The career hopscotch: understanding the relationship between knowledge, competencies, skill-acquisition and voluntary turnover

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Copyright: Bose, Lakshmi
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Abstract
This thesis investigates how employees’ knowledge, competencies and skill-acquisition are related to turnover and intention to quit, and what roles self-directedness and other contextual factors play in these relationships. It contributes to the literature on voluntary turnover and the new career literature. Chapter 1 introduces the topic of the thesis. Chapter 2 presents a theoretical model relating turnover with skill-acquisition to answer the question why high turnover is observed among skilled employees in innovative, knowledge-intensive industries. I argue that turnover is motivated by employees’ desires to acquire skills that command high market value. Self-directed employees move to innovating firms to acquire skills, and then to firms that value these skills. Employees repeat this cycle when new innovations deplete the value of earlier knowledge. Chapter 3 asks how two intrapersonal competencies—'knowing how’ and ‘knowing why’—are associated with career success and intention to quit, and whether selfdirectedness moderates these relationships. To answer this question, I analyse data from 235 university graduates. I find that employees with high knowing how and knowing why attain greater subjective career success; self-directedness does not moderate these relationships. Conversely, knowing how and knowing why are not associated with employees’ intention to quit. However, self-directedness moderates this relationship positively (knowing how) and negatively (knowing why). Chapter 4 investigates whether two training and development practices--tuition reimbursement and job rotation--are associated with employees’ intention to quit. I analyse an Australian dataset (4225 employees and 858 employers). I find that provision of tuition reimbursement is negatively associated with employees’ intention to quit, and this relationship is strengthened when organisations reward performance with additional pay. I also find that job rotation is positively associated with intention to quit, though employees with dependent children are not likely to leave their organisations. This thesis shows that knowledge, competencies and skill-acquisition motivate turnover and mobility, especially among self-directed employees. Thus, it furthers our theoretical and empirical understanding of voluntary turnover, integrates this discussion with the new career literature and derives implications for organisational provision of training and development.
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Author(s)
Bose, Lakshmi
Supervisor(s)
Sanders, Karin
Sargent, Leisa
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Publication Year
2018
Resource Type
Thesis
Degree Type
PhD Doctorate
UNSW Faculty
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