Turnover intention of public sector workers in South Africa across gender and race: The moderating role of psychological contract type and organisational commitment dimension

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to investigate the relevance of gender and race to turnover intention among public sector workers (PSW) through the moderation of psychological contract type and organisational commitment dimension. The research hypotheses in this study set out to test relationships between psychological contract type and turnover intention and between organisational commitment dimension and turnover intention. Using gender and race as key variables, further hypotheses tested whether significant differences in PSW psychological contract type existed; whether differences in PSW organisational commitment dimensions were present; and whether significant relationships between psychological contract type, organisational commitment and turnover intention were found. A survey was conducted with 211 PSW in a provincial government department in the Western Cape, South Africa. In terms of turnover intention, the results showed that coloured and white PSW were the groups that showed a positive relationship between transactional psychological contracts and an intention to leave the public sector. For white PSW, this was paradoxically coupled with high levels of continuance commitment. This is a significant finding because high levels of this form of commitment temper the turnover intention of this group. Across gender and race, relational psychological contracts were positively correlated with affective and normative commitment and inversely related to turnover intention. PSW holding relational psychological contracts experienced high levels of emotional attachment and loyalty to the public sector which contributed significantly to a desire to remain with their employer. The study addresses a conspicuous and important gap in the literature and suggests a number of recommendations for public sector management in South Africa in the light of the findings.