Management and Labour Studies

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Impact of Individual Personality on Turnover Intention: A Study on Faculty Members

Saket Jeswani and Sumita Dave
Management and Labour Studies 2012 37: 253
DOI: 10.1177/0258042X13484837

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Article

Impact of Individual Personality on Management and Labour Studies

37(3) 253–265
Turnover Intention © 2012 XLRI Jamshedpur, School of
Business Management
& Human Resources
A Study on Faculty Members SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, London,
New Delhi, Singapore,
Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/0258042X13484837
http://mls.sagepub.com
Saket Jeswani
Sumita Dave

Abstract
The study is conducted to examine the main effects of personality of faculty members of technical
educational institutes of India on their turnover intentions. Five antecedents of personality were iden-
tified using Personality Big-Five Factors (Goldberg, 1981). 13-item instrument was generated using
Turnover Intention Scale and Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI). Questionnaire was designed and
administered online to collect data from sample of 261 faculty members using non-probabilistic conven-
ience sampling method. Principal component analysis with varimax rotation was used to determine con-
struct validity and Cronbach’s coefficient alpha to determine the scale internal consistency. Regression
analysis was used to determine the causal relationship between the antecedents of personality and
turnover intention. The results revealed that both extraversion and agreeableness has inverse signifi-
cant impact on turnover intention. The study suggest management should adopt appropriate strategies
and enhance human resource practices that lead to positive personality traits which lead to increased
retention of faculty members.

Keywords
Faculty Members, Individual Factors, Personality, Technical Educational Institutes, Turnover Intention

Introduction
Employee turnover has always been a matter of great concern for today’s organizations. A large degree
of employee turnover is highly detrimental to both the organization as well as the employees. So it is
mandatory for organizations to identify the factors affecting turnover intentions, which compel them to
leave the organization. Those factors may be either of individual level or organizational level. One of the
most important individual factors of turnover intention is the individual personality traits of the employ-
ees, which is the area of study of this research paper.
Personality traits concern human attributes which encompass biological, social, and cognitive factors
that make a person different from others. Personality traits influence both individual and organizational
behaviour. Barrick and Mount (2005) accepted that behaviour at work is influenced by personality.

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254 Saket Jeswani and Sumita Dave

Furthermore, self-esteem, self-efficacy, job performance and job satisfaction are all areas that have been
linked to personality (Judge and Bono, 2001). Generally speaking, personality traits are believed to be
stable over time and unaffected by environmental factors (Hofstede and McCrae, 2004; Mooradian and
Swan, 2006).
Intent to leave refers to the voluntary intention of individuals to leave their current organization or
job. The cost of an employee leaving the organization is not fixed, depending on his or her skill level. In
fact, the cost of an individual quitting the organization and the organization getting a replacement for
him may include direct costs as advertising, recruiting and training as well as indirect costs, such as, lost
work hours, cost of overtime and cost of errors made by the new replacement. At the same time, the
evidence suggests that it is proving difficult for organizations to find suitably qualified and experienced
replacements for employees who leave (Shields and Ward, 2001).
Faculty turnover is a serious issue in the field of education. Turnover costs can be as much as six
months to three years’ pay and benefits depending on job types (Fitz-Enz, 1998). Many researchers try
to understand the major determinants of turnover intention and develop some managerial implications to
deal with the problem of high turnover rate (Tuzun, 2007). This paper is attempted to identify the indi-
vidual personality traits of faculty members of technical educational institutes of India and their impact
on turnover intention.

Literature Review
Faculty turnover is a serious issue in the field of technical education. Technical educational Institutes
must pay more attention to this phenomenon and must not be overlooked, as human resource is the most
important asset of any organization. As far as education industry is concerned, faculty members act as
mediators between knowledge and students, so are considered as the most important resource to retain
and develop to gain competitive advantage.

Turnover Intention
Employee turnover intention may be understood as the employee leaving the organization or profession
voluntarily. It has been observed that voluntary turnover is an interdisciplinary and multidimensional
construct. The problem of voluntary turnover stretches beyond the scope of employee and organization.
The concept of voluntary turnover can be explicated only when it is accepted as a combination of social,
economic and psychological processes (Udechukwu and Mujtaba, 2007). Further, studies indicate that
voluntary turnover is an upshot of employee initiating the termination of their employee–organization
relationship (Lambert, 2001).
Early literature on turnover behaviour indicated that the employees would initiate the process of ter-
mination of their relationship with their employee/organization/profession only when there is perceived
desirability to do so and there is a perceived possibility of such ease of movement (March and Simon,
1958). This perceived desirability of termination of employee–employer relation is known as turnover
intention. Turnover intention may be defined as the individual’s intention to voluntararily quit the

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Impact of Individual Personality on Turnover Intention 255

organization or profession. Intentions are important to study as they predict an individual’s perception and
judgement (Mobley, Griffeth, Hand and Meglino, 1979). As such, intentions are the most immediate
determinant of actual behaviour (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). Researchers have testified that turnover
intention comprises a sequence of processes, viz. thinking of quitting, intentions to search and intention to
quit (Mobley 1982; Mobley, Horner and Hollingsworth, 1978). Thus, proactive measures may be adopted
by the organization to control the actual turnover, if it is aware of the turnover intentions of its employees.
Mobley et al. (1979) observed that the intention to quit is influenced by a series of factors, namely
organizational factors, individual factors, job-related and labour-market expectations, and individual val-
ues. The intention to quit then ultimately influences the actual quitting behaviour. The present paper
intends to study the individual factors influencing turnover intentions among faculty members, espe-
cially focusing on the personality characteristic from various individual factors.

Individual Factor: Personality Traits

Individual factors leading to turnover intentions refer to the personal characteristics of an individual.
These characteristics could be those which are inbuilt in the individual, such as personality, or those
which are learnt, such as skill, ability, etc. Studies indicate that various cognitive and non-cognitive fac-
tors do influence, directly or indirectly, an individual’s intention and then finally the decision to actually
quit the organization. The purpose of this study is to identify the personality traits of faculty members as
an individual factor affecting turnover intention.
Stagner (1948) defines personality as the organization, within the individual, of those perceptual,
cognitive, emotional and motivational systems which determine his or her unique responses to the envi-
ronment. Friedman and Rosenman’s (1959) theory of Type A and Type B personality motivated research-
ers to unearth the relationship between personality and turnover intentions among individuals. However,
no significant relationship between personality and turnover intentions could be established (Dole and
Schroeder, 2001).
Personality has been conceptualized from a variety of theoretical perspectives, and at various levels
of abstraction or breadth (John, Hampson and Goldberg, 1991; McAdams, 1995). Each of these levels
has made unique contributions to our understanding of individual differences in behaviour and experi-
ence. However, the number of personality traits, and scales designed to measure them, escalated without
an end in sight (Goldberg, 1971). The study provided evidence indicating that positive affectivity is
negatively associated with turnover intention whereas negative affectivity is neither positively nor nega-
tively associated with turnover intentions. Many researchers have suggested that individual attributes
such as personality may affect turnover (Hom and Griffeth, 1995; Mobley, Griffeth, Hand and Meglino,
1979; Salgado, 2002; Steers and Mowday, 1981; Zimmerman, 2008).

Antecedents of Personality: Big-Five Factors

After decades of research, the field is approaching consensus on a general taxonomy of personality traits,
the Big Five personality dimensions. These dimensions do not represent a particular theoretical

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256 Saket Jeswani and Sumita Dave

perspective but were derived from analyses of the natural language terms people use to describe
themselves and others. Rather than replacing all previous systems, the Big Five taxonomy serves an
integrative function because it can represent the various and diverse systems of personality description
in a common framework. It thus provides a starting place for vigorous research and theorizing that can
eventually lead to an explication and revision of the descriptive taxonomy in causal and dynamic
terms.
The current study concentrates on ‘The Personality Big Five Factor Model’ (Goldberg, 1981) for the
purpose of proving that the hypothesis drawn in the study as the Big Five Locator is a useful tool for
measuring personality (Howard, Medina and Howard, 1996).
Consensus is emerging that a five-factor model of personality, often termed the ‘Big Five’ (Goldberg,
1981), can be used to describe the most salient aspects of personality. The Big Five can be found in virtu-
ally any measure of personality (McCrae and John, 1992), including the analysis of the trait, factor rea-
nalysis of existing multidimensional measures, and decisions made by expert judges based on existing
measures (Mount and Barrick, 1998). Three meta-analyses have specifically included the relationship
between the Big Five personality traits and turnover with conflicting results (Barrick and Mount, 1991;
Salgado, 2002; Zimmerman, 2008). Barrick and Mount (1991) concluded that no significant relation-
ships existed. Salgado (2002) and Zimmerman (2008) found much more significant relationships;
regardless of the conflicting results which have been observed, one common theme seems to be repeated
in these studies: the relationship between personality and turnover should continue to be studied.
Moreover, none of these studies focused on samples of faculty members of technical educational insti-
tutes in their analyses.
The dimensions comprising the five-factor model are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness,
neuroticism and openness to experience, which are considered as antecedents of personality in order to
generate the research instruments.

1. Extraversion: Extraversion is a trait characterized by interest in other people, and trusting them.
It is seen as a positive quality since it concerns the general sociability and includes traits such as
human contacts, attention, active participation and assertiveness. Extraverts are predisposed to
experience positive emotions (Costa and McCrae, 1992). Extraversion has significant inverse
impact on turnover intention (Salgado, 2002).

H1: Extraversion has a significant impact on turnover intention of faculty members.

2. Agreeableness: Agreeableness measures how able individuals are to get along with others.
Agreeable individuals are generally decent and cheerful and therefore tend to be more involved
in their tasks. They are friendly, courteous, altruistic, helpful, and they attempt to compromise
their personal interests with others. McCrae and Costa (1991) argued that agreeableness should
be related to happiness because agreeable individuals have greater motivation to achieve inter-
personal intimacy, which should lead to greater levels of well-being. Agreeableness has signifi-
cant inverse impact on turnover intention (Salgado, 2002; Zimmerman, 2008).

H2: Agreeableness has a significant impact on turnover intention of faculty members.

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Impact of Individual Personality on Turnover Intention 257

3. Conscientiousness: Conscientiousness is associated with being dependable, organized, punctual

and strong-willed. People with conscientiousness personalities plan ahead and they direct their
impulses toward achievement (McCrae and Costa, 1991). Conscientiousness has significant
inverse impact on turnover intention (Zimmerman, 2008).

H3: Conscientiousness has a significant impact on turnover intention of faculty members.

4. Neuroticism: It represents the tendency to exhibit poor emotional adjustment and experience
negative effects such as anxiety, insecurity and hostility. It includes traits like being tense, moody
and anxious. The opposite of emotional stability, neuroticism, is commonly associated with being
anxious, depressed, angry, embarrassed, emotional, worried and insecure (Barrick and Mount,
1991). Emotional stability (low neuroticism) has significant inverse impact on turnover intention
(Hough, Eaton, Dunnette, Kamp and McCloy, 1990; Salgado, 2002).

H4: Neuroticism has a significant impact on turnover intention of faculty members.

5. Openness to Experience: It is the disposition to be imaginative, nonconforming, unconven-

tional and autonomous. Includes traits like having wide interests being imaginative and insight-
ful. Openness to experience is related to scientific and artistic creativity (Feist, 1998). Openness
to experience has significant inverse impact on turnover intention (Barrick and Mount, 1991;
Salgado, 2002; Zimmerman, 2008).

H5: Openness to experience has a significant impact on turnover intention of faculty

members.

Research Objectives
Increasing competition and the growth in business, juxtaposed with constant and increasing rates of
change, place new demands on employees to enhance their personality traits. Therefore this study pro-
poses to explore the various individual personality traits and their impact on turnover intention of faculty
members with the following objectives:

1. To identify the various antecedents of individual personality among faculty members.

2. To analyze the impact of antecedents of individual personality on turnover intention of faculty
members of technical educational institutes of India.
3. To describe the importance of personality traits and developing strategies to enhance retention
practices through developing personality traits.

Thus, the study attempts to uncover the self-directed learning readiness among faculty members in
technical educational settings of India.

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258 Saket Jeswani and Sumita Dave

Independent and Dependent Variables

An appropriate instrument is required to formulate the questionnaire. The instrument needs some base
and background of independent and dependent variables. Personality is the independent variable, which
has an impact on the turnover intention of faculty members acting as a dependent variable (Chiu and
Francesco, 2003; Jenkins, 1993; Salgado, 2002; Zimmerman, 2008). Further, the Big Five personality
traits, that is, from X1 to X5 are independent variables, which have an impact on personality acting as
independent variable (Costa and McCrae, 1992; Goldberg, 1992).

Research Instrument
The description of independent and dependent variables helps in developing the research instrument,
which is further utilized to formulate the questionnaire. 3 items research instrument for turnover inten-
tion (dependent variable) was designed referring to ‘Turnover Intention Scale’ developed by Donnelly
and Ivancevich (1985). 10 items research instrument for five antecedents of personality (i.e., 2 items for
each antecedent) was designed referring to ‘Ten-Item Personality Inventory’ (TIPI) developed by
Gosling, Rentfrow and Swann (2003). Therefore, 13 items research instrument have been generated for
the purpose of the study including both dependent and independent variable as depicted in Table 1.

Model of the Study

There are five antecedents of personality, which have a direct impact on turnover intention of faculty
members of technical educational institutes of India. A ‘Personality – Turnover Intention Model’ is

Table 1. Research Instrument

Variable Items Scale Source

Turnover Intention (Z) Z1 Actively searching for a new job next year Donnelly and Ivancevich
Z2 Often think about quitting present job (1985)
Z3 Leave as soon as possible
Extraversion X11 Enthusiastic
X12 Sociability
Agreeableness X21 Cooperative
X22 Sympathetic towards others
Conscientiousness X31 Self-disciplined TIPI (Gosling, Rentfrow
X32 Organized and Swann, 2003)
Neuroticism X41 Anxious (Eagerly desirous)
X42 Emotionally stable
Openness to Experience X51 strong intellectual curiosity
X52 preference for novelty and variety
Source: Turnover Intention Scale of Donnelly and Ivancevich (1985); Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) (Gosling, S.D.,
Rentfrow, P.J., & Swann, W.B., Jr. 2003).

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Impact of Individual Personality on Turnover Intention 259

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Figure 1. Personality–Turnover Intention Model

Source: Author’s own.

generated after identifying the antecedents of personality to analyze its impact on turnover intention as
shown in Figure 1.

Research Methodology
The conclusive design was applied in this study to analyze the impact of the antecedents of personality
on faculty members’ turnover intention. Non-probabilistic convenience sampling method was adopted
for data collection. The data was collected after formulation of structured questionnaire with the help of
research instrument generated. The questions were asked on seven-point Likert scale from the respond-
ents. The questionnaire consisted of three sections, that is, turnover intention, the antecedents of person-
ality and respondents’ demographic characteristics. It was distributed online to 1000 faculty members of
India. The country was divided into five zones, viz. East, West, North, South and Central, targeting sam-
ple size of 200 from each zone of India. The response rate was 26 per cent (n = 261 [‘n’ stands for sample
size of the study]). The data were collected from faculty members of all cadres, viz. assistant professors,
associate professors and professors.

Validity and Reliability of Instruments

The 13 items were subjected to a principal component analysis with varimax rotation to determine con-
struct validity. The factor analysis yielded three components corresponding to the six independent and

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260 Saket Jeswani and Sumita Dave

Table 2. Validity and Reliability Test

Factor Analysis Reliability Statistics

Items 1 2 3 Cronbach’s Alpha
X11 0.750 0.215 –0.192 0.891
X12 0.833 0.033 –0.114
X21 0.810 0.249 –0.103
X22 0.751 0.143 –0.051
X31 0.200 0.792 –0.082 0.814
X32 0.216 0.830 –0.084
X41 0.587 0.427 –0.045 —
X42 0.259 0.599 –0.062
X51 0.585 0.609 –0.086 —
X52 0.656 0.438 –0.106
Z1 –0.247 –0.088 0.842 0.868
Z2 –0.038 –0.076 0.921
Z3 –0.069 –0.076 0.875
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
Source: Author’s own.

dependent variables both. The result of factor analysis shows that Z1, Z2 and Z3 items of turnover inten-
tion are loaded under third component with high loading values of 0.842, 0.921 and 0.875. X11, X12, X21
and X22 items of both extraversion and agreeableness are loaded under first component, so all the four
items can be merged to a single item X, moreover the trait characteristics are also similar. X31 and X32
items of conscientiousness are loaded under second component with high loadings of 0.792 and 0.830.
X41, X42, X51 and X52 items of neuroticism and openness to experience will not be considered for further
analysis due to scattered loadings. Therefore, after factor analysis, turnover intention (Z) will be consid-
ered as dependent variable whereas four items of both extraversion (X1) and agreeableness (X2) are
considered as single antecedent X and two items (X31 and X32) of conscientiousness (X3) are considered
as independent variables for further multivariate analysis. Cronbach’s coefficient alpha to determine the
scale’s internal consistency, that is, reliability of instrument, was measured for extraversion, agreeable-
ness, conscientiousness and turnover intention, which are loaded properly and considered for analysis
after validity test, and are also internally consistent as shown in Table 2.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, Version 17) was used to facilitate analysis. The
psychometric properties of the instrument were analyzed using principal component analysis with
varimax rotation to determine construct validity and Cronbach’s coefficient alpha to determine the
scale’s internal consistency reliability. Finally, the regression analysis was conducted to determine
the impact of five antecedents of personality on turnover intention. The value of R Square is 0.748, that
is, 74.8 per cent, which reveals that data collected is reliable as shown in Table 3.

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Impact of Individual Personality on Turnover Intention 261

Table 3. Regression Statistics

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate

1 0.865 0.748 0.746 0.051
Predictors: (Constant), X3, X; Dependent Variable: Z
Source: Author’s own.

Table 4. ANOVA

Model Sum of Squares Degree of freedom Mean Square F-statistic Significance probability
Regression 507.700    2 253.850 380.629 0.000
Residual 171.399 257    0.667
Total 679.099 259
Predictors: (Constant), X, X3; Dependent Variable: Z
Source: Author’s own.

Table 4 reveals that personality has a significant impact on turnover intention of faculty members
as F value (380.6) is greater than Fcrit (2.649).
Among all the three antecedents of personality, that is, extraversion (X1), agreeableness (X2) and
conscientiousness (X3), two antecedents, viz. extraversion (X1) and agreeableness (X2) have significant
impact on turnover intention with p values of 0.001 ( p < 0.05) as shown in Table 5. Therefore research
hypothesis H1 and H2 is accepted whereas alternate hypothesis is accepted for other three antecedents,
viz. conscientiousness (X3), neuroticism (X4) and openness to experience (X5), that is, H3, H4 and H5 are
rejected.
The beta coefficients for significant antecedents of personality, that is, extraversion (X1) and agreea-
bleness (X2) are –0.409 as shown in Figure 2. The negative sign indicates the inverse relationships
between personality and turnover intention among faculty members. Therefore, if extraversion and
agreeableness trait of personality of faculty members increases, the turnover intention will decrease,
where major contribution in enhancing the personality will be of extraversion and agreeableness trait of
faculty members.

Table 5. Regression

Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficients Coefficients Significance
Model B Std. Error Beta t statistic probability
(Constant) 6.218 0.699 8.892 0.000
X –0.409 0.121 –0.234 –3.390 0.001
X3 –0.130 0.111 –0.0081 –1.168 0.244
Predictors: (Constant), X, X3; Dependent Variable: Z
Source: Author’s own.

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262 Saket Jeswani and Sumita Dave

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Figure 2. Analytical Model of Personality: Turnover Intention

Source: Author’s own.

Results and Discussion

The study set out to develop a theory-driven multidimensional measure of individual personality and
then its impact on turnover intention of faculty members of technical educational institutes of India. The
result of this empirical investigation supports the studies of Salgado (2002) and Zimmerman (2008), that
individual personality has a significant impact on turnover intention of faculty members.
The study also revels the result in line with the studies of Salgado (2002) and Zimmerman (2008), that
extraversion and agreeableness are the antecedents of personality, which has an inverse significant
impact on turnover intention, that is, if faculty members have quality of general sociability and display
traits such as human contacts, attention, active participation and assertiveness (extraversion trait) and if
they are friendly, courteous, altruistic, helpful and they attempt to compromise their personal interests
with others (agreeableness trait), then it is less likely for the them to quit the institute.

Suggestions
In this competitive world, technical educational institutes require satisfied and committed faculty mem-
bers to generate value for the institution. The result of this study was in the hypothesized directions in
which faculty members with good extent of extraversion and agreeableness trait are less indented to
leave the institute. This relationship was in line with previous findings reported and thus this study
managed to validate the results obtained by past researchers.

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Impact of Individual Personality on Turnover Intention 263

Extraversion is a trait characterized by interest in other people, and trusting them. It is seen as a posi-
tive quality since it concerns the general sociability and includes traits such as human contacts, attention,
active participation and assertiveness. Agreeableness measures how able individuals are to get along
with others. Agreeable individuals are generally decent and cheerful and therefore tend to be more
involved in their tasks. They are friendly, courteous, altruistic, helpful and they attempt to compromise
their personal interests with others.
Therefore, management of the educational institutes needs to formulate strategies enhancing the pos-
itive climate of being social, making more friends and spending more time in social situations.
Management should motivate their faculty members to behave in a more friendly, courteous and helpful
manner, and have pleasant and satisfying relationships with others.

Limitations of the Study

This study has three main potential limitations of its findings. First, the study relied on the self-reported
questionnaire to collect data on all indicators. To overcome this limitation, future research needs to be
based more on objective measures. Second limitation is the dearth of current literature in the area of
personality traits in relation to turnover intention in educational settings.
The third major limitation of this study is the population factor. Only faculty members of technical
educational institutes of India were used, leaving out students and non-academic staff. This poses a threat
to generalizability of the study in relation to prediction of personality traits in Indian technical
institutes—the study may not be generalized for the entire academic community. It is not certain that
similar results would be obtained when a study is conducted using all the subgroups (academic, non-
academic and students) for analyzing the impact of personality on faculty’s decision to quit the institute.

Conclusion
Employees are assets to an organization who can actually make all the difference as far as a firm’s com-
petitive edge is concerned. Employee turnover to some extent is desirable and accepted as it brings about
a constructive change in the organization. However, too many employees intending to leave the organi-
zation is undesirable. Voluntary quitting of performers is dysfunctional turnover which the firms always
want to stop. Intentions reveal a lot about an individual’s perception, judgment and behaviour. Studies
show that turnover intentions precede the actual turnover behaviour of employees. If the organizations
want to reduce turnover, then it is imperative for them to understand the factors which trigger turnover
intentions or quitting intentions in employees.
In this review paper, various personality traits contributing to faculty’s turnover intentions have been
analyzed. Whereas no single factor can be attributed to turnover intentions, it is advisable to take a holis-
tic approach towards handling employee turnover issue in any organization. None of the factors can influ-
ence turnover intentions in isolation. Hence remedial measure should also have a composite framework.
Despite the above-mentioned limitations, this study provides greater understanding of the influence
of personality traits on the intent to leave.

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264 Saket Jeswani and Sumita Dave

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Saket Jeswani (corresponding author) is a Senior Assistant Professor at Shri Shankaracharya Institute of
Technology and Management, Junwani, Chhattisgarh, India. E-mail: saketjeswani@gmail.com

Sumita Dave is a Professor, Faculty of Management Studies, Shri Shankaracharya Group of Institutions,
Junwani, Chhattisgarh, India – 490020. E-mail: sumitadave@rediffmail.com

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