INFORMAL WORKPLACE FAMILY SUPPORT AND TURNOVER
INTENTION: TESTING A MEDIATION MODEL
AMINAH AHMAD AND ZOHARAH OMAR
University Putra Malaysia
Compared with employees who work in an environment perceived as
providing little family support, research findings show that those who work
in an environment with strong family support report less work-family conflict
(Lapierre et al., 2008), lower levels of job stress (Bozo, Toksabay, & Kürüm,
2009) and of turnover intention (Aminah & Zoharah, 2010). Employees who
experience high levels of work-family conflict have also reported high levels
of job stress (Kreiner, 2006) and increased intention to leave the organization
(Pasewark & Viator, 2006). Despite the importance and outcomes of family
support in the workplace, few researchers have examined informal support
and the mediating roles of work-family conflict and job stress in the support-
turnover relationship. In our study we tested a model grounded in theories of
conservation of resource (Hobfoll, 1989), social exchange (Blau, 1964), and
organizational support (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, & Sowa, 1986), and
based on results of previous studies. Informal workplace family support was our
independent variable, the dependent variable was employee turnover intention,
and work-family conflict and job stress were the mediating variables.
Using structural equation modeling we tested the responses of 616 employees
(age: M = 34.81 years; gender: 53.7% female) to self-administered questionnaires.
We computed the mean scores of the variables on a 5-point scale (informal
workplace family support: M = 3.41; work-family conflict: M = 2.67; job stress:
M = 2.42; turnover intention: M = 2.63). Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients
(.78 - .94) for all variables indicated good internal consistency. The average
variance extracted values (AVE; .511 - .596) suggested high convergent validity.
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY, 2013, 41(4), 555-556
© Society for Personality Research
http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2013.41.4.555
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Aminah Ahmad and Zoharah Omar, Department of Professional Development and Continuing
Education, Faculty of Educational Studies, University Putra Malaysia.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Aminah Ahmad, Universiti Putra
Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Email: aminah@ace.upm.edu.my