HCBE Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Department

H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship

Advisor

Barry F. Barnes

Committee Member

Regina A. Greenwood

Committee Member

Thomas E. Griffin

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to determine the antecedents to the intention to quit in an occupation characterized by a high degree of voluntary attrition. This study posits that job satisfaction and affective commitment are antecedents to voluntary turnover. The study concerns the application of Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory to determine the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction factors and affective commitment on the intention to quit among drivers in the solid waste management industry. Participants were volunteers taken from an industry leading publicly listed company, a premier privately held organization, and a unionized operation which represent all three principle lines of business. The research sample has 380 drivers randomly selected from the commercial, industrial, and residential driver classifications. Each of the participants responded to questionnaires which included items about demographics, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and the intent to quit. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Graduate Pack 16.0 with Amos. Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation was used to determine the correlation between the job satisfaction factors, affective commitment, and the intention to quit. Independent- samples t-tests were used to test the difference between groups such as union versus non-union, public versus privately held companies, and between lines of business. The outcome of the study supports Herzberg's theory and reveals that affective commitment has greater influence on the intent quit than job satisfaction. This study is the most comprehensive of its kind to address a qualitative organizational behavior issue in the solid waste management industry. In addition, the results reveal opportunities for employers to align human capital strategies with key job satisfaction factors to gain affective commitment and improve operational performance. Comparisons within the three lines of business and between union and non-union operations were included in the analysis with the results revealing no significant differences between operations or positions.

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