The Relationship between Organizational Commitment and Intention to Quit: The Malaysian Companies Perspectives

The Relationship between Organizational Commitment and Intention to Quit: The Malaysian Companies Perspectives (Edward Wong Sek Khin) This study examined the relationship between organizational commitment and employees’ intention to leave the organization in the Malaysian context and the moderating effects of participation in decision making and work effort on this relationship. It has two objectives, firstly was to determine the relationship between organizational commitment and intention to leave among working adults in Malaysia. The second objective was to investigate the moderating effect of participation in decision making and work effort on intention to leave of these same adults. It was a descriptive study based on 300 survey conducted among working adults in Malaysia. A total of 189 responses were received, representing a response rate of 63%. Of this, only 181 cases with no missing values for all the variables were used for data analysis as the others were incomplete. The correlation analysis resulted from this study confirmed previous researchers’ observations that higher organizational commitment was linked with lower intention to leave the organization. The results suggested that among the three components of organizational commitment, the employee’s affective commitment to the organization was the most important predictor of intention to leave. Employees were less likely to leave when they were emotionally attached to and identify with their organization. Cultivating an organization culture of shared values and involving employees in the goal setting process would further enhance employees’ acceptance of and alignment with organizational goals that would promote greater organizational commitment and eventually reduce employees’ intention to leave the organization.