Investigating the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic reward, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and turnover intention

Abstract

Retention strategies in the nursing profession have been a significant subject among researchers for decades. The current shortages of these skilled professionals have reached an alarming extent globally, making it difficult for organisations to retain these workers, also in South Africa. It has become evident that nursing professionals from South Africa emigrate to other countries for more lucrative remuneration, sophisticated work resources and better career opportunities, impacting the South African economy and nursing workforce negatively. The general objective of the research was to determine whether a relationship exists between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and turnover intention among a group of South African healthcare workers in the private healthcare sector. Specifically of interest was also to see if nurses’ turnover intention could be predicted by the other variables. A cross-sectional survey design was used. A convenience sample of 152 healthcare workers was obtained from three private hospitals in the Gauteng and North-West provinces. A measuring instrument for intrinsic and extrinsic rewards was adapted from a previous study, and applied with measures of job satisfaction, affective organisational commitment and turnover intention. Results indicated that the measure of rewards did not present with sufficient reliability, and it was subjected to factor analysis. This delivered two reliable factors, which were labelled Objective experience of rewards and Perceived lacking organisational support. Objective experience of rewards showed to be significantly related to job satisfaction and inversely to turnover intention, and Perceived lacking organisational support was significantly negatively related to job satisfaction and positively to turnover intention. It was also seen that both job satisfaction and objective experience of rewards showed predictive value in terms of nurses’ turnover intention. Conclusions and limitations regarding this study were made, and recommendations regarding the profession and future research are made.