the Organization…..………..………………....24 Table 3.1 Descriptive Statistics for Pilot Test.…………………………………….....38 Table 3.2 Mean, Standard Deviations, Correlations, and Reliability for Pilot Test…39 Table 4.1 Descriptive Statistics...…………………………………………………….44 Table 4.2 Mean, Standard Deviations, Correlations, and Reliability.…..……………45 Table 4.3 Results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis………………….………………46 Table 4.4 Results of Regression Analysis for Career Plateau………………….…….48 Table 4.5 Result of Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Career Plateau as a Moderator………………………………………………..…….…………..50 Table 4.6 Result of Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Hierarchical Career Plateau as a Moderator…………….……………………………..…….…………..51 Table 4.7 Result of Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Job Content Career Plateau as a Moderator.…………………………………………..…….…………..52 Table 4.8 Result of Hypotheses Testing…………………………………………….….54. V.

(8) VI.

(9) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Research Procedure .……………………………..………………….…....8 Figure 2.1 Model of the Employee Turnover Decision Process…….....……………15 Figure 3.1 Research Framework………………………………………....…………..29 Figure 4.1 Interaction plots for the Moderating Effects of Psychological Contract Breach..……………………………………………………………….….53 Figure 4.2 Interaction plots for the Moderating Effects of Hierarchical Psychological Contract Breach..…………………………………….……………….….54. VII.

(10) VIII.

(11) CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. This chapter covers background of the study, statement of the problem, research purposes, research questions, definition of key terms, and significance of the study.. Background of the Study In this global, competitive, and technological advancement business world, organizations put more stress on employee’s productivity that follows the principal of “doing things better, but less expensively” (Dessler, 2009, p7). Economic changes are also transforming the way how organizations create values and conduct business. Since the flattening of organizational hierarchies, organizational restructuring, downsizing, outsourcing and related factors have reduced or eliminated layers of middle management. Hence, these changes had decreased a number of promotional opportunities, and experiencing difficulty of upward hierarchically movement has become a normal experience among employees in any kind of industries in this competitive business world (Chao, 1990). Take banking industry for example. In Taiwan, there are 16 main financial holdings, 38 domestic banks and 30 local branches of foreign banks, which is a quite competitive business environment. There are approximately 140,562 banking employees so far from 2012 in Taiwan (Directorate-General Budget, 2012). After the financial crisis in 2008, it has been very difficult for financial holdings to reach their goals and performance. Since the economic recession, a number of people were laid off and it is harder to find a job. Hence, how to manage career path becomes a critical concern for employees in Taiwan. Based on the study of Bennett and Bell (2004), the organization offered more non-monetary rewards, the employees had lower intention to leave in the organization. 1.

(12) Psychological contract is an intangible and unwritten contract which is likely to make the commitment in the mind between employers and employees. Wellin (2007) emphasized that psychological contract added value not only to the employees but also to the organization. If there was a clear and positive psychological contract between employers and employees, it helped organizations support their employees and also increased employees’ engagement and commitment to the organization. However, the previous researches also pointed out that psychological contract breach have been demonstrated to have a positive relationship with the intention to leave and actual quit (Buderson, 2001). Therefore, the issue of the career plateau has begun to receive considerable attention by a large number of researchers and practitioners trying to help organization to solve these possible problems. Career plateau was as the likelihood of not receiving further assignments of increased responsibility (Feldman & Weitz, 1988). Unfortunately, employees with career plateau were more likely to exhibit feeling of frustration and career failure. Therefore, the career plateau had impact on plenty of negative work outcomes (Bardwick, 1986). Heilmann, Holt and Rilvoick (2008) and Lemire, Saba and Gagnon (1999) stated that many employees with career plateau had higher tendency to leave the company, which resulted in higher employee turnover in the organization Porter and Steers (1973) indicated that intention to leave was the first reflection naturally when employees experienced any dissatisfaction in the organization. Some of them actually take actions to quit the job or called turnover. Hence, intention to leave is one of the direct antecedents to turnover. Besides, Dalton and Todor (1979) pointed out that the organizations benefited from proper employee turnover rate, which prevented organization from aging and lacking of competency. On the other hand, higher turnover causes lower organizational effectiveness, poor employee 2.

(13) morale and worse productivity. Moreover, hiring new-skilled employees to become professional was costly and time-consuming, and also affected the operation and effectiveness of the organization (Bingley & Westergaad-Nieksen, 2004). Consequently, employee career plateaus were likely to be negative to the operating activities of organization, and reversing employee career plateau became an important concern for companies (Lee, 2003). Therefore, it is vital not only for organizations to make career management strategy but also for employee himself or herself to identify what kinds of cause and effect of the career plateau. Moreover, human resource professional should take proactive actions to support these employees with career plateau. Human resource professionals play an important role in the employees’ career development since they are in charge of maintaining and improving the employee’s competence and motivation as well.. Statement of the Problem The global competition and fast-changing environment will be an extremely tough challenge for most organizations now. Therefore, most enterprises increasingly focus on the challenges and opportunities related to human capital. According to a survey of 2012 Global Employee Satisfaction by Towers Watons (2012), this survey included 29 countries from Europe, America and Asia. More than 32,000 employees participated in this survey. This survey indicated that there were top five main factors affecting the employees to leave their organizations, which are (1) career development concerns, (2) salaries, (3) the support and trust of supervisor, (4) the relationship with supervisor and (5) the quality of coworkers. Hence, the career development becomes a vital concern for employees now. However, a survey of General Industry Compensation Report- Taiwan conducted by Towers Watons (2012) indicated that financial industry in Taiwan will recruit more 3.

(14) new employees to fulfill the high personnel flow. Besides, through the well-known human resource agencies like 104, 1111 human resource agency and the official website of each bank, it is easily to find there are plenty of openings in the banking. Hence, this study intends to investigate what factors resulted in high personnel flow in the banking industry. In the past, long-term employment relationship was very common in the organization. Nowadays, it was hard to find employers who offer the life-long employment guarantee to employees (Lee, 2003). If there was a positive psychological contract relationship, it resulted in higher satisfaction, solid commitment and lower turnover rate in the organization (Wellin, 2007). Hence, the psychological contract plays a significant role in the relationship between employer and employees in this competitive and human capital oriented business world. Therefore, how the psychological contract affects the relationship of employment in the workplace should be known more. A number of related empirical findings reinforce the contention that career plateau positively increases employee intention to leave. Burke (1989) pointed out an individual who perceived hierarchical plateau had greater intention to leave the organization. As for the job content plateau, Davenport and Russell (1994) identified that the job content career plateau led an individual to lower job satisfaction, organization commitment and higher level of intention to leave the organization. Recently, however, there were only fewer empirical studies conducted to investigate on the roles of moderators on the relationship between career plateau and job-related results (Ettington, 1988). Furthermore, few empirical studies investigated the moderating role of career plateau in the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. Based on the present work context, it was very crucial to explore whether career 4.

(15) plateau had an effect on employees with psychological contract breach or not. Hence, this study tried to conduct an empirical study to investigate the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave as well as how moderating role of career plateau affect the relationship between psychological contract breach and the intention to leave.. Research Purpose In this study, the researcher aimed to analyze how psychological contract breach affects intention to leave and the moderating role of career plateau in the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. Besides, the researcher also wanted to find out what factors resulting in this phenomenon and to investigate what difficulties employees encounter in the workplace. The purpose of this research was to fulfill the following tasks: 1. To explore the impact of psychological contract breach affecting intention to leave. 2. To identify the impact of moderator of career plateau on the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave.. Research Questions Based on the research purposes, this study attempts to answer the following questions: 1.. Is the psychological contract breach associated with the intention to leave?. 2.. Does the career plateau moderate the relationship between the psychological contract breach and the intention to leave?. 5.

(16) Definitions of Key Terms This section provides the general definitions of key terms in this study, which are: career plateau, intention to leave, and psychological contract breach.. Psychological Contract Breach It was defined that psychological contract breach referred to individuals discovering there is unfairness in the social exchange process, and individuals did not receive expected outcomes for achieving his or her obligations from an organization (Morrison & Robinson, 1997).. Career Plateau Individuals may experience two forms of career related plateauing: hierarchical and job content. Hierarchical plateauing is that when an individual has little chance of further vertical movement within an organization. Job content plateauing is that when an individual is no longer challenged by his or her work or job responsibilities (Bardwick, 1986).. Intention to Leave An individual with the voluntary decision intends to quit the job and thinking of quitting is the next logical step prior to actual quitting in the withdrawal process (Mobley, 1997).. 6.

(17) Significance of the Study This study contributes to both practical and theoretical parts. The significances of this study are listed below: Contribution to organizational management: This study provides organizations new insights into identifying strategies to help employees who perceived the career plateau. Hence, for understanding the banking employees’ current working situation, organization could retain young knowledge employees and make lower turnover rate. Contribution to HR practitioner: Mohrman and Lawler (1993) stated that human resource played a more major role in the corporate strategy formulation and implementation. Through this study, HR practitioners could strengthen their own career development knowledge to design or plan the effective strategies and methods to help the employees with career plateau before employees have intention to leave the present organization. Contribution to career development theoretical research: In the previous literatures, there are plenty of researchers analyzing the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. However, few researchers investigate the linkage of career plateau on the relationship between career plateau and intention to leave in the career development research field. Hence this research examined the moderating effect of career plateau on the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. This study provided the evidence to fill in the literatures of career development research field.. 7.

(18) Research Procedure The procedure of this study is shown below. Please see the Figure 1.1.. Research background and purpose. Literature review. Hypotheses formation. Research framework construction. Questionnaire selection and process. Data collection. Questionnaire selection. Hypotheses testing. Results and conclusions. Figure 1.1.. Research procedure. 8.

(19) CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW. This chapter aims to provide previous researches related to career development issues. The chapter is divided into three sections: psychological contract breach, intention to leave, and career plateau. The first section is psychological contract breach between employers and employees. The second section is the framework of intention to leave, which includes the definition and concept of employee turnover intention. The last section covers definition and content of career plateau, which is divided into hierarchical career plateau and job content career plateau.. Psychological Contract Breach The concept of the psychological contract had been substantially discussed and became popular issue in the organization, since it offered plenty of explanations for the complications in the employment relationship which happened a lot in many organizations currently (Noer, 1993). The earliest concept of psychological contract was introduced by Argyris (1960), and it became even well-known by Levinson et al. (1962), and Schein (1978). Afterward, the definition of psychological contract was defined by scholars. For instances, Herriot et al. (1997) defined that psychological contract as “the perception of mutual obligations to each other by two parties in the employment relationship, the organization and employee” (p.151). Wellin (2007) presented that psychological contract could add value not only to the employees but also to the organization. If there was a clear and positive psychological contract would help organization support their employees and also increase employees’ engagement and commitment to the organization.. 9.

(20) There was another issue that had been debated for a long time in the historical studies, which was whether both employer and employees perspective should be taken into account. In earlier studies, (Kotter, 1973; Levinson et al., 1962) all presented that psychological contract included bilateral perspective which both employee and employer perspective should be contained. Later, Rousseau (1990) proposed a new unilateral viewpoint about psychological contract which meant that the psychological contract should focus on the employee only. Hence, more and more researches have followed the concept of unilateral perspective which was concluded by Rousseau. However in the recent studies, there were some researchers advocating that psychological contract should put more emphasis on employer again. Sturges, Guest and Conway (2002) suggested that if it only focused on employee’s perspective, it might distort the core value of psychological contract which was mutual obligation between each party. Moreover, this bilateral approach had been progressively supported. According to Rousseau’s (1990) research with 224 MBA graduates, there were two main different dimensions of employee obligation. These two dimensions were relational contract and transactional contract. To be more specifically, the transactional obligations of employer in the psychological contract contained competitive salary, benefits and pay linked to performance. And the relational obligations of employer in the psychological contract include training, job security, career development, fairness and justice in personnel procedures, promotional opportunities and so on. Transactional psychological contract included monetary exchange during a specific period. It occurred in the case of temporary employment or recruitment by buying-oriented firms (Miles & Snow, 1980).. Such transactional contracts took. place in lots of high tech companies and temporary employment companies for 10.

(21) acquiring people with specific skills to meet current demands. Hence, the characteristics of transactional contract focused on economic, closed-ended and specific time frame, narrow scope, static stability and easily observable. Transactional contract might be used during the probationary period in the organization. Employees who successfully finished three-month probationary period would be designated as a permanent employee. Specifically, people with transactional contract had some traits which were highly competitive based on wage rates and lacked of long-term commitment (Rousseau, 1990). In contrast, based on the research done by Miles and Snow (1980), relational psychological contract included not only monetary exchange but non-monetary as well. It was established on a long-term and broad relationship where there were both economic and emotional connections. It occurred in the case of making-oriented firms which typically would recruit new employees at entry level, develop, and train them to meet future demands. Relational contracts took place in the company such as IBM or other service-oriented companies (Miles & Snow, 1980). Hence, the characteristics of relational contract focused on economic, non-economic and socio-emotional, open-ended and indefinite time frame, prevalent scope, dynamic and subjective. To build up a long-term relationship with employee, service-oriented companies offered employees more development opportunities and a long-term career path within the companies (Rousseau, 1990). Table 2.3 shows Rousseau (1990) Contract Continuum.. 11.

(22) Table 2.1. Contractual Continuum Transactional Contract. Relational Contract. Focus. Economic, extrinsic. Economic and Non-economic, Socio-emotional, intrinsic. Time frame. Close-ended, specific. Open-ended, indefinite. Stability. Static. Dynamic. Scope. Narrow. Pervasive. Tangibility. Public, observe. Subjective, understood. Note. Adapted from “New hire perceptions of their own and their employer’s obligations: A study of psychological contracts” by Rousseau (1990), Journal of Organizational Behavior, 11, 389-400. Except researching psychological contract, there had been more and more researches discussing about perceived psychological contract breach and violation. Perceived psychological contract breach referred to an employee discovering there is unfairness in the social exchange process, and an employee did not receive expected outcomes for achieving his or her obligations from an organization (Morrison & Robinson, 1997).Violation was defined as a feeling of anger, discomfort, injustice, and mistrust deriving from the organization that failed to complete its obligation to employees (Rousseau, 1989). Furthermore, these feeling of anger, mistrust, and betrayal would make employees dissatisfied with organization, caused them to have intention to leave, or eventually quit the present job. Based on empirical studies of Rousseau (1995) and Rousseau & Parks (1993), relational psychological contracts would facilitate both positive personal and organizational outcomes better than transactional psychological contract. Certainly, from the previous studies done by Millward & Hopkins, (1998), Rousseau (1990) and Raja, Johns & Natlianis (2004), relational psychological contracts had been demonstrated to have a negative relationship with intention to leave. However, 12.

(23) according to some available theories and empirical researches, Robinson and Rousseau (1994) found that the individuals with psychological contract breach had lower job satisfaction, job performance, organizational commitment and higher intention to quit the job than those individuals without psychological contract breach. Furthermore, perceived psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation would have a positive relationship with intention to leave and actual quit than those who did not perceived psychological contract breach at workplace (Robinson, 1996; Bunderson, 2001). Thus, based on the empirical studies, the following hypotheses are drawn in this study: Hypothesis 1: Psychological contract breach is positively associated with intention to leave.. 13.

(24) Intention to Leave According to Tett and Myer’s (1993) study, turnover meant termination of an individual’s employment with a given company. Furthermore, Porter and Steers (1973) pointed out that an individual thinking of quitting was the next logical step after experienced dissatisfaction in the organization and intention to leave may be the last step prior to actual quitting. Hence, Mobley (1977) presented an empirical model of the employee decision process. In Mobley’s model, it recognized plenty of possible precursors of employee turnover as well. There were ten blocks in the model of employee turnover decision process which were (a) evaluation of existing job, (b) experienced job satisfaction-dissatisfaction, (c) thinking of quitting, (d) evaluation of expected utility of search and cost of quitting, (e) intention to search for alternatives, (f) search for alternatives, (g) evaluation of alternatives, (h) comparison of alternatives and present job, (i) intention to leave or stay, and (j) quit or stay. Ten blocks of employee turnover decision process by scholar Mobley (1977) were listed below. Figure 2.1 provides Mobley’s (1977) Model of the employee turnover decision process.. 14.

(25) A. Evaluation of Existing Job. B. Experienced Job satisfaction- Dissatisfaction (Alternative forms of withdrawal, e.g. absenteeism ) C. Thinking of Quitting. D. Evaluation of Expected Utility of Search and Cost for Alternatives. E. Intention to Search for Alternatives. F. Search for Alternatives. (Non-job related factors. e.g. transfer spouse). G. Evaluatuion of Alternatives. H. Comparison of Alternatives vs. Present Job. I. Inteniton to Leave. J. Quit/ Stay. (impulsive behavior). Figures 2.1 Model of the employee turnover decision process Source: adapted from “Intermediate linkages in the relationship between job satisfaction and employee turnover” by Mobley (1977), Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 237-240.. There were large numbers of studies of turnover examining the direct relationship between turnover and job satisfaction (Tett & Myer, 1993). In the employee’s turnover process, there were several possible mediating steps between actual quitting and dissatisfaction. If employees experienced dissatisfaction on the job, employees may have alternative forms of withdraw. For example, employees had passive job behaviors or absenteeism. If the costs of quitting job were not so high or 15.

(26) the expected utility of searching a new job was high, an individual might have behavior intention to search for alternatives. Moreover, there were some non-job related factors influencing an individual’s intention to search. For instance, employee might be affected by transfer of spouse or health problem and so on (Mobley, 1977). After evaluating alternatives, an individual might compare alternatives with present job. If the comparisons agreed with alternative, an individual might be stimulated and had intention to leave. However, if the comparison preferred to present job, an individual might continue to find, re-evaluate cost of quitting, and reappraise the existing job until an employee purely accepted current state of affairs. Eventually an individual might reduce thoughts of quitting job or might undertake other forms of withdraw behavior. Therefore, turnover intention was regarded as a conscious and deliberate willfulness to leave the organization (Mobley, 1977). Turnover intention was identified as the strongest cognitive precursor of turnover (Lee & Mowday, 1987; Michaels & Spector, 1982). In other words, intention to leave had been described as the last sequence of withdraw cognitions, and also could explain and predict the possibility of quitting the job (Carsten & Spector, 1987; Mobley, Horner & Hollingsworth, 1978; Steel & Ovalle, 1984; Tett & Meyer, 1993). Based on the study of Steers and Mowday (1981), there were two primary factors that would affect an individual to have intention to leave which were (a) affective responses to the job and (b) non-work variables. It was assumed that an individual’s affective responses to the job are the most significant in terms of subsequent behaviors in most models of the turnover process (Steers & Mowday, 1981). Furthermore, Porter and Steers (1973) suggested that intention to leave was primarily influenced by three factors and in this system correlates were classified as (a) external factors, (b) structural or worked-related factors, and (c) personal characteristics of the employees. Firstly, external factors included unemployment rate, 16.

(27) accession rate and employment perceptions. Secondly, structure or work-related factors covered such as pay, job performance, opportunities, organization commitment, task repetitiveness and satisfaction with promotion. Lastly, personal characteristics of the employees contained age, gender, education, marital status, job tenure and ability.. 17.

(28) Moderating Effect of Career Plateau This section presents the literature concerning to career plateau. Before stating the career plateau, it is vital to clarify what this term implies. Many researchers had defined career plateau from different perspectives which were listed below: Table 2.2. Summary of Definitions: Career Plateau Definitions. Author(s)and year. Career plateau is defined as the point in one’s career at which (Ference, Stoner, & the probability of a vertical assignment or a promotion in the Warren, 1977) near future is unlikely. Career plateauing as the likelihood of not receiving further (Feldman & Weitz, assignments of increased responsibility.. 1988). Individuals may experience two forms of career related (Bardwick, 1986) plateauing: hierarchical. and job content. Hierarchical. plateauing is that when an individual has little chance of further vertical movement within an organization. Job content plateauing is that when an individual is no longer challenged by his or her work or job responsibilities. Career plateaus are no longer simply defined as an inability to (Allen, 1999) “move up” hierarchically in the organization but included other factors as well. The feeling of frustration and psychological feebleness that (Rotondo & employees to experience following and a temporary or Perrewe, 2000) permanent halt in the advancement of their careers. (continued). 18.

(29) Table 2.2.. Summary of Definitions: Career Plateau (continued). Except career plateau, there is another life plateauing which. (Burke &. refers to an individual feeling of being trapped or stuck in their. Mikkelsen, 2006). roles outside of work. Career plateau is defined as the point in one’s career at which (Ongori & the likelihood of additional hierarchically promotion is very Angolla, 2009) low or impossible.. Career plateau is a very well-known theme that has been researched by plenty of researchers who developed various definitions. Although the career plateau has been diversely defined by scholars, all their definitions share the same basic concept which was referred to obstacles for promotion and less challenging job contents. In other words, career plateau meant an individual who could not get higher position in the organization or sensed that the job content and responsibility was no more challenging for himself or herself in the organization. When it comes to the career plateau, the definition of career should be clarified before the discussion of career plateau. El-Sabaa (2001) defined professional careers included “an evolving sequence of work activities and positions that individuals experienced over time as well as the associated attitudes, knowledge and skill they developed throughout their life” (p. 3). However, employees might encounter some career issues or phenomenon such as the career plateau during the career path. One of the most well-known studies about the career plateau theory is from Ference, Stoner, and Warren (1977), who developed the earliest concept of the career plateau which has been largely discussed and utilized since then. The definition of the career plateau was regarded as the point an individual at which the chance of up-right. 19.

(30) promotion or advancement was pretty low or difficult; thus, it naturally led to individual’s career plateau in the organization (Ference, et al., 1977). However, some researchers cast doubts on the definition of career plateau. They thought if employees could have chance to grow and learn in the organization, which could decrease perceived career plateau. Therefore, there was another new definition of the career plateau which defined as the likelihood of not receiving further assignments of increased responsibility (Feldman & Weitz, 1988). In the previous literatures of career plateau, scholars mentioned that there were four principal career states for employees in the model of managerial careers. The first of all was called learners or comers who did not accomplish current performance but had potential talents and possibility to be promoted in the future. The second one was named stars that had outstanding performance in the job. And stars were expected to be potentials to get higher position with organization. Those employees regarding as starts obtain lots of opportunities such as development programs to become a future leader in the organization. The third one was solid citizen who achieved satisfactory performance in the job but got less chance to be promoted in the organization. The last one was entitled as deadwood that did not perform pleasingly in the job and had very little or no chance for development (Appelbaum, 1994; Duffy, 2000; Ference et al., 1977). Table 2.2 shows Ference et al., (1977) Model of managerial careers.. 20.

(31) Table 2.3. A Model of managerial careers Likelihood of Future Promotion. Current Performance. Low. High. Solid Citizens (effective plateau) Stars High. Low.  . Organizational Plateau Personal Plateau Deadwood (ineffective plateau). Learners. Note. adapted from “Managing the career plateau” by Ference, T. P., Stoner, J. A., & Warren, E. K. (1977), Academy of Management Review, 2, 602-612. Actually, both solid citizens and deadwood were regarded the career plateau. Furthermore, the solid citizens were effective plateau while deadwood was ineffective plateau (Ference et al, 1977). Compared to the stars and learners, solid citizens obtained less attention and care from the organization. To be more specifically, learners had large numbers of development chances, training opportunities and stars also had development programs in organization (Appelbaum, 1994). Deadwood employees were regarded as problems, so organization would list two choices for them. One was called rehabilitation, the other one was dismissal. Solid citizen with effective plateau must take care of themselves (Duffy, 2000). A significant task for organization career management to do was trying to prevent the solid citizen from becoming deadwood in the future. Organization should also keep employees working efficiently and being positive to deal with the situation when there was less promotion chance for well-performing employees (Appelbaum, 1994; Duffy, 2000; Ference et al, 1977; Foster et al, 2004).. 21.

(32) Ference et al (1977) found that solid citizens with effective career plateau could be grouped into two categories. One was named organizational plateau which meant that employees had good performance in high level but there is a lack of openings to be further promoted to new position. More specifically, organizational plateau meant that when an individual had little chance of further vertical movement within an organization. The factors of fewer openings resulted from flattening organizations, economic limitation, narrowly pyramid structure organizations, outsourcing, and organization lacking of growth chance and related factors (Bardwick, 1986). The other career plateau was called personal plateau which happen when employees lack of either the desire or the motivation to be promoted, or being unable to get higher position (Appelbaum, 1994; Ference, 1977). Actually personal plateau could be viewed as life plateau. Burke and Mikkelsen (2006) found that life plateauing referred to an individual feeling of being trapped or stuck in their roles outside of work. Besides two types career plateaus definitions which were defined by Ference et al., (1977), some researchers also suggested different dimensions of career plateau. Bardwick (1986) found that individuals might experience two forms of career related plateauing: hierarchical and job content. Hierarchical plateau meant that an individual had little chance of further vertical movement within an organization. Another one was called job content plateau which meant that an individual was no longer challenged by his or her work or job responsibilities. Milliman (1992) also divided career plateau into these two dimensions and established subjective instruments to evaluate an individual perceptions of both hierarchical and job content plateau. According to Elsass and Ralston’s (1989) study, individuals had two ways to respond when dealing with career plateau stress. The first one was behavioral response (e.g., resigning from present job, increasing absenteeism without reasons) 22.

(33) and the other one was cognitive response (e.g., rationalization and denial of career plateau). Moreover, there were three different methods to deal with career plateau for individuals which were defense, reevaluation and transition. The first method, defense, did not directly decrease individual’s perceived career plateau, but made them want to escape from the effect caused by career plateau. Individuals minimized the discomfort by denial, passive acceptance, and accusing of poor work environment. Nevertheless, individuals who adopted the method of defense easily became deadwood eventually (Elsass & Ralston, 1989). The second effective method to deal with career plateau was reappraisal. The stressed individuals may selectively ignore the indications or occurrences which resulted from career plateau and also tried to cognitively manipulate the meaning of career plateau. Individuals who selected reevaluation felt helpless and tried to withdraw from the job mentally. Therefore, managers became a vital role in supporting employee and should take the initiative action to help these employees face. career. plateau.. According. to. Nelson’s. research. (1987),. supportive. communication from supervisors and co-workers was one of the strongest moderators of stress. The third method to cope with career plateau was transition. Transition meant that individuals tried to alert or exclude the career plateau by adopting behavioral responses. For instances, employees may get a new role by lateral transition within the organization or try to find a new job outside and leave present organization (Elsass & Ralston, 1989). Both reevaluation and transition methods would have positive and negative effects on organization as well as employees. Take reevaluation for example. Employees who managed career plateau successfully would become more productive on performance. And for those employees who failed to manage career plateau well would become less productive on performance and remained in the same position in 23.

(34) the organization. Similarly, employees who adopted transition method would change into a new lateral position and learned new job skills, then became more productive within the organization. Nevertheless, the organization may face losing valuable human capital if most employees adopted transition method and tried to find a new career or job instead (Rotondo & Perrewe, 2000). Some Examples of positive and negative responses to career plateau stress from perspective of the organization by Elsass and Ralston (1989) are listed below:. Table 2.4. Examples of positive and negative responses to career plateau stress from perspective of the organization Transition . Learning new. Reappraisal . Acting as mentor. job skills. to younger employees. Positive. . Lateral transfer. Reponses. . Participation in. . task force. Defense. Finding reward in task success than personal advancement. . Leave the. . organization. Negative Responses. . Blame the plateau. . Absenteeism. on the organization. . Alcohol, drugs. Feeling. . Poor work. powerlessness or. performance. hostility . Psychological withdraw from the job. Note. Adapted from “Individual Responses to the Stress of Career Plateauing” by Elass, P. M. & Ralston, D. A. (1989), Journal of Management, 15, 35-47.. 24.

(35) Fewer empirical researches have indicated that had been shown to investigate the moderating effect on the relationship between career plateau and job-related consequences (Ettington, 1988). From the previous studies, career motivation, supervisor support (Jung & Tak, 2008), emotional intelligence and organizational support (Park & Yoo, 2005), challenging job content (Ettington, 1998), and mentoring (Lentz & Allen, 2009; Salami, 2010) had been used as moderators on the relationship between career plateau and work-related outcomes. However, a review of the existing literatures found that there were few studies addressing career plateau as a moderator. This study set out to investigate whether career plateau is likely to play a moderating role in the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. In a number of previous theoretical studies and related findings, career plateau was regarded as precursor to many unpleasant work-related consequences and also reinforced the direct link between career plateau and work attitudes. For example, individuals might have less job satisfaction with their supervisors (Chao, 1990; Ettington, 1998; Lentz & Allen, 2009), lower organizational commitment (Lentz, 2004), lower job performance (Ettington, 1998), and withdrawal behavior or thinking (Davenport & Russell, 1994). Meanwhile, individuals might have more health problems than before (Near, 1985), higher work pressure (Elass & Ralston, 1989), and higher absenteeism as well as increased intention to leave the organization (Near, 1984) Lee (2003) suggested that an individual who perceived career plateau in the organization might sustain high job satisfaction and maintain the same level of productivity, if the organization provided employees with learning opportunities and learning new skills that might benefit to their future career. For example, larger international organizations might provide employees with job rotation or job enrichment policies. Hence, employees might increase job responsibility and 25.

(36) challenges in the organization through these policies which prevented employees from perceiving career plateau in the organization (Hackman et al, 1975; Ongori & Agolla, 2009). From the previous studies, considerable evidences showed that either hierarchical plateau or job content plateau was directly related to unfavorable job behaviors. Burke (1989) and Tremblay et al., (1995) all stressed that an individual who perceived hierarchical plateau had greater intention to leave the organization. Furthermore, in the job content plateau, a number of studies identified that an individual with job content career plateau might lead to lower job satisfaction, organization commitment and higher level of intention to leave the organization (Milliman, 1992; Davenport & Russell, 1994). Although few researches taking career plateau as a moderator to examine the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave, but still some studies taking career plateau as moderator to examine the relationship with work related outcomes. For instances, McCleese and Eby (2006) indicated that hierarchical career plateau and role ambiguity were significant moderating predictors of work-related outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment and intention to leave. Furthermore, Heilmann (2005) conducted a research among 12,579 United States Air Forces officers and members on the turnover related study. The result showed that career plateau was a significant moderating predictor of intention to leave. Specifically, employees who perceived greater career plateau within the organization had higher intention to leave the present workplace than those who perceived less career plateau. Therefore, this study proposed that employees with career plateau are predicted to have an increasingly effect as a moderator between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. In other words, more career plateaued employees are more likely to have greater intention to leave the present 26.

(37) workplace. Thus, based on the limited but suggestive studies, the following hypotheses are drawn in this study: Hypothesis 2: Career plateau positively moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. Higher career plateau strengthens the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. Hypothesis 2a: Hierarchical. career. plateau positively moderates the relationship between. psychological contract breach and intention to leave. Higher hierarchical career plateau strengthens the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. Hypothesis 2b: Job content career plateau positively moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. Higher job content career plateau strengthens the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave.. 27.

(38) 28.

(39) CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY. This section covers the methodology of this research. It contains the research framework, research hypotheses, the sampling, the instrumentation, data collection, and data analysis. This research adopted the quantitative research process to investigate the relationships among psychological contract breach, career plateau and intention to leave.. Research Framework The independent variable is psychological contract breach. The intention to leave is the dependent variable. The career plateau serves as the moderator to examine the relationship between the psychological contract breach and the intention to leave. The career plateau consists of two dimensions which are hierarchical career plateau and job content career plateau. Figure 3.1 shows the research framework.. Career Plateau (1) Hierarchical Career Plateau (2) Job Content Career Plateau. Psychological Contract Breach. (2) Job Content Career H2; H2a-b Plateaued. Intention to Leave. H1 Control Variables (1) Age (2) Education (3) Job tenure Figure 3.1. Research framework. 29.

(40) Hypotheses Based on the previous literatures, the research purpose, the research questions, and the hypotheses are described as follow: Hypothesis 1.. Psychological contract breach is positively associated with intention to leave.. Hypothesis 2.. Career plateau positively moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. Higher. career. plateau. strengthens. the. relationship. between. psychological contract breach and intention to leave. Hypothesis 2a.. Hierarchical career plateau positively moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. Higher hierarchical career plateau strengthens the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave.. Hypothesis 2b.. Job content career plateau positively moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. Higher job content career plateau strengthens the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave.. 30.

(41) Research Design Sample The sample of this research was the employees who work at the bank in Taiwan. There are two main types of banks in Taiwan which are domestic banks and foreign banks. There were 38 domestic banks and 30 local branches of foreign banks in Taiwan in 2012 (Banking Bureau of Financial Supervisory Commission, R.O.C) The term, Domestic Bank, as used in this Banking Act, shall mean an organization formed and registered in accordance with the provisions of Banking Act for purposes of transacting a banking business (The Banking Bureau of Financial Supervisory Commission, R.O.C, 2012). It included commercial Bank and Specialized Bank. On the other hand, the term, Foreign Bank, as used in this Banking Act, shall mean a Bank organized and incorporated in accordance with the laws of a foreign country, which Bank has been recognized by the government of the Republic of China and registered for business as a branch office within the territory of the Republic of China, in accordance with the Company Law and this Banking Act (The Banking Bureau of Financial Supervisory Commission, R.O.C, 2012). In the past decade, plenty of graduated students were willing to work in the banks. Based on the numbers of banking employees from Directorate-General of Budget, Accountings and Statistics, Executive Yuan, R.O.C., there were around 127,000 banking employees in 2002 and there were only around 140,562 banking employees in 2012. Besides, there has been a high turnover in the banking every year. Through the well-known human resource agencies like 104, 1111 human resource agency and the official website of each bank, it is easily to find there are plenty of openings in the banking. That is the reason why the banking employees are the sample in this study. Based on the information provided by Banking Bureau of Financial Supervisory 31.

(42) Commission, R.O.C., 90 % of head offices are located in the north and central of Taiwan. Therefore, the questionnaires were distributed to the domestic banks located in north and central of Taiwan instead of governmental banks such as Bank of Taiwan, Land Bank of Taiwan. Since the employees who work in the governmental banks have higher benefits and salaries than other domestic banks. Also their benefits are just similar as other civil servants in Taiwan. So it is hard for them to have intention to leave the governmental banks.. Data Collection The sample of this study was 444 employees worked in 15 domestic banks in Taiwan (Appendix B). The convenient sampling was used in this research. The total distribution number of questionnaires was 790. In two months, 529 questionnaires were returned, 85 were invalid. The response rate of questionnaire was 56.2%. Two main methods were used to conduct data collection. In the first method, responses from this study sample were obtained through a visiting to each bank branch in person and contacted with bank manager, who was in charge of collecting data from their employees. Then three steps were taken to conduct the data collection: First, obtaining permission from the bank manager of each branch. Second, establishing the data collection schedule and deadline. Last, distributing the paper-based questionnaire. The second method was a snow-ball sampling strategy. This method contained five steps to collect the data: first, identifying the potential subjects who work in the banks. Second, contacting and sending the request to the potential subjects. Third, subjects nominating another person with same characteristics. Fourth, establishing the data collection schedule and deadline. Last, distributing the paper-based questionnaires.. 32.

(43) Measurement Psychological Contract Breach Morrison and Robinson (1997) defined that perceived psychological contract breach referred to an employee discovering there was unfairness in the social exchange process, and an employee did not receive expected results for accomplishing his or her obligations from an organization. This research adopted the psychological contract breach scale which was based on Robinson and Morrison (2000). The original Cronbach’s alpha reliability of the psychological contract breach in this study was 0.86. The scale contained a total of 5 items. An example item is “I have not received everything promised to me in exchange for my contribution.” The questionnaire asked participants to self-report the real situation while they worked in the organization. Responses were designed on a 7-Point Likert scale, Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the following statements ranging from 1(strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The high score of scale indicate that the person perceives higher psychological contract breach.. Career Plateau Career plateau was defined as the point in one’s career at which the probability of a vertical assignment or a promotion in the near future is unlikely. (Ference, Stoner, & Warren, 1977) This research adopted the career plateau scale which was based on Allen et al., (1999). The scale contained in total 12 items which are separated into two dimensions: hierarchical career plateau and job content career plateau. The original Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was 0.83 on hierarchical career plateau and 0.85 on job content career plateau. There are six items on hierarchical career plateau. An example item is “The opportunities for upward movement are limited.” And the other six items belong to job content career plateau, the items include like “My job tasks and activities have become routine for me.” The questionnaire asked participants to 33.

(44) self-report the real situation while they work in the organization. Responses are designed on a 5-Point Likert scale. Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the following statements ranging from 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The high score of scale indicates that the person perceives the career plateau in the organization.. Intention to Leave Intention to leave was defined as an individual thinking of quitting which is the next logical step after experienced dissatisfaction in the organization and intention to leave may be the last step prior to actual quitting (Porter & Steers, 1973). This research adopted the intention to leave scale which was developed by Meyer et al., (1993). The original Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was 0.83. The scale included three items. Items are “I frequently think about leaving my current employer.”, “I am likely to search for a job in another organization.” And “I am likely to leave the organization within the next year.” The questionnaire asked participants to self-report the real situation while they work in the organization. Responses are designed on a 7-Point Likert scale. Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the following statements ranging from 1(strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The high score of scale indicates that the person has higher intention to leave the organization.. 34.

(45) Control Variables According to the previous literatures, researchers found that some demographic variables had the impact on intention to leave. Therefore, these control variables would be included in the final section of the questionnaire to clarify the relationship among dependent, moderator variable, and independent.. Age Mobley, Horner and Hollingsworth (1978), Arnold and Feldman (1982), Cotton and Tuttle (1986) found that the elder employees tended to have lower intention to leave than younger employees. The other studies related to the intention to leave issues believed that age was a significant effect, and it was found that age would have a negative relationship with intention to leave (Sager, Futrell & Varadarajan, 1989). Therefore, the age was the control variable in this study.. Education In the previous researches, education was viewed as an important variable that has impact on intention to leave researches. Mobley, Horner and Hollingsworth (1978) found that education had negative relationship with intention to leave. However, Cotton and Tuttle (1986) found that an employee with higher education had higher intention to leave the job than those with lower education. Therefore, the education was the control variable in this study.. Job Tenure Arnold and Feldman (1982) found that job tenure had negative relationship with intention to leave in the previous researches. The other studies related to the intention to leave issues believed that job tenure was a significant effect (Abelson, 1986; Cotton & Tuttle, 1986; John & Jeffery, 1986; Mobley et. al., 1978). Therefore, the job tenure was the control variable in this study.. 35.

(46) Questionnaire Design The scales adopted in this questionnaire were all mature scales. The content of scale’s items was all valid. The original scales are English version. To consider that most participants are Taiwanese, it would be more efficient for them to answer the questionnaire in Chinese. Therefore, the questionnaire in this research was translated into Chinese version. The researcher invited a high classmate to translate the original English version into the Chinese version. Then, three graduate students were invited to translate Chinese version into English version in order to make sure the Chinese version corresponded with the original English version. All variables’ scale were put into one questionnaire, so the independent and dependent variables were answered by the same person and at the same period of time. It may cause the problem of common method variance (CMV). In order to avoid the problem of CMV, the researcher made the effort to minimize as following:. First, based on the suggestion from Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee and Podsakoff (2003), the study purpose and variables were not shown and clearly explained in the questionnaire. Second, the different point of Likert scales were used in the questionnaire. For example, psychological contract breach and intention to leave adopted 7-point Likert scale, and career plateau adopted 5-point Likert scale. Third, this study adopted reverse items in the questionnaire to prevent participants from filling in the questionnaire randomly.. Back Translation The original scales are English version. To consider that participants are all Taiwanese, the researcher translated the scales into Chinese. In order to know whether the Chinese translation conformed original meaning of English, we conducted the back translation. The researcher found friend Jams Lei who has studied abroad in the United 36.

(47) States since 2007. He majored in Business Administration at University of Oregon in the U.S. As for his English ability, he got a score of 97 in TOEFL. He translated the English version scales back to Chinese. Based on his translation, three graduate students who majored English before and one of them obtained 110 TOEFL and 980 TOEIC score, the others also obtained 800 TOEIC score translated Chinese into English. The main purpose was to ensure Chinese version and English version were in the same meaning. The researcher also asked the thesis advisor to confirm both versions to make sure the words translated into the consistent meanings.. Pilot Test This research was a quantitative research. The researcher did the pilot test before collecting the data. In order to understand the samples, to check the reliability of scales and examine the relationship between all variables, pilot test was distributed to 50 banking employees who work in E. SUN bank. Only 43 questionnaires were valid and 7 questionnaires were invalid. First, from the demographic information about the samples, half of the 43 participants were female (58.1%). Most of them were single (74.4%) and aged from 26 to 30 years old (41.9%). When it came to the education background, over 72.1% participants had bachelor degree. Regarding their working position, most of them were first-line employees (88.4%). The participants’ total tenure in banking industry was principally for 1 to 5 years (51.2%). The frequency and percentage of the demographic information are summarized in Table 3.1. Second, Pearson correlation analysis was also conducted for the pilot test. The result of correlations analysis indicated that all the main variables were significantly and positively correlated as shown in Table 3.2. Psychological contract breach was positively and significantly related to intention to leave (r=.50, p<.01). In addition, psychological contract breach also was positively and significantly related to career 37.

(48) plateau (r=.26, p<.0.1) and the two sub-dimensions of career plateau (r=.25, r=.10, p<.01). Career plateau was positively and significantly related to intention to leave (r=.28, p<.01). Also, the two sub-dimensions of career plateau were positively and significantly related to intention to leave (r=.21, r=.19, p<.01). Third, the Cronbach’s alpha values of pilot test are shown that the career plateau was 0.72 and the sub-dimensions of career plateau were 0.77 and 0.75; psychological contract breach was 0.85 and the intention to leave was 0.80. Table 3.1. Descriptive statistics for pilot test (n=43) Frequency Percentage ------- Item Gender. Frequency Percentage. Education. Female. 25. 58.1. High/ Vocational school. 1. 2.3. Male. 18. 41.9. Associate. 5. 11.6. 0. 0. Bachelor. 31. 72.1. 43. 100.0. Master. 6. 14.0. Ph. D.. 0. 0. Missing value. 0. 0. 43. 100.0. 32. 88.4. Missing value Total. Total Marriage. Position. Single. 32. 74.4. First-line employee. Married. 11. 25.6. Supervisor. 2. 4.7. 0. 0. Middle level manager. 3. 7.0. 43. 100.0. High level manager. 0. 0. Missing value. 0. 0. 43. 100.0. 2. 4.6. Missing value Total. Total Age Below 25. Total tenure in banking 7. 16.3. Below 1 year. 26 - 30. 18. 41.9. 1 - 5 years. 22. 51.2. 31-35. 8. 18.6. 6 - 10 years. 11. 25.6. 36-40. 3. 7.0. 11 - 15 years. 4. 9.3. Above 41. 5. 11.6. Above 16. 4. 9.3. Missing value. 2. 4.6. Missing value. 0. 0. 43. 100.0. 43. 100.0. Total. Total. 38.

(49) Table 3.2. Mean, standard deviations, correlations, and reliability for pilot test (n=43) Mean. S.D.. 1. 2. 3. 4. -.01. (.85). 5. 1. Age (year). 31.09. 6.70. 2. Education. 2.98. 0.60. 3. Total tenure (year). 6.02. 5.68. .90**. 4. Psychological contract breach. 3.87. 1.08. .02. 5. Career plateau. 2.69. 0.43. .09**. -.09**. .22**. .26**. (.72). 6. Hierarchical career plateau. 3.01. 0.72. .26**. -.10**. .39**. .25**. .79**. 7. Job content career plateau. 2.36. 0.53. -.21. -.01. 8. Intention to leave. 4.21. 1.32. -.27**. 6. 7. 8. -.36* -.27** .11. .29. (.77). -.18. .10**. .57**. .09*. -.24**. .50**. .28**. .21**. Notes. Numbers in parentheses represent Cronbach’s alpha value. **p < .01 *p < .05. Data Analysis This was a quantitative study being conducted using questionnaires. Data collected as part of this study were tabulated and entered into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 19.0 version and AMOS 18.0 for Windows. The analysis method included Cronbach’s alpha, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis:. Cronbach’s Alpha The reliability was tested by internal consistency and stability. Reliability is a concept that determines the precision of measurements. The degree of precision indication by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient indicates the stability and consistency of measurements. The higher Cronbach’s alpha coefficient means a higher consistency of each dimension. According to Guieford (1965) and Nunally and Berstein (1994), if the Cronbach’s alpha value was over 0.7, it was reliable and acceptable. The reliability analysis using Cronbach’s alpha was conducted to determine the reliability of all scales. The Cronbach’s alpha of psychological contract breach in this study was .86. The Cronbach’s alpha of career plateau serving as a moderator was .71. For the Cronbach’s alpha of the two sub-dimensions of career plateau were .76 and .71.. 39. (.75) .19**. (.80).

(50) Moreover, the Cronbach’s alpha of intention to leave was .88.. Descriptive Statistics This study adopted descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, percentages and frequencies) to describe the characteristics of participants. The frequency distribution and percentage number were used to identify the participants’ distribution pattern. Hence the descriptive statistics in this study included the results of demographic information which contained gender, age, marital status, level of education, job tenure, job position and job title.. Pearson Correlation Analysis To understand the correlation among the career plateau, psychological contract breach and intention to leave, Pearson coefficient were used to examine the correlations. A correlation of +1 means that there is a perfect positive linear relationship between variables; on the contrary, a correlation of -1 means that there is a perfect negative linear relationship between variables. A correlation below 0.4 indicates low correlation. A correlation of 0.4 to 0.7 indicates medium correlation. A correlation above 0.7 indicates high correlation.. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) The researcher conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to evaluate the distinctiveness of the measures used in this study by using AMOS 18.0 before testing the hypotheses. When the value of chi square dividedly degree of freedom was below 3, it implied a good model fit. Moreover, the whole model fit was also examined by other fit indices which were the root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA), the comparative fit index (CFI), the normed fit index (NFI), the incremental fit index (IFI), the Tucker-Lewis non-normed index (TLI), and goodness-of-fit index (GFI). When RMSEA was below .08, it implied a good model fit (Browne & Cudeck, 1993), and when CFI, NFI, IFI, TLI and GFI scores were above 0.90, it implied a good 40.

(51) model fit (Bentler & Bonett, 1980; Carmines & McIver, 1981).. Hierarchical Regression Analysis Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the relationships among psychological contract breach, career plateau, and intention to leave. The researcher used this method to examine the relationships among variables and its sub-dimensions. Firstly, since all independent and dependable variables were continuous variables; hence, hierarchical regression was used to examine hypotheses in this study to understand the independent variable’s (psychological contract breach) impact on dependent variable (intention to leave). Based on Baron and Kenny’s research (1986), the moderation effect was tested by hierarchical regression analysis. This study conducted three steps to examine the moderator effects of career plateau on the relationship between psychological contract breach and intention to leave. Firstly, control variables were entered into SPSS. Secondly, psychological contract breach and career plateau were entered to test the two variables’ impact on the intention to leave.. Lastly, multiplication item of psychological contract breach. and career plateau was entered to examine their interaction effect on intention to leave.. 41.

(52) 42.

(53) CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. This chapter presents the findings regarding the hypotheses of this study. Firstly, the descriptive statistics analysis was presented. Secondly, it presented the results of correlation analysis among psychological contract breach, career plateau, and intention to leave. Thirdly, it showed the results of the validity of this study. Fourthly, it included the findings of hypotheses testing by using hierarchical regression analysis.. Descriptive Statistics The data was collected from 444 banking employees working in 15 different domestic banks in north, central and south Taiwan. To collect the information of the respondents, there were several questions written into demographic information. They were gender, marriage, age, education, position and total tenure in the banking industry. Owing to the characteristics of the banking industry, above half of the 444 participants were female (58.1%). Most of them were single (62.4%) and aged from 26 to 30 years old (37.8%). When it came to the education background, over 65.3% participants had bachelor degree. Regarding their working position, most of them were first-line employees (85.6%). The participants’ total tenure in banking industry was principally for 1 to 5 years (37.3%). The frequency and percentage of the demographic information are summarized in Table 4.1.. 43.