Organizational Learning and Employee Retention: A Focus Study Examining the Role of Relationships Between Supervisors and Subordinates
Abstract
Focusing on the relationship between supervisors and subordinates, the purpose of this research was to study the causal relationship among seven exogenous variables (Supervisor empathy with subordinates, Supervisor trust of subordinates, Planning and delivery of instruction, Accommodating subordinate uniqueness, Supervisor insensitivity toward subordinates, Subordinate-centered learning process, and Supervisor-centered learning process) and two endogenous variables (Employee’s job satisfaction and Employee’s intention to remain in the company). The study was based on the belief that the seven factors, which were beliefs, feelings, and behaviors of supervisors in helping adults learn, based on andragogical principles of learning, are not only methods to help subordinates learn, but techniques to increase employee’s job satisfaction and intention to remain in the company as well. Five hundred and thirteen survey responses of Thai employees were used in the study to describe demographic characteristics and statistical test. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, Cronbach alpha’s coefficient, and path analysis. The findings from the statistical analysis revealed that three out of seven characteristics of supervisors (Supervisor empathy with subordinates, Supervisor trust of subordinates, and Supervisor insensitivity toward subordinates) have either direct or indirect effect on an employee’s intention to remain in the company.