Predicting job satisfaction and workers’ intentions to leave at the bottom of the high value agricultural chain: evidence from the Ethiopian cut flower industry

Abstract

While there is a large body of research focusing on working conditions in labour-intensive industries, none has yet considered how workers themselves perceive their own working conditions. This paper draws on a sample of workers from the cut flower sector industry in Ethiopia to examine the extent to which workers are satisfied with their jobs and to explore the relationship between job satisfaction and intention to leave. Results suggest that a positive evaluation of extrinsic organizational rewards (wage, job security and healthy environment) contributes to workers’ job satisfaction. Dissatisfied workers report higher intentions to leave their job in the flower farms. In addition to low levels of job satisfaction, having alternative livelihood strategies is a key determining factor in the intention to leave. Interestingly, being a member of an informal savings net organized at the work floor mitigates the intention to leave. The paper ends with some implications for managers and policy-makers, along with limitations and suggestions for future research.

Keywords:

• Job satisfaction
• turnover intention
• labour-intensive industries
• Ethiopia

Notes

1. A first round of qualitative data collection at management level took place in September 2012 and included over 20 flower farms. On the basis of this, we carefully selected five farms located in the same cluster.

2. While flower farm managers said that they did not hire workers under the age of 15, our sample counted 2 respondents who admitted to be younger than this. It is not clear to what extent the flower farm managers were aware of this or whether these minors presented themselves as older than they really were.

3. We also researched whether job satisfaction moderated the relationship between alternative livelihood strategies (of rural workers, students and ikub members) and intention to leave, such that when job satisfaction is low, the relationship between alternative livelihood strategies and intent to leave is high and when job satisfaction is high, there is no relationship between alternative livelihood strategies and intent to leave. However, in all three types of livelihood strategies, we did not find such moderating effects.