To Quit or Not To Quit: Exploring the Personal Strategies of Filipino Generation Z Marketing Communications Employees in Managing Turnover Intentions

Abstract

This thesis explores how Filipino Generation Z employees in the marketing communications industry manage their turnover intentions. Grounded on Moon's Push-Pull-Mooring Model (1995), it explored the behaviors, influential factors, and coping strategies associated with employees' decisions to leave their jobs. Utilizing a descriptive phenomenological approach, the research involved semi-structured interviews with nine participants from ‘below-the-line’ marketing agencies. The study identified six key behaviors related to turnover intentions, including Motivation Meltdown, Finding Camaraderie, Emotional Erosion, Next Step Anxiety, Holding the Fort, and Finding Hope in Uncertainty. Nine factors motivate these intentions, which are career growth opportunities, salary and benefits, leadership and supervisor support, organizational culture, organizational climate, and work-life balance, management, clientele, and company reputation. To manage these intentions, employees adopt thirteen coping strategies, categorized into Problem-focused, Emotion-focused, Social, and Meaning-focused coping strategies. The study emphasized that the process of experiencing and managing these intentions is nuanced and is shaped by individual experiences. While helpful, the effectiveness of these strategies was limited. Organizational actions to address the issues causing turnover intentions determine whether Generation Z employees choose to stay or leave.