Chapter 1

Introduction

With the increase in the competition conditions of modern age, organizations have started to look

for better ways of gaining advantage over their competitors in their sectors. Some organizations

believe that equipping themselves with advanced technology, developing alternative and

innovative marketing strategies and providing better customer relations will make them more

powerful and advantageous in the sector. With this regard, human resource management has

become a significant issue for every organization. But exposure to both physical violence and

verbal aggression are recognized as significant risk factors for physical and psychological injury

in the workplace. Researchers have identified a number of potential antecedents and risk factors

for both violence and aggression, as well as a number of likely consequences (e.g., Fox, Spector,

& Miles, 2001; LeBlanc, Dupre, & Barling, 2006). Most of this literature has focused either on

individual personality (e.g., Douglas & Martinko, 2001).

Nepotism is the hiring and advancement of unqualified or under qualified relatives

simply by virtue of their relationship with an employee, officer, or shareholder in the firm

(Wong & Kalmar, 1994). The word itself is surrounded by negative connotations, even in its

definition it states the giving of unqualified or under-qualified relatives. Nepotism is neither

good nor bad. Bellow (2008) explains that it is not the practice that is bad, but indeed the way it

is practiced that determines the negatives or positives outcomes For the purpose of this paper,

nepotism will not be viewed in either a positive or negative manner but only its impact on

turnover intentions of employees.

 One of the major complaints in a company that operates through nepotism is the patent

lack of fairness. Perceived favoritism of a relative can cause dissatisfaction among workers and

lower morale. Employees may have less incentive to perform their responsibilities diligently and

proficiently if they feel that the path to promotion is undermined by nepotism. Indeed, a

company employing such tactics may find its more valuable employees seeking new

employment where their talent is better recognized. At a minimum, workers will likely complain

and become embittered and less productive in the face of blatant nepotism.

Workplace violence occurs where a person subjects another in the workplace to

degrading behavior, ranging from verbal abuse or threats to actual physical violence. It is an

inappropriate expression of power that adversely affects workers and their productivity, and that

requires both legal and non-legal redress. For instance organizations use emailing abusively, by

requesting employees to check their emails and act upon them out of office hours, the pressure

this can generate can be equal to violence. It is hard to assess, since it occurs only within

personal levels of control, but the end result can be collectively generative, in terms of work-life

balance and performance.

Turnover is the process through which staff leave a business or organization and that

business or organization replaces them. Turnover intention is a measurement of whether a

business' or organization's employees plan to leave their positions or whether that organization

plans to remove employees from positions. Turnover intention, like turnover itself, can be either

voluntary or involuntary. Researchers have established that the determinants in voluntary

turnover are of a psychological, sociological, and economic nature. Their explanatory model of

voluntary turnover integrates different types of determinants, such us working conditions,

environmental conditions, and employee characteristics (Burakova, 2014).

 Nepotism and workplace violence happened to distort the perception of justice among

employees, making them de motivated and increasing turnover intention and for employees

organizational justice is perceptions of employees regarding how fair their efforts are treated and

valued and how fair their organization is in giving value for employees efforts
Chapter II

Literature Review

Recent reports have focused attention on dramatic instances of workplace violence and

extreme acts of aggression in work settings. It is suggested that such actions, while both tragic

and frightening, are only a small part of a much larger problem of workplace aggression which

likely add in efforts by individuals to harm others with whom they work or the organizations in

which they are employed which increases the level of turnover intentions.

Simons & Shellie (2008) descriptive study examined bullying behavior among nurses and

tests the relationship between bullying and a nurse's intention to leave their organization. Data

was collected from 511 randomly selected newly licensed registered nurses by using the Revised

Negative Acts Questionnaire, an instrument that measures perceived exposure to bullying at

work. Results found that 31% of respondents reported being bullied and that bullying is a

significant determinant in predicting intent to leave the organization (B = 3.1, P < .0005). Data

suggested that effective interventions were needed to stop workplace bullying that contributes to

high rates of nurse turnover intentions.

Dakin (2012) conducted this study to examine the effects of scarcity of resources,

favoritism, and organizational support as antecedents on organizational politics perceptions of

frontline staff and the effect of these perceptions on their turnover intention in Cypriot hotels as

its setting. For this study, a total number of 140 usable questionnaires were collected from

frontline staff who was defined as all frontline supervisors from the front office, food beverage,
guest relations, and housekeeping departments working in three, four and five star hotels in

North Cyprus. The hypo-the sized relationships were tested using SPSS 18 version through path

analysis. The model test results indicated that scarce resources and favoritism are significant

determinants of organizational politics perceptions. On the other hand, organizational support

was found to be negatively related with organizational politics. The empirical result also

demonstrated that frontline supervisors politics perceptions exerted a positive effect on their

turnover intentions. This research makes useful contributions to the current knowledge base by

exclusively investigating the direct effect of favoritism on perceptions of organizational politics

and indirect influence on turnover intention. Because favoritism practices have potential to

paralyze the organizational justice and create distrustful working environment which makes real

performers to engage in political games or quit the job.

Djurkovic & Casimir (2008) conducted a study examined whether perceived

organizational support (POS) moderates the relationship between workplace bullying and

victims intention to leave. Based on data from 335 schoolteachers, a hierarchical regression

analysis using the product term revealed that POS moderates the effects of bullying on intention

to leave. Furthermore, a series of unilabiate regression analyses revealed that the effects of

bullying on intention to leave were significant with lower levels of POS but were non-significant

with higher levels of POS.

Elovanio & Kovoneun (2014) conducted a 4-year longitudinal survey study, with data

gathered in 2006 and 2010.The present sample included 1515 (61% women) Finnish physicians

aged 2563 years at baseline. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were conducted while

adjusting for gender, age, baseline levels, specialization status, and employment sector. The

results of covariance analyses showed that physical violence led to increased physician turnover
intentions and that both bullying and physical violence led to reduced physician job satisfaction

even after adjustments.

Yousafzai, Sadazoi & Zaman (2013) examined the impact of Islamic work ethics on

organizational commitment and Turnover intention on public sector of Pakistan. The study used

random sampling technique to collect data of 395 respondents from 36 institutions of public

sector of Pakistan. The empirical testing indicates that Islamic work ethics has positive impact on

organizational commitment and turnover intention of employees. Results also indicate strong

negative relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intention.

Rationale

There is wide spread concern over the high levels of reported work stressors and its

psychological effects associated with job related insecurities and on sense of well-being among

employees and their ability to perform in their respective career. Nepotism is most often

encountered in employee empowerment, and it demotivates employees and reduces their sense of

equity regarding their organization. As nepotism refers to non-merit based job positions granted

to relatives which is violation of workplace policies, employers face insecurities and loss of

interest in job which effect their job performances with increase in intentions to leave their jobs.

But in literature nepotism is also seen as moderating factor that contributes for organizational

successes. This study aims to investigate the relation between variables that have effect on turn

over intentions among employees in context of facing nepotism and workplace violence. As wit

is a common observation that violence of any kind in any aspect of profession may cause the

intent to quit job in workers.

Objectives
 1. To investigate relationship of workplace violence, nepotism and turnover intentions

among employees.

2. To determine that nepotism predicts violence at workplace.

3. To study the relation of workplace violence and turnover intentions.

Hypothesis

H1: There is likely to be a significant relationship between nepotism, workplace violence and

turnover intentions among employees.

H2: Nepotism and workplace violence predicts increased turn over intention in employees

H3: There is likely to be a significant positive relation of workplace violence with turnover

intentions
Chapter III

Method Section

Research Design

Cross sectional research design was used to find the relationship between nepotism,

workplace violence and turnover intentions among employees.

Sample

The sample consisted of N=70 desk employees with age range of 22 years or older.

Participants were taken from different organizations. Purposive sampling strategy was used to

select the research participants.

Inclusion criteria

The inclusion criteria for this research were

Male and female employees in reputed organizations.

Age range from 22 years or older.

Employees were selected from both private and public sectors.

Exclusion criteria

The exclusion criteria for this research were

 Senior employees were excluded.

Corporate officers and managers were excluded.

Operational Definitions of Variables

Nepotism

Abdalla et al. (1998) state that nepotism is derived from the Latin word Nepot (nephew).

Nepotism is the hiring and advancement of unqualified or under qualified relatives simply by

virtue of their relationship with an employee, officer, or shareholder in the firm (Wong &

Kalmar, 1994).

Workplace violence

Workplace violence is any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or

other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site. It ranges from threats and

verbal abuse to physical assaults and even homicide.

Turnover intentions

Turnover intention is a measurement of whether a business' or organization's employees

plan to leave their positions or whether that organization plans to remove employees from

positions. Turnover intention, like turnover itself, can be either voluntary or involuntary.

Tools of assessment

Nepotism scale
 Questions on nepotism and favoritism were taken from the scale developed by Abdala,

Magharabi and Raggad (1998). And Cronbachs Alpha coefficient was found to be 0.89.

Turn over intention scales

In Jacobs (2005) dissertation, the author completed an exhaustive study in validating

Roodts (2004) original 15-item turnover intention scale. He reported a Cronbachs alpha of

0.91 for the 15-item scale. Bothma and Roodts (2013) more recent study confirmed the

reliability of the six-item TIS-6 ( = 0.80). As recommended by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994),

an alpha of .70 was used as the cutoff point to estimate the internal consistency reliability of the

TIS-6.

Violence Climate Scale

The Violence Prevention Climate Scale (VPCS), originally called the Violence Climate

Scale (VCS) is designed to assess individual perceptions of the extent to which organization

management creates a climate that helps discourage employee exposure to physical violence and

verbal aggression. The VPCS has three subscales: Policies and Procedures, Practices and

Response, and Pressure for Unsafe Practices. In the original scale development sample, the

internal consistencies (coefficient alphas) for the three subscales were .95, .90, and .90,

respectively. The original scale had 18 items, but a shortened 12-item version is also available.

Ethical Considerations

Consent was obtained from university management prior to conducting the study.

An authority letter which explained the nature of the study was presented to the head of

the concerned authority for permission of data collection. Thus, prior permission was

sought from the concerned authority for data collection.

 The purpose of the study was made clear to all participants and they took part voluntarily

with written consent.

The study did not request any identifying information from the subject in order to

maintain confidentiality.

Results were accessible to the interested stakeholders.

Statistical analysis

The descriptive analysis was used for the demographics questionnaire and in order

manifestation of sample. Regression analysis was used to find out the relationship of prediction

among the variables and correlational analysis was used to investigate the relationship between

nepotism, organizational violence and turnover intentions among employees. Statistical Packages

for Social Sciences version 20 (SPSS) was used for all analysis.

Limitations

This study is applicable to extent of knowing how job satisfaction is effected with

increased insecurity of nepotism in non-managerial staff. Its not applicable for corporate

officers.

Result of thus study is not applicable for industrial works i.e. working class.

As they are least effected by the merit based hiring.