Sanctification of work and turnover of teachers under insurgency. Would career satisfaction and affective commitment mediate the relationship?
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-03-2019-0039 |
| Pages | 171-186 |
| Published date | 25 November 2019 |
| Date | 25 November 2019 |
| Author | Linus Jonathan Vem,Yakubu Ali Mbasua,Makrop Davireng |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education |
Sanctification of work and turnover
of teachers under insurgency
Would career satisfaction and affective
commitment mediate the relationship?
Linus Jonathan Vem
Department of Business Administration, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria
Yakubu Ali Mbasua
Department of Business Administration,
Gombe State University, Gombe, Nigeria, and
Makrop Davireng
Department of Business Education, Federal College of Education Pankshin,
Jos, Nigeria
Abstract
Purpose –Sanctification of work research is still a growing area among management and educational guild
of researchers. The purpose of this paper is to explore the intervening role of career satisfaction and affective
commitment in the relationship between sanctification and turnover intentions among teachers in a Boko
Haram infested region of Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach –The authors adopted a cross-sectional survey design using 375
responses out of the 600 administered questionnaires to three states within the context of this study. The
usable data were analyzed using SmartPLS version 3.2.7 to evaluate the hypothesized relationships.
Findings –The results reveal: negative but insignificant relationship between sanctification and turnover
intention; career satisfaction and affective commitment mediate the relationship between sanctification of
work and employee intention to leave.
Originality/value –The predictive role of sanctification was proven to be insignificant under unfriendly
work environment, which is contrary to the literature on the role sanctification. The mediating role of career
satisfaction and affective commitment between sanctification and turnover intention is relatively new.
The two constructs constitute the mechanism through which the relationships are sustained; hence the
hypotheses on the indirect relationships are established.
Keywords Affective commitment, Turnover intention, Career satisfaction, Sanctification
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
For the past decade, North-East Nigeria has attracted national and international attention
following the desperate humanitarian challenges inflicted as a result of the activities of Boko
Haram terrorists. Boko Haram which literally means “Western education is forbidden”has
indoctrinated young people who share in the sect’s core value to wage war against every
established educational system perceived as western. This development has resulted in a
huge loss of lives and properties within the zone. The menace continues to deteriorate
unabated as evidenced in Institute for Economics & Peace (2018) report that reveals Nigeria
as third most terrorized nation in the world after war-torn countries like Iraq and
Afghanistan. Despite the decline in terrorism-related death of 1,532 in 2017 which is
16 percent lower than previous year, the rating still remains a far cry.
A report of Royal Institute of International Affairs (2016) reveals that about
910 schools had been destroyed and 1,400 were forced to shutdown. Furthermore, over 600
teachers were killed while 19,000 were forced to flee. Upon that, almost a million children
have been displaced among which were 600,000 who have lost all access to education.
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 58 No. 2, 2020
pp. 171-186
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-03-2019-0039
Received 12 March 2019
Revised 22 May 2019
6 July 2019
12 September 2019
21 October 2019
Accepted 24 October 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
171
Sanctification
of work and
turnover of
teachers
The most unfortunate of these attacks was the Chibok school abduction of 219 female
students. Similarly, Oladunjoye and Omemu (2013) reported the rate of school enrollment
in Boko Haram affected states of Borno and Yobe as 29 out of every 120 and 42 out of
every 120 children of school age, respectively. The activities of the insurgents have
worsened the plight of the region which has the highest out of school children, while
interest in the teaching profession continues to dwindle. In a study conducted by
Motunrayo et al. (2018) for Education Data Research and Evaluation in Nigeria in
collaboration with UKAID assessed the impact of protracted violence due to insurgence on
the primary school teaching workforce in Borno State, Nigeria. Among their findings were
the pessimism of teachers on their career prospect and intention to quit the teaching
profession for other job opportunities.
Teachers’turnover, whether voluntary or involuntary, has a severe consequence on
schools. Beside the cost associated with turnover (Allen et al., 2010; Fisher, 1917),
researchers have demonstrated that turnover influences work outcomes (Hausknecht et al.,
2009), such as reduces students’achievement (Ronfeldt et al., 2013). Similarly, involuntary
turnover of teachers according to An (2019) has an inverted U-shaped relationship with
organizational performance, first positive and then negative while retention increases
potential success (Ekrot et al., 2016). It is noteworthy to stress that teachers’turnover is
detrimental, and when a teacher leaves, s/he may fall into the waiting arms of competitors.
This exposes the secret of the former employer (Hom et al., 2017) to the new employer. In
addition, Ronfeldt et al. (2013) find turnover as having high adverse effect on the quality of
instruction in the subsequent year. That is, a teacher’s decision to quit has been evidently
found to influence learning experience of students negatively even in classes with teachers
who chose to remain (Hanushek et al., 2016).
The period of turnover intention and decision is also characterized by low knowledge
creation and sharing, since job-related challenges and problem-solving heralding knowledge
creation are reconsidered or missed. Literature on turnover and turnover intention in the
general domain over the last ten decades (Hom et al., 2017) has attributed turnover intention
and turnover behavior to a number of factors. Some predictors such as pay (Lin et al., 2019;
Pohler and Schmidt, 2016), support (Li et al., 2017) and physical work environment (Wan
et al., 2018) are extrinsic in nature, and bother employee’s quality of work life. In addition,
studies in educational administration reveal leadership (Griffith, 2004), stress and support
(Sass et al., 2011), job content such as job satisfaction, (Froese et al., 2019), job engagement
(Takawira et al., 2014), career prospect (Perrone et al., 2019) among many related job factors
which have shaped the discussions on turnover and turnover intention of teachers. Recently
the debate is focused on the individual, their perception of how work connects to their
essence of being as explained in their existential purpose (Del Rio and White, 2014), and how
work is perceived as imbued with the presence of greater being or considered sacred as
explained in the construct sanctification of work.
In relation to teachers’sanctification of work, though a relatively new construct in the
management guild and educational administration only two empirical evidences
(Carroll et al., 2014; Walker et al., 2008) exist to date. Carroll et al. (2014) and Walker et al.
(2008) sought to determine the correlation between sanctification of work and employee
commitment, job satisfaction and intention to leave. We departed from Carroll et al. (2014)
and Walker et al. (2008) on the following grounds: First, we conducted this study in schools
that operate under a harsh and violent work environment with a justifiable reason to quit
one’s job. Under such situation, we expected that only teachers who perceived work as
fulfilling extra-ordinary purpose will remain. Second, we considered teachers’career
satisfaction as broader in scope with job embedded in it. Thus, we expected teachers’
career satisfaction to provide a mechanism, through which the relationship between the
antecedent and the criterion is explained. Third, affective commitment is similarly expected
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