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Abstract
Orientation: Mining plays a significant role in the South African economy and is crucial for job creation opportunities. Mining organisations are plagued by various challenges, which include turnover intention.Research purpose: The current study sought to establish whether employee empowerment (psychological and structural empowerment) predicts turnover intention in a mining organisation.Research approach/design and method: The study followed a quantitative research approach and used a cross-sectional design. A non-probability sampling technique was used, and a purposive sampling method was selected. The sample comprised 371 mining employees (men = 276; women = 95). Data were collected through pre-established measures, all of which reported acceptable Cronbach’s alphas. Various statistical techniques were employed to address the main research objective.Main findings: Employee empowerment negatively impacts turnover intention. The employees who perceived having informal power were more likely to consider leaving the organisation. Employees who perceived less formal power were more likely to consider leaving than the employees who perceived having formal power.Practical/managerial implications: Recommendations are made to HR practitioners regarding employee empowerment of mining employees, which, when implemented, have the potential to reduce employee turnover intention.Contribution/value-add: The results of this study provide a better understanding to human resource managers about the relationship between employee empowerment and turnover intention of mining personnel. This study contributed to theory, as some key findings are different from previous studies within the South African context.
Highlights
The mining industry is a key to the economy and the development of South Africa, as it employs a significant percentage of the South African population (Marais et al, 2018; Neingo & Tholona, 2016)
The mean scores for the items within the structural empowerment sub-dimensions ranged from 3.4 to 3.74. This may indicate that the employees in this study perceived that they did receive some structural empowerment in the workplace
There was no significant difference in the scores for males and females regarding structural empowerment
Summary
The mining industry is a key to the economy and the development of South Africa, as it employs a significant percentage of the South African population (Marais et al, 2018; Neingo & Tholona, 2016). The interplay of gold prices and increased production costs has resulted in some mining operations’ downsizing and others completely shutting down. This has slowed business outputs and negatively affected the economy and the country’s development (Marais et al, 2018). Mining remained one of the main drivers of the South African economy and accounted for approximately 8% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015 (Republic of South Africa, 2020). Organisational restructuring and downsizing have negative implications for mine employees who survive retrenchments in that it is expected of these remaining workers to increase their outputs to sustain business profits (Chen, Chen, Zhu, Qi, & Long, 2015). Based on the work environment at mines and employees’ perceiving that they are not treated well by their managers, turnover intention may arise (Amponsah-Tawiah, Ntow, & Mensah, 2016)
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