This research looked at the extent to which identified intrinsic and extrinsic motivational variables influenced the
retention and reduction of employee turnover in both public and private sector organisations. The research was
aimed at achieving the following objectives: identify and establish the key intrinsic and extrinsic motivational
variables being used by selected public and private sector organisations in retaining their employees; determine
the extent to which the identified intrinsic and extrinsic motivational variables are influencing employees
retention and turnover in the selected organisations; and make recommendations to management of the
selected organisations on how to effectively retain employees and reduce turnover. The study adopted the
cross-sectional survey research design, investigating the extent to which selected motivational variables
influence employees decision to either remain or quit an organisation. Quantitative research design was used
and this design was chosen because its findings are generaliseable and the data objective. The study examined
two public and two private sector organisations in South Africa. The total population of the research comprised
1800 employees of the surveyed organisations with a sample size of 145 respondents. A self-developed
questionnaire, measured on a Likert Scale was used to collect data from respondents. The questionnaire had a
Cronbach alpha coefficient of = 0.85 suggesting that the instrument was reliable. The Chi-square test of
association was used in testing the hypothesis of the study. The result showed that employees in both public
and private sector organisations were, to a very large extent, influenced to stay in their respective organisations
by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. The following motivational variables were found
to have significantly influenced employee retention in both the public and private sector organisations: training
and development, challenging/interesting work, freedom for innovative thinking, and job security.
Key words: Employee, retention, turnover, motivation, intrinsic, extrinsic.
INTRODUCTION
Worldwide, retention of skilled employees has been of
serious concern to managers in the face of ever
increasing high rate of employee turnover. Todays business environment has become very competitive thus
making skilled employees the major differentiating factor
for most organisations. Organisations - both public and
private rely on the expertise of their employees in order
to compete favourably and indeed gain competitive
advantage in the international market. However, recent
studies have shown that retention of highly skilled employees has become a difficult task for managers as this
category of employees are being attracted by more than
one organisation at a time with various kinds of incen-
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412
413
Table 1. Levels of significance between the overall variable and intrinsic motivational variables.
Motivational variables
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Public Sector
2
p-value x value
0.04
9.91
0.00
15.35
0.00
14.18
0.13
7.07
0.04
8.15
0.02
11.41
0.10
7.76
0.28
5.08
0.98
0.41
0.42
3.90
0.03
11.09
0.08
8.27
0.24
5.46
Private Sector
2
p-value x value
0.02
12.23
0.03
9.16
0.61
1.81
0.00
20.52
0.04
9.90
0.03
10.59
0.00
19.81
0.05
7.44
0.56
3.02
0.00
20.54
0.03
10.71
0.79
1.71
0.04
9.90
Table 2. Levels of significance between the overall variable and extrinsic motivational variables
Motivational variables
1
2
3
4
5
Salary package
Performance bonus/commission
Good terminal benefit/pension
Cutting-edge technology
Interpersonal relationships
Public sector
p-value x2 value
0.00
22.99
0.72
2.11
0.00
94.00
0.06
9.19
0.06
9.01
Private sector
p-value x2 value
0.25
4.03
0.00
39.93
0.98
0.19
0.00
13.13
0.56
2.98
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415
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