FEATURES OF INSTRUCTOR SALARY AND WELFARE: HOW DO PSYCHOLOGICAL OWNERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE SHAPE INSTRUCTORS’ WILLINGNESS TO LEAVE CHINA’S PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES?
Frequent teacher turnover not only results in the loss of top talent, lowers teaching quality, and harms the reputation of private universities, but it also raises recruitment and training costs, lowering enrollment quality and quantity.
Enhancing psychological ownership through fair treatment and equitable rewards emerges as a powerful strategy to mitigate instructor turnover and ensure sustainable growth in private universities.
Private universities’ connotative growth is threatened by high instructors’ turnover. Instructor turnover is influenced by numerous factors, yet prior research has primarily focused on examining these factors from a single perspective, resulting in a limited understanding. To address this, we developed a research model for instructors at private universities, integrating the theories of organizational justice and psychological ownership. This study engaged 274 respondents and utilized structural equation modeling to analyze and validate the proposed model and hypotheses. Findings reveal that distributive and interpersonal justice impact turnover intentions, while procedural justice does not. Additionally, all three types of justice increase psychological ownership, with distinct effects. These findings explain the causes of teacher turnover in private universities and offer actionable directions to mitigate turnover through improved organizational justice and psychological ownership.
INTRODUCTION
Numerous students pursuing higher education are drawn to private universities due to their small size and individualized educational programs. The frequent turnover of instructors, on one hand, poses serious challenges to the operation of private universities in China. Frequent teacher turnover not only results in the loss of top talent, lowers teaching quality, and harms the reputation of private universities, but it also raises recruitment and training costs, lowering enrollment quality and quantity. It also jeopardizes private universities’ financial sustainability, and a long-term failure to control the turnover rate may lead to an existential crisis for private universities. As a result, addressing the issue of frequent faculty turnover is an urgent task for private universities that is critical to their connotative development.
In the literature review on turnover intention, various theoretical frameworks have been employed to investigate and explain employee turnover. These frameworks provide insights into the core causes of job desertion. Among them, the job embeddedness model, introduced by Mitchell et al. (2001), emphasizes the influence of workers’ job and community links on turnover intentions, with stronger job embeddedness being associated with decreased turnover intentions (Crossley et al., 2007; Holtom et al., 2005). Blau’s (1968) social exchange theory argues that employees’ attitudes, actions, and turnover intentions depend on the fairness of their trades of time, energy, and abilities for incentives and advantages, with perceived greater levels of organizational support and leader-member interchange being related to reduced turnover intentions (Eisenberger et al., 1986). Psychological contract theory focuses on the implicit expectations and obligations between employees and organizations, with perceived psychological contract breaches influencing turnover intention (Robinson & Rousseau, 1994). The job demands-resources model, encompassing physical, psychological, social, or organizational resources, suggests that high work demands and insufficient job resources raise turnover intentions, emphasizing the importance of managing work demands and providing enough job resources to decrease turnover intention and improve employee well-being (Van Steenbergen et al., 2018). Adams’ (1963) equity theory proposes that individuals will maintain a sense of fairness in interpersonal relationships and compare their inputs and outcomes with those of others, with unfair phenomena in the work relationship being associated with increased turnover intention. Finally, Vroom’s (1964) expectancy theory posits that employees’ motivation to engage in turnover intention is influenced by their expectations of outcomes associated with that behavior and the value they place on those outcomes, with employees’ perception of job alternatives and their expectations of outcomes being important predictors of turnover intention (Hom et al., 1992). Understanding these theoretical frameworks is crucial for developing effective strategies to reduce turnover intention and promote employee retention.
Scholars have also focused on the high rate of faculty turnover. Previous research has identified a variety of factors that contribute to instructor turnover, with current academic research focusing primarily on job satisfaction, burnout, and role conflict. Furthermore, work-life balance (Crossley et al., 2007) and organizational commitment (Mitchell et al., 2001) are regarded as factors influencing teacher turnover. It is worth noting that some researchers have investigated the impact of compensation, career development opportunities, and organizational support on teacher turnover (Eisenberger et al., 1986). These studies frequently examine the issue of instructor turnover from a single point of perspective, providing an important theoretical basis for our understanding of the phenomenon. However, the drivers of faculty turnover are complex and diverse, involving multiple factors, and a single perspective cannot fully reveal the true causes of faculty turnover, leaving a large gap for future research.
This study aims to investigate the impact of organizational justice theory and psychological ownership theory on instructor turnover by analyzing both internal mechanisms and external factors. Especially, the salary and welfare of instructors at China’s private universities are characterized by low treatment, unreasonable structures, and inadequate pension security, highlighting the importance of studying instructor turnover due to its impact on the stability and quality of the teaching staff, which is crucial for the development of private higher education.
The subsequent sections of this study will cover: characteristics of instructor salaries and welfare in China’s private universities, theoretical foundation and hypothesis formulation, methodology, results, discussion and implications, conclusion, and research limitations.
FEATURES OF INSTRUCTOR SALARY AND WELFARE
Private universities and their instructors have a significant impact on China’s higher education system and have contributed considerable value. Over the past decade, the country has experienced substantial economic growth and a growing public interest in sustainable development. As a result, there has been a significant rise in the number of private universities (Wang et al., 2020). In 2021, China has a total of 764 private universities, which make up 25.37% of the overall number of ordinary universities in the country. As of Qi’s (2023) report, there are 368,900 full-time instructors employed in private universities nationwide, making up 20.12% of the total number of full-time teachers in public universities. To give a more complete knowledge of the characteristics and needs of this population, we do extensive research from multiple aspects, including static, dynamic, pay, and pension security.
Currently, the static characteristics of the teaching staff in private universities include an unreasonable age, education, and professional structure. Instructors are primarily composed of young and retired senior educators, with a weak backbone, presenting a “dumbbell-shaped” structure (Yang, 2021). Master’s degrees are the mainstay, lacking high-level talents, academic leaders, and academic backbones (Yang, 2021). The professional structure is unreasonable, with difficulties in recruiting teachers for popular or advantageous majors, and non-professional teachers teaching professional courses affecting the quality.
The dynamic characteristics of the teaching staff in private universities are most visible in the difficulties that young teachers face in terms of recruitment, teaching quality, career development, and a high turnover rate. Private universities confront difficulties in attracting new PhDs, making it harder to attract and retain outstanding talent. Young teachers are overworked, which has an impact on teaching quality and professional development. In private universities, there is a relative lack of infrastructure and organizational support for teaching and research, which slows growth and limits the career development of young instructors. Young instructors progress more slowly in private universities due to a lack of infrastructure and organizational support for teaching and research. High turnover rate of instructors in private universities, which exhibits instability characteristics, exacerbating the shortage of middle-level cadres and deputy senior-level talent, and affecting structural rationality and overall level of teaching staff (Yang, 2021). The lost instructors primarily leave through civil service exams, university recruitment, and doctoral exams, resulting in irrational issues such as age structure and title structure.
Pension and retirement security are important factors influencing faculty turnover in private universities. The salary system in private universities for young and middle-aged instructors has issues such as low salary treatment, unreasonable salary structure, unreasonable salary relationship, and inadequate salary growth mechanism. As a result, many young and middle-aged instructors experience psychological instability and a lack of belonging and connection with the unit. Pension and retirement security are important factors that affect the stability of faculty staff in private universities. However, the majority of private university instructors have almost no career pension and supplementary pension insurance. Under the People’s Republic of China’s Civil Code, private universities are defined as private non-enterprise legal entities, and private university instructors, as workers of private non-enterprise units, implement the basic pension insurance system for company employees. The retirement treatment gap for private university instructors ranges from 1 to 5 times under conditions of equivalent education, professional title, and work experience. The disparity in retirement treatment has become a potential factor affecting the stability of instructors in private universities, forming a “bottleneck” that restricts the high-quality development of schools.
THEORETICAL FOUNDATION AND HYPOTHESIS ESTABLISHMENT
Theoretical Foundation
The causes of instructors’ turnover are intricate and varied, and prior studies have frequently examined them from a singular perspective, resulting in research constraints. The theory of organizational justice examines how individuals assess the justice of an organization based on the distribution of resources, the procedures followed, and the quality of interpersonal relationships. The psychological ownership theory centers on individuals' perception of ownership and their emotional connection to their work and the organizations they belong to. In the early 20th century, organizational justice theory gained popularity, accelerating its growth (Greenberg, 1990). This study examines how individuals evaluate organizational activities, choices, and outcomes’ fairness. It is employed widely in psychology, management, and sociology to study how fairness affects individual attitudes and actions (Colquitt et al., 2001). The theory has been applied to investigate labor unions and management, teachers’ views, and organizational behavior in education (Mohammad et al., 2010).
The theory of psychological ownership has also been widely applied in many different fields, such as the sharing economy platform (Lee et al., 2019), the catering industry (Asatryan & Oh, 2008), the medical industry (Paré et al., 2006), and the education industry (Man & Farquharson, 2015). This theory mainly focuses on the cognitive and emotional processes of individuals’ ownership awareness of objects, ideas, or organizations, and its core lies in the subjective experience of ownership, rather than legal or physical ownership (Pierce et al., 1991).
This study combines organizational justice and psychological ownership theories, aims to construct a research model and propose research hypotheses, as shown in Figure 1. The aim is to comprehensively uncover the mechanism by which organizational justice and psychological ownership affect the turnover intention of private university instructors.
Citation: Performance Improvement Quarterly 37, 3; 10.56811/PIQ-24-0002
Hypothesis Establishment
Distributive Justice
Distributive justice is employees’ view of fairness in salary, awards, promotions, etc., according to Colquitt (2001). When a distributor assigns valuable rewards, resources, and opportunities to recipients, distribution occurs, creating an exchange relationship between the distributor and recipient. Distributive justice refers to people' opinion of the fairness of their rewards, benefits, and chances in organizational justice theory (Pattnaik & Tripathy, 2019). Users feel like they belong when they feel suitably rewarded. This fairness encourages users to provide positive comments, recommendations, help, etc. to the organization, enhancing engagement (Chou et al., 2016). People are more inclined to quit an organization if they feel resources and prizes are unjustly divided. According to Irum et al. (2015), distributive justice, which is an important aspect of organizational justice, is a reliable predictor of turnover intention. This study postulates:
H1a: The perceived distributive justice of private university instructors has a negative impact on their turnover intention.
Procedural Justice
The perception of fairness and transparency in an organization’s dispute resolution and resource allocation procedures is called procedural justice (Baldwin, 2006). People’s experiences throughout these procedures are prioritized above results (Edrees et al., 2023). According to the “fair process effect,” under conditions of procedural fairness (e.g., consistent, representative, and unbiased processes), individuals will feel fair even if the outcomes are unfavorable. They consider openness, consistency, and voice in decision-making (Wiseman & Stillwell, 2022). Procedural fairness increases workers’ faith in their company, compliance with decisions, and organizational citizenship (Kim & Mauborgne, 1998). Hotel workers’ turnover intention was negatively impacted by perceived procedural fairness (Edrees et al., 2023). Another Malaysian research university academic staff survey found a negative link between procedural fairness and turnover intention (Yusoff et al., 2021). Our hypothesis is:
H1b: The perceived procedural justice of private university instructors has a negative impact on their turnover intention.
Interpersonal Justice
Interpersonal justice primarily concerns itself with the equity of interpersonal connections inside the organization. When people feel respected, their perception of fairness is enhanced (Bies, 1987). A study on employee turnover intention and organizational citizenship behavior found that positive judgments of fairness encourage employees to make extra efforts in their behavior (Harris et al., 2020), and they hope to stay and devote their efforts (Son et al., 2014). Another study found that interpersonal justice plays a mediating role between perceived organizational support and employee turnover (Qammar, 2016). As shown in Aghaei et al. (2012), Başara and Sığrı (2015), and Zhou et al. (2022), there is a significant negative correlation between organizational justice and turnover intention. This suggests that if teachers believe they are treated fairly in private colleges, they are less likely to consider leaving their positions. Therefore, this study hypothesizes that:
H1c: The perceived interpersonal fairness of private university instructors has a negative impact on their turnover intention.
Organizational Justice and Psychological Ownership
Ibrahim (2016) posits that the fair distribution of resources and rewards is more likely to generate attachment and possession feelings in organizational members towards their institutions. By ensuring the fair distribution of resources and rewards, organizations can cultivate employees’ sense of belonging and possession, thereby enhancing work enthusiasm and productivity. Studies have shown that the perception of justice inside an organization, which includes the distribution of resources and rewards, may positively influence both organizational citizenship behavior and psychological ownership (Jin et al., 2022).
Perceived procedural justice satisfies individual's social and emotional demands and is a predictor of systemic organizational outcomes like commitment and satisfaction (Wan et al., 2023). Procedural justice has a cross-level effect on faculty trust, suggesting that it affects the perspectives of faculty members across various departments within institutions (Hon et al., 2011).
Perceiving high levels of interpersonal justice enhances employees’ likelihood of experiencing favorable outcomes, including less job burnout, heightened engagement, and improved connections with leaders (Hameed et al., 2019). Private university instructors who perceive fair treatment while interacting with college administration, colleagues, and students are more inclined to experience job satisfaction, hence fostering a feeling of psychological ownership towards the institution (Brezicha et al., 2020). Therefore, this study hypothesizes that:
H2a: Private university instructor’s psychological ownership improves with distributive justice.
H2b: Private university instructor’s psychological ownership improves with procedural justice.
H2c: Private university instructor’s psychological ownership improves with interpersonal justice.
Psychological Ownership and Turnover Intention
Psychological ownership is an essential psychological condition that relates to employees’ perception of belonging and connection with their job and the organization (Dyne & Pierce, 2004). Psychological ownership not only increases employees’ feeling of responsibility and motivation, leading to greater concentration on their tasks, but also plays a crucial role in the advancement of the organization (Dyne & Pierce, 2004). Moreover, psychological ownership drives workers to work harder and spend more time on their tasks to prove their worth and help the company succeed (Pierce et al., 2003). The importance of psychological ownership on employees' work behaviors and their willingness to leave the organization has been confirmed in the study by Jing and Yan (2022). Therefore, this study hypothesizes that:
H3: The psychological ownership of private university instructors towards their school has a negative impact on their turnover intention.
METHODOLOGY
This study uses questionnaire survey as the main means of data collection, and the design and implementation of the questionnaire rely on the online platform of WenJuanXing, which is a well-known and widely utilized questionnaire survey platform in China. The survey focuses on the teaching staff of private universities in China, specifically including teachers and administrative staff. The data collection activities were carried out in an orderly manner from September 24 to September 30, 2022.
There are two sections on the questionnaire. The participants’ demographic information, which includes things like gender, age, level of education, and length of time attended private schools, is covered in the first section. The second part measures the research variables, which includes five variables: distributive justice, procedural justice, interpersonal justice, psychological ownership, and turnover intention. Among them, we use the scale developed by Colquitt (2001) consisting of 4 questions to measure distributive justice. This scale has good reliability and validity and is widely used. To adapt to the research background of this study, we changed the original “outcome” to “work assignments, salary and other related aspects”. Sample questions include “Do the outcomes you receive in terms of work assignments, salary and other related aspects correspond to the efforts you have exerted?”, “Are the outcomes you receive in terms of work assignments, salary and other related aspects aligned with the tasks you have completed?”. The scale for procedural justice is also adapted from Colquitt (2001) and consists of 5 questions. Sample questions include “At the university where I work, I am able to express my opinions regarding work assignments, salary and other related aspects”, “At the university where I work, the regulations regarding work assignments, salary and other related aspects are unbiased”.
The interpersonal justice scale is adapted from the study by Bouckenooghe et al. (2014) and consists of 3 questions. To adapt to the research background, we adjusted the context to “in daily work” and changed “supervisor” to “colleagues and students”. Sample questions include “In my daily work, I and my colleagues and students respect each other” and “In my daily work, my colleagues and students treat me with courtesy”.
The psychological ownership scale is adapted from the study by Pierce et al. (1992) and consists of 5 questions. To adapt to the research background, we changed the company in the original questionnaire to “school”. The turnover intention scale is adapted from the study by Yin et al. (2010) and consists of 3 items. To adapt to Chinese expression habits, the items were slightly modified by changing “company” to “school”. Sample questions include “This is our school,” and “I feel a high degree of personal ownership in this school”.
We use the scale developed by Yin et al. (2010) consisting of 3 questions to measure turnover intention. Sample questions include “I often think about quitting my current job”. All the above variables are measured using a 7-point Likert scale, where 1 represents strong disagreement and 7 represents strong agreement.
All scales used in this research have been validated in China and abroad to ensure questionnaire reliability and accuracy. We first hired two PhD students to double-blind translate the questionnaire from English to Chinese. Furthermore, in order to tailor the questionnaire to the specific research setting of private colleges, we implemented suitable adjustments to the questionnaire. Subsequently, we extended invitations to six teachers specializing in management to scrutinize any elements that were unclear or susceptible to being misunderstood, and subsequently implemented alterations in accordance with their recommendations. Prior to formally collecting data, we conducted a pre-survey with 73 private university instructors as subjects in order to mitigate potential issues with the questionnaire. Following the completion of a reliability test, we made necessary adjustments to certain items and subsequently created the final version of the questionnaire.
In this study, we employed quantitative analysis methods such as Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to validate the reliability and validity of the scales and to test the pathway relationships among variables in the theoretical model. Specifically, we utilized AMOS statistical software to conduct CFA on the scale data, calculating factor loadings and Composite Reliability (CR) values for each latent variable, thereby comprehensively assessing the internal consistency and convergent validity of the scales. Building upon the solid foundation of the CFA analysis, we further constructed a Structural Equation Model (SEM) to delve deeper into the path relationships among latent variables in the theoretical model.
RESULTS
A grand total of 315 valid questionnaires were gathered during the formal survey. A total of 274 valid questionnaires were obtained by excluding questionnaires with inconsistent responses and those with response times less than 30 seconds. This yielded a recovery rate of 87%. The pertinent sample attributes are as follows: male respondents comprise 43%, whereas female respondents comprise 57%. The majority of respondents, comprising 78%, fall within the age range of 24–44. Individuals holding a master’s degree or higher constitute 63% of the total. Of the individuals mentioned, 36.1% have a work experience of 1–3 years in private colleges and universities, whereas 63.9% have a work experience exceeding 3 years.
Measurement Model
This study tested variable reliability, convergence effect, and discriminant validity statistically. Amos24.0 statistical software was used for confirmatory factor analysis, and SPSS24.0 was used to calculate the α coefficient, CR, and average variance extracted (AVE) values for each variable. A first-order confirmatory factor analysis was conducted, and the model fitting test results were: χ2/df = 3.074, TLI = 0.854, CFI = 0.871, RMSEA = 0.06377, SRMR = 0.061. Hair (2009) believes that if the TLI and CFI coefficients exceed 0.9, the model fitting is considered to be good. If the fitting coefficient is greater than 0.8, it is considered as a reasonable model, so the results of confirmatory factor analysis are reasonable. The reason why TLI and CFI did not fully meet the commonly recognized ideal standards (i.e., both TLI and CFI being greater than 0.9) may be due to the complexity of the model structure, which includes multiple variables and intricate path relationships. This complexity may have had an impact on the calculation of the fit indices, resulting in values slightly below the ideal.
At the same time, the α values of each variable are between 0.859 and 0.891, and CR is greater than 0.8, indicating that the variables in this study have good reliability levels. The AVE values are all greater than 0.5, indicating good convergence validity, as shown in Table 1. As shown in Table 2, the square root of the AVE is greater than the correlation coefficient of each variable, indicating that the main variables have good discriminant validity.
Structural Equation Model
We used AMOS to analyze hypotheses utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM) after validating the measurement model. The results indicate that the structural model fits the data well (χ2/df = 2.259, GFI = 0.903, CFI = 0.941, TLI = 0.931, NFI = 0.912, RMSEA = 0.055). Figure 2 shows structural model analysis results.
Citation: Performance Improvement Quarterly 37, 3; 10.56811/PIQ-24-0002
Through structural equation modeling, it was found that distributive justice (β = −0.479; P < 0.001) and interpersonal justice (β = −0.495; P < 0.01) have significant negative impacts on turnover intention, supporting hypotheses H1a and H1c. Specifically, an increase in the degree of distributive justice can reduce teachers' perception of unfairness in compensation and resource allocation in private colleges, thereby reducing their turnover intention. Similarly, an increase in the degree of interpersonal justice can also reduce teachers’ dissatisfaction with interpersonal interactions and relationships, thereby reducing their turnover tendencies.
However, procedural justice (β = −0.0339; P > 0.05) was not found to have a significant correlation with turnover intention, which does not support hypothesis H1b. This may be because procedural justice mainly focuses on the fairness of organizational internal decisions and procedures, while turnover intention is more influenced by other factors such as compensation, job satisfaction, career development opportunities, etc. Additionally, procedural justice may have a more intimate relationship with other factors (such as organizational culture, leadership style, etc.) in influencing turnover intention. Distributive justice (β = 0.337; P < 0.001), procedural justice (β = 0.343; P < 0.001), and interpersonal justice (β = 0.353; P < 0.01) have significant positive impacts on psychological ownership, supporting hypotheses H2a, H2b, and H2c. Psychological ownership (β = −0.426; P < 0.001) is negatively correlated with turnover intention, supporting hypothesis H3. Specifically, psychological ownership can enhance teachers’ sense of organizational identification and belongingness. Instructors who possess a greater sense of psychological ownership are more likely to demonstrate commitment and investment in the organization, which in turn decreases their intentions to leave the organization. This finding has important practical implications for understanding the psychological process of employee turnover and how to reduce turnover rates by enhancing teachers’ psychological ownership in private colleges.
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATION
Discussion
Instructor turnover in private universities can harm the institution's reputation, academic standards, and finances. This directly affects university performance and long-term success. Research on teacher turnover has often focused on one aspect. However, instructor turnover has many complex causes. Thus, previous studies have limitations and fail to fully explain instructor turnover. Compared with previous research, this study is crucial. This study uses organizational justice and psychological ownership theories to examine private university instructor turnover from multiple perspectives. Integrating these two theories helps us understand the mechanisms and factors that cause instructor turnover, allowing us to better identify intervention strategies. This study seeks to understand private college instructor turnover factors. The study is expected to provide recommendations and guidance for private universities to enhance instructor retention. This is crucial to improving private university education, faculty stability, and long-term growth. Two hundred seventy-four private college teachers completed questionnaires for the study. The outcomes are as stated:
Instructors who perceive an inequitable distribution of resources and rewards are more prone to harboring intentions of leaving their positions. In their study, Irum et al. (2015) examined 140 participants employed at a private commercial bank in Pakistan. They discovered that distributive fairness has a robust and noteworthy influence on turnover intentions. A Pakistani study found that the perception of distributive justice significantly influences the turnover intentions of healthcare personnel in public hospitals (Mengstie, 2020).
Private university instructors’ opinions on procedural justice significantly influence their intentions to leave their positions. Instructors who believe that there is a lack of justice in the decision-making process and procedures are more likely to have higher turnover intentions. In a study of 379 employees in Turkey’s public and private education sectors, Çakiroglu (2022) found that lower perceptions of organizational justice lead to higher turnover intentions, with organizational silence as a mediating factor. This suggests that organizations need to pay attention to procedural justice when managing their employees, as it can significantly impact their retention and satisfaction. The opinions of private university instructors on interpersonal justice (referring to the justice of interpersonal treatment and interactions) greatly influence their intentions to leave their positions.
Instructors who perceive an absence of justice in their interactions with colleagues, superiors, and administrative staff are more prone to harboring intentions of leaving their positions. A study on Egyptian teachers reveals that distributive justice is more linked to job satisfaction than procedural justice, and interactional justice is more related to organizational commitment than procedural justice, suggesting that workplace interpersonal relationships also significantly influence employee satisfaction and loyalty (Khalil & Sharaf, 2015).
In addition, the research findings suggest that psychological ownership has an impact on the retention of instructors. The finding provides a more profound understanding of the significant impacts of distributive justice, procedural justice, and interpersonal justice on psychological ownership. When employees feel treated fairly, they are more likely to identify with their work and feel a stronger sense of belonging to the organization, thereby significantly enhancing psychological ownership. Specifically, distributive fairness allows employees to feel that their efforts are matched by appropriate rewards, thereby enhancing their sense of organizational identification and belonging; procedural fairness convinces employees that the organization's decisions and procedures are fair, thereby increasing their trust and loyalty; and interpersonal fairness makes employees feel respected and cared for, thereby enhancing their satisfaction and sense of belonging with the organization. Significantly, the impacts of these three categories of justice on psychological ownership are distinct from one another, offering more specific guidance for organizations in practical implementation. Various research studies consistently demonstrate that psychological ownership significantly contributes to employee retention in diverse industries, including educational institutions. Psychological ownership is defined as the state where individuals feel that a goal or its parts belong to “themselves”. This state has a positive impact on organizational effectiveness and helps reduce employee turnover (Olckers, 2011). In a study of teachers in private kindergartens in China, researchers found that personal psychological factors have a greater impact on teachers’ retention intentions compared with organizational factors (Shi et al., 2022). Additionally, another study on corporate mergers and acquisitions found that psychological ownership can help increase employee retention rates in the acquired company or minimize employee turnover (Degbey et al., 2021). The findings emphasize the significant impact of psychological ownership on employee retention.
Theoretical Implication
The theoretical significance of this study lies in several aspects:
Firstly, this study fills the gaps in current knowledge and provides a new framework, helping to expand and deepen the knowledge in this discipline. Prior research has examined the influence of organizational justice on employees’ intentions to leave their jobs, however, there is a dearth of focused investigation on the perceptions of procedural justice among instructors in private universities. By focusing on the unique background of private teachers and their experiences with procedural justice, this study fills this gap. The research findings facilitate researchers and practitioners in comprehending the determinants that influence the turnover intentions of private university instructors, enabling them to devise focused strategies to enhance their job satisfaction and retention rates.
This study explores the impact of psychological ownership on turnover intentions, finding that it partially mediates the relationship between justice and turnover intentions. This suggests that employees’ perception of ownership towards their work and organization can influence their decision to stay or leave. This finding aligns with previous research on psychological ownership and turnover intentions in various organizational settings. Focusing on teaching staff in private higher education institutions, this study expands on the role of psychological ownership in instructors' turnover intentions.
In addition, this research integrates the concepts of organizational justice and psychological ownership within the specific context of private university instructors. This approach facilitates a more comprehensive comprehension of the variables that influence instructors’ intentions to leave their positions. By examining the interplay between these two concepts, our study reveals the complex dynamics that affect employees’ job satisfaction and retention decisions.
Overall, our study expands research on organizational justice and psychological ownership’s impact on private university instructors’ turnover intentions, filling knowledge gaps and offering a new framework for understanding factors influencing turnover intentions, potentially improving retention rates in private higher education institutions.
Practical Implication
The research findings have profound implications for the decision-making process and practical work of education institutions, especially in the specific context of private university. The importance of organizational justice and psychological ownership is particularly highlighted in this context. These findings not only provide strong theoretical support, but also offer clear guidance for private university in their practical operations.
On the one hand, private colleges can effectively reduce instructors’ turnover intentions by improving workplace justice. This can be achieved through various strategies, including ensuring fair allocation of resources, implementing transparent and participatory decision-making processes, and establishing harmonious relationships between teachers and students as well as colleagues. These are also important measures to reduce turnover intentions. Private colleges should promote a positive and healthy communication atmosphere, encouraging teachers to support and collaborate with each other to solve problems. This can enhance cohesion and teamwork among teachers, improving overall work efficiency.
On the other hand, to further support the teaching staff and promote a fair and inclusive working environment, private colleges should focus on cultivating instructors’ sense of psychological ownership. Specific measures include providing dedicated offices for individual use, establishing a instructors' congress or advisory body, and establishing a feedback mechanism. These measures can make teachers feel valued and supported by the school, establishing a sense of belonging with their working environment. This will help to increase teachers’ retention rates, reduce turnover rates, and stimulate their enthusiasm and creativity in their work. Additionally, providing teachers with professional development opportunities, helping them to enhance their professional skills and knowledge levels; regularly holding team-building activities to enhance communication and cooperation among teachers; establishing recognition and reward mechanisms to recognize and reward outstanding teacher performance; can also stimulate teachers’ work enthusiasm and creativity, improving their work efficiency and quality.
In summary, through optimizing workplace fairness, cultivating psychological ownership, and other measures, private colleges can increase the loyalty of teaching staff, reduce turnover rates, improve work efficiency, and create a more positive and efficient working environment. This will help private colleges achieve sustainable development and improve overall competitiveness.
CONCLUSION
The findings indicate that distributive justice and interpersonal justice have a significant impact on instructors’ turnover intentions. However, the relationship between procedural justice and turnover intention is not significant. Moreover, our research indicates that the three types of justice have a substantial and favorable influence on psychological ownership. Significantly, each of these three forms of justice has a distinct impact on psychological ownership. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the internal mechanisms and external factors influencing instructors’ turnover intentions in Chinese private universities, as well as practical advice for lowering turnover rates by increasing instructors’ sense of organizational justice and psychological ownership.
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS
The study took 274 instructors from private universities in China as samples, but it must be noted that the research results may not represent the broader teacher population in different countries or educational backgrounds. A larger and more diverse sample will improve the universality of the research results.
This study relies on self-report measures to measure variables such as psychological ownership, distributive justice, procedural justice, interpersonal justice, and turnover intention. This introduces the possibility of common method bias, where participants may respond in a socially desirable manner or have difficulty accurately reporting their perceptions and intentions. Future research can use objective measurement methods or multiple data sources to reduce this limitation.
The study’s cross-sectional design restricts the capacity to establish causal relationships between variables. While the authors analyze the theoretical foundation and suggest a causal model, employing longitudinal or experimental designs would yield more robust evidence for the hypothesized correlation.
Future research should incorporate instructors’ self-assessment and academic department head assessments to enhance the validity of results. Longitudinal designs can track turnover behavior over time, allowing for a more accurate understanding of variables. Factors such as job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, workplace conflicts, and proactive personality can impact teachers’ turnover intentions. Individual traits and institutional characteristics should also be assessed. The work environment should also be studied to understand faculty turnover intentions. Longitudinal designs can examine changes in instructors’ perceptions and intentions over time.
Research Model
Structural Model Analysis Result
Contributor Notes
QIANG WANG is a doctoral candidate in e-commerce at Korea University in South Korea. The field of interest is consumer behavior under algorithms and retail management. Email: 2021010473@korea.ac.kr
HAIDI HUANG is a lecturer at Shandong Huayu University of Technology. Areas of interest are consumer behavior, higher education management, and international trade. Email: 2206050302@qq.com
