“Job enrichment, organizational commitment, and intention to quit: the mediating role of employee engagement”

In human resource accounting, personnel recruitment cost is an important issue. High turnover of employees triggers this charge. This research focused on the non-financial issue in employee turnovers for various professions. This study examines the effect of job enrichment, a self-development process on the working environment, to the employee’s engagement and organizational commitment, as well as the intention to quit in a different profession. The respondents of this research are 154 workers who have worked at their institution for at least two years. Using moderate regression analysis and testing two models, the first with linear regression, and the second with moderate regression analysis, this research shows that in the first model, job enrichment and employee engagement affect organizational commitment directly. However, in the second model, this study shows that employee engagement cannot moderate the effect of job enrichment on organizational commitment or the intention to quit. This research also finds that employee engagement affects negatively the intention to quit at work. The research findings strengthen the theory that a self-development process capable of generating employee engagement can assist management in controlling employee turnover rates.


INTRODUCTION
Despite its strategic importance in the field of management and organization, the study of employee engagement is fairly limited (Saks, 2006).In fact, this non-financial aspect has proven to be quite valuable in preventing worker intention to quit (turnover intention) (Nusatria, Suharnomo, & Si, 2008; Hong, Hao, Kumar, Ramendran, & Kadiresan, 2012).Saks (2006) even proves that employee engagement can moderate the relationship between organizational commitment and the intention to quit the job.Saks's (2006) findings have even been preceded by previous studies that always link the organizational commitment with the intention to quit the job (Williams & Hazer, 1986;Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky, 2002).
From several previous studies, it appears that the variables that are often cited as factors that reduce the intention to quit the job are organizational commitment, employee engagement, and workplace relationships, with various variations of latent variables quite diverse.For example, research has found that interventions to social control are more influential in shaping performance measurement systems that encourage increased employee engagement (Smith & Bititci, 2017).
Other studies have also found that attachment to the organization partially mediates the relationship between work environment support and employee retention (Kundu & Lata, 2017).It was also found that employee attachment proved to have a negative correlation to stress at work (Anthony-McMann, Ellinger, & Halbesleben, 2017).
Employee turnover problems are usually simplified by assuming that the above phenomenon is only a symptom of a corporate or organizational failure to overcome problems in recruiting or retention of employees associated with reward management practices.The literature on resource management and psychology has been identifying various things related to what happens behind the phenomenon of failure to retain workers.One of the so-called factors affecting the success of retaining workers is by providing employment opportunities to workers by enrichment work (Duffield, Baldwin, & Roche, 2014).
However, job-related contextual factors, one of which is the complexity of work, also have a negative effect on the intention to quit the job (Jooa, Hahn, & Peterson, 2015).But in a different contextual setting, it is also found that the job enrichment positively affects the intention to quit the job, especially in a work environment with low psychological meaningfulness (Janik & Rothmann, 2015).This paper attempts to draw a line between those two differences.This study also provides input that human resources management practitioners should do serious things related to retention of workers with practices that can increase employee engagement such as coaching.We will particularly look at the factors of employee engagement, whether the variable can moderate the relationship between job enrichment and the intention to quit the job or to organizational commitment.This study tries to see how the influence of these variables directly or through the effects of moderation.
In so doing, this paper will be organized as follows.First, we will elaborate our theoretical framework and hypotheses formulation.We then describe the methodology and justification being used in this study.Thereafter, we will elaborate our finding and data analysis, and then discuss it within the extant literature.The last section will conclude the paper and provide several implications and recommendations.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESES
Job enrichment is a job design that involves a variety of job content, higher levels of knowledge and expertise, greater responsibility and autonomy for planning, directing and controlling work (Sungkit & Meiyanto, 2015).Whittington (2013) found that job enrichment has a direct impact on employee attitudes and behaviors, one of them being an affective commitment to the organization (Whittington, McKee, Goodwin, & Bell, 2013).
Employment arrangements that support employees to optimize their use of skills and knowledge can make employees feel more involved and tied into the organization (Wollard & Shuck, 2011).Past research has found that job enrichment termed job scope has a negative effect on the intention to quit the job (Krausz, Koslowsky, Shalom, & Elyakim, 1995).Allegedly, job enforcement factors have contributed to organizational commitment and prevented employees' intention to quit their jobs.
Employee engagement can be defined as an attitude that shows how much employees identify with their work and is emotionally committed to their work, and has the ability and resources to do its work (Nurofia, 2009).Kahn (1990) states that a person's motivation to be bound by his work is in response to how he sees and places himself on three things: meaningfulness, security, and sustainability of the work.
Employees who have attachments can help the organization to achieve its mission and implement strategies and accelerate the achievement of organizational goals (Vance, 2006).Several previous studies have tried to link employee engagement with organizational commitment (Khalid, Khalid, Waseem, Farooqi, & Nazish, 2015; Albdour & Altarawneh, 2014).In this study, researchers wanted to see whether employee engagement was a factor that moderated the relationship between job enrichment and organizational commitment.
Organizational commitment is defined as the relative strength of the process of individual identification in its engagement with the organization and is characterized by strong acceptance of organizational values and goals accompanied by a willingness to pursue an action on behalf of the organization and a strong intention to maintain membership in the organization (Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982).Meyer (2002) mentions that normative commitment refers to a group of workers who both feel in their organization is an obligation, while a sustained commitment is interpreted as a worker's commitment considering that the cost of leaving the organization is too high to prefer to be with the organization (Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky, 2002).
Actually, organizational commitment theory speaks in more detail by illustrating that there are many commitments in work environments that shape organizational commitment, such as worker commitment to coworkers, direct supervisors, and teams (Cohen, 2003).In this study, organizational commitment is limited in terms of how much a person has a strong intention to maintain membership in the organization, as this study also specifically wants to examine how the variables in this study are interrelated.
The intention to quit the job is a psychological process one thinks of when they think about job-related choices as a form of dissatisfaction with the current job situation (Martin, 2011).Ajzen (1991) in the theory of planned behavior (TPB) indicates that the intention to quit the job is a predictor of employee turnover (Ajzen, 1991).
Some previous studies suggest that job satisfaction negatively affects the intention to quit the job (Yücel, 2012;Aydogdu & Asikgil, 2011).Other studies have found that employees will think about quitting from jobs when jobs cannot meet their needs (Yi, 2012).The intention to quit the job is a big decision a person will take, so the consideration of doing so will be taken seriously.
However, the development of psychological theory finds that a person who decides to quit his job is not solely influenced by the reward factor, but is also heavily influenced by psychological factors in the workplace, so the study intends to see whether the non-financial model is strong enough as a contributor to the intention to quit the job.
Thus, based on the literature review above, the hypotheses proposed in this study are as follows: H1: Job enrichment has a positive effect on organizational commitment.
H2: Employee engagement has a positive effect on organizational commitment.

H3: Employee engagement moderates the relationship between work enrichment and organizational commitment.
H4: Job enrichment negatively affects the intention to quit the job.
H5: Employee engagement negatively affects the intention to quit the job.
H6: Employee engagement moderates the relationship between job enrichment and the intention to quit the job.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
To answer the research question mentioned above, we will particularly look at the dynamics of employee engagement, job enrichment, and other relevant variables.The variables in this research are job enrichment, employee engagement, organizational commitment and intention to quit with the research scheme (see Figure 1).
The purpose of this research is to know: 1) the influence of job enrichment (JE) on organizational commitment (OC); 2) the influence of employee engagement (EE) on organizational commitment (OC); 3) the influence of employee engagement (EE) on the relationship between job enrichment (JE) and organizational commitment (OC); 4) the influence of job enrichment (JE) on the intention to quit (ItQ); 5) the influence of employee engagement (EE) on the intention to quit (ItQ); 6) the influence of employee engagement (EE) on the relationship between job enrichment (JE) and the intention to quit (ItQ).
Subjects in this study are workers and employees who work in the city of Yogyakarta as the population, while the sample using purposive sampling method with criteria has worked for more than two years at the institution where he worked, so considered to have enough socializing and have experience in the work environment.Data collected through a survey by using research instrument in the form of questionnaires distributed to the respondents either through an intermediary (contact person) or given directly to the individual concerned.

FINDINGS
The results of testing the hypotheses H1, H2, H4 and H5 with simple linear regression are shown in Table 1.
For H1, it can be seen that t-test value between job enrichment variable and organizational commitment variable yields t count = 2.828 > t table = 1.654 (df = 152), with significance value equal to 0,005 or less than alpha value equal to 0.05.Then, H0, null hypothesis, is rejected, and H1 is accepted.Based on this result, it can be concluded that the job enrichment has a positive effect on organizational commitment with a Beta value of 0.224, so the hypothesis H4 that job enrichment influences on organizational commitment is accepted.
For H2, it can be seen that t-test value between a variable of employee engagement and organizational commitment variable yields t count = 6.784 > t table = 1.654 (df = 152), with significance value equal to 0.000 or less than alpha value equal to 0.05.Then, H0 is rejected, and H1 is accepted.Based on this result, it can be concluded that employee engagement has a positive effect on organizational commitment with a Beta value of 0.482, so the hypothesis H2 that employee engagement affects organizational commitment is accepted.
For H4, it can be seen that t-test value between job enrichment variable and intention to quit variable yields t count = -1,957 < t table = 1.654 (df = 152), with significance value equal to 0.053 or bigger than alpha value equal to 0.05.Then, H0 is accepted, and H1 is rejected, based on this result it can be concluded that the job enrichment does not affect the intention to quit with the Beta value of -0.157, so the hypothesis H4 that job enrichment influences the intention to quit is rejected.
For H5, it can be seen that t-test value between employee engagement variable to intention to quit variable yields t count = -6.080> t table = 1.654 (df = 152), with significance value equal to 0.000 or less than alpha value equal to 0.05.Then, H0 is rejected, and H1 is accepted.Based on this result, it can be concluded that work enrichment has an effect on the intention to quit with a Beta value of -0.442, so the hypothesis H5 that employee attachment negatively affects the intention to quit is accepted.
While testing the Hypotheses 3 and 6 is, moderate regression analysis is used to see whether there is an interaction effect of the variable of employee engagement to each model, with test result shown in Table 2.
Based on Table 2, in model 1, it can be seen that the value of adjusted R-square is 0.220.This figure indicates that the variability of job enrichment, employee engagement and job enrichment interaction and employee engagement in explaining organizational commitment variable is 22%, while the rest (100% -22% = 78%) is explained by other variables outside the independent variable under study.
In model 2, it can be seen that the value of adjusted R-square is 0.182.This figure indicates that the variability of job enrichment, employee engagement and job enrichment interaction and employee engagement in explaining the intention to quit variable is 18.2%, while the rest (100% -18.2% = 81.8%) is explained by other variables outside the independent variables studied.The simultaneous significance test (F-test) is done to see the effect of job variables, employee engagement simultaneously on organizational commitment variable and intention to quit with F-test result for Hypotheses 3 and 6 (see Table 3).

Model
Based on the results of data processing, Table 3 shows the F value is 15.388 (F value greater than 2) at a significance level of 0.000 smaller than 0.05.This value means that job enrichment variables, employee engagement and job enrichment and employee engagement interaction (MODPPKK) simultaneously affect organizational commitment.
For H6, it shows an F value of 12.320 (F count is higher than 2) at a significance level of 0.000 less than 0.05.This value means that job enrichment variables, employee engagement, and interaction between job enrichment and employee engagement (MODPPKK) simultaneously affect intention to quit.
Furthermore, the t-test results in Hypotheses 3 and 6 are summarized in Table 4.
Based on the test results in Table 4 the coefficient of job enrichment variables of 0.026 states that each addition of job enrichment of 1% will raise the organizational commitment by 0.026.The value of t statistic is 0.079 at the significance level of 0.937, which means not significant, because it is higher than 0.05.From the results of t-test, it can be said that job enrichment individually has no significant effect on organizational commitment.
The value of employee association variable coefficient of 0.225 states that each addition of employee engagement of 1% will increase the organizational commitment by 0.225.The t statistic result is 0.702 at a significance level is 0.484, which means not significant, because it is higher than 0.05.So based on the t-test, it can be said the individual employee engagement does not affect the organizational commitment.
The coefficient of job enrichment interaction variables, employee engagement (MODPPKK) of 0.000 indicates that each addition of job enrichment target and employee engagement of 1% will increase organizational commitment by 0.000.The value of t statistic is -0.029 at the level of significance of 0.977, which means not significant, because it is higher than 0.05.This result indicates that the employee engagement variable does not serve as a moderating variable.Thus, the results of this study do not support the third hypothesis (H3), which that states employee engagement (EE) moderates the relationship between job enrichment (JE) and organizational commitment (OC).
As for testing the Hypothesis 6 (H6), it is seen that the coefficient of job enrichment variable of -0.122 states that any addition of job enrichment of 1% will decrease the intention to quit equal to -0.122.The value of t statistic is -0.612 at a significance level of 0.541, which means not significant because, higher than 0.05.So from the results of t-test, it can be said that the job enrichment individually does not affect the intention to quit.
The coefficient value of employee engagement variable of -0.242 showed that each addition of employee engagement of 1% would decrease the intention to quit equal to -0.242.The value of t statistic is equal to -1.24 at a significance level of 0.216, which means not significant, because it is higher than 0.05.So from the results of t-test, it can be said the employee engagement individually does not affect the intention to quit.

DISCUSSION
Based on the abovementioned findings in the form of testing of research data, there are several points of concern for supported hypotheses and unsupported hypotheses.The supported hypothesis is almost entirely a simple linear test that links an independent variable with a dependent variable directly, except for the job enrichment negatively affecting the intention to quit unsupported work, even though the coefficient number has shown the same direction.
The supported hypothesis shows that the findings of the study fit the existing theories, while the unsupported hypothesis, although the direction of the hypothesis is the same as the existing theory, is not followed by empirical findings by the hypothesis.
While the hypotheses with the moderating variables both show insignificant results, although, from the model test results, all variables are qualified variables as the variables that support the research model.However, empirically, when viewed from both the interaction effect and the direct effect of the independent variable on its dependent variable, the research is not supported.This finding indicates that the variables do work together to show the relationship between variables and contribute to each other, but quite weak if standing alone as a variable affecting the model directly.

CONCLUSION
The finding found empirically provide reinforcement of previous research, which shows a positive relationship between job enrichment with organizational commitment, also between employee engagement and organizational commitment, and negative influence of employee engagement on the intention to quit the job.
This study also empirically shows that preventing the intention to quit for the worker, the manager can make some efforts to improving employee engagement, although this finding also indicates that job enrichment is not able to prevent the employee's intention to quit the job.Characteristics of employee engagement include high intention, focus and enthusiasm, and binding with the job.A manager might increase the awareness of employee engagement by improving supervision, as well as providing partners in conducting job performance.Having done the above tasks, engaged workers are expected to be more creative, more productive, and more willing to go the extra mile.
The findings of this study are in line with previous research (Vance, 2006), which states that job enrichment and employee engagement can influence the organizational commitment of company's employees, so systematic efforts to increase job enrichment can contribute to improving organizational commitment.The job enrichment can be done by adding new tasks to expand the authority of employees so that employees feel more needed by the company.
The next research findings that test whether job enrichment affects the intention to quit the job are not proven.This result is also in line with previous research (Yang & Lee, 2009), although contrary to other studies (Krausz, Koslowsky, Shalom, & Elyakim, 1995).
The subsequent findings of employee engagement with the intention to quit the job reinforce the findings of Saks (2006) stating that the higher employee engagement will reduce the likelihood of employees intention to quit, but in contrast to Mxenge, Dywili, and Bazana's (2014) findings who found otherwise.
The inconsistency of the findings indicates that this research is still possible to be performed further, considering that under different conditions, the research findings may also be different.As for all unmoderated moderating variables able to strengthen the relationship between the dependent and independent variables, it shows that this research is still possible to be improved, especially in the preparation of models in subsequent research.

Table 2 .
Coefficient determination test results

Table 3 .
F-test result

Table 4 .
Hypotheses test results with interaction test