Teacher Turnover and Turnover Intentions in Hong Kong Aided Secondary Schools

Abstract

This study is divided into two parts. The first part examined the teacher turnover situation in Hong Kong secondary schools from 1989 to 1992. The data, taken from Education Department and HK Subsidized Secondary School Council, showed that while there was a slight reduction of turnover and a large decline in the number of teachers changing schools in the period under study, the wastage rate of teachers remained at the same high level. The second part involved a study of teachers' turnover intentions. This study adapted the model developed by Mobley ( 1982) and Willimans ( 1986) with job attitude acting as a moderator between turnover intention and individual and organizational characteristics. The intention was to understand how individual and possibly organizational factors caused the turnover intention of teachers. A total of 40 schools with over 600 teachers took part in the study. Logistic regressions were used to study the fitness of model. Results showed that teachers with less job satisfaction, who did not choose teaching as their first career choice and who had frequently changed schools had stronger intention to resign. Implications for school administration are discussed. *m~~~~$&·m-$&~7• ~~~-ft~~~~m~·•~• M~~*~ftW¥~ft~~-· ~· /Nf~fS*~i$~6~-~~IY:if-*filTf~f§I~SH~:1JOOBJ~Jlt, liJf~~JJi! · ][~ 1992 if.· ftBiTirm~·i·ll:fr5GflJ~Jiim ·