Title: What is the most important predictor of employees' turnover intention in Chinese call centre: job satisfaction, organisational commitment or career commitment?

Authors: Hao Zhou, Lirong R. Long, Yuqing Q. Wang

Addresses: School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, 430074 P.R. China. ' School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, 430074 P.R. China. ' School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, 430074 P.R. China

Abstract: Chinese call centre industry is now encountering a serious problem of high turnover. This study investigates the relative importance of job satisfaction, organisational commitment and career commitment on turnover intention in Chinese call centres. Data were collected from call centres of three dominating telecommunication companies in China. Multiple regression and dominance analysis are used based on the sample of 231 call centre employees. The results indicated that relationship between organisational commitment and turnover intention as well as between career commitment and turnover intention is significantly negative. More importantly, the result demonstrated that career commitment was the most important predictor of call centre employees| turnover intention. Based on the research findings, implications of improving human resource management in Chinese service industry are suggested.

Keywords: turnover intention; call centres; job satisfaction; organisational commitment; career commitment; China; employee turnover; human resource management; HRM; services.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2009.025231

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2009 Vol.12 No.2, pp.129 - 145

Published online: 17 May 2009 *

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