Paper short abstract:

In the Japanese labor market, labor shortages are already evident in some industries. The challenge is how to effectively incorporate people who have not been regarded as the main labor force into business organizations. The focus of this study will be on women.

Paper long abstract:

In the Japanese labor market, labor shortages are already evident in some industries, and the situation is expected to worsen rapidly in the future. Under these circumstances, the challenge is how to effectively incorporate people who have not been regarded as the main labor force, such as women, the elderly, and foreigners, into business organizations as the workforce. The focus of this study will be on women. One of the problems for women workers in Japan is balancing housework and childcare and continuing to work. Statistical discrimination in the workplace and gender role divisions within the family are cited as reasons for being difficult for women to continue working. When women who have finished raising their children try to find work again, it is difficult for them to find regular employment, and they are only able to find part-time work that offers poor wages and welfare benefits.

Another problem is the difficulty of promotion within organizations. Currently, promotions are almost exclusively made up of Japanese men in regular employment, and the percentage of women in management positions is quite low even by international standards. This study will use data from 1087 female workers collected through a web-based survey in February 2019 to explore the factors that influence the increasing of turnover intentions. Various workplace conditions are expected to influence the process of fostering turnover intention in different ways.

In this study, structural equation modeling will be conducted with turnover intention as the objective variable. The variables entered into the model include the following eight variables, career prospects at the currently working firm, firm-specific skills and general skills of a female employee, the relationship with her boss, personal characteristics such as positivity, work-life-balance, age, number of children, educational background, and so forth. A preliminary analysis was conducted using hierarchical regression analysis. The results showed that firm-specific skills, work-life-balance and positivity had significant effects on turnover intention among non-managerial employees.