Impact of job satisfaction on turnover intention among employees: a comparative study of private and public banks employees in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Employee performance depends majorly on job satisfaction. Satisfied employees result in employee retention while job dissatisfaction creates turnover intention among employees. Although studies have been performed regarding job satisfaction and turnover intention in other countries, only a handful of studies have been conducted in the Sri Lankan context. Among those studies, research with reference to the banking sector is minimal. A deficiency of literature exists in terms of comparative research as the aforementioned studies have considered only public banks. Therefore, this study aimed at examining the impact of job satisfaction on turnover intention of employees in commercial banks of Sri Lanka. The current study used a sample of 151 bank employees in Colombo district. Data was collected using a questionnaire, created by adapting indicators from Job Satisfaction Survey and Turnover Intention Scale (TIS-6). An exploratory factor analysis was performed in identifying the four reflective latent factors as pay, promotion, nature of work and supervision. Data was analyzed through a Covariance-Based, Higher order Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), using the SPSS AMOS version 23. The study found that, job satisfaction has a significant negative impact on turnover intention of banking employees. Identified four latent factors were found to be positively related to job satisfaction. Moderation analysis found that, gender and work setting do not alter the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. Male employees reported a lower job satisfaction compared to females and job satisfaction of private sector employees was higher in comparison to public sector. Aligned with the study findings, enhancing job satisfaction through adequate compensation, clear promotion criterion, positive work environment and stronger supervision are potential policy implications to reduce the turnover intention of employees.