Validation of the Chinese Version of the Turnover Intention Scale in Social Workers

Abstract

The Turnover Intention Scale (TIS) is perceived to be a comprehensive measure of turnover intention. However, the extant literature has not validated the turnover intention scales (TIS-15 and TIS-6) in Chinese context. This study aims to examine the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of TIS (C-TIS) in terms of its factorial validity, scale reliability, descriptive statistics, and construct validity in social work profession. A cross-sectional study was conducted in three Chinese cities: Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shunde in 2018 and it turned out that 196 valid questionnaires were collected from professional social workers. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a better fit for the six-item-single-factor model of the C-TIS-6 than the C-TIS-15. The C-TIS-6 showed acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s Alpha = .70). Regarding construct validity, turnover intention measured by C-TIS-6 was positively correlated with perceived stress, while inversely correlated with collective psychological ownership and work engagement. Job position and length of job tenure contributed no significant impact in predicting turnover intention of social workers after controlling demographic factors and economic conditions. The C-TIS-6 demonstrated adequate psychometric properties, supporting its use in future research among social workers in Chinese context.

Keywords:

• Turnover intention
• Chinese
• collective psychological ownership
• work engagement
• perceived stress

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge Prof. Victor Wong from Department of Social Work, Hong Kong Baptist University for his kind support with proofreading for this article and Dr. Kun Liang from Department of Social Work, East China University of Science and Technology for his insights about this manuscript.