The relationship between Perceived Organizational Supports (POS) and intention to leave a job among employees of casual dining restaurants in Klang Valley area - Theory and Practice in Hospitality and Tourism Research - page 426

support (POS). Therefore, the objectives of this
study are two-fold:
i) To determine the relationship between POS and
intention to leave
ii) To find out if there is a difference between man-
agerial and non-managerial staff 's intention to
leave.

2.2 Managerial and non-managerial employees
and intention to leave
Ghiselli et al. (2001) reported that turnover rate
among managerial staff in restaurants were
between 33 to 100 percent. In comparison, it was
reported that due to the boredom associated with
highly routinized labor, poor pay and working con-
dition, and employers and employees' agreement
for short-term employment due to lower pay and
personal convenience, turnover rate for non-mana-
gerial fast food restaurants were exceptionally high
in the US, at 300% (Ryan, et al., 2011). In regards
to turnover intention and job position, Khatri,
Fern, and Budhwar (2001) found that managerial
employees have better leaving intention than non-
managerial employees although they did mention
that previous studies found the contrast (Price &
Mueller, 1981; Tai & Robinson, 1998). As the
number of research comparing between manage-
rial and non-managerial employees' intention to
leave are limited, the hypothesis of this study will
be proposed based on Khatri and colleagues' study.
Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H2: Managerial employees have higher intention to
leave compared to non-managerial employees.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Perceived organizational support and intention
to leave
The study of perceived organizational support
(POS) began when Eisenberger, Huntington,
Hutchison, and Sowa (1986) extended the study
of employee's Organizational Commitment (OC)
by Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979) into social
exchange approach. They focused on employee's
beliefs of the commitment showed by the organi-
zation to them compared to the employee's indi-
vidual commitment to the organization as centred
in the study of OC. Thus, they suggested that to
determine the organization's readiness to reward
increased work effort and to meet needs for praise
and approval, employees develop global beliefs
concerning the extent to which the organiza-
tion values their contributions and cares about
their well-beings. Higher POS resulted in greater
effort in helping the organization to achieve their
goals (Arshadi, 2011) while reducing the tendency
to look for and accept alternatives jobs (Allen,
Shore & Griffeth, 2003).
In the relation between POS and behavioral
intentions, it was found that there were actual with-
drawal behaviors like tardiness, absenteeism, and
voluntary turnover (Arshadi, 2011; Rhoades &
Eisenberger, 2002). Allen et al. (2003) stated that
the increment of POS decreases the intention to
leave because POS creates the feeling of obliga-
tion towards the organization. Other studies also
found negative relationship between the two vari-
ables (Jawahar & Hemmasi, 2006; Kahumuza &
Schlechter, 2008; Wayne, Shore & Liden, 1997).
Kahumuza and Schlechter (2008) found a strong
relationship between POS and intention to leave
(r

3 METHODOLOGY

Data for this study were collected among the man-
agerial and non-managerial staff of casual dining
restaurants in Klang Valley area. Questionnaire
was used as the instrument for this research. The
questionnaires were handed to the managers or
supervisors in charge for them to distribute among
their staff and themselves. Collection of the ques-
tionnaires yielded a result of 717 usable sets of
data which were later used in analyses. Conven-
ience sampling was used as sampling method for
this research. All respondents were advised that
their participations were voluntary and that their
answers will be kept anonymous.
To measure POS, 16-item construct of Sur-
vey of Perceived Organizational Support (SPOS)
developed by Eisenberger et al. (1986) were used,
which is the shorter version of the original 36-item.
Seven point Likert scale was used to indicate the
employee's extent of agreement to each state-
ment (1

.01) thus stressing on the impor-
tance of POS to oppose intention to leave. Studies
in hospitality industry showed no difference in the
relationship pattern as both Cho et al. (2009) and
Blomme, Van Rheede, and Tromp (2010) found
that the employees of hospitality industry tend to
have lower leaving intention if they have higher
POS. Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H1: POS will have negative relationship with inten-
tion to leave a job.

= − 0.521, p <

strongly agree).
An example of item is “The company cares about
my general satisfaction at work”. The reliability of
this construct measured by Cronbach's alpha was
0.875.
Intention to leave was measured by using five
item construct designed by Wayne et al. (1997).
“I am seriously thinking of quitting my job” was
one of the items that the respondents needed to

= strongly disagree, 7 =