Teachers’ Turnover Intentions in View of Implementing a Flexible Learning System: An Extended Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract

Recent reports associate teachers’ turnover intentions as a response to disruptions and transition of the teaching-learning process (e.g., flexible learning) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores the antecedents of teachers’ intention to teach in a flexible learning system (FLS) and their turnover intentions via an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB). Using a cross-sectional survey, 417 valid responses were analyzed to model this phenomenon, with self-efficacy and digital nativity as antecedent variables and job satisfaction and organizational commitment as predictors of teachers’ attitudes. We also examined whether the intention to teach in FLS is moderated by age. Results from Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) generate insights from the 12 hypothesized paths of the proposed model. We uncover salient findings such as (1) the extended TPB model explains 61% of the overall variations of intention to teach in FLS, (2) attitude is positively explained by job satisfaction and organizational commitment, (3) digital nativity and self-efficacy positively influence the attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control in the context of teaching in FLS, with perceived behavioral control as the strongest predictor of teaching intention, (4) the negative relationship between intention to teach in FLS and turnover intention of teachers, and (5) age has no moderating effect on the teachers’ intention to teach in FLS. Some practical insights and future research works are outlined in light of these findings.