Job dissatisfaction and labour turnover: evidence from Brazil

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between job dissatisfaction and labour turnover in the Brazilian labour market using an objective behavioural measure variable of job satisfaction. Following the methodology adopted by Souza-Poza and Souza-Poza (2007, The Journal of Socio-Economics, 36, 895–913), this paper used various econometric techniques (such as multinomial and ordered probit models) in determining whether job satisfaction is a good predictor of future job quits. In general, the results found show the importance of job satisfaction on future mobility, thereby providing another way to analyse job satisfaction, since the measure used minimizes the subjective effects that are associated with psychological factors.

Keywords:

• Brazil
• job dissatisfaction
• labour
• management
• turnover

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to professor Tiago V. de V. Cavalcanti for his helpful suggestions. The usual disclaimer about any mistakes and analysis applies. The author also thanks the CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) Foundation for providing the Postdoctoral Fellowship that allowed this work.

Notes

 1. According to Smith, Sohal and D'Netto (1995), firms have recognized that for too long attention had been directed to the worker in the organization, spending huge resources in attempting to change the workforce to adapt to organizational structures containing outdated systems and processes rather than directing attention to the organization and reshaping aspects of the work function.

 2. As of 2003, the questionnaire of the PME has been completely revamped, as part of its methodology. This is the reason why we consider the analysis from 2004. Moreover, since the three samples are independent they could provide us a strong support to the findings.

 3. Hourly wage rate is in Real (Brazilian currency) – R$. This variable was calculated by dividing the usual weekly gross pay by the usual weekly hours.

 4. The theory of on-the-job search explains the behaviour of employed individuals who search for a better job while others do not. For more details see Lambert (1991) and Allen and Velden (2001).

 5. As mentioned earlier, not all dissatisfied workers seek new employment. According to Herzberg (1987), ‘the opposite of job satisfaction is not job dissatisfaction but, rather, no job satisfaction’; and similarly, the opposite of job dissatisfaction is not job satisfaction, but no job dissatisfaction.

 6. According to Royalty (1998), this division is important because the worker's behaviour may vary significantly between genders.

 7. Horn and Griffeth (1995) and Maertz and Campion (1998) summarize various theoretical frameworks of labour turnover.

 8. In general, studies have highlighted that women tend to be more satisfied than men (Sloane and Williams 2000). Clark (1997) argued that women's higher job satisfaction is still a reflection of poor working conditions they had in the past, which means that they have lower expectations of job satisfaction.

 9. Industry sector was excluded because of the high correlation with the variables included in the model.

10. The literature has no consensus on having dependent children. Haile (2009) found that having dependent children ( < 7 years) is associated with four of the eight facet satisfaction measures. In contrast, the author observed that having dependents other than children is associated negatively with nearly all facet satisfaction measures.