Employee Turnover within the Audit Industry : Organizational Commitment and Turnover Intentions among Swedish Audit Assistants

Purpose - The purpose of this thesis was to explain the influence of organizational commitment on employee turnover within the audit industry. Design/methodology/approach - The thesis has a quantitative methodology, and a deductive and explanatory approach. Hierarchical regressions were used to investigate data gathered through a survey. Findings - The main results revealed that all dimensions of organizational commitment had a negative relation to turnover intentions, where affective commitment was the strongest predictor. Career opportunities had a positive relation to affective commitment and sense of obligation had a positive relation to normative commitment. Research limitations - The study was performed during the busy season and the Covid-19 pandemic, which potentially could have impacted the results. Snowball sampling was used, which means the non-response rate and the population could not be determined. Practical implications - Since affective commitment was the strongest dimension to explain turnover intentions, organizations should mainly focus on strategies related to that dimension in order to avoid undesired employee turnover. Originality/value - This thesis has tested all three dimensions of organizational commitment among audit assistants in Sweden. While previous research has mainly focused on the affective dimension and a mixture of occupational groups within the accounting sector.