MEASURING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOB RESOURCES AND EMPLOYEE TURNOVER BEHAVIOUR: A STUDY OF GENERATION Y EMPLOYEES IN INDIAN IT ORGANIZATION

Abstract

A philosophical thought about human nature states that humans as a resource act as a catalyst for growth and prosperity of the nation provided they are inspired and motivated. It is also stated that building institutions and for achieving excellence, organizations have to orchestrate with their stakeholders‟ requirements. Organizations have been served by different generation of employees that come together and work towards the achievement of organizational objectives. A generation is a group of people which are born and lived around the same time and till date there are four generation of employees that have been explored. The most eldest generation is that of veterans followed by Baby Boomers and generation X. The recent generation of employees to join the workforce are the members of generation Y. Research pertaining to generation Y – also known as Millennials – is relatively new and additional research and literature continues to surface. However, certain characteristics that remain common throughout the literature includes is multitasking and technologically savvy generation Y (Meister & Willyerd, 2010). In terms of workplace attitudes, Tulgan (2009) states that millennials prefer flexibility in their work schedules and positions as well as they also possess they ability to maintain a substantial work-life balance. Millennials desire constant feedback from their superiors and seek knowledge from older generations in the workplace (Gilbert, 2011). In comparison with the literature available in western context, limited studies are available on engagement and retention of generation Y in Indian context. The purpose of the current study is to seek answers to certain questions raised in the study pertaining to level of engagement and intentions to quit of generation Y working in Indian

IT sector organizations. Study also figures out on the question of the perceived availability and engagement potential of job resources that are helpful to engage and retain Indian generation Y IT workforce. Job resources are the offerings from the organization to the employees and are related to either content or context of the job. The important thing about job resources is the motivational capability both intrinsic and extrinsic and upon receiving at task, social and organizational level, employees tend to show high levels of engagement and reduced intentions to quit the organization. In the similar vein, job resources like intrinsic job characteristics, extrinsic job characteristics, supervisor support, coworker support, organizational climate and HRD practices has been identified from literature review in the present study. Firstly, the perceived availability of the job resources in the jobs by generation Y employees has been noted. Secondly, the level of engagement and intentions to quit of generation Y employees has been measured. Thirdly, the relationship between job resources and engagement and intentions to quit is executed to ascertain the significant among the identified job resources and the strength with which engagement reduces employee‟s intentions to quit. The study is executed with the help of questionnaire to collect primary data from generation Y employees working in tier 1and tier 2 type of Indian IT organizations. Data analysis has been done using statistical software SPSS and AMOS. SPSS is used to conduct test of differences like t-test & Anova and AMOS is used to conduct Structural Equation Modelling to examine the relationship between job resources as independent variable and intentions to quit as dependent variables. Engagement is also studied as mediating variable between job resources and intentions to quit. Results from data analysis revealed that job resources such as supervisor support, coworker support and HRD practices are found to have positive relationship with engagement. It has also been found out that engagement is significantly reducing generation Y intentions to quit. Engagement has also been found out to mediate the relationship between supervisor support and intentions to quit. Furthermore, this study add to the literature by explaining the role of different job resources as predictor for enhancing engagement and reducing turnover intentions of generation Y employees of IT companies in India.