اعتماد، رضایت شغلی، عملکرد سازمانی و قصد بالا بردن بازده: مقایسه بخش عمومی و خصوصی Trust, job satisfaction, perceived organizational performance and turnover intention: A public-private sector comparison in the United Arab Emirates

Introduction The issue of differing attitudes and behaviors of employees in public vs private sector employees has been the subject of much debate and controversies for a number of years (Balfour and Wechsler, 1990; Zeffane, 1994; Vigoda-Gadot and Kapun, 2005; Hayes et al., 2006; Coomber and Barribal, 2007; Baarspul and Wilderom, 2011; Mihajlov and Mihajlov, 2016). One of the topics that still preoccupy researchers, and human resource practitioners alike is that of differences in employee turnover/turnover intentions (TI) in these sectors and the reasons behind such attitudes and difference (Pietersen and Oni, 2014). Research on the underlying reasons for the differences has produced mixed results. For that reason, research interest in differences in attitudes and behaviors between public and private sector employees (including TI) has grown significantly in recent years among practitioners and scholars alike. Practitioners are interested in learning the impact that various employee attitudes and behaviors may have on the critical human resource management issues that they are facing (Bright, 2008). While research on the influence of job satisfaction ( JS) on TI in both of these sectors has been abundant over the years, studies examining the impact of trust and perceptions of organizational performance remain few and are largely lacking. Also, studies on turnover in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (and particularly those comparing public and private sectors) remain largely lacking. This is rather surprising given recent reports warning that the UAE economy suffers from a high rate of voluntary employee turnover (Suliman and Al kathairi, 2012; Harhara et al., 2015; Khalife, 2016). According to a recent Hays Salary and Employment Report (2016), 31 percent of the employees in the UAE changed jobs in 2015, with no less than 50 percent intending to leave their job in 2016. This trend points to the importance of the issue of turnover in the UAE context and justifies the need for further research. This study attempts to fill the above research gaps and examines TIs and three main attitudinal variables that may affect it (namely, trust, and perceived organizational performance & JS). The study draws on a sample of 311 employees from the UAE service sector (129 Public and 182 Private).We also compare the relative impacts of the above three attitudinal variable on employees’ TI in these two sectors.