Impact of organisational characteristics on turnover intention among care workers in nursing homes in Korea: A structural equation model

Abstract

Objective The aim of the present study was to analyse the impact of organisational characteristics on the turnover intention of care workers working at nursing homes in Korea. Methods Study participants included 504 care workers working at 14 nursing homes in Korea. The variables measured were: high-performance work practices, consisting of five subfactors (official training, employment stability, autonomy, employee participation and group-based payment); organisational commitment, consisting of three subfactors (affective, normative and continuance commitment); organisational support; and turnover intention. The inter-relationship between high-performance work practices, organisational support, organisational commitment and turnover intention and the fit of the hypothetical model were analysed using structural equation modelling. Results According to our analysis, high-performance work practices not only had a direct effect on turnover intention, but also an indirect effect by mediating organisational support and commitment. The factor having the largest direct influence on turnover intention was organisational commitment. Conclusions The results of the present study suggest that to improve health conditions for frail elderly patients at nursing homes, as well as the efficiency of nursing homes through the continuance of nursing service and enhancement of quality of service, long-term care facilities should reduce the turnover intention of care workers by increasing their organisational commitment by actively implementing high-performance work practices. What is known about the topic? Considerable studies have shown that the adoption of high-performance work practices is related to an organisation's performance and job satisfaction. In addition, previous studies found that job satisfaction is inversely related to the turnover intention of employees. What does this paper add? This paper identified that high-performance work practices are closely related to the turnover intention of care workers in nursing homes. These findings could improve our understanding of the factors that impact on labour management in nursing homes. What are the implications for practitioners? The turnover of care workers is one of the major managerial challenges for nursing home managers. The findings of this study suggest that managers should be focused on high-performance work practices to improve the efficiency of their organisations.