Expanded job scope model and turnover intentions: A moderated mediation model of Core-Self Evaluation and job involvement

Article history: Received: November 18, 2020 Received in revised format: December 28 2020 Accepted: January 2, 2021 Available online: January 2, 2021 Existing study was conducted to make a combined examination of the mediating role of (a) Job involvement in linking expanded job scope model (EJSM) with turnover intentions and (b) investigate how the relationship among EJSM and turnover intention is conditional based on the level of Core Self-Evaluation (CSE) in employees.700 questionnaires were circulated among the employees of education and financial sector which yields 490 returns achieving a response rate of 70%. After initial data screening 420 complete responses were available for analyses. The results exhibit that Job involvement (JI) mediates the relationships between EJCM and turnover intentions. The results of the moderated mediation depict that JI mediates the relationships between job scope and high level of CSE in employees. The outcomes delivered valuable understandings for managers and consultants, especially to Human Resource professionals who are trying to facilitate the workforce in challenging working environment through improved job design. The businesses may encourage high level of employee involvement through redesigned job scope in presence of high order personality characteristics which helps to reduce turnover intentions. This paper contributed in the literature of job design in three different ways. First, existing research makes theoretical contribution by adding new dimension in existing JSM which is flexible work time. Second, it describes how dynamic work settings may refine employees’ abilities and behaviors. Third, the research deals with a unique view in research of job design by combining personality as a moderator (i.e., CSE). © 2021 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada


Introduction
Work design role has potential influence on employees' work-related outcomes. Focus of work design is to entitle various tasks and roles in job; all these arrangements make influence on employees' work-related outcomes, which influences the behavioral outcomes of workforce such as employee performance, turnover intentions and the level of absenteeism is unexpectedly high (Grant & Parker, 2009). Current researchers are emphasizing most important issues in job design in response of future challenges comprising dynamic work settings, challenges in response to rising individuals' expectations. Minor attention is paid on important work design aspect such as temporal factor (Grant, Fried, Parker & Frese, 2010). Flexible hours can make organizations more attractive to potential employees (Timms, Brough, O'Driscoll, Kalliath,Sit & Lo, 2015). Model of Hackman and Oldham's (1975) discounted the importance of time flexibility characteristic of autonomy by taking autonomy uni-dimensional. In actual, autonomy is capacious concept and time autonomy is its essential part (Grant & Parker, 2009). In the present study time autonomy is explored in terms of flexible work time perspective within job characteristics model. The research of job design has emphasized the significance of motivational processes and personal meaning, and emotional significance appear as job involvement (JI) (Wood, Veldhoven, Croon & Menezes, 2012). Job involvement (JI) is a fundamental motivational construct for extrapolation of different attitudes and behaviors, which is being postulated job involvement (JI) beliefs related to employees' turnover intentions, as a crucial motivational tool that links high job scope to employees' turnover intentions (Morgeson & Humphrey, 2006). Though Hackman and Oldham (1975) suggested possible role of moderator such as 'Growth Need Strength'; which is trait linked to achievement needs, in the association among job scope and its consequences, the study supporting the moderator effects has not be conclusive. The study assumed the lack of support for moderating the role of such trait, and recommended that attention should shift to use CSE which is being conceived as a construct of higher order with extensive and evaluative traits (Chang, Johnson, Rosen & Tan, 2012).
In existing study moderated mediation model is developed which simultaneously look at JI as the mediating mechanism and CSE as the moderator and proposing extension in existing job characteristics theory by adding new dimension of flexible work time and expanded theory was tested with its theoretical validity and precision.

Theoretical Background and Hypotheses
Job Characteristics Theory (JCT) offers a source of understanding how high scope job influence employees work related outcomes (Hackman & Oldham, 1975). Flexibility for execution of multitasking is prerequisites for tasks completion (Willis, Brown, Sahlin, Svensson, Arnetz & Arnetz, 2005). Non-flexibility in work time can be incorporated as hazardous situation for employees indeed. In such situation employee's withdrawal intention increased. According to the importance of flexible work schedule cannot be underestimated to enhance employees' attachment with work (Arnoux, Sovet, Lhotellier, Di Fabio & Bernaud, 2016). Thus, contextual variable is suggested to be the part of JCM. There are miscellaneous indications confirming the moderator effects of various variables including personality (Xie & Johns, 1995). The same kinds of evidences are found for mediation linkage. Following areas are investigated particularly in existing study. First, we briefly review the revised job scope and further identify whether with additive feature of job characteristics increase involvement of employees with their job and intentions to stay. Additionally, the proposes moderating mediating relationship is discussed to understand whether the combine effect of JCM and CSE improves the expected job involvement of employees and curtail the turnover intentions. Hackman and Oldham, (1975;1980) explained about five characteristics model and one important characteristic was autonomy. Autonomy is defined as freedom of making work plan within given time frame. According to individuals demand autonomy in work time duration is overlooked in job design literature which may make the meaning of autonomy broader. The elements of job content including appropriate working hours can enrich the attitudinal employee outcomes in a positive manner (Kattenbach, Demerouti & Nachreiner, 2010;Yoo & Lee, 2019). Hence, the effect of six characteristics of work on outcomes is strong and high as compared to five job characteristics.

Expanded job scope and turnover intentions
A turnover intention refers as envisioned plan of employees to leave their current job. Many factors are involved for voluntary intention of quitting including multitasking job for which additional time is required for the accomplishment of assigned work activities (Chhabra, 2018). Thus, the addition of time flexibility factor in high challenging job may enhance the positive perception of employees regarding work environment. Prior studies have also indicated a positive association between flexibility and the behavioural and attitudinal outcomes of employees (Halpern, 2005;Chhabra, 2020). Based on the above stated arguments, the following hypothesis is developed: H1. Expanded Job Scope reduces the employees' Turnover intentions (TOI).

Job involvement as mediator
Job involvement is a motivational variable which is important determinant for organizational success. Johari and Yahya (2016) agreed that job involvement in work is a function of the job design. Employees are likely to become more involved in their jobs when they realize that assigned tasks are vital for their organization (Wan, Li, Zhou & Shang, 2018). There is an expectation about the employees as they have robust involvement and attachment to the job, and attitude depicts less likelihood of employees' withdrawal behaviour (Jain & Nair, 2019). Thus, job scope with addition of flexible work time may augment an employee's job involvement and, in return, reduce negative job outcomes, such as decrease TOI. Based on the given arguments it may be hypothesized that: H2. Expanded Job Scope is positively related with JI. H3. JI is negatively related with TOI. H4. JI mediates the relationship of expanded job scope with turnover intentions.

Core Self Evaluation (CSE) as a moderator
According to Ahmad, Jasimuddin and Kee (2018) personality variable can be incorporated in many ways for example as personality or competencies. Further, it is identified by Ahmad et al., (2018) that there is a significant relationship between personality of individuals and affirmative organizational outcomes.
However, existing study uncovers the interaction between the higher order personality traits cumulatively called core selfevaluation (CSE) which comprise of four pillars containing: self-esteem, emotional stability, locus of control and generalized self-efficacy (Chhabra, 2020) and challenging work environment. It is assumed that employees with high CSE display higher dedication that refers to enthusiasm and involvement in job duty (Haynie, Flynn & Mauldin, 2017;Yoo & Lee, 2019). Hence, an interactive effect of dispositional factors with expanded job scope is being checked on job outcome.

H5. CSE moderates the link of expanded JCM with job involvement such that the association becomes stronger for employees who have high CSE.
In particular, CSE theory suggests that CSE can have functional effects for maintaining the stronger link between EJS and JI. CSE plays an efficient role in the decreasing of TOI as CSE stimulates the positive energy levels associated with high scope job which leads to higher JI and in turn allows the increase in JI and reduce the TOI. The invigorating role of CSE is highlighted in the following hypothesis:

H6. The indirect effect of expanded JCM with CSE interactions on the TOI through JI is moderated by the CSE, such that indirect impact is robust at higher level of CSE.
The proposed method 3. Method

Data collection and sample
This research was conducted in Pakistan and since Pakistani individuals' attitude toward research is not thoughtful. Hence, to obtain quality data, some sectors were selected from where the likelihood to acquire valued data would be higher. Two sectors including education and banking sectors were chosen to observe different responses regarding job design in them.
The participant's level of educational ranged from doctoral degree program to high school i.e. 10 years of education. The male participants were 82% of total sample. Responses about age show that 12 % were under 25 years, 42% were of age 25-45, 36% were of age 35-45 and 10 % were of age above 45.
The survey instrument was distributed directly by hand and also through online means. Data collected via survey questionnaires were circulated to various twelve organizations from two service sectors. The business and operational activities of the organizations comprise the financial institutions including various banks, educational institutions like higher secondary schools, colleges and universities. A total of 700 questionnaires were distributed which yielded 490 returns hence achieving a response rate of 70%. After initial data screening, 420 complete responses were available for analyses.
An identical code was allocated to self and peer report responses for matching them. Covering letter was also attached with all questionnaires which described the scope of study, the survey was voluntary nature and ensured respondents for the confidentiality of data.

Measures
English was mostly used as medium of instruction in Pakistan and correspondence in all institutes of higher education and in companies respectively (Raja & Johns, 2010), for that reason, distributed questionnaires were in English.
Expanded job scope. The job scope was measured with Job Diagnostic Survey and Job Rating Form (Hackman & Oldham, 1976) with the help of self-reports, and peer-ratings respectively. One additional dimension was added in existing job scope which is flexible work time (FWT). Nachreiner, Lenzig and Janben (2002) five items scale was utilized to estimate flexible work time. Sample items on five-point scale; where 1 represents strongly disagree and 5 represents strongly agree included "Do you decide when to start your work?", "Have you retained possibility to make longer breaks?" The values of reliability Expanded Job Scope Job Involvement Turnover Intentions Core Self-Evaluation for the scale were .76 and .79 for self and peer report responses, respectively. Through principle component analysis, three items were put in for final analyses which have the highest values comprising 2, 3 and 4. The alpha reliability for those three items was .76. For a flexible work time, one component with the same three items for final analyses was selected. The Cronbach alpha for them was .72. These three items were added in existing job scope. The Cronbach alpha for expanded job scope was .80 and .88 for self-report and peer-report, respectively. Bluedorn (1982) 4-items scale was used to measure TOI. A five-point scale which ranges between 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree were utilized for response checking, some scale items are: "I often think about quitting my current job". For current study, the scale Alpha reliability value was .79.

Job involvement (JI)
JI measured through 10-items scale developed by Kanungo (1982) included item such as, "I am very much involved personally in my job" . Kanungo, (1982) reported the scale alpha reliability .80. For current study, this scale Alpha reliability value was .82.

Core Self-Evaluation
A self-reported scale comprised of twelve-item proposed by Judge, Erez, Bono and Thoreson (2003) which was utilized to measure CSE. A five-point scale which ranged between 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree was applied to collect participants' responses. Some sample items are: "I am confident I get the success I deserve in life", "When I try, I generally succeed". Judge et al. (2003) reported the scale alpha reliability of .80. For current study, this scale Alpha reliability value was .92.

Control Variables
The results of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) have shown information of demographic factors. The gender and age differences were identified, and the impact of these variables was controlled in analyses.

Results
To examine the effects of moderated-mediation as proposed by Hypothesis 7, Preacher et al. (2007) method for moderatedmediation was used. The results are shown in Table 3. The bootstrapping results with 95% confidence interval of the conditional effect that was one standard deviation above the mean (4.5) and below the mean (3.5) respectively did not contain 0 [.22, .60]; 0[.16, .32]. In both settings, the conditional effect of EJSM on TOI was significant at p<.05. Same procedure repeated for the peer reported Expanded JCM(p) the conditional effect with one standard deviation above the mean (4.5) and below the mean (3.5) also did not contain 0 [.29, .64]; 0 [.20, .42]. .64 Note. n =420. Unstandardized regression coefficients are reported. Bootstrap sample size =5,000. LL =lower limit; CI =confidence interval; UL =upper limit. Control variables were age, tenure and gender. EJS= Expanded Job Scope; CSE= Core Self Evaluation.
A visual representation of the interactional effects (Fig. 1a, Ib) and the analysis of simple slope depicts when CSE was high, the positive association among EJSM and JI was stronger both in case of self and peer report responses of job scope.

Discussion and Conclusion
Results relating to the hypothesized relations can be summarized as follow; all estimates linked to direct relationship of EJSM with turnover intentions, interaction effects of EJS with CSE were confirmed. The mediation link of job involvement between EJSM with TOI was also ascertained. In this study, a model of moderated mediation was scrutinized for addressing the three major gaps identified in the literature of the job characteristics theory of job design. The results of this research, which was solely based on survey data are obtained from multiple informants, contributes toward the existing body of knowledge in various ways. Firstly, it supports our hypothesis that JI mediates the relationship between EJSM and turnover intentions. EJSM with an additional dimension of flexible working hour have a direct and a long-term influence on attitudinal and behavioral work outcomes. This finding addresses Oldham (2010) concern about addressing contextual concern in existing job design. Secondly, the current research corroborates former researches by proving the job involvement and work outcomes relationship as a cognitive state of identification with the job design. Practicable job design for employees has potential to satisfy them and give motivational thrust to reduce negative work-related outcomes (Islam, Tariq & Usman, 2018).
Thirdly, the integrated moderated mediation analyses provide significant support for Hypotheses 3 and 4 and hence address the role of personality characteristics of high CSE context in the job characteristics theory of job design. Consistent with motivational approach of Kanungo (1982) this research also incorporates different approaches to job involvement, comprising work environment and psychological factors. Thus, it is found that JI mediates the effect of high scope job on TOI for those who have high CSE.

Theoretical implications
Key theoretical contribution of current study is to enriched JSM by adding one more dimension to make existing enriched job characteristics model more dynamic. Existing research is responding to prior calls of researchers to extend JSM by adding more characteristics and in this study FWT added in existing JSM. Moreover, it is ascertained that this is the notably the first research of the expanded model of JCM in context of Pakistan. With the help of adding new facets in theories of work design, new characteristics and workplace outcomes shall be introduced which captures the twenty-first century work context in conditions of diverse boundary (Grant, Fried, Parker & Frese, 2010). Second, another theoretical contribution in the job design model is the identification of the mediator intervention points. This research examined the significances of the job scope model on the level of job involvement which in turn impacts attitudinal work outcome i.e. job decreases in turnover intentions. Third, hence through CSE theory it is proved that employee's performance will be up to mark in challenging jobs when they have higher order personality characteristics. The results recommend that core self-evaluation as a moderator enhances the impact of job scope model and job involvement among the workforce thus, the indirect effects of job involvement on attitudinal outcomes influences at the various levels of moderator. Fourth, the research also provides contextual benefits that these research outcomes are obtained from East-Asia countries and their valuable generalizability is possible in Western European countries as well. By incorporating contextual characteristics of the workplace setting into theory of job design, this study answered to prior calls of researchers by examining one more characteristic of job that is pivotal in many current jobs.

Managerial implications
By adopting various sources for data collection, the applicability of the study's results may extend to the several sectors which were used for data collection. Firstly, research findings recommended that the additional characteristic of work design (e.g., flexible working hour) was significantly linked to employees work outcomes with existing five dimensions. Hence flexible work time dimension should be important in use to "fit" a work environment in relation to its occupants.
Second, for the human resource practitioners this is scorching issue to alternate the fixed timing hours to flexible timing policies. If employees perceive that HRM practices are meant to reduce strict work policies, then intentions of employees to leave organization will be reduced. Hence, to reduce traditional timing hours, organizations should make the flexible work time polices that HRM practices are intended to promote employee usefulness.
Third, research suggested that the positive level of core self-evaluation (CSE) has a favorable influence on work outcomes of employees at different levels with respect to intervening effect of job involvement. The results can be used by the managers of collectivistic cultures for developing interventions to enhance the work life quality of workforce by encouraging a positive sense of core-self-evaluation. These positive personality traits will be beneficial to survive successfully in high demanding work environment. Further different strategies for improving core self-evaluation can also be utilized.
All components of CSE can be polished by focusing on other benefits as proposed by the theory of other-orientation. Therefore, Dewi and Riantoputra (2019) suggested the training sessions of employees should be promoted by managers within organizations as it will facilitate the workforce to utilize their personality traits in a more positive way. It is also suggested that personality affect need to be focused during the processes of employee recruitment, training and promotion in high challenging job environment.

Limitations and future research directions
Addressing certain limitations in existing research is essential for future researches. First, the data collected in one time, limits the causal inferences which may be drawn on the basis of our findings. For more substantial results, future studies need to consider other research designs including experimental, quasi-experimental or longitudinal research design. Second, for the generalizability and authentication of the findings of current study, other cultural settings are better options because Pakistan is poles apart from developed countries in terms of many aspects as compared to western economies.