FGIC2019

FGIC 2nd Conference on Governance and Integrity 2019

Volume 2019

Conference Paper

Factors Affecting Employees’ Turnover

Intention in Construction Companies in Klang,
Selangor
Suhaidah Hussain and See Huei Xian
Faculty of Industrial Management, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300
Gambang, Pahang, Malaysia

Abstract
This research is about factors affecting employees’ turnover intention in construction
companies. Employees’ turnover intention is known as the organization’s workers’
intent or plan to leave their current working place’s position. Malaysia has scored third
highest voluntary turnover rate, which is 9.5% in Southeast Asia year 2015. Most of the
construction projects are difficult and complex to manage it. High employees’ turnover
rate may influence the construction companies’ productivity and performances. There
are many factors that will affect employees’ turnover intention, such as colleague
Corresponding Author:
relations, organizational commitment, organizational justice, organizational reputation,
Suhaidah Hussain communication, and organizational politics. In order to address the issues above, this
[email protected] research was aims to identify the factors affecting employees’ turnover intention and
to determine the relationship between the factors and employees’ turnover intention.
Received: 5 August 2019
Therefore, in order to achieve these objectives, a questionnaire survey involving 160
Accepted: 14 August 2019
employees conducted to Grade 7 construction company in Klang, Selangor. There
Published: 18 August 2019
was 73 companies’ worker who responded to the survey. The data analysis conducted
Publishing services provided by using SPSS and SmartPLS, and the results showed that organizational politics were
Knowledge E mostly caused employees’ turnover intention in construction companies. The findings
also showed that communication and organizational politics had a negative relationship
Suhaidah Hussain and See
Huei Xian. This article is
with employees’ turnover intention. Results from this research can provide the evidence
distributed under the terms of and bring convince for the construction companies in Malaysia to reduce employees
the Creative Commons turnover rate. In the future, the scope of the study can be expanded to other states of
Attribution License, which Malaysia to improve the reliability of this study.
permits unrestricted use and
redistribution provided that the Keywords: Employees, turnover intention, construction company
original author and source are
credited.

Selection and Peer-review under

the responsibility of the
FGIC2019 Conference
Committee. 1. Introduction

Based on Jayaram (2015), Malaysia scored third highest voluntary turnover rate at 9.5%
in Southeast Asia year 2015. Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Workforce Vitality Index
2017 has reported that there are high employees’ turnover problems, which affect
construction companies and contractors but unnoticed by them (Palaganas, 2018). In

How to cite this article: Suhaidah Hussain and See Huei Xian, (2019), “Factors Affecting Employees’ Turnover Intention in Construction Companies
in Klang, Selangor” in FGIC 2nd Conference on Governance and Integrity 2019, KnE Social Sciences, pages 108–131. DOI 10.18502/kss.v3i22.5047
Page 108
 FGIC2019

the previous studies such as Thomas (2015), Seong (2015) and Nkomo et al. (2009)
showed that salary and fringe benefits are the key factors for employees’ turnover inten-
tion in construction companies. Although previous studies focused on factors employ-
ees’ turnover intention, there is a lack of investigation of factors affecting employees’
turnover intention in construction companies in Malaysia. Therefore, in this research,
it will identify the factors affecting employees’ turnover intention and determine the
relationship between the factors and employees’ turnover intention in construction
companies in Klang, Selangor.
Factors such as colleague relations, organizational commitment, organizational jus-
tice, organizational reputation, communication, and organizational politics play an impor-
tant role in employees’ turnover intention in construction companies in Klang, Selangor.
By knowing the factors causing employees’ turnover can help human resource manager
in the company to look for better solutions to reduce employees’ turnover rate and thus
can increase productivity in construction companies in Klang, Selangor. Therefore, it
is very important to find out what factors will cause employees’ turnover intention in
construction companies in Klang, Selangor.

2. Literature Review
2.1. Background of the construction industry

The construction industry is the field where those companies are responsible for the
buildings or engineering projects of the construction. It actually consisted of three
types of construction projects which are residential projects, non-residential projects,
and engineering projects. Besides that, the construction industry plays a very important
role in the socio-economic growth of each country (Rahman, Memon, & Abd. Karim,
2013). Economically, it contributes to major improvement in the overall Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) of a country.

2.2. Construction company in Malaysia

The construction company is is sector in the Malaysian economy because it contributed

3% to 5% of the aggregate economy GDP over the last 20 years (Khan, Liew, & Ghazali,
2014). Malaysian construction company nowadays is more high-ranking, modernized,
and well equipped. As a developing nation, Malaysia has understood the vital role of the
construction company not only help in economic growth but also improving the living

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standards and life’s quality of citizen in Malaysia. For Malaysia’s construction company, all
contractors must register with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). In
tear 1994, Malaysian Government was setting up the CIDB to educate those construction
company, to adjust and register the construction companies in seven grades by following
the standard given (M.N.A, Majid, Ahamad, & Hanafi, 2012).

2.3. Factors affecting employees’ turnover intention

2.3.1. Colleague relations

Colleague relations means the relationship with the co-worker in the organization. The
connection with colleagues can also be defined as the social and working undertaken
with other people in the workplace. Relationship with the colleague in the workplace
can be observed through its attributes such as trust, cooperation, and so on (Buljubasic,
2008). The relationship between the colleagues may influence the working environ-
ment. This is because employees will spend a longer time with their colleague during
working hours. If employees have a good relationship with their colleague may make a
pleasure of the work environment.

2.3.2. Organizational commitment

The organizational commitment may interfere with the social and personal functions
of employee and the effective operation of the organization. It is also an expression
of employees’ feeling of psychological attachment towards the organization. It can
measure the employees’ willingness to stay in an organization in the future. There
are three components of commitment that can be defined as an organization which
is identification, organization, and honesty (Raisiene & Vilke, 2014). The organizational
commitment is rising from the organization’s principled attitude toward an employee. It
also can be described as the involvement of employees in the organization.

2.3.3. Organizational justice

According to Greenberg (1987), organizational justice defined as the fairness of resource

allocation in an organization based on employee’s perception. This is also referring to
decision by management and its action, whether it is according to the moral right with
ethical standards, religion, or the law. The fairness can describe in term of employees’

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salary, performance evaluation, opportunities for promotion, and others. This perception,
in turn, can influence employees’ attitude towards management (Fee Yean & Yusof,
2016). If fairness is applied in an organization, employees will also feel satisfied and
give a high commitment to the organization.

2.3.4. Organizational reputation

Organizational reputation is same meaning as an organizational image which shows

the overall attractiveness of the organization. The reputation of an organization will
represent its ability to create value, and it passes actions. The good pass actions of
an organization will have a good reputation or image in the country, which will make
those employees feel proud to work in the organization. Organizational reputation also
can be considered as the stakeholder’s opinion or judgment. Organizational reputation
demonstrates the ability of the organization to create value. The reputation of the
organization is also based on the past behavior of the organization and gives the
outlook for the future (Hendriks, 2016).

2.3.5. Communication

Communication means the willingness to share non-personal or personal information

to others (Eisenberg & Witten, 1987). It also can be defined as the sharing of information
between one and others through face-to-face interaction or social media. Communica-
tion is an important aspect that helps to improve the decision-making process. Through
the exchange of information between manager and employees can choose the best
decision to solve any of the problems faced by the organization. At the same time,
employees will feel their contributions are being respected and it may reduce the
dissatisfaction of employees toward their job.

2.3.6. Organizational politics

Organizational politics can be defined as the work behavior of employees in the

organization. It is a difficult element to deal with within the organization. Even though
it will bring some negative effect on the organization, but it may also bring a positive
impact to the organization. The negative impact that organizational politics will cause is
ethical concerns such as conflicts over resources. Ferris et al. (1996) view organizational
politics as an attitude that is not formally authorized by the organization, dispute, and

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frictions arise in the work environment by opposing individuals or groups against each
other or peer-to-peer organizations. On the other hand, those employees with political
skills are managed job stress and help the organization meet the strategic goals.

2.4. Employees’ turnover intention

Employees’ turnover intention means the employees have thought or plan to voluntarily
leave their current organization. Voluntary employee turnover explains that employees’
perception can lead to turnover. Employees’ turnover intention also closely related to the
employees’ turnover because the actual employees’ turnover behavior is depending
on their intention of leaving the organization (Yang and Wittenberg, 2016). Thus, the
employees’ turnover intention is the most immediate determinant of real turnover behav-
ior. Employees’ turnover intention must be taken seriously because it will influence the
organizational performance and lower down the efficiency of productivity.

2.5. Relationship between factors and employees’ turnover

2.5.1. Colleague relation & employees’ turnover intention

Colleague relationships have a direct negative impact on job stress and realism, while
executive support has a direct negative impact on job stress but not realism (Yang
et al., 2015). The results of the previous study show that the pressure on employees in
the workplace has become increasingly important because it will influence the employ-
ees’ turnover intention. Consolidated colleagues and executive support can effectively
reduce work stress and improve the status of the aging workforce. At the same time, the
employee’s willingness to turnover can be reduced. According to Bateman (2009), it also
is shown that there is a significant negative correlation between colleagues’ support
and withdrawal intention. Retail organizations should be aware of this relationship and
commit to creating a supportive work environment. Thus, it can be hypothesized that
colleague relations have a negative relationship with employees’ turnover intention.

2.5.2. Organizational commitment & employees’ turnover intention

Organizational support can boost the morale of the employee; as a result, will lead to
high organizational commitment and low employees’ turnover intention (Ahmed and
Nawaz, 2015). This previous research approves the significant positive relationship

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between job autonomy and organizational commitment which the greater job autonomy
leads to more commitment to the current organization needs to provide more autonomy
to employees so that employees could decide about their goals and pursue plans to
achieve them. Through Jehanzeb, Rasheed, and Rasheed (2013) research on organi-
zational commitment and employee turnover intentions also confirms a strong reverse
relationship. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that organizational commitment has a
negative relationship with employees’ turnover intention.

2.5.3. Organizational justice & employees’ turnover intention

In the previous scholar by Ali and Jan (2012), there was a significant relationship
between employee’s turnover intention towards distributive justice perception as well as
procedural justice perception. The degree of organizational justice and job satisfaction
in the workplace has an effect on employees’ attitude and performance (Letchumanan,
Apadore, & Ramasamy, 2017). If the organization can recognize and implement orga-
nizational justice, the employee’s performance and productivity can be increased if
they been treated fairly. Thus, employee turnover also can be reduced. In other words,
this can be hypothesized that organizational justice has a negative relationship with
employees’ turnover intention.

2.5.4. Organizational reputation & employees’ turnover intention

Findings in the Allahyary and Beheshtifar (2013) and Alniacik, Cigerim, Akcin, and
Bayram (2011) show that there is a reverse relationship between organizational reputa-
tion and employees’ turnover intention. Focusing on organizational identification and
images can reduce employee turnover intentions in the organization. Previous research
in South Korea conducted by Kwon & Rupp (2013) also presented a negative correlation
between corporate reputation and turnover intentions, especially in high-performing
companies in the organization. A high degree of recognition of the company’s reputation
will reduce the willingness to leave, and vice versa. So, it can be hypothesized that the
organizational reputation has a negative relationship with employees’ turnover intention.

2.5.5. Communication & employees’ turnover intention

According to Olcer and Ozenir (2017), their research found out that organizational com-
munication has a negative effect on the intention to leave of employees. The research

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did by Al-Tokjais (2016) also results that good communication can forecast turnover
intention behavior of employees in an organization. It is proven that communication
from manager to employee (downward communication), communication employee to
their leader (upward communication) and communication between departments (side-
ward communication) in an organization will influence for the turnover intention. It is
expected that a high perception of communication will reduce the turnover intention
occurs in the organization (Yang & Wittenberg, 2016). Thus, it can be hypothesized that
communication has a negative relationship with employees’ turnover intention.

2.5.6. Organizational politics & employees’ turnover intention

The results from Abubakar and Abdullahi (2017) study also shows that there would
be a reciprocal effect of perceived organizational politics on turnover intention. These
results underline our postulation that the relationship between perceived organizational
politics and turnover intention is complex and reciprocal. This suggests that there is
no simple one-directional effect of perceived organizational politics on turnover inten-
tion. Whereas perceived organizational politics influence turnover intention, employee
turnover can also influence the perception of organizational politics in the work envi-
ronment. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that organizational politics has a negative
relationship with employees’ turnover intention.

3. Methodology
3.1. Research design

The quantitative research design was used in this study. Descriptive and correlational
design were some of the types of quantitative research design which would be used to
solve the research questions. The descriptive design includes the sample population
which may be nearly hundreds or thousands of subjects to achieve the validity estimate,
and the Correlational design will be used to determine and test for the relationship
between independent and dependent variables of this research. The data collection
method that would be used in this study was questionnaires method. Both paper-pencil-
questionnaires and web-based questionnaires would be applied in this research. Hence,
the questionnaires would be prepared and given to the respondents through email or
walk-in to the Grade 7 construction companies in Klang, Selangor.

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3.2. Conceptual framework

The following Figure 1 is the conceptual framework of the research.

Independent Variables
H1
Colleague Relations

Organizational Commitment H2

Dependent Variable
Organizational Justice H3
Employees’ Turnover
H4 Intention
Organizational Reputation

Communication H5

Organizational Politics H6

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework (Source: Authors’ own work).

3.3. Research hypothesis

Based on the Figure 1, the hypotheses for this research as follows:

H1: The colleague relations have a negative relationship with employees’ turnover
intention.
H2: The organizational commitment has a negative relationship with employees’
turnover intention.
H3: The organizational justice has a negative relationship with employees’ turnover
intention.
H4: The organizational reputation has a negative relationship with employees’
turnover intention.
H5: The communication has a negative relationship with employees’ turnover inten-
tion.
H6: The organizational politics has a negative relationship with employees’ turnover
intention.

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3.4. Data collection

In this study, all the data and information will be collected through the articles and
journals which were using secondary data collection method and questionnaire survey
forms that were distributed which were using the primary data collection method. The
main data collection techniques used in this study was a questionnaire from the target
respondents through email and walk-in. Questionnaire format such as close-ended
questions, length of the questions, and the choices of the questions had been set
to make sure the data can easily gather from the respondents. In this questionnaire
design process, the questionnaire separated into three sections, which were Section A:
Demographic, Section B: Factors affecting employees’ turnover intention, and Section
C: Employees’ turnover intention. Objective questions, subjective questions, and Five
Point Likert scale were used in the questionnaire. The levels of measurement used
for the variables in this research was ordinal scale because the Five Point Likert scale
that uses in the questionnaire such as strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and
strongly agree were an ordinal scale of measurement.

3.5. Population and sample size

The respondents in this study will focus on the upper or lower level of employees who
were working in Grade 7 construction companies in Klang, Selangor. There had a total
population of 160 Grade 7 construction companies in Klang, Selangor found from the
Centralized Information Management System (CIMS) that had registered for Construction
Industry Development Board (CIDB). Based on Krejcie and Morgan (1970), the sample
size for the population of 160 Grade 7 construction companies in Klang, Selangor were
113 of respondents. Those respondents for this research will involve all different gender
and age. Besides that, probability sampling was used in this research because the
respondents are chosen through random sampling. Each of the respondents has the
same probability of being chosen, and they will be randomly chosen from the population.

3.6. Data analysis

The Pearson Correlation and Multiple Regression Analysis have been conducted to
identify the factors affecting employees’ turnover intention and determine the relation-
ship between factors and employees’ turnover intention in construction companies.
Before conducting the Correlation and Regression Analysis, reliability and validity test

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have done in order to make sure whether the Five Point Likert scale questions in the
research questionnaire are reliable and the data collection in this research are valid.
Moreover, the normality test also has done in order to confirm the data collected are
normally distributed and achieved the underlying assumption for most of the statistical
analysis. Descriptive analysis has been conducted to summarized and describe the
data collected by measure the mean and standard deviation to make the results of the
research easier to understand.

3.7. Survey procedure

3.7.1. Pre-test

The pre-test will be conducted to get some advice from the experts to improve the
questionnaire. In this research, the questionnaire was given to three experts who have
the related field or background toward construction or human resources to undergo this
pre-test. Those experts have identified the questionnaire’s problems such as unclear
sentences or the questionnaire taking too long to administer. The comments from the
experts had been recorded down, and correction is done at the same time before
proceeding to the pilot test.

3.7.2. Pilot test

The pilot test is a rehearsal of the research study which allows testing the study approach
with a small number of test respondents before the main study being conducted and
ensuring all the respondents understands the questions from the questionnaire in the
same way. Based on Connelly (2008) and Hertzog (2008), 12 questionnaires were given
to the workers who work in construction companies in Malaysia other than Klang areas
to conduct the pilot test. The start and end time have been recorded, so the duration to
complete each survey can be estimated. During collecting the questionnaires, feedback
about the problems of the questionnaires also collected from the respondents too.
After that, the questionnaires that need to be given to the real respondents for this
research have been adjusted and improved. Other than that, the pilot test also being
used to measure the reliability and consistency of the questionnaire by seeing the
Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient generated from SPSS software. The results of Cronbach’s
Alpha coefficient value shown in Table 1 for all variables were more significant than
0.7, which means acceptable with the internal consistency and reliability. Hence, there

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was no item from each variable need to be deleted, and it can proceed to the primary
respondents’ distribution for this research.
Table 1: Pilot Test for Variables.

Variables No. of Items Cronbach’s Alpha

Colleague Relations 5 0.769
Organizational Commitment 5 0.778
Organizational Justice 5 0.726
Organizational Reputation 5 0.830
Communication 5 0.774
Organizational Politics 5 0.865
Employees’ Turnover Intention 5 0.781

3.7.3. Main survey

The corrected and improved questionnaire would be distributed to the workers who
were working in the Grade 7 construction companies in Klang, Selangor which had
been registered for the CIDB. There are 160 sets of the questionnaire had been given
to the construction companies through email and walk-in. Each Grade 7 construction
companies would only be given one set of questionnaire which means each of the
respondents will be represented by different construction companies. However, there
was only received 73 respondents out of 160 populations. The response rate was
45.63%, which considered good and acceptable (Keller, 2014). The total respondents
collected was 64.60% of the sample size (113 respondents) needed for this research.

4. Results
4.1. Respondent demographics

Table 2 shows that most of the respondent’s gender that participated in this research
are female, which has 75.3% from a total of 73 respondents. Besides that, there were
only 18 males, which also represented 24.7% of the total respondents involved in this
research. Most of the respondents’ age was in between 21 – 25 year’s old, which
was 31.5% of the total respondents. There were only 2 respondents who were 2.7%
of the total respondents were from the age of 20 years old and below. For education
level, Bachelor’s Degree level has the most number of respondents, which is 39.7%
while Doctorate level has the fewer respondents which only one person out of a total
of 73 respondents in this research. Most of the respondent’s race was build up from

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Chinese, which has 56.2% of the respondents. However, Indian respondents had the
lowest amount, which is 6.8% of the total population. Moreover, most of the respondents
(47.9%) had 2 years and below working experience in their current working construction
companies. There are only 8 respondents who have working experience of 11 years
and above with a percentage of 11.0% of total respondents. Other than that, most of the
respondents who participated in this research are holding admin position in their current
working construction companies, which are 47.9% of the total research respondents.
The others 17.8% of the respondents’ position in their current working place was such
as senior executive, financial admin, electrical engineer, purchasing executive, senior
contract executive, chemist, sales coordinator, receptionist, and quality control admin.

4.2. Descriptive analysis

Based on Table 3, organizational politics had the highest mean of 3.1425, which showed
that the employees’ turnover intention in respondents’ construction companies are
mostly affected by organizational politics factor. Organizational reputation had the low-
est mean of 3.0137, which implied that the employees’ turnover intention in construction
companies were low influence by organizational reputation. Since all the mean value
for each variable are more than 3 (Neutral), which means most of the respondents are
neutral or agree toward those factors can affect the employees’ turnover intention in
construction companies.

4.3. Normality test

According to Curran et al. (1996), a samples are normally distributed if the absolute
value of Skewness not more than 2 (within -2 to 2) and the absolute value of Kurtosis
not greater than 7 (within -7 to 7). Based on the SPSS output in Table 4, it was shown
that the highest absolute value of Skewness is 0.771 which less than 2 and the highest
absolute value of Kurtosis is 1.068 which does not more than 7. Since all the statistic
value of Skewness for each item are within -2 to 2 and all the statistic value of Kurtosis
for each item are within -7 to 7, it can be confirmed that the samples are normally
distributed. Besides that, the outlier has existed if there have any z-score value is less
than -3.29 or more than 3.29 (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007). After running the z-score in
SPSS software, all the z-score values had been check, and all values are in the range
of -3.29 to 3.29. Thus, there does not have any outlier exist.

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Table 2: Demographic Analysis.

Demographic Components Number Percentage (%)

Respondents
Gender Male 18 24.7
Female 55 75.3
Age 20 years old and below 2 2.7
21-25 years old 23 31.5
26-30 years old 20 27.4
31-35 years old 17 23.3
36-40 years old 7 9.6
41-45 years old 4 5.5
46-50 years old - -
51 years old and above - -
Education Level SPM 11 15.1
STPM 3 4.1
Diploma 20 27.4
Bachelor’s Degree 29 39.7
Master’s Degree 9 12.3
Doctorate 1 1.4
Others - -
Race Malay 27 37.0
Chinese 41 56.2
Indian 5 6.8
Others - -
Work Experience 2 years and below 35 47.9
3-6 years 20 27.4
7-10 years 10 13.7
11 years and above 8 11.0
Position Accountant 7 9.6
Site Supervisor 4 5.5
Project Executive 6 8.2
Admin 35 47.9
Human Resource Executive 8 11.0
Others 13 17.8

4.4. Reliability analysis

4.4.1. Validity analysis

SmartPLS software had been used to obtain the validity analysis. In SmartPLS, there
is two validity that needs to be done, which are convergent validity and discriminant
validity. To evaluate the convergent validity of the research data, the outer loadings

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Table 3: Descriptive Analysis.

Variables N Mean Standard Variance

Deviation
Colleague Relations 73 3.0164 0.75554 0.571
Organizational Commitment 73 3.0521 0.78459 0.616
Organizational Justice 73 3.0521 0.67250 0.452
Organizational Reputation 73 3.0137 0.64406 0.415
Communication 73 3.0219 0.74428 0.554
Organizational Politics 73 3.1425 0.75754 0.574
Employees’ Turnover Intention 73 3.0466 0.82564 0.682

Table 4: Skewness and Kurtosis of Each Item.

Item CR OC OJ OR C OP ETI
1 Skewness 0.066 0.771 0.196 -0.149 0.402 0.302 0.342
Kurtosis -0.949 0.492 -0.345 -0.938 -0.629 -0.304 -0.317
2 Skewness 0.320 0.452 0.247 -0.218 0.361 -0.056 0.056
Kurtosis -0.640 -0.039 -0.166 -0.955 -0.664 0.219 -0.637
3 Skewness 0.678 0.144 0.058 0.290 -0.220 -0.169 -0.383
Kurtosis 0.153 -0.360 -0.392 -0.157 -0.489 -0.262 -0.271
4 Skewness 0.233 -0.053 0.179 0.074 0.177 -0.400 0.004
Kurtosis -0.717 -0.857 -0.047 -0.772 0.442 -0.405 -0.895
5 Skewness -0.065 -0.145 0.345 0.235 0.108 0.084 -0.115
Kurtosis -0.689 -1.068 -0.658 -0.835 -0.901 -1.018 -0.209
Note: CR = Colleague Relations; OC = Organizational Commitment; OJ = Organizational Justice; OR
= Organizational Reputation; C = Communication; OP = Organizational Politics; ETI = Employees’
Turnover Intention

of each variables’ questions, and the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) need to be
measured. The outer loadings should be 0.708 or higher, and the AVE value must be
0.50 or higher, so it reflects a good convergent validity of research data (Hair Jr et al.,
2017). Those items that have outer loadings less than 0.708 will be deleted one by one
until the variables do not contain any items that less than 0.708. Those items deleted
(11 items) and remained (24 items) have shown in Table 6. Table 6 shows that all the
outer loadings of each item remained are more than 0.708, which means that the latent
variable should be able to explain at least 50% of each item’s variance. Not only that,
AVE values for all variables are more significant than 0.5, which also can be said that
all items for the variables have high levels of convergent validity. Since all-composite
reliability for each variable are more than 0.7 after deleted items process, which means
all the variables in this research are still acceptable with high internal consistency and
reliability. Figure 2 shows that the PLS path model after item deleted process.

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Table 5: Convergent Validity.

Item CR OC OJ OR C OP ETI
1 0.815 Deleted 0.889 Deleted 0.908 0.816 0.784
2 0.789 0.716 0.916 Deleted 0.910 0.779 0.888
3 0.874 0.851 Deleted 0.728 0.869 0.870 Deleted
4 0.780 0.916 Deleted 0.890 Deleted 0.800 0.856
5 Deleted 0.772 Deleted 0.883 Deleted Deleted 0.919
AVE 0.665 0.668 0.815 0.700 0.803 0.667 0.745
Composite 0.888 0.889 0.898 0.874 0.924 0.889 0.921
Reliability
Note: CR = Colleague Relations; OC = Organizational Commitment; OJ = Organizational
Justice; OR = Organizational Reputation; C = Communication; OP = Organizational Politics;
ETI = Employees’ Turnover Intention

To assess the discriminant validity of the items, the latest main approach needs to
be measured the Heterotrait-Monotrait ratio (HTMT). All the HTMT values should not
more than the appropriate threshold level which is 0.85, and the HTMT confidence
interval should not include the value 1 for all combinations of variables (Hair Jr et al.,
2017). Table 6 shows that the highest HTMT value is 0.815 which means all the HTMT
values are lower than the relevant threshold value of 0.85 and there are neither of
the HTMT confidence intervals was including the value 1. Since the conservative HTMT
threshold of 0.85 already supported the discriminant validity. The result of bootstrap
confidence interval HTMT also clearly agreed toward the discriminant validity of the
research variables. Seem all the model evaluation criteria have been met, it providing
support for the measures’ validity.
Table 6: Discriminant Validity.

CR OC OJ OR C OP ETI
Colleague Relations
Communication 0.588
Employees’ Turnover 0.418 0.758
Intention
Organizational 0.610 0.613 0.667
Commitment
Organizational Justice 0.546 0.538 0.615 0.786
Organizational Politics 0.203 0.510 0.798 0.493 0.414
Organizational Reputation 0.622 0.815 0.708 0.755 0.613 0.573
HTMT confidence interval Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
does not include 1
Note: CR = Colleague Relations; OC = Organizational Commitment; OJ = Organizational Justice; OR
= Organizational Reputation; C = Communication; OP = Organizational Politics; ETI = Employees’
Turnover Intention

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Figure 2: PLS Path Model After Items Deleted (Source: Authors’ own work).

4.4.2. Pearson correlation analysis

If the significance value is less than 0.05, that means the relationship between indepen-
dents variable and dependent variable are significant. Table 7 shows that all the inde-
pendent variables had a significance value less than 0.05, which prove that the relations
between the independent variables and employees’ turnover intention are significant.

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Therefore, all the independent variables (colleague relations, organizational commit-

ment, organizational justice, organizational reputation, communication, and organiza-
tional politics) are considered as the factors that affect employees’ turnover intention.
The Pearson Correlation value in Table 7 also explained that all the independent
variables are negatively significant relationship toward employees’ turnover intention.
Since all the questions in the questionnaire were changed to the negative statement
in the early stage of the data analysis, thus, the positive value of Pearson Correlation
represent a negative relationship between the independent variable and dependent
variable.

Table 7: Pearson Correlation Analysis.

CR OC OJ OR C OP
Employees’ Pearson 0.354 0.576 0.511 0.582 0.678 0.691
Turnover Intention Correlation
Sig. (1-tailed) 0.001 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
N 73 73 73 73 73 73
Note: CR = Colleague Relations; OC = Organizational Commitment; OJ = Organizational Justice; OR
= Organizational Reputation; C = Communication; OP = Organizational Politics

4.4.3. Multiple regression analysis

Standardized beta coefficient (β) is very similar to the correlation coefficient, which
ranges is between 0 to 1 or 0 to -1 (Morgan et al., 2013). The closer the value toward
1 or -1, it reflects the stronger the relationship between the independent variable and
dependent variable. In order for the independent variables to be significant, the p-value
must be less than 0.05 (Frost, 2013). Table 8 shown only two hypotheses (H5 and H6)
are supported due to the variables’ beta coefficient are positive and have a significant
level of p-values less than 0.05. While, there are four hypotheses (H1, H2, H3, and H4)
not being supported because of the significant level of p-values are greater than 0.05.

5. Discussion

The purpose of the finding is to identify the factors affecting employees’ turnover
intention in construction companies in Klang, Selangor and to determine the relationship
between the factors and employees’ turnover intention in construction companies in
Klang, Selangor. There are six factors affecting employees’ turnover intention being

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Table 8: Summary of Hypotheses Testing.

Hypotheses Relationship Unstandardized Coefficient Standardized t Sig. Decision

Coefficient
B Std. error Beta
H1 CR → ETI -0.017 0.093 -0.016 -0.178 0.859 Not
supported
H2 OC → ETI 0.135 0.103 0.135 1.306 0.196 Not
supported
H3 OJ → ETI 0.126 0.091 0.126 1.381 0.172 Not
supported
H4 OR → ETI -0.001 0.112 -0.001 -0.005 0.996 Not
supported
H5 C → ETI 0.375 0.101 0.371 3.716* 0.000 Supported
H6 OP → ETI 0.462 0.088 0.433 5.261* 0.000 Supported
Note: *p < 0.05
Source: Authors’ own work

selected from previous research, which are colleague relations, organizational commit-
ment, organizational justice, organizational reputation, communication, and organiza-
tional politics.
Based on the results from reliability analysis, it shows that all the independent and
dependent variables in this research are acceptable with high internal consistency and
reliability. Validity analysis results also proved the accuracy of an assessment of the
research and providing support for the measures’ validity. This is because all the model
evaluation criteria for the convergent validity and discriminant validity have been met.
Thus, the research data can be said reliable and valid.
Before proceeding to the Pearson Correlation analysis and Multiple Regression anal-
ysis, the normality test had been conducted to make sure the sample size distribution
was normally distributed. It is because normal distribution is an underlying assumption
for most of the statistical analysis (Hair Jr et al., 2010). From the normality test’s result,
it was proven that the samples of this research are normally distributed. At the same
time, the Pearson Correlation analysis and Multiple Regression analysis can proceed.
Pearson Correlation Analysis was being applied to examine the correlation between
the independent and dependent variables. According to the results of the Pearson
Correlation analysis, all the independent variables are significant and strong negatively
correlated to the employees’ turnover intention. Hence, the results proved that colleague
relations, organizational commitment, organizational justice, organizational reputation,
communication, and organizational politics are the factors which will affect employees’
turnover intention. At the same time, Research Objective 1 had been met.

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There are six hypotheses that had been developed and tested through Multiple
Regression analysis to determine the relationship between the factors and employees’
turnover intention. The results of Multiple Regression analysis shown that there are only
two out of six hypotheses were supported. H5 and H6 have been supported because
from the multiple regression analysis shown that the p-value for H5 and H6 (communi-
cation and organizational politics) are less than 0.05 which means communication and
organizational politics are significant negative relationship toward employee’ turnover
intention. This result was same as the finding from previous researches such as Al-
Tokjais (2016), Olcer & Ozenir (2017), Latif & Saraih (2016), and Abubakar & Abdullahi
(2017) which proved that communication and organizational politics was negatively
related to employees’ turnover intention.
While, H1, H2, H3, and H4 have not been supported because their p-value from
the multiple regression analysis was higher than 0.05. The reason causes the finding
of this research turn out differently from the expected is maybe due to the different
respondents’ background and characteristics of the population in this research. Different
respondents’ background may have different expectation toward the factors employees’
turnover intention, which will influence the finding of the research. Thus, the results from
this research are reasonable, and Research Objective 2 also had been achieved.

6. Conclusion and Implications

This research is about the factors affecting employees’ turnover intention in construc-
tion companies in Klang, Selangor. The purpose of this study is to find out the fac-
tors that may influence the employees’ turnover intention in construction companies
through identify the factors and determine the relationship between the factors with the
employees’ turnover intention. The results from this research help the human resource
department in construction companies to focus on those relevant and useful factors
to reduce the employee’s turnover rate in the construction companies. The descriptive
analysis results from this study showed that organizational politics had the highest mean
compared to other factors from this research which also shown that employees’ turnover
intention in construction companies are mostly affected by organizational politics factor.
Besides that, the Pearson Correlation analysis results show that all six factors (colleague
relations, organizational commitment, organizational justice, organizational reputation,
communication, and organizational politics) were highly correlated to the employees’
turnover intention.

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Therefore, those six factors were considered as the factors that will affect employees’
turnover intention. Throughout multiple regression analysis results, only two hypotheses
(H5 and H6) had been supported which are the communication factor, and organiza-
tional politics factor have a significant negative relationship with employees’ turnover
intention in construction companies in Klang, Selangor. Hence, the construction com-
panies in Malaysia should take more attention toward the communication and orga-
nizational politics factors to control or reduce the employees’ turnover rate in the
construction companies. Results from this research provided the evidence and brought
convince for the construction companies in Malaysia to reduce the employees turnover
rate. This research finding had filled up the previous research gap which lack of
investigation in construction companies in Malaysia.
Since the scope of the study is focused on workers that work in the Grade 7
construction companies in Klang, Selangor, the findings of this research can only
indicate the perspectives of construction companies in Klang, Selangor. The results from
this study might not be so useful or applicable to other districts or states of Malaysia.
The employees’ turnover intention is only measured in six aspects, which are colleague
relations, organizational commitment, organizational justice, organizational reputation,
communication, and organizational politics. The employees’ turnover intention may
include many other aspects and factors as well, which do not being measured in this
research.
The main limitation of this study is the actual population size of Grade 7 construc-
tion companies in Klang, Selangor. CIMS does not update the current status of each
construction companies, and those companies that already close down or move to
other places does not being removed from the CIMS list. This might be the difficulty
in getting the accurate total number of the population size for the research and cause
the inaccuracy of the population size for the Grade 7 construction companies in Klang,
Selangor. At the same time, it may cause the number of respondents who do not achieve
the sample size of this research. Another limitation of this study is the rejection of filling
the questionnaire from the respondents. There are some respondents do not respond
to the questionnaire form that had been sent to them through email, and some of the
respondents give an excuse to refuse to fill up the questionnaire form being given to
them.
In order to improve the reliability of this study, the scope of the study can be expanded
to other states of Malaysia. In this study, the employees’ turnover intention is only
measured by six factors. If there are more factors being measured toward the employ-
ees’ turnover intention, it may make the result of the study more accurate. In-depth

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research can also further investigation about how to solve the employees’ turnover
intention problem in construction companies based on the factors. This investigation
can make the study more precise and informative. Other than that, the data analysis
can be described more depth by classified two different groups toward the analysis
such as investigate the view from different gender (male and female) toward the factors
affecting employees’ turnover intention by using one-sample mean T-test. Furthermore,
the target respondents in the future study can be narrow down to specific level such as
management level because those measurement variables may only influence toward
employees who work in the management level or top management level. Moreover,
qualitative research design can be added into the future study. When both the qualitative
and quantitative research design involved in the study, it can improve and enhance the
results from the finding.

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Faculty of Industrial Management and FIM’s Governance and
Integrity Centre, Universiti Malaysia Pahang for the financial support by sponsoring this
paper to be presented in the FGIC 2nd Conference on Governance and Integrity 2019.

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