Why young talents quit: explaining employee turnover intentions among

Albert Heijn workfloor-supervisors

Student: Merve Renda (10906754) Supervisor: Ward van Zoonen

Masterthesis (February 1st 2018)

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Abstract

High employee turnover rate of young talents has become a serious issue for the large Dutch retail

company Albert Heijn. Because of this turnover, the company is facing a large shortage of candidates

for the job of supermarket manager and assistant supermarket manager, which is dysfunctional for

the organization. This study investigates the effects of perceived occupational prestige and person-

job fit on turnover intention, with a mediating role for job satisfaction and organizational

commitment. Also the direct effects of person-study fit and alternative job opportunities on turnover

intention have been tested. A questionnaire has been sent to all Albert Heijn stores in the

Netherlands and data were collected from 374 respondents. The findings suggest that perceived

external occupational prestige and person-job fit indeed have a significant relationship with intention

to leave, mediated through organizational commitment (except for the normative dimension of

commitment). Also person-study fit and alternative job opportunities are significantly related to

turnover intention. Job satisfaction does not play a role within the mediation relationship, which

opens up a new perspective in the field of employee retention. Theoretical and practical implications

of these findings will be discussed.

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Introduction

The retail industry heavily relies on part-time student workers. Since the profit margins within this

industry are relatively low, most retailers have to rely upon young employees with relative low

wages. These student workers represent a large group of contingent workers who keep the

organization running. Contingent work is an employment relationship which is considered as non-

permanent, is typically part-time and is usually not considered to be part of a career (Polivka &

Nardone, 1989). Recent literature (Harrison & Gordon, 2014) points out that employee turnover

rates are higher in the retail grocery industry in comparison to other industries. The Bureau of Labor

Statistics (2013) reported that the annual turnover rate in this industry was 26.8% compared to the

national average at 18.8%. This makes it challenging for retail organizations to retain employees and

their skills, experience and knowledge. The corresponding costs to the firm regarding employees

quitting the organization and the subsequent hiring of replacement employees can be significant in

terms of personal, work-unit and organizational readjustments (Cascio, 1991).

A much smaller part of the workers consist of those with indefinite contracts. These

employees are one of the few that are not replaced by younger workers because of their wage.

These permanent workers either work full time at the organization (while student workers cannot) or

have leadership qualities that are necessary on the work-floor to instruct larger groups of workers.

Since they have indefinite contracts, these workers play a more important role in the long-term

continuity of the stores because they have more opportunities and time to grow within the

organization.

Albert Heijn calls workers with leadership qualities ‘team leaders’, which is a formal title

within the organization. Albert Heijn B.V. is the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, with a

market share of 35,2% (Distrifood, 2017). Team leaders are most of the time student-workers who

once stood out because of their leadership qualities. These work-floor supervisors have the

responsibility to run a certain department of a store. They instruct other employees and give them

feedback, report to the management of the store and are responsible to meet certain targets. In

order to become a team leader, these employees when through a selection process and followed

several trainings worth 900 euros.

Albert Heijn faces the challenge to retain their young talents who employ a supervising role

as team leader, which resulted in a serious shortage of (assistant) supermarket managers among the

stores. On the store-level, team leaders have the most potential to develop themselves as store

managers. However, in general, team leaders do not take the step towards becoming a(n) (assistant)

store manager. After all the effort put in by the organization and what the employee goes through,

these team leaders most of the time still prefer a career outside Albert Heijn and leave the

organization when they graduate. The turnover of team leaders can be considered as problematic

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since a lot of social capital, experience and knowledge disappears. The lack of desire of the team

leaders to grow within the organization, disrupts the flow of employees from lower levels in the

organization to higher positions. This impacts business performance, and in this case, the

organization should reallocate resources to set up recruitment procedures in order to find candidates

for the job. These activities and the loss of employees cost the organization a lot of time, effort and

money (Cascio, 1991).

This high turnover trend among young talents is observable throughout whole the retail

sector. There are different types of turnover: a typology of Allen (2008), distinguishes voluntary and

involuntary turnover. Voluntary turnover is initiated by the employee, whereas involuntary turnover

is initiated by the organization. When an employee leaves an organization voluntarily, this can be

either functional or dysfunctional. Dysfunctional turnover is harmful to the organization and can be

either avoidable or unavoidable. Avoidable turnover stems from causes the organization may be able

to influence, whereas unavoidable turnover stems from causes over which the organization has no

control. This research focuses on the dysfunctional and voluntary turnover of team leaders with the

aim to investigate the antecedents of their intention to leave Albert Heijn. It is of crucial importance

for the organization to identify the specific reasons why team leaders choose not to continue their

careers within Albert Heijn. These insights might help them to create strategies in order to retain

these young workers and their talent, knowledge and skills. Team leaders who currently work at

Albert Heijn will be included in this study and their intention to leave will be examined, because

someone’s intention to leave is seen as one of the best predictors of actual turnover (Fishbein &

Ajzen, 1975).

In the next section, several antecedents will be discussed in more depth in relation to

intention to leave. First, perceived external prestige will be discussed. Perceptions of external

prestige, regardless of whether they accurately reflect reality, can influence employees’ attachment

to or intentions to leave their organization. (Carmeli & Freund, 2009). Second, the concept of person-

job fit will be discussed. Individuals who experience a high fit in terms of value congruence, are less

likely to exit the organization (Moynihan & Pandey, 2008). One’s expectations of a favorable job is

being shaped over the years and the job of (A)SM may not be that satisfying when it comes to the

perceived fit between the job and the desires of the team leader. Lastly, alternative job opportunities

will be discussed. Since these team leaders are student-workers, the opportunity to advance their

career in the field they study for is always present. It is of importance if they perceive their chances

of advancing their careers outside Albert Heijn better than within the organization. When other

(better) alternatives are present, employees will consider these alternatives with their benefits and

disadvantages and eventually leave the organization at the time that it deems most appropriate.

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Theoretical Framework

There is a wide variety of literature concerning turnover intentions of employees across various

sectors and employments, but less empirical research is focused on turnover among student workers

in retail organizations. In the introduction, it has been made clear why perceived external prestige,

person-organization fit and alternative job opportunities will be discussed more in depth in their

relation with intention to leave. These concepts will be related to the most prominent antecedents of

turnover intentions in literature, namely job satisfaction and organizational commitment. These key

attitudes are seen as the trigger of an employee’s withdrawal process (Allen, 2008).

Perceived occupational prestige. Perceived External Prestige (PEP) is conceptualized by Dutton

(1994) as a constructed external image and is defined as ‘assessments of the members of an

organization about what others think about their organization’ (p.239). It is a construed image that

relates to the employee’s own perceptions of the way outsiders in their social environment think

about the organization according to some kind of favorable or unfavorable evaluative criteria (Dutton

Dukerich & Harquail, 1994). With few exceptions (e.g., Carmeli & Freund, 2002; Herrbach, Mignonac

& Gatignon, 2004), little research has focused on the extent to which PEP affects intention to leave.

Carmeli and Freund (2002) have clearly suggested the importance of the internal consequences of

the image perception by employees, especially on the workplace attitudes such as organizational

commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. These workplace attitudes are considered as

essential to firm performance and work outcomes (Herrbach et al., 2004).

Personnel retention has consistently been viewed as an important consequence of

organizational commitment. Organizational commitment is known as the employee’s sense of

belonging to and identification with the organization, which increases involvement in the

organization’s activities, provides a willingness for the employee to pursue the organization’s goals,

and elicits a desire to remain with the organization (Rhoades, Eisenberger & Armeli, 2001). Porter,

Steers, Mowday and Boulian (1974) define organizational commitment as a ‘strong belief in and

acceptance of the organization’s goals and values, a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf

of the organization, and a definite desire to maintain organizational membership’ (p. 604). Meyer

and Allen (1991) identified three components of commitment: the affective, the continuance and the

normative component. Affective commitment occurs when an employee feels a strong emotional

attachment to the organization and the work that he or she does. The employee genuinely wants to

be there and he or she is enjoying the work. Continuance commitment occurs when employees

weigh up the pros and cons of leaving their organization. Here, an employee feels that they need to

stay because the experienced loss would be greater than the benefit one might gain in a new role for

example. Lastly, normative commitment, occurs when an employee feels a sense of obligation to the

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organization. The employee has the feeling that he or she should stay within the organization,

because it is the right thing to do. For example, a team leader might feel that he or she should

remain with Albert Heijn because the organization has invested 900 euros in his or her training.

Herrbach and colleagues (2004) reported that PEP is positively related to organizational

commitment, which in turn reduces intentions to leave. Organizational commitment is not the only

attitude which mediates this relationship. Herrbach and colleagues (2004) also found that PEP has an

indirect negative effect on employee turnover intention through job satisfaction. Job satisfaction an

organizational commitment are very close related concepts. Job satisfaction is a positive (or negative)

evaluative judgement one makes about one’s job or job situation (Weiss, 2002). Job satisfaction is

treated as an important predictor in most turnover models presented in literature. While

dissatisfaction can influence the employee’s intention to quit, a positive evaluation can contribute to

the intention to stay. This reasoning is based on the idea that employees have certain expectations

concerning their job and the degree to which these are satisfied can induce a comparison process

with opportunities available elsewhere – which can open the door to intentions to quit (Locke, 1969).

When outsiders perceive the company positively, this has a positive influence on how the

employee perceives working within the company (Herrbach et al., 2004). In this sense, PEP acts as a

cognitive bias in the evaluative process on which satisfaction is based. Tett and Meyer (1993)

concluded that job satisfaction and organizational commitment contribute independently to predict

turnover intention. Additionally, Carmeli and Freund (2009) found that perceived external prestige

results in higher levels of employee commitment and satisfaction, which in turn lead to lower levels

of the intention to leave the organization. Another study, conducted by Rathi and Lee (2015),

investigated the impact of perceived external prestige among retail employers in India. They found a

negative relationship between perceived external prestige and turnover intentions, with a mediating

role for affective commitment.

However, in this research, the aim is to look at the prestige perceptions concerning a specific

occupation, namely the job of (A)SM, since the shortage of employees is mostly present for this

function within the organization. The concept of perceived external prestige discussed above

concerns evaluative perceptions about an organization as a whole. Since there is no similar

conceptualization available in literature for prestige perceptions about occupations, based on the

definition provided for PEP earlier, perceived external occupational prestige can be defined as ‘an

individual level assessment of the organizational member about what other think about their

occupation’. In this case, the relationships with job satisfaction, organizational commitment and

intention to leave for perceived external occupational prestige will be treated the same as for PEP.

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Given these results and explanations, it is hypothesized that perceived external

(occupational) prestige influences one’s job satisfaction level and commitment, and this in turn

affects one’s intention to leave or stay. Therefore, the first hypothesis is:

H1: Job satisfaction (a) and organizational commitment (b) mediate the negative relationship

between perceived external prestige and turnover intentions.

P-J fit. Fit is defined as an employee's perceived compatibility with the job, organization, or

community. One form of fit, person-job (P-J) fit is defined as the compatibility between an employee

and the job (Caldwell & O’Reilly, 1990). Fit posits that employees’ work attitudes and behaviors are

shaped by how their personal goals and values align with those of their work environment (Edwards

& Cable, 2009). The theory of vocational choice (Holland, 1992) postulates that an individual will

select a career or occupation that is similar to or that fits with that person's self-concept. P-J fit is

said to occur when people and organizations share similar fundamental characteristics in terms of

values and goals (Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman & Johnson, 2005).

Empirical results have typically supported the hypothesis that congruence between

individuals' personalities and the demands of their occupations are associated with positive affect

(Mount & Muchinsky, 1978; Spokane, 1985) and a high likelihood of their staying in their jobs (Meir

& Hasson, 1982). Lofquist and Dawis (1969) also proposed that satisfaction results from "a

harmonious relationship between the individual and his environment, suitability of the individual to

the environment and vice versa" (p. 45). Individuals who do not enjoy working for companies or jobs

that do no align well with their personal values and often leave as a result (Bell, Doverspike & Villado,

2006). In terms of the relationship between P-J fit and job satisfaction, the degree to which an

individual’s and occupation’s values overlap is termed value-goal congruence (Chatman, 1991). When

value-goal congruence is high, the more satisfied the employee will be in his or her job (Kristof-

Brown et al., 2005). Kristof-Brown and colleagues (2005) showed in their study that PJ-fit has strong

correlations with job satisfaction (.56), organizational commitment (.47) and intention to leave (-.46)

(p.299).

Given that values play such an important role in the definition of commitment, a person

whose personal values match the values of the occupation would be more committed than a person

whose personal values differed from it. For example, Finegan (2000) found that fit is positively

related to organizational commitment. Individuals with a large fit feel the most satisfied and intent to

and actually remain with it longer (Chatman, 1991).

On the reverse side, lack of value-goal congruence reduces employee job satisfaction and

commitment, most likely through violation of employee expectations, which in turn causes employee

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turnover (Kristof-Brown et al., 2005; Verquer, Beehr & Wagner, 2003). Holland (1992) also stated

that incongruence will be resolved by seeking a new environment or by changing personal behaviour

and perceptions. The research on organizational fit has been extensive and clear: the more

individuals fit with their jobs, coworkers, and larger corporate cultures, the lower the turnover.

Perceptions of fit are especially important during the early stages of adjustment to a job

(Mitchell, Holtom, Lee & Sablynski, 2001). For example, work socialization theory (Feij 1998; Fisher

1986), assumes that people, especially in the early phases of their career, strive to establish

consistency between their own characteristics and their work environment, by changing one or both

of these. The young team leaders at Albert Heijn are full-time students as well. Most team leaders

choose not to fulfil the job of (A)SM and make the decision to work in the field they studied for.

During the career orientation phase, young people are generally in search for values that suit their

vision best and are creating more expectations and desires about their future jobs. Since these young

talents spend a lot of time and effort on their studies beside their jobs, it might be the case that they

perceive a large fit with their study. A perceived large fit with their studies rather than with the job of

(A)SM could provide an explanation why these young talents choose to leave the jobs of (A)SM

behind.

Based on the relation between fit and turnover intention and the reasoning above, the

following are hypothesized:

H2: Job satisfaction (a) and organizational commitment (b) mediate the negative relationship

between P-J fit and turnover intentions.

H3: There is a positive relationship between person-study fit and intention to leave.

Perceived alternative job opportunities. A recurrent theme in the turnover literature is that the

availability of alternative jobs influences turnover intentions and behavior. Perceived alternative job

opportunities (PAJO) is defined as the perception of a person regarding the availability of external

alternative jobs. Historically, turnover researchers viewed two variables as key to understanding why

employees voluntarily leave organizations: job satisfaction and perceived job alternatives (Hulin

Roznowski & Hachiya, 1985). March and Simon’s model (1958) also suggests that certain factors (e.g.

dissatisfaction) may "push" the employee to look for alternative employment, while other factors

(e.g. the perception of attractive alternative job opportunities) may "pull" the employee to consider

alternative employment.

Mattila (1974) suggests that most people do not quite one job without first lining up another

one. Josephson and colleagues (2008) also found that when PAJO are plentiful, the likelihood of

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leaving is higher. As Michaels and Spector (1982) suggest: "If a person intends to quit a job, he or she

most likely would quit when another job became available" (p. 58).

The fact that the young talents of Albert Heijn are in the early stages of their career,

alternative job opportunities play an important role in deciding whether to continue a career within

Albert Heijn. Since these team leaders are student-workers, the opportunity to advance their career

in the field they study for is present. If young talents perceive more opportunities and better careers

prospects outside the organization, they have higher intentions to leave Albert Heijn. Therefore, the

following is hypothesized:

H4: There is a positive relationship between perceived alternative job opportunities and intention to

leave.

All hypotheses formulated above and their expected relationships are displayed in the conceptual

model in figure 1.

Figure 1. Conceptual model

Methods

Design

For this research, a survey design is used. First, the team leaders at Albert Heijn (in general) do not

have much time to participate in a research due to the dynamics on the work-floor. Therefore,

participating in the survey should be made as easy and accessible as possible. Surveys are relatively

easy and quick to administer (Bryman, 2012). Second, conducting the survey through E-mail will

prevent geographical dependence and makes collecting data from a large number of respondents

possible. Albert Heijn has stores all over the Netherlands and therefore this way of collecting data is

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seen as most time- and cost-effective. The survey was an online self-report questionnaire and is

created with the online survey tool Qualtrics.

Sample and procedure

In order to use a sample, the sampling frame should be known beforehand. Within this study, it is not

possible to map and track all individual team leaders that work for Albert Heijn. Therefore, a list of all

existing Albert Heijn stores in the Netherlands is used. This means that the unique opportunity of

including the whole sampling frame was present in this study. This list is available on the Albert Heijn

intranet called ‘SAM’. The headquarter updates this list every Monday, so the data in this list is very

recent. Albert Heijn makes a division of 4 large regions: Noord-Oost, Noord-West, Zuid-Oost and

Zuid-West. These 4 regions consist of 37 ‘winkelgroepen’ in total. All 885 stores of Albert Heijn, are

divided unequally across the 37 ‘winkelgroepen’. The stores all have their own store number,

consisting of four digits, which were indicated in the Netherlands store list. This number is used for

composing the store e-mail address. For example, if a store has number 1385, the e-mail address

would be mt.1385.ah@ahold.com. The survey-link with explanations and a request to fill in the survey

was sent to these store e-mail addresses. Using e-mail is fast and has relatively low costs. However, it

should be kept in mind that the response rate could be moderate. In this case, by including the whole

sampling frame, it is still not sure if all research units (team leaders) were reached since survey links

could not be personalized due to shared e-mail addresses used in the organization.

Within this research, the population, which are all individuals possessing the attributes of

interest, are the young team leaders of Albert Heijn (under 30 years). There are also older team

leaders, people in the mid-stage of their careers and performing the job on a full-time basis. These

team leaders will be excluded from the study based on their age and career-phase. All e-mails sent to

the store e-mails will be in the personal inboxes of team leaders, but also in those of the

supermarket managers and assistant supermarket managers. The mail made clear that the

questionnaire is meant for team leaders. A control question is included to check the function of the

participant in order to exclude managers and assistant managers.

The organization works with four different formulas: ‘wijkwinkel’, ‘XL’, ‘To Go’ and ‘Online’.

Since there are no team leaders in Albert Heijn To Go’s and at Albert Heijn Online, these stores are

excluded from this study. In ‘wijkwinkel’ and ‘XL’, there are two kinds of team leaders: ‘verkoopklaar’

(stocking) and ‘verkoopafhandeling’ (check-out). This research did not make a distinction between

these two since they both operate on the same hierarchical level within the organization.

After distributing the survey through the internal mailing system, 273 completed

questionnaires have been registered. Uncompleted questionnaires have been registered as partial

data. All (assistant) supermarket managers have been excluded from data analysis (N=5) as well as

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team leaders above 30 years (N=28). The sample consisted of 55,5% males and the mean age was

23,3. (N=240). 59,2% of the team leaders worked at verkoopklaar (stocking) and 38,8% worked at

verkoopafhandeling (check-outs).

The survey is conducted in English, even though Albert Heijn is a Dutch company.

Translating, even with test and re-test procedures, would affect the reliability of the measures.

Therefore it has been chosen to keep the original measures. It can be assumed that most students in

the Netherlands master the English language sufficiently, since most young talents are enrolled in

higher educational programmes. The participants entered the study with informed consent, where at

the same time the topic of the survey is introduced, confidentiality is stressed and the possibility to

ask questions about the survey is provided. The survey contained measures for the dependent,

independent and mediator variables, following some questions about demographics (serving as

control variables). One of them was education (measured on a scale from 1 (LBO/VMBO) to 8 (WO,

Master), M=5.64, SD=1.43). After completion of the survey, the participants were thanked for their

participation and got debriefed. Lastly, it is worth to mention that none of the participants did

receive an incentive for participating.

Measures

Intention to leave. A four-item measure (Kelloway, Gottlieb & Barham, 1999) was used to assess

turnover intentions (i.e., "I am thinking about leaving this organization," "I am planning to look for a

new job," "I intend to ask people about new job opportunities," and "I don't plan to be in this

organization much longer"). Each item was rated along a 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 =

strongly agree, M=3.53; SD=1.06 and α = .837). The items were slightly modified by adding a time-

span of five years in the question. Since it is about future plans about leaving the organization, an

example question is: ‘I am planning to look for a new job within 5 years’.

Perceived external occupational prestige. This measure is based on Mael and Ashforth’s ‘Perceived

Organizational Prestige’ scale (1992). The scale originally consists of eight items, but since 2 of them

were not relevant for this study (e.g. ‘Alumni of all (conference schools) would be proud to have their

children attend (name of school)’ and ‘When other (conference schools) are recruiting new students,

they would not want students from (name of school)’), six items were used to measure perceived

external prestige. The items were originally used to assess prestige concerning a university. Here, this

measure is applied to the job of (assistant) store manager. Example items are: ‘It is considered

prestigious in the community to be an (A)SM.’ and ‘People from other occupations look down at the

job of (A)SM.’ Each item was rated along a 5-point scale (1= strongly disagree, 5= strongly agree,

M=3.61; SD=.98 and α = .795).

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Person-job fit. Items designed by Saks and Ashforth (1997) were used to measure person-

organization fit as well as person-job fit. An example item for P-O fit is: ‘To what extent are the values

of the organization similar to your own values?’. All items of P-O fit, P-J fit and P-S fit can be found in

table 1, together with all means, standard deviations and Cronbach’s Alpha’s.

Table 1. Constructs, items, means, standard deviations and Cronbach’s Alpha’s.

Constructs and Items M SD α

Person-Organization fit 3.46 .71 .826

To what extent are the values of the organization similar to your own values?

To what extent does your personality match the personality or image of the organization?

To what extent does the organization fulfill your needs?

To what extent is the organization a good match for you?

Person-Job fit 3.40 .78 .797

To what extent do your knowledge, skills, and abilities match the requirements of the job?

To what extent does the job fulfill your needs?

To what extent is the job a good match for you?

To what extent does the job enable you to do the kind of work you want to do?

Person-Study fit 3.61 .89 .809

To what extent do your knowledge, skills, and abilities match the requirements of your study?

To what extent does your study fulfill your needs?

To what extent is your study a good match for you?

To what extent does your study enable you to do the kind of work you want to do?

Perceived alternative job opportunities. Stumpf and colleagues (1993) developed a three-item

measure for expected certainty for careers. For the question ‘how certain are you that you will start a

job related to your (current) education within the next 5 years?’ participants could indicate their

certainty level on a five-point Likert scale (1= very uncertain, 5= very certain) for: (a) the specific job

they prefer, (b) the specific company or organization they prefer and (c) the specific occupation they

prefer. Here, M= 3.61; SD=.98 and α = .861.

Job satisfaction. For measuring job satisfaction, the job satisfaction subscale of the Michigan

Organizational Assessment Questionnaire (Cammann, Fichman, Jenkins & Klesh, 1979) is used. This

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is a three-item scale about general job satisfaction. The items of this scale include ‘All in all I am

satisfied with my job’, ‘In general, I don’t like my job’ and ‘In general, I like working here’ (M= 3.93;

SD=.73 and α = .825).

Organizational commitment. Lastly, the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire designed by

Meyer and Allen (1993) is used. The scale contains three subscales which are affective (M= 3.54;

SD=.60 and α =.788), normative (M= 2.93; SD=.58 and α = .661) and continuance commitment (M=

3.13; SD=.62 and α = .698). Each of the subscales consist of 8 items and are measured on a 5-point

Likert scale (1= ‘strongly disagree’, 5= ‘strongly agree’).

Analysis

Before analyzing all data, the data have been checked for missing and odd values. Also the data of

the participants who should be excluded (like older team leaders and (assistant) supermarket

managers who also filled in the questionnaire) were not used during analysis. Reliability for the items

have been checked and questions have been recoded where necessary. After conducting reliability

analyses and constructing the variables, the assumptions for regression have been checked. First, the

data has been checked for linearity by composing scatterplots. Together with the frequencies and

histograms, normality has also been checked. The variables were all quite normally distributed. Third,

the tolerance and VIF values have been checked for multicollinearity. No strange values have been

discovered, since the tolerance values were all >1 and VIF values were <10. Lastly, the data has been

checked for homoscedasticity. The plots for the residuals showed that the variance was constant

with different values for the predicting variable. All variables have been checked for correlations by

creating a correlation table. In order to test the mediation hypotheses (H1 and H2), model 4 in

Process by Andrew Hayes (2013) is used. In order to test the direct effects and relationships,

regression analyses in SPSS were conducted (H3 and H4). During hypothesis testing, control variables

gender, education and function were held constant.

Results

The correlations among all measures are presented in table 2. As expected, perceived external

prestige was positively related to job satisfaction (.42) and negatively related to intention to leave

(-.45). Perceived external prestige also positively correlates with all dimensions of commitment (.31,

.22, and .21, respectively). The correlation with education is also interesting, the higher the

education, the lower the perceived prestige towards the job (-.23).

Person-Job fit is positively correlated with job satisfaction (.52) and only the affective (.50)

and the normative dimension of commitment (.24). PJ fit was negatively correlated with intention to

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leave (-.42) as well. Job satisfaction and all dimensions of commitment were negatively related with

intention to leave (-.49, -.22, -.31 and -.39 respectively).

Lastly, we see that person-study fit is correlated with perceived alternative job opportunities

(.39). So, when someone perceives his or her study as a good fit for his or her self, he or she will be

more certain of the presence of alternative job opportunities. The perceived alternative job

opportunities are also positively correlated with intention to leave (.24). All correlations mentioned

in this section are significant at p<.01.

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Perceived external

occupational prestige:

the mediating role of job

satisfaction and

organizational

commitment

In the theoretical

framework, it is first

hypothesized that job

satisfaction and

organizational

commitment mediate the

negative relationship

between perceived

external prestige and

turnover intentions (H1).

To test this hypothesis, a

mediation analysis in

Process has

been

conducted (Hayes,

2013). Here,

the

analysis reveals

that

perceived

external

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occupational prestige has a significant effect on the mediator job satisfaction, with b= .41,

t(243)=6.39, p<.01. The direct effect on the mediator organizational commitment has been tested on

all three dimensions of the measure. The Process-output for affective commitment shows that

perceived external occupational prestige has a significant effect (b= .26, t(243)=4.80, p<.01. For

continuance and normative commitment, this relationship is also significant (b= .18, t(243)=3.29,

p<.01 and b= .17, t(243)=3.00, p<.01 respectively).

All variables together explain 36,1% of the variance in intention to leave (R2 = .361).

For the dependent variable intention to leave, all direct effects are presented in table 3. The

results show that affective commitment and perceived external occupational prestige have a

significant and moderately strong effect on intention to leave.

Table 3. Outcome variable: Intention to leave Variable b se t p LLCI ULCI

Job satisfaction -.0223 .0968 -.23097 .8178 -.2131 .1684

Affective commitment -.5430 .1129 -4.8100 .0000 -.7654 -.3206

Continuance commitment -.1613 .0900 -1.7923 .0744 -.3386 .0160

Normative commitment -.1439 .1008 -1.4279 .1546 -.3424 .0546

Perceived external occupational prestige -.4048 .0775 -5.2215 .0000 -.5575 -.2532

For testing our mediation hypothesis, the indirect effect of perceived external occupational prestige

on intention to leave, through job satisfaction and dimensions of commitment is checked. The

analysis shows that the confidence intervals for affective commitment and continuance commitment

do not contain zero, which means that organizational commitment on these dimensions mediates

this relationship. This is not the case for normative commitment and job satisfaction, here the

confidence interval does contain zero (table 4). Based on these results, only affective commitment

and continuance commitment mediate the relationship between perceived occupational prestige

and intention to leave. Job satisfaction and normative commitment do not play a significant role

within this relationship. The effect is not significant for all forms of commitment. As the direct effect

of perceived external occupational prestige on intention to leave remains significant with the

mediator, a partial mediation can be confirmed. Therefore hypothesis H1b is partly supported, while

hypothesis H1a is not.

Table 4. Indirect effect of perceived external occupational prestige on intention to leave.

Variable Effect Boot SE BootLLCI BootULCI

Job satisfaction -.0092 .0394 -.0876 .0662

17

Affective commitment -.1416 .0417 -.2367 -.0726

Continuance commitment -.0293 .0194 -.0772 -.0002

Normative commitment -.0246 .0195 -.0756 .0044

Person-job fit: the mediating role of job satisfaction and organizational commitment

The second hypothesis is that job satisfaction and organizational commitment mediate the negative

relationship between P-J fit and turnover intentions (H2). Process analysis shows that person-job fit

has a significant effect on the mediator job satisfaction, with b= .48, t(243)=8.53, p<.01. The effect of

person-job fit on the affective and normative dimensions of the mediator are significant (b= .41,

t(243)=8.08, p<.01 and b= .19, t(243)=3.62, p<.01 respectively). For the dimension of continuance

commitment, the relationship with person-job fit was just not significant, b= .10, t(243)=1.93, p=

0.055. For the dependent variable intention to leave, all direct effects are presented in table 5. The

results show that affective commitment, continuance commitment (at the 0.05-level) and person-job

fit have a significant effect on intention to leave. All variables together explain 31,4% of the variance

in intention to leave (R2 = .314).

Table 5. Outcome variable: Intention to leave Variable B se t p LLCI ULCI

Job satisfaction -.0804 .4019 -.7343 .4635 -.2960 .1352

Affective commitment -.4825 .1095 -4.0230 .0001 -.7188 -.2463

Continuance commitment -.2224 .1199 -2.3674 .0187 -.4075 -.0373

Normative commitment -.1617 .0939 -1.5553 .1212 -.3665 .0431

Person - job fit -.2433 .0730 -3.3356 .0010 -.3871 -.0996

For testing the mediation hypothesis, the indirect effect of person-job fit on intention to leave is

checked. The analysis shows that the confidence intervals for affective commitment and continuance

commitment do not contain zero, which means that organizational commitment on these

dimensions mediates this relationship. This is not the case for normative commitment and job

satisfaction, here the confidence interval does contain zero (table 6). Based on these results,

affective commitment and continuance commitment mediate the relationship between person-job

fit and intention to leave. Job satisfaction and normative commitment do not play a significant role

here. As the direct effect of person-job on intention to leave remains significant with the mediator, a

partial mediation can be confirmed. Therefore hypothesis H2b is partly supported, while hypothesis

H2a is not.

18

Table 6. Indirect effect of person-job fit on intention to leave.

Variable Effect Boot SE BootLLCI BootULCI

Job satisfaction -.0392 .0520 -.1337 .0763

Affective commitment -.1967 .0540 -.3156 -.1028

Continuance commitment -.0219 .0161 -.0657 -.0004

Normative commitment -.0303 .0213 -.0832 .0033

The mediation analyses above were performed while controlling for gender, education and function.

None of the control variables did have a significant relationship with affective, continuance or

normative commitment and job satisfaction. However, only education is significantly related to

intention to leave b= .19, t(261)=5.92, p<.01. The correlations in table 2 show that education is also

significantly and negatively related to perceived external prestige. This means that workers with

higher education levels perceive the prestige levels lower and are more intended to leave the

organization.

The role of person-study fit and perceived alternative job opportunities

It has been hypothesized that a high fit between the person and the study is positively related to

one’s intention to leave (H3). The analysis showed that person-study fit and intention to leave are

positively correlated and that this relationship is significant (B=.15, t(243)=1.97, p=.050). While

controlling for gender, education and function, the relationship between person-study fit and

intention to leave is still significant (B=.17, t(232)=2.44, p=.015) and all variables together explain

11,6% of the variance in intention to leave. Thus, when a person perceives a large fit with his or her

study, he or she will be more inclined to leave. Therefore, hypothesis 3 is supported.

Lastly, it has been hypothesized that perceived alternative job opportunities and intention to

leave are positively related. (H4). Regression analysis shows that this relationship is indeed positive

and significant (B=.37, t(283)=6.71, p<.01). R2=.137, which means that 13,7% of the variance in

intention to leave can be explained by perceived alternative job opportunities. This relationship has

also been tested while controlling for education, since education also has a significant effect on

turnover intentions. While holding education constant, perceived alternative job opportunities still

have a significant effect on intention to leave (B=.29, t(276)=5,35, p<.01). Therefore, hypotheses 4 is

supported.

Discussion and implications

19

The main aim of this study was to examine the antecedents of young talent’s intention to leave

Albert Heijn. The findings presented in this study support the notion that perceived external

occupational prestige, person-job fit, person-study fit and alternative job opportunities indeed play

an important role in employee’s intention to leave Albert Heijn.

Within this study, job satisfaction was expected to mediate the relationship between

perceived external occupational prestige and intention to leave as well as the relationship between

person-job fit and intention to leave. Literature has been quite consistent that job satisfaction plays a

significant role when it comes to predicting turnover intentions (e.g. Griffeth et al, 2000). However,

in contrast to previous findings, job satisfaction does not seem to predict turnover intentions of team

leaders at Albert Heijn. This suggests that employees might leave the organization regardless of their

job satisfaction. The only cases found in literature when satisfied employees leave are cases of

involuntary turnover (for example a reorganization) (Allen, 2008). This study shows that these

findings also apply to voluntary turnover in the context of student workers in the retail sector. The

theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed in the following paragraphs.

Theoretical implications

This research has investigated the antecedents of turnover intentions in a different context than

most of the previous research has been conducted. A large part of the literature about work-

attitudes, concern knowledge workers or office jobs on a full time basis. This research however,

focuses on young talents during their pre-career. Until now, work has been a small part of their lives,

but is becoming bigger since career-orientation is starting to become more relevant. There is much to

gain within this area of young talents when it comes to retaining them: today’s young employees

might be essential for the company’s future.

On the theoretical level, these results might make us rethink the current models of employee

retention as they mostly focus on keeping employees happy (seeing satisfaction as a direct as well as

indirect predictor) (Farkas and Tetrick (1989); Hom and Kinicki (2001); Jamal (1990); Porter et al.

(1974); Tett and Meyer (1993); Van Dick et al. (2004); Williams and Hazer (1986)). So far, job

satisfaction has been treated as an important indicator of staying within an organization. However,

the models which focus on employee satisfaction, do not apply for workers in the pre-careers:

people may be very satisfied but still may choose to leave the job. This research showed that in the

case of young talents in their pre-career phases, other alternative explanations like person-job fit,

prestige perceptions and alternative job opportunities are more important to consider when it comes

to their intention to leave.

The findings of this study are in line with the study conducted by Rathi and Lee (2015), where

the impact of perceived external prestige on turnover intentions among retail employees is

20

significant. This research also showed that employees’ prestige perceptions toward the job of ASM

(especially among the higher educated employees) are related to one’s intention to leave. Prestige

perceptions are somewhat hard to influence and change by the organization, since general ideas

about certain occupations are social constructions that are embedded in society. Firemen, pilots and

astronauts are awesome, whereas garbage collectors, janitors and retailers are not. Higher educated

students in retail may have some norms about desired jobs and incomes that are influenced by social

norms. These social norms and perceptions could not be easily changed by an organizational

intervention. To a certain level, it might be wise to more or less accept the turnover of these

workers. However, Albert Heijn still has a lot of possibilities to keep part of the young talents within

their organization as well, which will be discussed next.

Practical implications

To measure job satisfaction, Albert Heijn annually sets up a large national survey among all

employees. Of course it is still good to do this as an organization, since job satisfaction has a lot of

benefits as it is related to productivity for example (Judge et al., 2001). However, when it comes to

employee retention, the findings of this study imply that the organizations’ efforts to keep

employees happy do not contribute to the retention of the group of young talents within this study.

Linked to the findings concerning prestige perceptions, Albert Heijn might want to try to

introduce and offer more prestigious jobs which suit the desires of the student workers more. These

jobs with a somewhat more positive image might keep the talented employees within higher levels

of the organization. More opportunities may also generate a greater chance for person-job fit, since

the employee has more choice to select what suits him or herself best.

However, this still does not solve the problem of the shortage on the store-level concerning

ASM’s and SM’s. Part of the student workers still might want to work as ASM or SM after graduation,

but then the job offer should be timely and relevant. This means that the organization should know

when their young talents and student-workers are about to graduate so that they can offer

alternatives timely. Albert Heijn needs to make sure that they can compete with other alternatives

outside the organization and emphasize that actually a lot of different study fields are applicable for

the jobs that are offered. The offers should fit the ambitions and studies of the young student-

workers.

Additionally, the current business model of promoting highly educated student worker to the

position of team leader, is obstructing the way of non student workers to advance their careers to

higher position. This might be problematic as these workers could be more likely to have long-term

careers in the stores. The non-student workers remain under the radar of management and become

a group of hidden-talents, an underutilized potential. This means that on the store level, the smart

21

and young students with low wages are keeping the spots occupied and that the undiscovered

talents do not get the chance to grow. The problem is that the higher educated young talents

eventually have the need to develop themselves further and move on towards other alternatives

that suit their studies and ambitions better, and therefore leave the organization. The undiscovered

talents with perhaps some lower levels of education however, might not see it as a problem to work

in the store during their whole career. These hidden talents are actually more important for the

continuity of the organization on the store-level.

When it comes to prestige perceptions, there might be differences between people from

lower and higher social environments and how they are affected by certain images. The kind of

workers that do not mind working for a supermarket for the rest of their career probably do not even

have negative perceptions concerning the job of ASM or SM and therefore would be not or less

affected by the somewhat negative prestige perceptions concerning this job. Intuitively and based on

the principles of social psychology, people’s social environment has impact on how prestige

perceptions are determined. The correlation table in the results section also showed that education

and perceived external prestige were negatively related to each other.

An article by Peterson (2005) about Walmart, one of the largest grocery retailers in the

world, stresses the importance of successful HR policies in employee retention. Walmart also had

trouble with retaining their employees. Their program with the key elements ‘getting good people’,

‘keeping good people’ and ‘growing good people’, turned out to reduce the turnover rates. Besides

providing good working conditions for the people they got, Albert Heijn may want to focus on

keeping and growing employees more by giving undiscovered talent a chance and offering other

talents a timely and suitable alternative.

In short, first Albert Heijn really should compete with other job alternatives in a timely

manner and offering alternatives that fit the ambitions and study background of their young talents.

Second, Albert Heijn should not ignore the undiscovered talents that might be important for the

continuity of the stores. By allowing other talents (that are less higher educated but are willing to

stay much longer) to grow, the risk of choosing for another alternative (after finishing a study for

example) will be reduced. Working towards the position of team leaders and eventually ASM or SM

would be a great challenge for them. It might be helpful for Albert Heijn to map when their team

leaders will graduate and invite them to career events and offering challenging opportunities and

possibilities to grow. These offers might be challenging for this target group when it is higher than

the store-level. On the store-level, it might be helpful to incorporate HR policies and trainings for

store-managers on how to recognize and discover new talent on the work-floor and also how to

supervise them together with the current team leaders.

22

Limitations and directions for further research

As with every research, it should be kept in mind that this research has some limitations. One issue

concerns the external validity of this sample. This research only researched Albert Heijn. It is not

clear whether these findings also do apply for other retail organizations or typical student jobs.

Another limitation concerns the measurement of the perceptions about job of (A)SM. This

research did not make a distinction between ASM and SM within measurement, whereas in practice,

the job of SM is higher in the hierarchical order. Albert Heijn also makes a distinction in several

orders of supermarket managers, ranging from SM1 to SM6. Managers of large stores have higher

salaries than managers of smaller stores. Within this study it is not clear if young talents would

perceive and SM 6 as more prestigious than ASM or SM1. It is also not clear whether it is more about

the prestige or more about the salaries. Therefore, to get a more accurate view on this, all salaries

for the functions of ASM and SM1-SM6 could be identified and be measured among young adults

which ‘scales’ appeal to them most. Additional questions then, could identify which levels of salary

triggers young talents to stay.

On the methodological level of this research, it is not clear how many team leaders saw the

mail-invitation, so despite the clearly defined target population, it is hard to calculate a response rate

as respondents were not contacted individually. Language barriers may have reduced the response

rate of this study because after distributing the survey, some participants replied the mail and said

that they chose not to participate because the survey was in English. A survey in Dutch may solve this

problem.

Lastly, and perhaps most important, in order to discover the undiscovered talent, research

could identify how many people working in the stores actually have the ambition in becoming a team

leader and how long they have been working at Albert Heijn. By mapping the potential team leaders

in the stores, something can be done about their guidance and growth towards team leader.

Regarding the hierarchy of the organization and the fact that team leaders automatically receive

indefinite contracts, it is most straightforward that team leaders eventually become an ASM or SM.

In this way, Albert Heijn takes into account the ambitions of their workers and prepare themselves

for long-term developments concerning the in- and outflow of personnel.

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Appendix A Subject: Een toekomst binnen Albert Heijn?

Beste teamleider,

Jouw kwaliteiten, talenten en doorzettingsvemogen hebben jou gebracht tot waar je nu staat. Je

doet hard je best om een mooie afdeling of een mooie winkel neer te zetten, elke dag weer. Als

26

collega-teamleider, begrijp ik dat als geen ander. In het kader van ‘samen winnen’ en ‘iedere dag

beter’ wil ik jou vragen om een paar minuten tijd vrij te maken en jouw meningen en ervaringen met

mij te delen. Zo kunnen samen ons mooie bedrijf Albert Heijn weer een stukje beter maken.

Ik ben Merve Renda, een collega- teamleider VKA uit Albert Heijn XL 1385 te Alkmaar en tevens

masterstudente aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Momenteel doe ik voor mijn afstudeerscriptie

onderzoek onder alle AH teamleiders en hun toekomstige carrièreplannen.

Hiervoor maak ik gebruik van een korte enquête, die zo’n 8 minuten in beslag neemt om in te vullen.

Jouw mening en ervaring wordt gewaardeerd, laat van je horen!

Graag aan jou het verzoek via onderstaande link mijn enquête in te vullen.

Indien er vragen zijn over de enquête, kunnen deze altijd gemaild worden naar

merve.renda@student.uva.nl of renda.merve@ah.nl.

Bij voorbaat dank.

Met vriendelijke groet,

Merve Renda

Appendix B

Beste collega en deelnemer, Deze enquête is opgesteld door Merve Renda, een collega teamleider werkzaam in Albert Hejin XL 1385 te Alkmaar en tevens masterstudente aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Het onderzoek wordt uitgevoerd onder verantwoordelijkheid van onderzoeksinstituut ASCoR,

27

onderdeel van Universtiteit van Amsterdam. Dit afstudeeronderzoek richt zich onder andere op de carrièreplannen van teamleiders. Je wordt verzocht een aantal vragen in te vullen en de totale duur van de vragenlijst wordt geschat op 8 minuten. De vragenlijst zal worden afgenomen in het Engels.

Omdat dit onderzoek wordt uitgevoerd onder de verantwoordelijkheid van ASCoR, Universiteit van Amsterdam, heeft u de garantie dat: 1. Uw anonimiteit is gewaarborgd en dat uw antwoorden of gegevens onder geen enkele voorwaarde aan derden zullen worden verstrekt, tenzij u hiervoor van tevoren uitdrukkelijke toestemming hebt verleend. 2. U zonder opgaaf van redenen kunt weigeren mee te doen aan het onderzoek of uw deelname voortijdig kunt afbreken. Ook kunt u achteraf (binnen 24 uur na deelname) uw toestemming intrekken voor het gebruik van uw antwoorden of gegevens voor het onderzoek. 3. Deelname aan het onderzoek geen noemenswaardige risico’s of ongemakken voor u met zich meebrengt, geen moedwillige misleiding plaatsvindt, en u niet met expliciet aanstootgevend materiaal zult worden geconfronteerd. 4. U uiterlijk 5 maanden na afloop van het onderzoek de beschikking over een onderzoeksrapportage kunt krijgen waarin de algemene resultaten van het onderzoek worden toegelicht. Voor meerinformatie over dit onderzoek en de uitnodiging tot deelname kunt u te allen tijde contact opnemen met de projectleider Merve Renda, ASCoR, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 166, 1018 WV te Amsterdam; merve.renda@student.uva.nl (AH mail mag ook, renda.merve@ah.nl). Mochten er naar aanleiding van uw deelname aan dit onderzoek bij u toch klachten of opmerkingen zijn over het verloop van het onderzoek en de daarbij gevolgde procedure, dan kunt u contact opnemen met het lid van de Commissie Ethiek namens ASCoR, per adres: ASCoR secretariaat, Commissie Ethiek, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam; 020- 525 3680; ascor-secr-fmg@uva.nl. Een vertrouwelijke behandeling van uw klacht of opmerking is daarbij gewaarborgd. Ik hoop u hiermee voldoende te hebben geïnformeerd en ik dank u bij voorbaat hartelijk voor uw deelname aan dit onderzoek. Met vriendelijke groet, Merve Renda

o I agree in participating in this study, I have been informed about the study and I have been

given the opportunity to ask questions.

Please read the statements about organizational commitment carefully. Indicate your agreement or

disagreement with each statement.

28

Strongly disagree

Disagree Neither agree nor

disagree Agree

Strongly Agree

I would be very happy to spend the rest of my career with this

organization o o o o o I enjoy discussing about my

organization with people outside it o o o o o I really feel as if this organization’s

problems are my own o o o o o I think that I could easily become

as attached to another organization as I am to this one o o o o o

I do not feel like ‘part of the family’ at my organization o o o o o

I do not feel ‘emotionally attached’ to this organization o o o o o

This organization has a great deal of personal meaning for me o o o o o

I do not feel a ‘strong’ sense of belonging to my organization o o o o o

29

Please read the statements about organizational commitment carefully. Indicate your agreement or

disagreement with each statement.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neither agree nor

disagree Agree

Strongly agree

I am not afraid of what might happen if I quit my

job without having another one lined up

o o o o o It would be very hard for

me to leave my organization right now,

even if I wanted to o o o o o

Too much in my life would be disrupted if I decided to leave my organization now o o o o o

It wouldn’t be too costly for me to leave my organization now o o o o o

Right now, staying with my organization is a matter of

necessity as much as desire

o o o o o I feel that I have very few

options to consider leaving this organization o o o o o

One of the few serious consequences of leaving

this organization would be the scarcity of available

alternatives

o o o o o

One of the major reasons I continue to work for this

organization is that leaving would require

considerable personal sacrifice—another

organization may not match the overall benefits

I have here

o o o o o

30

Please read the statements about organizational commitment carefully. Indicate your agreement or

disagreement with each statement.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neither agree nor disagree

Agree Strongly

agree

I think that people these days move from company

to company too often o o o o o I do not believe that a person must always be

loyal to his or her organization

o o o o o Jumping from organization

to organization does not seem at all unethical to me o o o o o One of the major reasons I

continue to work in this organization is that I

believe loyalty is important and therefore

feel a sense of moral obligation to remain

o o o o o

If I got another offer for a better job elsewhere I

would not feel it was right to leave my organization

o o o o o I was taught to believe in

the value of remaining loyal to one organization o o o o o Things were better in the days when people stayed

in one organization for most of their careers

o o o o o I do not think that to be a

‘company man’ or ‘company woman’ is

sensible anymore o o o o o

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31

Please read the statements about person-organization fit carefully. Indicate your agreement or disagreement

with each statement.

To a very little

extent To a little

extent

Neither to a little extent nor to a

large extent

To a large extent

To a very large extent

To what extent are the values of the

organization similar to your own values?

o o o o o To what extent does

your personality match the personality

or image of the organization?

o o o o o

To what extent does the organization fulfill

your needs? o o o o o To what extent is the organization a good

match for you? o o o o o

32

Please read the statements about person-job fit carefully. Indicate your agreement or disagreement with each

statement. Note: please imagine yourself answering these questions as if you are an (A)SM.

To a very little

extent To a little

extent

Neither to a little extent nor to a

large extent

To a large extent

To a very large extent

To what extent do your knowledge,

skills, and abilities match the

requirements of the job?

o o o o o

To what extent does the job fulfill

your needs? o o o o o To what extent is

the job a good match for you? o o o o o To what extent

does the job enable you to do the kind of work you want to do?

o o o o o

33

Please read the statements carefully and then select the option which best describes your thoughts and

feelings. Choose the option that applies to you most.

To a very

little extent To a little

extent

Neither to a little extent

nor to a large extent

To a large extent

To a very large

extent

To what extent do your knowledge, skills, and abilities

match the requirements of your study?

o o o o o

To what extent does your study fulfill your needs? o o o o o

To what extent is your study a good match for you? o o o o o

To what extent does your study enable you to do the kind of

work you want to do? o o o o o

34

Please read the statements about prestige carefully. Indicate your agreement or disagreement with each

statement.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neither agree nor disagree

Agree Strongly

agree

People in my community think highly of the job of

(A)SM o o o o o It is considered prestigious in the community to be an

(A)SM o o o o o The job of (A)SM is

considered one of the best jobs o o o o o

People from other occupations look down at

the job of (A)SM o o o o o The job of (A)SM does not have a good reputation in

my community o o o o o Within the retail industry, a career as (A)SM at Albert

Heijn is considered prestigious

o o o o o

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35

Please read the statements about job satisfaction carefully. Indicate your agreement or disagreement with

each statement.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neither agree nor disagree

Agree Strongly

agree

All in all, I am satisfied with my job o o o o o

In general, I don’t like my job o o o o o In general, I like working here o o o o o

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36

Please read the statements about turnover intentions carefully. Indicate your agreement or disagreement with

each statement.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neither agree nor

disagree Agree

Strongly agree

I am thinking about leaving this organization within 5

years o o o o o I am planning to look for a

new job within 5 years o o o o o I intend to ask people

about future job opportunities o o o o o

I don't plan to be in this organization in the next 5

years o o o o o

How certain are you that you can start a job related to your (current) education within the next 5 years?

Very uncertain Uncertain Neither uncertain nor

certain Certain

Very certain

At the specific job you prefer (e.g., a CPA

accountant). o o o o o For the specific company

or organization you prefer o o o o o

In the specific occupation you prefer

(e.g., accounting, marketing).

o o o o o

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37

Are you male or female?

o Male

o Female

How old are you? (age in years, e.g. 24)

________________________________________________________________

How long have you been working at Albert Heijn? (in years, e.g. 5)

________________________________________________________________

What is the highest level of education you have completed?

o Lager/voorbereidend beoepsonderwijs (LBO/VMBO)

o Middelbaar algemeen voortgezet onderwijs (MAVO)

o Middelbaar beroepsonderwijs (MBO)

o Hoger algemeen voorgezet onderwijs (HAVO)

o Voorbereidend wetenschappelijk onderwijs (VWO)

o Hoger beroepsonderwijs (HBO)

o Wetenschappelijk onderwijs (WO, Bachelor)

o Wetenschappelijk onderwijs (WO, Master)

o Geen antwoord

38

Please select your study type

o Administrative/Secretary

o Agricultural

o Architecture/Design/Art

o Management and Organization / HRM

o Beta Science

o (Mechanical) Engineering

o Communicaton/ Marketing&Sales/ Media

o Conservatory/ Music

o Defense and Military / Police and Security

o Education and Pedagogy

o Economic/ Financial

o Legal and Rights

o Internet, Technology and Informatics

o Historical Sciences / Archeology

o Health care and Psychology

o Tourism and Hospitality

o Sports

o Other

39

Currently, I am enrolled in a study programme

o Yes

o No

I am planning to enroll in a study programme within the next two years

o Yes

o No

What is your current function?

o Teamleider Verkoopklaar

o Teamleider Verkoopafhandeling

o Assistent Supermarktmanager

o Supermarktmanager

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Hartelijk dank voor jouw deelname! Jouw antwoorden zullen bijdragen aan het onderzoeken van de

redenen waarom jonge talenten ervoor kiezen om Albert Heijn uiteindelijk te verlaten in plaats van

door te groeien binnen het bedrijf. Het doel is om onderliggende redenen voor het ASM en SM tekort

binnen het bedrijf te ontdekken. Eventuele vragen over het onderzoek kunnen gemaild worden naar

Merve Renda, renda.merve@ah.nl of merve.renda@student.uva.nl.