RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS AND

TURNOVER INTENTION OF EMPLOYEES

( A STUDY IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN )

BY

AZHAR UDDIN

A thesis submitted to the faculty of Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, in

Partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of

BBA (Hons) HRM

Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar

2011 2015
 Certificate of Appraisal

I certify that I have read the relationship between workplace politics and turnover intention of

employees in the education sector Peshawar, Pakistan by Azhar Uddin, and that in my

opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of

the requirement for the BBA (Hons) at the Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar.

Supervisor

Name: ..

Designation: .

Signature:

Coordinator Research and

Development Department

Name: ....

Signature:
 Declaration

I hereby declared that the research submitted to R&DD by me is my own original

work. I am aware of the fact that in case my work is found to be plagiarized or not

genuine, R&DD has the full authority to cancel my research work and I am liable to

penal action.

Student Name: .

Date: ...

i
 Dedication

This research is dedicated to my parents for their patience and encouragement

ii
 Abstract

Educational institutions are those institutions which brings color and brightness in the

lives of the peoples by involving them in different knowledge related activities. We

can also call them ever green institutions because they bring harmony as compare to

the other institutions irrespective of states and different countries. As we knows that

the phenomena of turnover is there in every organization but there is a vast difference

between actual turnover and turnover intention where employee think of leaving the

organization. This leads a condition in which the productivity of the organization falls

to the extreme level due to the low morale of the workers. The symptoms of

negligent, absenteeism, tension and job anxiety can be seen clearly in any employees.

In some cases the employee intention to leave the organization can result due to

organizational politics so, this thesis will try to explore the association among

workplace or organizational politics and turnover intention of faculty members in

educational institutions of Peshawar Pakistan. SPSS which is a computer software is

used to investigate the relationship between the two variables whereas linear

regression is used to check their association. Probability and Random sampling

technique was implemented to acquire the responses from the lecturer, assistant

professors, associate professors and professors of public and private sector

universities in Peshawar. The findings and recommendations which are inferred from

this study are debated in detail in this paper below.

KEY WORDS: Organizational Politics, Turnover Intention, Educational Sector,

Linear Regression, Peshawar.

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 Acknowledgement

All praise for almighty ALLAH. The most merciful and Beneficial, who gives

me the courage to do the sight to observe and the mind to think and judge. Thanks are

due to his blessing which enabled me to complete this project.

I want to express special thanks from the core of my Heart to my research

Supervisor Madam Afia Saleem, who guided me during the course of this research

by reviewing my work and by providing crucial feedback.

I am grateful to my Family members for their constant support and trust in

me throughout my educational career.

A special thanks to my father and mother who motivated me and helped me

financially during my entire educational career. Finally, I would like to thank my

friends and all the respondents who helped me getting all the relevant information

during my research.

Azhar Uddin

iv
 List of Acronyms and Abbreviations

KPK Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa

POP Perception of Politics

OP Organizational politics

TOI Turnover Intention

LMX Leader Member Exchange

POP Perceived Organizational Politics

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 Table of Content

DECLARATION.......................................................................................................... I
DEDICATION............................................................................................................. II
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................ IV
LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS .................................................. V
TABLE OF CONTENT............................................................................................ VI
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 1
1.1 SCOPE OF THE STUDY: .................................................................................... 5
1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: ........................................................................ 6
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:............................................................................ 6
1.4 RESEARCH SUB OBJECTIVES: .......................................................................... 6
1.5 PURPOSE OF RESEARCH: ................................................................................. 6
1.6 RESEARCH QUESTION: .................................................................................... 7
1.6.1 Research Primary Question:...................................................................... 7
CHAPTER-2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................. 8
2.1 ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS: .......................................................................... 8
2.2 TURNOVER INTENTION:................................................................................. 11
2.3 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS AND TURNOVER
INTENTION: ................................................................................................... 14
2.4 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: ......................................................................... 17
2.5 HYPOTHESIS: ................................................................................................ 18
2.6 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION: .......................................................................... 18
2.6.1 Organizational Politics:........................................................................... 18
2.6.2 Turnover Intention: .................................................................................. 18
CHAPTER-3: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................... 19
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN: ...................................................................................... 19
3.2 CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY: ........................................................................... 19
3.3 POPULATION: ................................................................................................ 20
3.4 SAMPLE SIZE:................................................................................................ 20
3.5 SAMPLING DESIGN: ....................................................................................... 20

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 3.6 ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES: ............................................................................... 21
3.7 MEASURES: ................................................................................................... 21
3.7.1 Organizational Politics:........................................................................... 21
3.7.2 Turnover Intention: .................................................................................. 21
3.8 RELIABILITY: ................................................................................................ 21
Table 3.1 .............................................................................................................. 21
3.9 RESPONSE RATE: .......................................................................................... 22
CHAPTER-4: DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................ 23
4.1 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS: ............................................................................. 23
4.2 HYPOTHESIS TESTING: .................................................................................. 24
4.2.1 Linear Regression .................................................................................... 24
4.2.2 Annova: .................................................................................................... 25
4.2.3 Coefficient: ............................................................................................... 26
4.3 FINDING: ....................................................................................................... 27
CHAPTER-5: CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION ................................... 28
5.1 CONCLUSION: ............................................................................................... 28
5.2 RECOMMENDATION: ..................................................................................... 29
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 30
RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE ............................................................................ 34
(RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORKPLACE POLITICS AND TURNOVER INTENTION) ......... 34

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 Chapter-1
Introduction

Work place politics is also known as organizational politics or office politics

which arises inside the organization. It can be defined as the use of power and the

social networking inside the organization to gain personal benefits. Both individuals

and groups may engage in the workplace politics for some of the personal advantages

such as access to the tangible assets of the organization, intangible assets/benefits and

authority. Here it is necessary to know that it may result in increasing the efficiency of

the workers as well as form good interpersonal relations among employees who result

in improve performance and high productivity.

According to R.Sowmya,(1998) workplace politics refers to the behavior

which arise on an informal basis inside the organization which are involved in the

premeditated acts of effect that are designed to safeguard or improve the individual

professional careers when contradictory courses of actions are possible. John Kotter

(1985) who is one of the prominent scientist, researcher and the professor of

leadership at the Harvard business school describe the concept of workplace politics

in a very concise manner. According to Kotter, (1985) without the political affiliation

and skills we cope with the unavoidable notion of getting submerged in the

bureaucratic infighting, parochial policies and also dangerous challenges which

largely slow down organizational steps. Advancement, enthusiasm as well as overall

performance.

Power matters usually evolve around limited resources. Organizations are

usually having confined a resource that needs to be distributed to some extent.

1
Peoples as well as teams within the organization might oppose on how exactly those

resources need to be distributed so that they might easily endeavor to acquire those

resources on their own or even for their focus units which provides increase to

organizational politics. Generally with organizational politics individual persons

became friends with likeminded peoples so that they can gain the rare resources. They

will involve them in behavior patterns usually observed in the govt institutions like

bargaining, partnership building as well as handling conflicting interests. Politics are

an element of organizations daily life, mainly because institutions consist of various

requirements which have to be affiliated.

When we saw it in a negative perspective it states that an individual is political

usually stirs up images of back room deal, manipulation and covert activities for their

own benefit.an individual taking part in these kind of political practices is assumed

doing self-serving conduct which is not endorsed by the isititution.For example some

of these types of self-serving deeds comprise by passing the chain of command to

obtain acceptance for a particular project , going through inappropriate means to get

extra favors or even lobbying high level supervision until they make a promotion

judgement.These kinds of deeds weaken fairness in the organization mainly because

few peoples gets involved in the politicking to fulfill their own goals.Indivuduals that

pursue correct methods generally feel envious and also irritated as they believe that

unfair distribution of the organization resources such as benefits and recognition.

The negative part of organizational politics is more supposed to appear in

times of organizational change or where there are difficult decisions to be made and

the deficiency of resources that brings rivals among organizational groups.to

minimize overly political behavior company leaders provides equal access to

2
information, model collaborative behavior as well as make it obvious that political

manipulation will not be honored or even tolerated. Furthermore leaders ought to

motivate managers all over the organization to give high level of feedback to

personnels about their performance.Execusssive response will decrease the

perception of workplace politics and will help to increase worker self-esteem and their

work performance but it is essential to realize that politics might be a vigorous

approach to get things accomplished inside the organization. But if we look on its

other side or its negative image it might be damaging because personnels who

involve themselves in such things choose their individual achievements at the expense

of the organization. As a result of this negative workplace politics employees may

think of leaving their job and they will try to find out their career in any other

company where they will be satisfied.

Turnover refers to leaving or quitting whereas intention means an act of

intending, a volition that you intent to carry out. Hence turnover intention is a

measurement of whether a business or organizations employees plan to leave their

positions or whether that organization plans to remove the employees from their

positions. There is a slight difference between an actual turnover and turnover

intention. When an employee actually leave the organization than it is said to be

actual turnover but when an existing employee who works within the organization

thinks to quit and want to leave the job than it is called turnover intention. Though the

employee did not leave the organization but he might leave in future. According to

Asif, (2012) intention to leave the job is a psychological decision prevailing between

a distinct approach with reference to a job to endure or leave the career.in context to

3
the above author it seems that the turnover intention is a mental decision which an

individual makes in his mind whether to leave the job or not.

It has been studied by many researchers and observed that when employees

become dissatisfied from their organization but still they work there so they will

involve themselves in the counterproductive activities like theft, poor services,

destructive rumors and sabotage of equitment.These dissatisfied employees become

stiff which give rise to the high level of turnover intention and finally actual turnover

occur. According to SALANCIK.G, (1980) expenses experienced on the selection,

recruitment, orientation and training of fresh personnel are direct cost. The

organization spends a lot of amount on recruitment and selection of personnel and

when those personnel leave the organization they have to endure the extra cost of

hiring new employees. Indirect expenditures of turnover contain reduction in morale

among remaining staff, work overload and loss of social capital. Employee turnover

can be both voluntary and involuntary.

Voluntary turnover is a turnover when employee by his own will and wish

make the decision to leave the organization.in this type of turnover employee leave

the organization because he might get a better opportunity as compare to the current

position in other organization. Due to his career growth and other monetary benefits

the individual decide to move.it can also called voluntary turnover when an employee

do not have sound health and due to that the individual might not be able to pursue his

career or due family issues.

As compare to the voluntary turnover the involuntary turnover intention is a

measurement that whether the organization has plan to remove the existing staff from

their positions. The organization can fire the employee due to a number of reasons

4
which are poor job performance, absenteeism, low job involvement and not following

the organization rules and regulations.it can also occur due to poor economic

conditions in the country or consistently poor performance of the company.to

overcome this problem the organization goes for downsizing because they cannot bear

too most cost. It generates monetary and operational anxiety on the organization.

Keeping all these factors in mind many researchers studied workplace politics and its

different forms like perception of politics , organizational politics and its other forms

in various sectors since 1900s.various of factors have been identified by now and the

work is still on. Workplace politics has also been studied with the turnover intention

of the employees by many researchers and they revealed their positive importance.

Among all of these studies no studies was done on the educational sector from

Pakistan. For this reason the researcher has find out the gap and has tried to study the

relationship between organizational politics and turnover intention among the faculty

members of educational institutions which are situated in the Peshawar, Khyber

Pakhtoonkhwa.

1.1 Scope of the Study:

The aim of this research is to discover the link between workplace or

organizational politics and turnover intention between the faculty members of the

educational institutions in Peshawar. The scope is limited to the demographics area

and the result of the study will also be applicable in the stated educational institutions

in Peshawar.

5
1.2 Significance of the Study:
This study contribute a lot for the determination of different kind of politics in

which employees are involve to gain personal gains. Education sector is one of the

core sectors which prepare our future leaders and if the faculty members of the

institutions are not satisfied with their job how can they build an educated nation. It

would be significant value to those authorities who knows that organizational politics

and turnover intention are the interrelated terms. It would be also helpful for the head

of these educational institutions to develop such a culture where employees can only

rewarded and get deeds solely on merit. The policies which this study will

recommend would be implemented for the purpose of removing organizational

politics from the education sectors.

1.3 Objectives sof the Study:

The main objective of this study is to examine the influence of organizational

politics in the educational institutions on the turnover intention.

1.4 Research Sub Objectives:

1 To identify the relationship between organizational politics and employee

turnover.

2 To identify whether organizational politics exist in the educational institutions

1.5 Purpose of Research:

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between

workplace or organizational politics and turnover intention of employees in the

education sector, Peshawar Pakistan. In order to examine the nature of relationship

between these two variables this study has focuses different educational institutions

6
from the public and private sector of KPK in order to identify and understand their

relation more preciously.

1.6 Research Question:

1.6.1 Research Primary Question:

What is the relationship between Organizational politics and turnover

intention?

7
 Chapter-2
Literature Review

2.1 Organizational Politics:

For more than four decades managerial theory and practices have been

preoccupied with issues related to power, influence and politics in the organization

Gadot.E, (2010).Organizational or workplace politics can be defined as the use of

power, social networking and other means inside an organization in order to

accomplish changes that benefit the organization or an individual employee within the

organization. Many researches claimed that politics is a widespread phenomenon

within an organization and therefore it deserves more attention and empirical

examination (Ferris.G, 2012).According to ALLEN, (1977) organizational politics is

the management of influence to obtain the end not sanctioned by the organization or

to obtain sanctioned ends through non-sanctioned influence means. Hence

organizational politics plays a major role inside the organization where each

individual in a superior position will try to manipulate the results. According to

Atinc.G, (2010) hierarchy level, span of control, age , gender, education, minority

status and self-monitoring exhibit no significant relationship with perception of

politics while opportunity for development is more strongly related to the

organizational policies as compare to opportunity for advancement. Whereas, for

managerial perspective some means are being suggested to reduce POP and its

harmful effect and human resource management practices can also be used to reduce

the perception of organizational politics.so according to the research of different

authors good human resources can be more useful in moderating the effect of

organizational politics. For this purpose multinational companies are required to bring

such policies which are mutually beneficial for both the parties. Keeping this in mind

Kuruvilla.S, (2005) studied that how multinational companies can balance the

8
pressures to develop globally standardized policies and concluded that three important

conceptual weaknesses have restricted research progress in this field which is

inadequate conceptualization of national effect, lack of attention to the influence of

internal organizational policies and absence of focus on the internal division of labor

with in the MNCs. These are some of the issues which give birth to negative politics

with in an organization and allows employees to engage in unhealthy practices which

in result drag their attention from workplace and low productivity. To avoid this

organizations are required to develop a positive political behavior at their workplace

which encourages employees to involve in fruitful activities.to understand the concept

more clearly Kortezi.Z, (2010) work on the conceptualization of organizational

policies which are helpful for developing positive political behavior at work place.

Based on his research work he hypnotized that a deontological framework is

important for the proper management of negative political behavior, whereas a virtue

ethics context can be employed so as to foster positive political behavior at the

workplace. As we are morally obligated to an act according to certain principles and

rules regardless of the outcomes and it endures deep in our culture. We emotionally

more attract to any phenomena without take into consideration its physical and

realistic prespective. Therefore Meisler.G,(2010) studied the impact of emotional

intelligence and the organizational politics on public sector employees and concluded

that emotional intelligence has a moderating effect in the relationship between

organizational politics and emotional commitment as well as between organizational

politics and employees absenteeism. Hence the concept of emotional intelligence

becomes clearer that it can be used as a moderator to reduce the employees

absenteeism from the workplace as well as the emotional commitment of the worker.

Beside emotional commitment the concept of trust can also plays important role while

considering organizational politics. Talmud.I,( 2010) Studied the effect of trust and

social support on organizational politics and job outcomes. On the bases of their

9
findings they sum up that trust and social support can act as good moderators when

we talk about the relationship between perceived organizational politics (POP) and

job outcomes. A Wiseman rightly said that if you dont have trust inside your

company than u cannot transfer it to your customers. Lack of trust among the

employees can create a situation in which each and every one will not believe the

words of other which decrease their social interaction within the company. Due to

such condition their job becomes very boring with low satisfaction which results in

their intention to leave the organization. Chhetri. P,(2014) Therefore Study the effect

of perceived organizational policies on job satisfaction, organizational commitment

and turnover intention and the role of leader member exchange on perceived

organizational policies and workplace attitude .from their evidences they find out that

organizational policies related to management has a negative impact on organizational

commitment and job satisfaction while has a positive relation on the turnover

intention. Satisfied employees will be more loyal to the organization and will not

leave the organization.

Harris (2007) studied the relationship between perceived organizational

politics (POP), perceived organizational support (POS) and individual outcomes and

concluded that POL and POS were related to each others. It is also concluded that

political behavior influence POS which in result leads to the organizationally relevant

outcomes. Some of the pervious researchers suggested that POS mediate the

relationship between POP while others shown than these two are related. They focus

on the concept of perceived organizational support and think that their organization

values their contribution and also cares about their well-being and all their social as

well as emotional needs. Hence these needs are to be fulfilled at every level of the

organization from top to the bottom whereas the organizational levels may leads to

the politics inside the organization. According to Yen.W,(2009) if the POP is strong

then there will be better workforce friendship while diminishing consequence of

10
workplace level is irrelevant. It is widely known that power and politics can deliver

social energy which changes the perceptions of individuals and groups into

institutions of an organization. According to LAWRENCE.T,(2005) various methods

of power in organizations are linked to particular learning methods. Therefore we can

assume that workplace politics has both the phases. If it is done in a good way to

promote organization image and as well as to enhance skills of employees it will

benefit the organization. But on the other side if employees do this in order to obtain

their self-interests and do polities in the organization then their productivity will

decrease.

2.2 Turnover Intention:

Turnover is defined as the individual movement across the membership of an

organization Price.J,(2001), where the term individual refers to the subordinates who

are working in the organization and movement inferred either as an succession or

separation of the company. This is one of the most important issues faced by many

organization in term of losing a competent individual which would be beneficial for

them.it is one of most researched phenomena in the organizational behavior

Lee.T,(2012).Turnover intention and the actual turnover of an employee from the

organization are entirely different from each other. Actual turnover occurs when any

employee leaves the organization physically and starts working with other

organization whereas turnover intention is a situation in which employee will present

in the organization physically but absent mentally. The individual show carelessness

in his behavior and shows uninformed absenteeism from the work.as a result of

turnover intention the working atmosphere will destroy which cause the fall of

productivity in the workplace. Eventually intention to leave leads to the actual

turnover of employee from the organization. According to Holtom,(2008) the losses

11
of employees can also be described as Necessary Casualties.as organization has

invested their time and money on their employees and they cannot effort to lose them

in any cost. The skills which they have acquired from the parent organization may use

in against of them if they are hired by other organization. Secondly hiring a new

employee requires a lot of time and resources which can be save if they keep their

employees loyal to them and lower the ratio of turnout. Turnover intention can leads

to absenteeism and a low productivity. According to Geurts.S,(1999) turnover

intention and absenteeism are indirectly related to perceived inequity. The result also

demonstrates that the relationship between the inequality and the turnover intentions

is fully mediated by poor organizational commitment which will lead to the

resentment. When employees are not motivated from their work and lack commitment

then the chances of their turnout will be greater and eventually they will quit the job.

Sok Foon,(2010) Find out a negative relationship between turnout intentions and

organizational commitment while positive relationship between jobs stress and

turnover intention. They also figure out a negative relationship between job

satisfaction and turnover intention as well as demographics background of the

respondents has also mediated the relationship between organizational commitment,

job stress and turnover intention. Hence it is not necessary that when the employees

are committed to the organization they will not think of leaving the job because they

may find the job boring. Besides these factors there may be many other factors which

may leads to leave the job therefore Chang Lee,(2010) Conducted a study on the

factors which are affecting the turnover intentions and the empirical result showed

that a suitable relationship between the hotel employees and the higher level of the

satisfaction regarding their work environment have a positive effect on the job

satisfaction whereas the higher level of organizational commitment tend to have a

12
negative effect on the turnover intention. Its also concluded that the effect of job

satisfaction and the salary level on the turnover intention do not reached to a

significant level.it is a fact that money act as a great motivator but not always. You

cannot buy everything from money. Employees having good salary but poor working

environment will result in poor productivity and leads to situation when they will

eventually leave the job. According to Lee.S, June (2013) Demographics, workplace

satisfaction and organizational factors are some of the factors which effect on the

turnover intentions of the employees in different employees. Managers should have an

understanding that under circumstances which determinants are significant in their

agency. By doing this they can be able to set some appropriate management strategies

in order to encourage their key employees to remain in their agency. If we observe

carefully we will realize that employee turnover can be beneficial for an organization.

According to Morrell.K,(2001) turnover of an existing employee would be the

replacement of unproductive employees with the productive one. Hence this type of

turnover can bring opportunity to the organization and they can replace him with

more competent and productive employee.

Turnover intention has been studied by majority of the researchers and

everyone has different outcomes. But majority of them came to the conclusion that

turnout intention has a negative impact on the organization and its productivity. When

the employees within the organization are not satisfied with their current job or they

may find it boring so they decide to leave the organization and as a result the rate of

absenteeism will increase which affect the productivity.

13
2.3 Relationship between Organizational Politics and Turnover
Intention:
Organizational politics and turnover intention are the two the two sides of the

same coin. Politics with in the organization may increases the chances of employees

to leave the organization or it may result in their long term retention. To keep a closer

look Panchanatham, (2012) studied the relationship between organizational politics

and the turnover intention and concluded that female employees are less intended to

leave as compare to male because that felt that womens are dominating the banking

sector and most of them are not compatible to work women employees. Moreover

male employees perceived more politics as compare to the female employees and

there is the influence of the gender on the perception of politics. Hence we can

inference that organizational politics is positively correlated with turnover intention

and turnover intention is caused by perceived politics. The political environment

within the organization enables employees to leave their jobs. Sometimes employers

used their powers illegally against their subordinates and try to humiliate them.

According to Poon, (2002) When employer manipulate the performance rating of

employees just for the sake of their punishment and on the basis of personal liking

and disliking then their job satisfaction will reduced. Gradually their dissatisfaction

turns into boredom and intention to leave the job. Sometimes manipulation can also

be done just for the sake of rewarding employees and to create a positive work

environment. Hence in this case their job satisfaction as well as intention to leave the

job will not be effected. Scarcity of resources and favoritism are also some of the

reasons due to which employees intend to leave the organization. According to

Tezer.M, (2012) favoritism and scarce resources are the significant determinant of

organizational politics whereas organizational support has a negative relation with

14
organizational politics.it has also been found that frontline supervisors politics

perception exerted positive effect on the turnover intention. Whenever there is a

concept of favoritism in an organization it creates a kind of environment where the

employees will not trust the other employees and a sense of distrustful environment

will came into being. Those employees who are the top performers are also getting

involved in this blame game and as a result their individual performance will drop

down. These kinds of policies also ruin the justice system of an organization as

employees having link with the top management will get benefits but the ordinary

employee who do not know such kind of tactics will always sacrifice. A person may

also leave the job because he or she might not fit into the organization culture or

maybe they find their job too much boring.as a result they try to find out a suitable job

where they can adjust themselves easily and involve themselves into the job deeply.

But according to Wheeler. A,(2007) person organization misfit and job dissatisfaction

do not necessarily lead to intent to turnover. Therefore in order to reduce the chances

of employees job dissatisfaction it is necessary that organization should create such

environment where newcomers adjust themselves to the culture of the company as

well as try to maintain good relations with their colleague. The concept of

organizational socialization plays a very important role in the early days of newcomer

employment. If this concept is encouraged by the organizations new employees can

adapt to the new environment of workplace more easily and is has also been found

that it also minimizes the unmet expectations of the employees. Keeping this in mind

Jen-Te,(2008) conduct a study to understand whether turnover is determined by the

beliefs of the employees about their job satisfaction and individual commitment. He

concluded that find that socialization enables organizations to gain commitment, job

satisfaction and decrease in newcomers intention to leave the job. Therefore

15
organizational citizenship needs to be encouraged within the company. For this

purpose Wu, (2010) studied the relationship between organizational citizenship

behavior, job satisfaction and turnover intention and concluded that turnover intention

is related to their organizational citizenship behavior and job satisfaction. It can be

reduced by meeting their needs and by endorsing organizational citizenship behavior.

Subordinate political skills can play a vital role in envisaging employee job

satisfaction and his turnover intention.it is the ability to understand the workplace

interaction and successfully able to use that knowledge to influence his surrounding

work environment. According to Harris.K,(2009) political skills moderate the relation

between LMX and outcome of job satisfaction and turnover intention and LMX

research is related to key organizational outcomes. Politics is a vital element of the

behavioral process in organizational setting. Beside this the existence of politics can

also create tension within the organization like policy and decision making, goal

setting and resource allocation as well. Due to its importance it has been studied

broadly over the few decades in other industry bur was rarely studied. According to

Mahat.F, (25-26 June 2013) organizational politics is unavoidable and can exist in

every organization.it is also concluded that organizational politics can affect the

organization image not may not be strongly influence managers or employees to quit

the organization. As it is a matter of fact that organizational politics plays a major role

in the organization. Informal networking can play a major role in diluting the effect of

organizational politics.as a result of this employees ultimately stick to the same

organization and as a result their intention to leave the organization become low.

According to Rana.A, (2014) positive relationship between organizational politics and

turnover intention of an employee and strong organizational politics has a positive

impact on informal networking in an organization.

16
 In the past a number of researches have been done on the perception of

organizational politics as well as its harmful effect at workplace but hardly anyone

work on the methods to reduce its harmful effect at the workplace. Now days

researchers are paying their attention toward this phenomenon to eradicate the

problem from its roots. According to Mehwish.J, (2014) organizational politics

increase the chance of an individual to leave the organization and individuals having

high core self-evaluation are more focused that whatever the situation is they will not

leave the organization. They also said that when core self-evaluation and

organizational politics act at the same times then intention to leave the organization of

an individual will increase.

2.4 Conceptual Framework:

ORGANIZATIONAL TURNOVER

POLITICS INTENTION

Independent variable Dedependent variable

17
2.5 Hypothesis:
Ho: There is no as such relationship between organizational politics and turnover

intention of faculty members of educational institutions in Peshawar.

H1: There is relationship between organizational politics and turnover intention of

faculty members of educational institutions in Peshawar.

2.6 Operational Definition:

2.6.1 Organizational Politics:

Organizational politics can be defined as the usage of power and social

networking inside the organization in order to accomplish changes that benefit the

organization or individual within it. Organizational politics can be on the individual as

well as on the group basis. Both of these types can be very harmful for the survival of

the organization because workers tend to focus on their self-benefits and as a result it

suffer losses.

2.6.2 Turnover Intention:

Turnover can be defined as the process in which either employee leave the

organization or organization decides to lay them off. On the other hand turnover

intention is a situation in which a feeling arise with in the mind of the employee to

leave the job. The employee may not be satisfied with the organization, its policies or

due to some personal problems. Here the actual turnover does not happen yet.

18
 Chapter-3
Methodology

As for as research methodology is concerned it is a kind of theory which

answer, how a research can be conduct. Actually this study aim is to find out the

relation between organizational politics and turnover intention of the faculty members

in the educational sector. So in this way I am going to develop a theory for that the

nature of this study need to collect data by collecting the views of the social actor.

Quantitative research method used in this survey is based on the primary data.

To elicit the well-considered opinions of the respondents Well-structured

questionnaires were distributed among the different public and private sector

universities in Peshawar KPK, Pakistan. The data was collected from the lecturer,

assistant professors, associate professors and professors who are working under these

universities. Based on the responses the association between the workplace politics

and turnover intention was tested in order to find desired results.

3.1 Research Design:

The study follows quantitative survey method by collecting primary data.

Questionnaires were from the respondents from different faculties in private and

public sectors universities.

3.2 Cross Sectional Study:

As compare to the longitudinal study in cross sectional study the data will be

collected only once and in one short period of time.

19
 According to the definition the research is of cross sectional type because data

has been collected in a single period of time with the help of structured

questionnaires.

3.3 Population:
The population of this study is all of those lecturers, assistant professors,

associate professors and professors who are teaching in different public and private

universities in Peshawar, KPK.

Public sector Private Sector

Institute of Management Sciences CECOS University

Peshawar University Qurtaba University

Benazir Bhutto Women University Sarhad University

Agriculture University Peshawar

3.4 Sample Size:

As far as the sample size is concerned the data will be collected from at least

60% of the total faculty members from those institutions so that the sample size would

fully represent the total population.

3.5 Sampling Design:

Probability and Random sampling technique was adopted to obtain the

responses from the lecturers, assistant professors, associate professors and professors

of public and private sector universities in Peshawar.

20
3.6 Analysis Techniques:
After collecting data from the different universities in Peshawar the data

which will be collect with the help of the proposed questionnaires will be put into the

SPSS, which is computer software. The data will be analyzed with the help of Linear

Regression method to get the desired result. After getting the desired result we will

develop theory with the help of analytical technique.

3.7 Measures:

3.7.1 Organizational Politics:

In order to measure the perception of politics well structure questionnaires

were used which was proposed by (Kacmar.M, 1991) and Ferris. The respondents

were asked to indicate their responses on five point likert scale.

3.7.2 Turnover Intention:

Measures the intention to leave the organization was measured by three items

following Mobleys (1982) definition. The respondents were asked to indicate their

agreement with the following three items on a five-point scale.

3.8 Reliability:

Table 3.1

Cronbachs Alpha

Organizational Politics .823

Turnover Intention .946

0.6

21
 According to the reliability rule the values of Cronbachs Alpha of all the

variables which are under consideration should be .6 or greater than .6 according to

the rule.in this case the two variables are Organizational Politics and Turnover

Intention and the above figure shows that their Cronrachs alpha are greater than .6 so

therefore both of our variables are reliable.

3.9 Response Rate:

Questionnaires have been distributed among the faculty members of four

public sector universities namely Peshawar University, Agriculture University,

Institute of Management Sciences and Benazir Bhutto Women University and three

private sector universities which are Cecos University, Qurtaba University and Sarhad

University. Among the 120 questionnaires which were distributed only 90 of the

faculty members responded and the rest of them didnt. Beside this many of the

faculty members in these institutions were no supportive.

22
 Chapter-4
Data Analysis

4.1 Descriptive Statistics:

Table 4.1 Demographics of Respondents

FREQUENCIES PERCENT MEAN

Male 58 64.3 .6444

Female 32 35.6
AGE
25-35 32 35.6
36-45 34 37.8 2.0000
46-55 16 17.8
56 and above 8 8.9
QUALIFICATION
Bachelor 5 5.6 3.1667
Masters 14 15.6
MS 32 35.6
Ph.D. 39 43.3
JOB STATUS
Permanent 63 70.00 1.3000
Contract 27 30.00
RANK
Lecturer 40 44.4
Assistant Professor 36 40.00 1.778
Associate professor 8 8.9
Professor 6 6.7

23
 The methodology which we use to analyze the relationship between the

dependent and independent variables is linear regression. By looking at the result we

can conclude that about 64.3% of the respondents were Male.

Similarly if we look at the age of respondents there is a close difference

between option one and two. 35.6 % of the respondents are between the ages of 25 to

35 years whereas 37.8% of the respondents are ranked between the ages of 36 to 45

years.

According to the qualification of the respondents about 43.3% of the

respondents have PhD degree whereas 35.6% of the respondents possess MS degree.

According to the result almost 70% of the respondents are working as a

permanent employee with their respective institutions.

The data indicates that about 44.4% of the respondents are Lecturers whereas

40% among the total respondents possess Assistant Professor Position.

4.2 Hypothesis Testing:

4.2.1 Linear Regression

Table 4.2 Model summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R Std. Error of

Square the Estimate

1 .395a .156 .147 1.03235

a. Predictors: (Constant), OP

The table which is shown in figure 1 explains how much of the variation in the

dependent variable is explained by the model. By looking at the value of R square

24
which is .156, which indicates that 15% of the total variations in the turnover

intention of employees can be explained by the organizational politics.

4.2.2 Annova:

Table 4.3 Annova

Model Sum of Df Mean Square F Sig.

Squares

1 16.298 .000a

Regression 17.369 1.000 17.369

Residual 93.786 88.000 1.066

Total 111.156 89.000

a. Predictors: (Constant), OP

b. Dependent Variable : TOI

The table which is shown in figure 2 explains overall significant or fitness of

the model. By looking at the value of F statistics which is 16.298 we can say that our

model is fit. Sig .000a means that the model is 100% significant and reliable.

25
 4.2.3 Coefficient:

Table 4.5 Coeffcient

Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficient
Model Coefficient t Sig.

B Std. Error Beta

1 5.079 .510 9.955 .000

(Constant)
-.659 .163 -.395 -4.037 .000

OP

a. Dependent Variable: Turnover Intention (TOI)

The table given below shows the relationship between Organizational Politics

which is independent Variable and Turnover Intention which is dependent Variable.

Those variables which are not included in the model are presented by the Constant

and its coefficient is 5.079 which shows that if there is 1 unit change in the constant

than it brings 5.079 times change in the Turnover Intention of employees.

Organizational politics which is dependent variable is significant according to

P-Value. There is slightly difference in the value of Beta. The value of Beta is 0.659

which is negative .Hence we can say that if there is One unit change in the

Organizational Politics (Independent Variable) then there will be 0.659 times negative

change in the Turnover Intention (Dependent Variable).We can also inferred that if

there is 1 unit increase in the organizational politics than there will be 0.659 times

decrease in the Turnover Intention of the employees.

26
4.3 Finding:
Hence it can be concluded that there might be some other factors besides

organizational politics which drag them to switch the job. Those factors might be

organizational commitment, Organizational Justice, boredom, organizational

environment and much more. It is not always necessary that only organizational

politics result in the turnover intention of employees. Some of the studies also

revealed that there are some other factors which lead the employees to switch their job

and move to another one. Similarly such type of research has been done by the faculty

members of COMSATS institute of technology, Wah Campus. According to

(Shafiq.M, 2014) perceived organizational Justice may leads to a situation where

employee think of leaving the job. Therefore the concept of organizational justice is a

key issue and the human resource managers have to come up with such strategies in

order to minimize its negative consequences.

27
 Chapter-5
Conclusion & Recommendation

5.1 Conclusion:
A vast variety of research has been carried out on job satisfaction,

commitment and turnover intention but hardly anyone has done research on the

relationship between organizational politics and turnover intention. If we closely

focused on both variables, it can be seen that both are negative symptoms in an

organization and therefore it cannot be overlooked. The findings which are concluded

from this study have shown the value of inspecting organizational politics in relation

to turnover intention. In relation to the other professions, faculty members which are

teachings in different private and public universities are also captured by the feelings

of organizational politics. Numerous studies have already demonstrated that politics

exists between employees regardless of gender, age, income and other demographic

factors. Politics is such a factor which cannot be eliminated in any work place and

therefore it is better that employee should dealt with it accordingly. The faculty

members of the educational institutions should also attempt to resolve the problems

arising among themselves within their levels like friends, peers and supervisors etc.

According to the pioneer researchers such as Ferris, Poon, Kardial etc its the

insufficient availability of the resources which give birth the concept of politics inside

the organization. These limited resources will create an unstable working environment

and in order to get maximum utility from the resources each and every employee will

try their best in expense of the other. Charles Darwin famous theory Survival of the

Fittest will best fir over here because only those employees will survive which are

28
sharp and quickly mingle with the culture of the organization and are well aware of

the politics. Whereas those individuals who dont understand the inside politics will

gradually become demotivate and the intentions to leave the organization will

increase.

Hence in order to explore the reason of the faculty members turnover and to

figure out whether this turnover is due to the organization inside politics this research

was conducted. Peshawar University, Agriculture University, Benazir Bhutto Women

University and Institute of Management Sciences were selected among the public

sector Universities whereas Cecos University, Qurtaba University and Sarhad

University were selected among the private sector universities.120 well-structured

questionnaires were distributed among the faculty members of these universities out

of which only 90 faculty members have responded. Data was analyzed and it has been

found that although organizational politics is a factor which leads to turnover

intention but it has also been found that there are some other factors besides

organizational politics which also triggers them to leave the job.

5.2 Recommendation:
As organizational politics and turnover intention are the two important factors

which rest in every organization in one way or other. Therefore it is mandatory to find

out the root cause which gave birth to situations. As the relationship between the

organizational politics and turnover intention have been studied. It is recommended

that further research can be conducted by finding out the relation between the other

factors such as job satisfaction, commitment, work environment, organizational

justice and so one.

29
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33
 Research Questionnaire

(Relationship between workplace politics and turnover intention)

Dear respondent I am a student of BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) from

Institute of Management Sciences Phase#7 Hayatabad Peshawar, and this

questionnaire is designed to get data only for my research project. Your response will

be having value for completion of this survey. The data will only be used for research

purpose and will not be disclosed.

Demographics Information:
Please select the information reverent to your demographics.

Gender:
1 - Male
2 - Female

Age:
1- 25 35
2- 36 45
3- 46 55
4- 56 and above

Qualification:
1 - Bachelor
2 - Masters
3 - MS
4 - Ph.D.

Job Status:
1 - Permanent
2 Contract

34
 Rank:
1 - Lecturer
2 - Assistant Professor
3 - Associate Professor
4 - Professor

Please select the correct option by placing a to the choices given below. Each

item is rated on a five point likert Scale, where 1= Strongly Disagree, 2= Disagree, 3=

Neutral, 4= Agree and 5= Strongly Agree.

Favoritism rather than merit determines 1 2 3 4 5

who get Deed around here. Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Disagree Agree

There is no man place for yes men 1 2 3 4 5

around here; good ideas are desired Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Disagree Agree
even it means discouraging with

supervisor

Employees are encouraged to speak out 1 2 3 4 5

frankly even when they are critical of Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Disagree Agree
well-established ideas

There has always been an influential 1 2 3 4 5

group in this department that no one Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Disagree Agree
ever crosses

Peoples here usually dont speak up for 1 2 3 4 5

fear of retaliation. Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Disagree Agree
Promotions in this department generally 1 2 3 4 5

go to top performers. Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Disagree Agree

35
I have seen changes made in politics 1 2 3 4 5

have that only serve the purpose of a Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Disagree Agree
few individuals not the work unit or

organization.

There is a group of peoples in my 1 2 3 4 5

department who always get things their Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Disagree Agree
way because no one wants to challenge

them

I cant remember when a person 1 2 3 4 5

received a pay increase of promotion Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Disagree Agree
that was inconsistent with the published

politics.

Since I have worked in his department; 1 2 3 4 5

I have never seen the pay and Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Disagree Agree
promotion applied politically.

I think a lot about leaving the 1 2 3 4 5

organization Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Disagree Agree
I am actively searching for an 1 2 3 4 5

alternative to the organization. Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Disagree Agree
As soon as it is possible, I will leave the 1 2 3 4 5

organization. Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Disagree Agree

Thank you for your Assistance

36
Turnitin Originality Report
Politics and turnover by Azhar Uddin
From testing (BBA Reports)
Processed on 28-Dec-2015 12:37 PKT
ID: 617833887
Word Count: 6744

Similarity Index
17%
Similarity by Source
Internet Sources:
11%
Publications:
7%
Student Papers:
11%
sources:
1
3% match (Internet from 14-Nov-2012)
http://www.pinnaclejournals.com/setup/business/paper2.pdf
2
1% match (Internet from 08-Apr-2009)
http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/pub/1.0/organizational-behavior/power-and-
politics/organizational-politics
3
1% match (student papers from 26-Apr-2014)
Submitted to Taylors Education Group on 2014-04-26
4
1% match (Internet from 26-Nov-2014)
http://infinitypress.info/index.php/jbae/article/download/406/211
5
< 1% match (Internet from 10-Nov-2014)
http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/iqtm/PDF-FILES/01-
Is%20Employees_%20Turnover%20Intention%20driven-
Dr%20Tajammal_V_VIII_IssueII_Decem2012.pdf
6
< 1% match (Internet from 17-Aug-2010)
http://philpapers.org/rec/GOTECI
7
< 1% match (Internet from 30-May-2013)
http://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/57095/1/690123558.pdf
8
Jen-Te Yang. "Effect of newcomer socialisation on organisational commitment, job
satisfaction, and turnover intention in the hotel industry", The Service Industries Journal,
2008
9
< 1% match (student papers from 20-Feb-2014)
Submitted to The University of Manchester on 2014-02-20
10
< 1% match (Internet from 16-Sep-2015)
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/Journal-Managerial-Issues/253626925.html
11
< 1% match (Internet from 05-May-2011)
http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/pub/1.0/organizational-behavior/37305
12

37