Title: Investigating accountants' occupational commitment and occupational turnover intention: evidence from Turkish accountants

Authors: Aydem Ciftcioglu; Aylin Poroy Arsoy; Baris Sipahi

Addresses: Uludag University Faculty of Economics and Administration Business Administration Department, Turkey ' Business Administration Department, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Uludag University, Uludag Universitesi I.I.B.F, Isletme Bolumu, Gorukle/Bursa 16059, Turkey ' Business Administration Department, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Marmara University, Marmara Universitesi I.I.B.F, Isletme Bolumu, Bahcelievler/Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract: This study investigates the relationship between accountants| attachment to their occupation and its influence on their turnover intentions to their profession. The data used in this study were taken from 162 accountants that are members of Istanbul Chambers of Certified Public Accountants (ICCPA). Accountants| commitment to their occupation was assessed with the 18-item occupational commitment instrument which was developed by Meyer et al. (1993) and their occupational turnover intention measured by Meyer et al.|s (1993) three-item and Moore|s (2000) two-item. All items are measured on five-point scale, ranging from 1 |strongly disagree| to 5 |strongly agree|. Structural equation modelling was used to estimate the relationship between occupational commitment, three dimensional occupational commitment and turnover intention using competing configuration models. The results reveal that affective occupational commitment has statistically significant negative impact on turnover intention whereas other dimensions such as continuous and normative occupational commitment did not have significant effect on turnover intention.

Keywords: affective occupational commitment; normative occupational commitment; continuous occupational commitment; turnover intention; Turkey; accounting; accountants; structural equation modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAF.2011.043846

International Journal of Accounting and Finance, 2011 Vol.3 No.2, pp.165 - 176

Received: 10 Apr 2010
Accepted: 02 Aug 2011
Published online: 21 Oct 2014 *

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