How does Job Autonomy Influence Teachers' Turnover Intention? Testing the Mediating Effects of Job Stress and Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Objective: Providing employees full freedom at their jobs is considered an important part of effective job design. Human resources professionals and job analysis specialists should focus deeply on the impact of job autonomy on different job behaviors like stress, satisfaction, and turnover rate. Therefore, this empirical study tries to highlight the impact of job autonomy on teachers' stress, satisfaction, and turnover intention among employees that working in the education sector.   Methods: The study uses a quantitative research method depending on an international database. Data for this research was gathered from the survey conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Data for this research was collected through the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). TALIS surveyed more than 15980 teachers in the educational sector in 50 countries and economies. The main goal of the annual surveys is to assess the level of satisfaction among educational employees.   Results: Data variables were analyzed by Pearson Correlations, regressions analysis, and mediation analysis – through SPSS version 24 and JAMOVI advanced mediation models. Some of the findings of this study show negative correlations between job autonomy and job stress (r = -.041, P<0.05), and job autonomy and turnover intention (r = -.043, P<0.05). The findings also found positive correlations between job Autonomy and job satisfaction (r =.018, P<0.01). The study also finds that job stress and job satisfaction mediated the relationship between job autonomy and turnover intention indirectly (β =.196, .141 respectively, p-values< 0.001).   Conclusions: The findings of this study help the decision makers at the educational institution to think deeply about the effective strategies which help to improve the level of job autonomy, improve the level of job satisfaction, and reduce the factors that are responsible for job stress to improve the retention rate and reduce turnover intention.