How Adversity Quotient and Organizational Justice Reduce Turnover Intention Empirical Evidence from Indonesia

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of adversity quotient (AQ) and organizational justice on turnover intention mediating by affective commitment. This research uses a quantitative approach with a survey method using a Likert scale model questionnaire prepared by the researchers. All the questionnaire items were valid with corrected item-total correlation values >0.361. The questionnaire is also reliable at alpha coefficient >0.7. The respondents were 439 honorary teachers at private schools in Indonesia. Data analysis uses structural equation modeling (SEM) supported by correlational and descriptive statistics. Data processing used SPPS 26 and Lisrel 8.80. The research results reveal that all hypotheses are supported. AQ and organizational justice had a direct effect on affective commitment and turnover intention. AQ and organizational justice have also an indirect effect on turnover intention mediating by affective commitment. Besides, a new model of the effect of AQ and organizational justice on turnover intention mediating by affective commitment was confirmed. This research suggested that the teachers' turnover intention can be reduced through AQ and organizational justice, mediating affective commitment. Therefore, practitioners can adopt the new empirical model to mitigate turnover intention. The new empirical model could also be explored and adopted in further research.

1. Introduction

In the organization, the turnover intention is like a ghost. Its existence is often hidden beneath the surface so that it is not easy to detect. Employees involved in turnover intention try to hide their desire to leave the organization so that other employees do not know, especially their supervisors or leaders. Therefore, the turnover intention is an “enemy in the blanket” for the organization because if it happens, it can be detrimental to the organization. Empirical facts show that turnover intention can interfere with organizational performance (Lai & Chen, 2012) and organizational effectiveness (Ahmed et al., 2016). According to Hall and Smith (2019), turnover intention is a phenomenon that will harm the company. If this is a common occurrence, the company will have to pay a huge price to anticipate it. Turnover also influences the flow of work flexibility, the relationships among the team members, and communication between themselves and the top management (Siddiqi, 2013). Whenever a team member leaves an organization, the whole team will be affected, both in the teams’ quality and performance (Gupta, 2019). At the individual level, the turnover intention is claiming to reduce employee performance (Lin & Huang, 2020), productivity (Park, Kim, & Kim, 2013), organizational citizenship behaviors, and related deviance behaviors (Mai et al., 2016). Turnover intention occurs for many reasons. It is a tendency or desire to escape that is induced within employees and stimulated by factors outside the organization. These stimulants operate based either on employees’ dissatisfaction with their current job or organization or on their yearning for better job opportunities (Wang & Wang, 2020). Turnover is the percentage or number of employees leaving an organization and getting replaced with other new ones (Wei, 2015).

Turnover always starts with intention. Because of that, the term turnover intention is popular until now. Turnover intention refers to employees’ intention to quit or desire to leave their organization (Wombacher & Felfe, 2017). Related to it, Robbins and Judge (2019) state that employee layoffs are divide into voluntary turnover initiated by employees and involuntary turnover undertaken by the company. Voluntary turnover is a process in which an employee decides whether to stay or leave the organization. The voluntary turnover rate is the total number of employees leaving the organization divided out of the total number of employees, often measured over one year (Hausknecht & Trevor, 2017). Whereas involuntary turnover is when the organization control whether the employee stays or goes (Long et al., 2012). Turnover intention consists of five dimensions: the emergence of thoughts to leave the organization, the possibility of quitting a current job, motivation to find other jobs, obtaining the external possibility of work, and intention to leave the organization (Chen et al., 2021; Suyono et al., 2021).

Turnover intention can occur in profit-oriented and non-profit organizations, including private school organizations in Indonesia. Private schools in Indonesia tend to be managed semi-profit institutions. In general, private schools are managed by a non-profit-oriented foundation. However, because private schools were built with a large amount of investment, their management was then carried out on a semi-profit basis with the excuse of maintaining the survival of the school organization. Few private schools are trying to keep their survival and trying to get a profit in practice. It is in this perspective that private schools are managed on a semi-business basis, including treating honorary teachers as part-time workers who are paid based on monthly teaching hours, without additional facilities and other welfare guarantees. Their average accumulated monthly income is far below the regional (provincial) minimum wage standard. This condition creates pressure for honorary teachers, stimulating them to look for a more decent job, thus encouraging them to be in a turnover intention. However, that was not the only reason. Other factors can trigger turnover intention, among others, AQ, organizational commitment, and affective commitment.

2. Literature Review and Hypothesis Development

2.1. AQ and Turnover Intention

Adversity quotient (AQ) is increasingly attracting the attention of academics and practitioners after being empirically proven to have a significant contribution to the lives of individuals, groups, and organizations. AQ helps individuals strengthen their abilities and perseverance in facing the challenges of everyday life (Ablaña, Isidro, & Cabrera, 2016). AQ also affects organizational citizenship behavior (Siphai, 2015) and performance (Wolor et al., 2020; Tansiongco & Ibarra, 2020). In the educational context, AQ proves increasing graduates’ quality (Puspitacandri et al., 2020). AQ is a theory that scientifically explains steps and strengthens how people respond to various kinds of difficulties (Venkatesh & Shivaranjani, 2015). AQ refers to a persons’ capacity to deal with and respond to life’s difficulties such as stress and the difficulties he faces (Tigchelaar & Bekhet, 2015), or a persons’ ability to survive in the face of difficulties and efforts to resolve difficulties (Hastuti, Sari, & Riyadi, 2018).

Stoltz (2007) mentions four dimensions of AQ: control, origin ownership, reach, and endurance (CO2RE). Control refers to the ability of individuals to positively influence a situation and control the response to the situation. Origin ownership reflects the individuals’ ability to place feelings on him and dare to bear the consequences of the situation, improving the problems. Reach is related to an individuals’ ability to reach out and limit problems to reach other areas of an individuals’ life. Endurance is individuals’ ability to perceive difficulties and strength in dealing with these difficulties by creating ideas for problem-solving so that the hardness of heart and courage in solving problems can be realized. This dimension, if an adequate condition can reduce turnover intention, is reflected in the emergence of thoughts to leave the organization, the possibility of quitting a current job, motivation to find other jobs, obtaining the external possibility of work, and intention to leave the organization. The investigation by Song and Woo (2015) and Youngjin and Sujeong (2020) also proved that AQ affects turnover intention. Based on the studies above, the first hypothesis in this study is:

H1: AQ has a direct effect on turnover intention.

2.2. Organizational Justice and Turnover Intention

Organizational justice has consistently been an interesting issue until now because it has a multiplier effect, both for individuals and organizations. Empirically, an employees’ perception of justice determines the quality of exchanging relationships with the organization (Swalhi et al., 2017). When employees perceive fair treatment from the organization and its authorities, they may feel a sense of obligation to create a good act in return (Ghosh et al., 2017). Otherwise, the perception of injustice can threaten employees’ resources and give them a feeling of inappropriate resources. It makes them feel frustrated and even wears them out, which, in turn, evolves into burnout and destructive organizational behaviors, such as theft, sabotage, withdrawal, and harassment (Shkoler & Tziner, 2017).

Pekurinen et al. (2017) also claimed that low organizational justice might harm nurses’ behavior toward colleagues (e.g., collaboration). They may lead to poor employee-patient interactions and change nurses’ behavior toward patients. Moreover, organizational justice also influenced employees’ job performance (Shan, Ishag, & Shaheen, 2015) and organizational productivity (Imran, Majeed, & Ayub, 2015). Pekurinen et al. (2017) state that justice is recognized as an action or decision that is understood to be morally right on the basis of ethics, religion, fairness, equity, or the law. It is a major area of concern for both employees and organizations (Swalhi et al., 2017). According to Ivancevich, Konopaske, and Matteson (2018), organizational justice is the extent to which individuals feel treated fairly in the workplace. For Schultz and Schultz (2016), organizational justice is how fairly employees feel that the company treated them. Besides, organizational justice also can describe as a persons’ perception of fairness within the organization, which includes perceptions of how decisions are made in relation to the distribution of results and perceptions of fairness for the outcomes themselves (Asadullah et al., 2017).

Aamodt (2016) identified three dimensions of organizational justice: distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. Distributive justice refers to the perceived fairness of the actual decision made in an organization. Procedural justice is related to the perceived fairness of the method used to arrive at a decision. Interactional justice refers to the perceived fairness of the interpersonal treatment received. If in good condition, these dimensions can mitigating turnover intention, reflected in the emergence of thoughts to leave the organization, the possibility of quitting a current job, motivation to find other jobs, obtaining the external possibility of work, and intention to leave the organization (Chen et al., 2021; Suyono et al., 2021). The studies by scholars (e.g., Song et al., 2020; Putra, Yadnyana, & Ratnadi, 2020; Mengstie, 2020; Chong et al., 2021) also indicated that organizational justice related to turnover intention. Based on the argues and studies above, the second hypothesis in this study is:

H2: Organizational justice has a direct effect on turnover intention.

2.3. Affective Commitment and Turnover Intention

Turnover intention also can be affected by affective commitment. The investigation by Yukongdi and Shrestha (2020) proved that affective commitment influences turnover intention. Similar studies reveal that organizational commitment included affective commitment related to turnover intention (e.g., Wahono & Riyanto, 2020; Santi, Nandini, & Alfiansyah, 2020; Živković, Franjković, & Dujak, 2021). Commitment is the degree to which an employee identifies with the organization and wants to continue actively participating in it, willing to put forth effort on its behalf (Noe et al., 2019; Newstrom, 2017). Commitment is considered as the ‘highest stage in a relational bond’ (Martono et al., 2020) between individuals or employees with the organizations (Yukongdi & Shrestha, 2020). It deserves to be called organizational commitment, which is employee believing in the organizations’ goal and value and employee effort to attain the organizations’ goals (Doan, Nguyen, & Nguyen, 2020). Organizational commitment also reflects a strong desire to become a part of the comity, a readiness to utilize greater effort for the benefit of the organization, and a definite belief and acceptance of the values and goals of the organization (Riana, 2021). Besides, organizational commitment can describe employees’ desire to remain members of the organization and the state of employees who side with the organization and its goals and desires to maintain its membership (Beardwell & Thompson, 2017; Robbins & Judge, 2019). Moreover, organizational commitment related to the mentality or type of an individuals’ conduct towards the association as faithfulness and the accomplishment of the associations’ vision, mission, and objectives (Ingsih et al., 2020), so it provides many benefits to organizations (Eliyana et al., 2019). For example, the research result by Tang, Shao, and Chen (2019) claimed that organizational commitment influences innovative behavior. The other studies indicated that organizational commitment affects organizational citizenship behavior (Widodo & Gunawan, 2020) and performance (Sungu, Weng, & Xu, 2019; Hendri, 2019).

One of the components of organizational commitment suspected to be the most determining individuals’ behavior is affective commitment, which is the employees’ emotional attachment to organizational values – how much an employee likes the organization (Wang & Zhang, 2020). Affective commitment is also the positive emotions of employees to try and choose to remain part of the organization, such as feelings are identical to organizational goals, a feeling of being involved in organizational tasks, and feeling loyal to the organization (Newstrom, 2017; Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2018). If the three-dimension in high levels can reduce turnover intention, manifested in the emergence of thoughts to leave the organization, the possibility of quitting a current job, motivation to find other jobs, obtaining the external possibility of work, and intention to leave the organization. Based on the studies and argument above, the third hypothesis in this study is:

H3: Affective commitment has a direct effect on turnover intention.

2.4. AQ and Affective Commitment

In addition to affecting turnover intention, affective commitment is also influenced by AQ. The studies by Qamaruddin, Mukti, and Margaretha (2019) and Subagyo, Akbar, and Wibowo (2019) prove that AQ has a significant effect on affective commitment. As an illustration, the teacher who has high endurance reflected in an ability to perceive difficulties and strength in dealing with these difficulties by creating ideas in problem-solving so that the hardness of heart and courage in solving problems can be realized will tend to be actively involved in various school organization activities. Likewise, teachers who have high origin ownership manifested in an ability to place feelings on them and dare to bear the consequences of the situation will consider the school organizations’ actual conditions as reasons for staying and loyal to school organizations. It confirms the meaning that AQ is an essential determinant for affective commitment. Based on the studies and argument above, the fourth hypothesis in this study is:

H4: AQ has a direct effect on affective commitment.

2.5. Organizational Justice and Affective Commitment

Affective commitment is also affected by organizational commitment. Investigating by Yesil, Otken, and Beser (2017), Hayuningtyasa et al. (2018), and Song and Yang (2020) claimed that organizational justice influences affective commitment. Similar studies also indicated organizational justice related to organizational commitment, including affective commitment (Jang, Lee, & Kwon, 2019; Tamghe, 2019; Suifan, 2019). In practice, the organizational school that upholds and applies the values of organizational justice, such as distributive, procedural, and interactional justice (Aamodt, 2016), will encourage teachers actively involved in various school organizational activities as a manifestation of their affective commitment. For example, the teachers who are fairly needed by school leaders will tend to be actively involved in various school activities, even loyal to the school. This condition indicates an adequate relationship between AQ and affective commitment. According to the studies and argument above, the fifth hypothesis in this study is:

H5: Organizational justice has a direct effect on affective commitment.

2.6. AQ and Turnover Intention Mediating by Affective Commitment

Organizational commitment can also play a role as a mediator variable in the relationship between AQ and turnover intention. As shown in various previous studies, on the one hand, organizational commitment is influenced by AQ (Qamaruddin, Mukti, & Margaretha, 2019; Subagyo, Akbar, & Wibowo, 2019). Meanwhile, on the other hand, organizational commitment affects turnover intention (Oh, 2019; Güllü, Yildiz, & Kaya, 2020; Astiti & Surya, 2020). These two empirical facts position affective commitment between AQ and turnover intention to play a role and function as a mediator variable. In reality, the teacher in high control, origin ownership, reach, and endurance can stimulating affective commitment manifested in feelings that are identical to organizational goals, a feeling of being involved in organizational tasks, and feeling loyal to the organization, and then implicate to mitigate turnover intention reflected in the emergence of thoughts to leave the organization, the possibility of quitting a current job, motivation to find other jobs, obtaining the external possibility of work, and intention to leave the organization. For example, the teacher in high endurance reflected in an ability to perceive difficulties, and strength in dealing with these difficulties by creating ideas in problem-solving so that the hardness of heart and courage in solving problems can be realized will tend to be actively involved in various school organization activities so reducing intention to leave the organization. Based on the studies and argument above, the sixth hypothesis in this study is:

H6: AQ has an indirect effect on turnover intention mediated by affective commitment.

2.7. Organizational Justice and Turnover Intention Mediating by Affective Commitment

Affective commitment is also mediating relationship between organizational justice and turnover intention. Several studies by scholars revealed that organizational justice related to affective commitment (Yesil, Otken, & Beser, 2017; Hayuningtyasa et al., 2018; Song & Yang, 2020) and affective commitment influences turnover intention (Scales & Brown, 2020; Zhou, Li, & Gao, 2020). In the case, the organizational school that upholds and applies the values of organizational justice, such as distributive, procedural, and interactional justice will encourage can stimulating teachers’ affective commitment manifested in feelings are identical to organizational goals, a feeling of being involved in organizational tasks, and feeling loyal to the organization, and then implicate to mitigate turnover intention reflected in the emergence of thoughts to leave the organization, the possibility of quitting a current job, motivation to find other jobs, obtaining the external possibility of work, and intention to leave the organization. As illustration, the teachers who are fairly needed by school leaders tend to be actively involved in various school activities, even loyal to the school, so mitigating the potential turnover intention. Based on the studies and argument above, the sixth hypothesis in this study is:

H7: Organizational justice has an indirect effect on turnover intention mediated by affective commitment.

3. Research Methods

This research was conducted using a quantitative approach to the survey method through a questionnaire in a Likert scale model with five alternative answers: 1–strongly disagree, 2–disagree, 3–neutral, 4–agree, and 5–strongly agree. The questionnaire was designed by the researchers based on the theoretical inputs of experts. The dimensions of AQ: control (Con), origin ownership (OO), reach (Rea), endurance (End) (Stoltz, 2007); organizational justice (OJ): distributive justice (DJ), procedural justice (PJ), interactional justice (IJ) (Aamodt, 2016); affective commitment: identical to organizational goals (IOG), a feeling of being involved in organizational tasks (IOT), and feeling loyal to the organization (FLO); and turnover intention: the emergence of thoughts to leave the organization (ETLO), the possibility of quitting a current job (PQRJ), motivation to find other jobs (MFOJ), obtaining the external possibility of work (OEPW), and intention to leave the organization (ILO) (Chen et al., 2021; Suyono et al., 2021). The AQ questionnaire consists of eight items with an alpha coefficient = 0.765, organizational justice consists of six items with an alpha coefficient = 0.816, affective commitment consists of nine items with an alpha coefficient = 0.909, and turnover intention consists of 10 items with alpha coefficients = 0.949. All variables have an alpha coefficient >0.7, so it is reliable as a research instrument (van Griethuijsen et al., 2014; Hair et al., 2018).

The participants to the research were 439 honorary private school teachers in Indonesia spread across seven provinces, namely, Jakarta, Banten, West Java, Central Java, Riau Islands, East Nusa Tenggara, and East Kalimantan. The determination of samples was conducted by accidental sampling based on the willingness of participants to fill out a questionnaire when the research was carried out (Widodo, 2019). Description of the participants is shown in Figure 1. The majority is female (64.01%), respondents are aged between 26 and 35 years (40.77%), have a bachelor education (87.24%), are married (70.62%), and have been teaching ≤5 years (40.55%).

Figure 1: Personal Characteristics of the Research Participants

Data analysis was conducted by structural equation modeling (SEM) supported by correlational and descriptive statistics. Descriptive and correlational analyzes were performed by SPSS version 26, while SEM by LISREL 8.80.

4. Results and Discussion

The descriptive statistical analysis for the four research variables shows mean values dimension of AQ from the lowest to the highest in succession: Rea = 7.39, Con = 7.70, OO = 7.79, and End = 8.66; organizational justice: IJ = 8.49, PJ = 8.59, and DJ = 9.06; affective commitment: IOG = 11.77, FLO = 12.43, and IOT = 13.11; turnover intention: PQRJ = 2.62, OEPW = 2.85, ETLO = 3.03, ILO = 3.20), and MFOJ = 3.21). The standard deviation (SD) values dimension of AQ from the lowest to the highest in succession: End = 977), OO = 1.196, Con = 1.201, and Rea = 1.439; organizational justice: DJ = 0.948, PJ = 1.007, and IJ = 1.083; affective commitment: IOT = 1.695, FLO = 1.772, and IOG = 2.114; turnover intention: PQRJ = 1.136, ETLO = 1.184, OEPW = 1.208, ILO = 1.508, and MFOJ = 1.516. In general, the standard deviation value is smaller than the mean values, so that it reflects a good representation of the overall data. Meanwhile, the correlation analysis results in all research variables dimensions had significant relationships with the other variables at level p < 0.01. This condition indicates that all the dimensions have a mutual relationship with each other.

The confirmatory factor analysis is presented in Table 1. All the factors loading values (λ ≥ 0.3) (Costello & Osborne, 2005) and the t-value greater than the critical value (≥1.65) indicate that all indicators were valid. That means all indicators as manifest variables can measure all research variables as latent variables. Meanwhile, the reliability was determined based on the construct reliability (CR) and variance extracted (VE) values. The CR values of all variables are greater than 0.70. The VE values are greater than 0.50 for affective commitment and AQ, organizational justice, and turnover intention slightly below 0.50. This indicates good reliability and acceptable convergence.

Table 1: Results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis

The result of the goodness of fit (GOF) is shown in Table 2. From the eleven criteria measurement, nine indices met the requirements, while two others did not (Chi-Square and Sig. probability values). According to Hair et al. (2018), Chi-Square is highly sensitive to large sample sizes (> 200); it needs accompaniment by another testing. The research participants consist of 439 teachers, therefore the χ² and Sig. probability values were rendered ineffective. Nevertheless, it was considered valid because the other nine criteria tested had suitable requirements.

Table 2: Goodness of Fit Statistics

The results of the hypothesis testing are summarized in Table 3 and visualized in Figure 2 and Figure 3. All of the hypotheses were supported (t value > t table at α = 0.01 & 0.05). AQ had a negative direct effect on turnover intention. Organizational justice had a negative significant direct effect on turnover intention. The affective commitment had a negative significant direct effect on turnover intention. AQ had a positive significant direct effect on affective commitment. Organizational justice had a positive significant direct effect on affective commitment. AQ had a negative significant indirect effect on turnover intention mediated by affective commitment. Organizational justice had a negative significant indirect effect on turnover intention mediated by affective commitment.

Table 3: Summary of Path Coefficients and T-values

**p < 0.01; *p < 0.05.

Figure 2: Standardized Structural Model

Figure 3: T-value Structural Model

This research revealed that AQ and organizational justice significantly affected turnover intention, directly or indirectly mediated by affective commitment. This evidence shows that affective commitment plays a significant role as a mediator of the effect of AQ, and organizational justice significantly affected turnover intention. This research also indicates the vitality of AQ, organizational justice, and affective commitment for turnover intention. That means the existence of AQ, organizational justice, and affective commitment are crucial determinants for reducing turnover intention. It is in line with previous studies that turnover intention influenced by AQ (e.g., Song & Woo, 2015; Youngjin & Sujeong, 2020), organizational justice (e.g., Song et al., 2020; Mengstie, 2020; Chong et al., 2021), and affective commitment (e.g., Wahono & Riyanto, 2020; Scales & Brown, 2020; Zhou, Li, & Gao, 2020; Živković, Franjković, & Dujak, 2021).

This empirical fact confirms that AQ, organizational justice, and affective commitment are vital for reducing teachers’ turnover intention so that it needs to manage and develop optimally. Consequently, as top leaders in private schools with the support of school foundation management, school principals need to be more serious in creating a school climate that can genuinely guarantee justice for teachers, both distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. Besides, school principals also need to create school conditions that genuinely reflect a learning organization that allows all school members to learn comfortably, develop their full potential and freely, provide better welfare for teachers, and provide appropriate rewards for teachers who have made achievements. It is essential and necessary to stimulate teachers’ affective commitment. More than that, school principals also need to provide constructive opportunities and challenges for teachers that can encourage teacher AQ to grow, hone, and be adequately actualized. This kindness has implications for reducing teacher turnover intention so that school effectiveness and performance can be well maintained and guaranteed.

Finally, the research results found a new empirical model of AQ and organizational justice on turnover intention mediated by affective commitment based on Indonesia’s honorary private school teachers’ data. This model can be discussed among researchers and practitioners to built models of mitigating turnover intention. Moreover, the model also can adopt new approaches to mitigating teachers’ turnover intention.

5. Conclusion

This research found that AQ and organizational justice had a direct effect on affective commitment and turnover intention. AQ and organizational justice is also an indirect effect on turnover intention mediated by affective commitment. Besides, a new model of the effect of AQ and organizational justice on turnover intention mediated by affective commitment was confirmed. This research suggested that the teachers’ turnover intention can be reduced through AQ and organizational justice, mediating affective commitment. Therefore, practitioners can adopt the new empirical model to mitigate turnover intention. The new empirical model, for researchers, can also adopt and explore in further research with add new other relevant dimensions.