Employee well-being and turnover intention

A cross-cultural comparison of work engagement in the relationships between trust climate - Job performance and turnover intention: Focusing China and Pakistan

While the significance of cross-cultural research has been acknowledged over time, there remains a gap in understanding its relationship with employee outcomes. This study delves into the associations between organizational trust climate (TC) and job performance (JP), as well as turnover intention (TI), seeking to ascertain if work engagement (WE) plays a mediating role. Additionally, the research investigates potential differences in the mediating effect between China and Pakistan. Data gathered from 270 participants in China and 242 in Pakistan were subjected to structural equation modeling (SEM) for analysis. Findings indicated that perceptions of individual WE serve as a bridge between organizational TC and JP, with the effect on JP being notably stronger among the Chinese participants. Moreover, the mediating role of WE in the link between organizational TC and TI was more pronounced for the Pakistani participants. On a practical front, such insights can equip managers with a nuanced understanding of the ripple effect that a trust-infused environment can have on employee engagement, subsequently influencing performance and retention rates.

Linking job crafting, innovation performance, and career satisfaction: The mediating role of work engagement

BACKGROUND

The demand for innovation and satisfaction is increasing rapidly due to technological advancement and the fast-changing business environment.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this article is to investigate how job crafting augments work outputs (i.e., innovation performance and career satisfaction) through work engagement.

METHODS

Data were collected from 477 workers working in the Pakistan manufacturing sector. A structural equation modeling technique was used to investigate the mediation model.

RESULTS

Job crafting has a direct and indirect association with innovation performance and career satisfaction - via employees' work engagement. Additionally, the mediating impact was stronger for innovation performance than for career satisfaction. The findings advocate that managers should pay attention to employees' job crafting to improve employees' work engagement in manufacturing organizations. To improve employees' innovation performance and career satisfaction via work engagement, it is important to improve organization-wide job crafting in traditional manufacturing organizations. Strategic and managerial actions related to job crafting might boost employees' engagement in the organization that environments provide incessantly better outcomes.

CONCLUSION

By linking job crafting and work engagement to their attitude towards career satisfaction and innovation performance in Pakistani manufacturing firms, this study adds a new dimension to the study of Pakistani manufacturing employees and typically to the best practices in career debates. This knowledge is important and unique because it accentuates that in addition to work engagement, which focuses primarily on employee growth in the organization, job crafting should also be given equal importance to advance manufacturing employees' outcomes.

Investigating the impact of growth mindset on empowerment, life satisfaction and turn over intention: Comparison between Indonesia and Vietnam

This study investigates the influence of growth mind-set toward empowerment, life satisfaction and turn over intention in textile industry. Since Vietnam's performance in the garment sector has surpassed Indonesia's in recent years, this study aims to examine the difference working condition between Indonesia and Vietnam. This research based on the mix of quantitative and qualitative approach by interviewing 2897 garment workers from Indonesia and 2840 from Vietnam. The quantitative data were processed using LISREL 8.51 software with structural equation modelling. The results of this study reveal the fact that turnover intention could be minimised by reducing work-family conflict, increasing life satisfaction, and provide empowerment to their workers. On top of that, companies should pay serious attention to the important of growth mind-set, which apparently could lead to effective empowerment.

Psychological empowerment and employee engagement: role of job satisfaction and religiosity in Nigeria

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the mediating role of job satisfaction in the relationship between psychological empowerment and employee engagement. There is also an investigation of the moderating effect of religiosity on psychological empowerment and job satisfaction as well as job satisfaction and employee engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were obtained from 265 employees working in the service industry in Nigeria. The hypotheses were tested and analysed using structural equation modelling and bootstrapping procedure.

Findings

The results show that the direct relationship between psychological empowerment and employee engagement was partially mediated by job satisfaction. Intrinsic religiosity (IR) was found to have a moderating effect on job satisfaction and employee engagement. IR and extrinsic religiosity (ER) does not moderate the impact of psychological empowerment on job satisfaction and employee engagement. ER was found to have a negative insignificant moderating effect on job satisfaction and employee engagement.

Research limitations/implications

A cross-sectional study reveals the relationship between variables at one point in a time. As such this study may not precisely predict the dominant pattern of the association over time. Future research can use longitudinal study to establish a dominant pattern of relationships.

Practical implications

This study informs human resource practitioners and scholars by demonstrating that religiosity and job satisfaction are important factors that should be considered in managing and keeping employees engaged.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first atte`mpts to enrich the literature in the fields of psychological empowerment and employee engagement by highlighting organisational mechanisms that amplify the relationship.

Exploring the Factors of Employee Subjective Well-Being in the Midst of Health Threat: An Evidence from the U.S. Federal Government during the COVID-19

The recent COVID-19 pandemic posed a challenge to employee well-being and will have a lasting impact on how safe employees feel about their work environment. This study aims at examining: (1) the impact of safety perception of employees on their job attitudes; and (2) what factors affect their expectations that their organizations will effectively protect them from potential health threats. Using data from the U.S. Federal Government, this study divided organizational responses to COVID-19 aimed at protecting their employees into the following three types: protecting the employees while working on site, reducing the number of employees working on-site, and providing mental and health assistance. The effects of these organizational responses were analysed separately, and regression analysis was performed with these factors with regards to employees’ safety perception. The results showed that the first group of measures, protecting the employees while they are in the workplace, had generally the most significant influences on employees’ feeling of safety. The attempt to protect those in vulnerable medical conditions was also seen as significant. These findings show that organizations need to protect their employees in the workplaces during a health crisis.

The impact of knowledge distance on turnover intention of millennial employees: from the perspective of Mianzi

Purpose

The reasons for turnover intention of millennial employees show intergenerational differences and gradually have become a hot topic in the field of management. From the perspective of knowledge management, this paper aims to explore the mechanism of individual knowledge distance on the turnover intention of millennial employees. Based on the social comparison theory and the person-environment fit theory, this study discusses the moderation role of individual perception of organizational innovation climate in this model by integrating social and cultural factors into the cognitive behavior model, and empirically tests the impact of individual knowledge distance on the turnover intention of millennial employees.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, 585 valid questionnaires were collected from the millennial employees, and the moderated intermediary model was empirically tested by using hierarchical regression analysis and conditional process analysis.

Findings

The results show that the knowledge distance between individuals has a significant positive impact on the turnover intention of the millennial employees; the ability-based Mianzi stress has a significant positive impact on the turnover intention of the millennial employees; in organizations with a high innovation climate perception, the ability-based Mianzi stress partially mediates the positive impact of the knowledge distance between individuals on the turnover intention; the organizational innovation climate perception positively moderates the influence of individual knowledge distance on ability-based Mianzi stress, and the boundary condition of ability-based Mianzi stress is discussed, which shows that knowledge distance can induce ability-based Mianzi stress only when individual are able to perceive organizational innovation climate.

Originality/value

This study explores the influence mechanism between knowledge distance and employee turnover intention from the perspective of Mianzi, which is a supplement and enrichment to the study of millennial employees’ turnover intention. It enlightens managers to take effective measures to reduce the negative impact of knowledge difference among millennial employees in the process of actively creating innovation climate in the organization. Because Western countries also have face problems, the conclusion of this study is also of practical significance to managers in Western countries.

Religiosity and work engagement: Workload as a moderator

Based on job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this study examines the relationship between religiosity-from an Islamic lens-and work engagement, and the moderating role of workload on the relationship between these constructs. The results of a survey of 381 Muslim employees in Jordanian telecoms reveal that religiosity is positively related to work engagement. The findings also illustrate the importance of differentiating between challenge and hindrance demands in stressful contexts where workload influences the benefits of religiosity for work engagement. This study highlights the applicability of JD-R theory and extends the theoretical framework by examining the relationship between religiosity and work engagement. It contributes to work engagement literature by introducing religiosity as a personal resource which enhances work engagement and improves well-being.

The Relationship between Workforce Sustainability, Stress, and Career Decision: A Study of Kindergarten Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

A shortage of qualified teachers has been a long-term problem in many school districts and education systems internationally. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the current human resource gap in teaching significantly impacted the quality of teaching services and the experience of all school parties. Based on social cognitive career and motivation theory, two research questions guided this study: (1) Why did kindergarten teachers decide to leave their teaching positions and education professions permanently during the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) Did stress, burnout, and technology-related issues influence their career decision? 60 kindergarten teachers shared their insights through interviews and focus group activities. The results indicated that personal considerations of their family and trained skills, surrounding environment and individuals, and financial considerations played important roles in their career decisions and sources of stress. The study provides recommendations to government heads, school leaders, human resource planners, and headteachers to replan and reform current human resource and workforce planning for the ongoing teachers’ shortages during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Culture, productivity and competitiveness: disentangling the concepts

Purpose

Culture has been identified as one of the main drivers of the “competitive productivity” (CP) of nations. However, research studies examining the relationships between culture, competition and productivity are highly fragmented across different streams of literature, leaving researchers with a lack of a holistic view of the topic. This study reviews research studies that examined the relationships between culture and productivity and between culture and competitiveness, as well as the joint relationships between culture, productivity and competitiveness in leading economic, business and management journals in the period 2009–2018 in order to identify research gaps and opportunities for future research.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used a combination of bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer, text analysis using Leximancer and systematic review by expert reviewers to analyze 293 articles that consider culture, productivity and competitiveness published in leading business, management and economics journals in the period 2009–2018.

Findings

The findings indicate that, although productivity and competitiveness are often discussed jointly in some policy circles, research studies on the roles of culture on productivity and on competitiveness take place in quite different streams of academic literature, drawing on different sets of concepts and theoretical frameworks. The concept of innovation appears prominently in both sets of the literature as an antecedent of both productivity improvement and international competitiveness.

Research limitations/implications

The findings highlight the need for more research studies which jointly examine culture, productivity and competitiveness and the relationships between them.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first attempts to systematically analyze the literature on the relationship between culture and CP.

Time to take corporate innovation initiatives

Purpose

A bad safety accident at a manufacturing company usually results in casualties and economic losses. The company affected by such an accident must deal with pressure from multiple stakeholder groups. Employees, in particular, play a key role in pushing the affected company to develop strategies to improve occupational safety and health. The purpose of this paper is to seek answers to two questions: does a safety accident affect employee behavior in terms of giving up prospects to develop a career at the affected company? If yes, could innovation initiatives adopted by the company help moderate the negative consequences from a safety accident?

Design/methodology/approach

By investigating 120 safety accidents reported by publicly listed Chinese manufacturing companies between 2009 and 2016, the authors conduct an empirical study using regression-based statistical hypotheses testing to describe the companies’ responses and prospects for their employees.

Findings

The results show that the magnitude of the accident and the accident being caused by an employee error positively affect the turnover of employees. Furthermore, technical innovation initiatives, such as spending on R&D, by the accident-affected companies increase the positive effect of the accident magnitude on employee turnover. On the contrary, management innovation initiatives, such as corporate social responsibility activities, weaken the impact of the accident magnitude and employee error on employee turnover.

Originality/value

This study contributes to knowledge development by adding a crisis perspective in human resource management research. It helps to better understand the impact of safety accidents on employee behavior and the response taken by companies through innovation initiatives.

The psychological mechanism linking employee work engagement and turnover intention: A moderated mediation study

BACKGROUND

In the global economy, motivating people to engage and stay in their work is a challenge for organizations. Researchers are increasingly recognizing the need for promoting strong employee engagement in the workplace.

OBJECTIVE

This paper examines the effect of employee work engagement on turnover intention. The study focuses on the mediating role of trust that underpins the relationship between employee work engagement and turnover intention, and the moderating role of job embeddedness in influencing the effect of trust.

METHOD

Survey data were collected from 418 employees from private media organizations. Hierarchical regression analysis and moderated mediation analysis were employed to test the hypotheses.

RESULTS

The results indicate that trust mediates the relationship between employee work engagement and turnover intention. Job embeddedness moderates the strength of the mediated relationship between employee work engagement and turnover intention via trust, such that the mediated relationship is weaker under high job embeddedness than under low job embeddedness.

CONCLUSION

This paper described the relationships among the concepts of work engagement, job embeddedness, trust, and turnover intention from a novel direction. Theoretical and practical consequences of these findings are discussed.

The moderating effect of career stage on the relationship between job embeddedness and innovation-related behaviour (IRB)

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the moderating effect of career stage on the relationship between job embeddedness and innovation-related behaviour (IRB).

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from a sample of 310 Chinese media organisation employees and were analysed using moderated structural equation modelling.

Findings

Career stage significantly moderated the relationship between job embeddedness and IRB; individuals who experienced high job embeddedness in their early career stage were found to be engaged in more IRBs than those who experienced low job embeddedness in their early career stage. Moreover, the author also found that individuals who experienced high job embeddedness at mid-late career stages were less engaged in IRB, as compared to those at earlier career stages.

Research limitations/implications

These findings contribute to the understanding of the relationship between employee job embeddedness and IRB at different career stages. The findings are limited by the cross-sectional nature of the data.

Originality/value

This study demonstrates that individuals at a mid-late career stage may define their work roles differently to those at an early career stage. Employers often expect individuals in the mid-late career stage to facilitate the work of others and to assist junior colleagues in their professional growth (Super et al., 1996).

Three-Way Interaction Effect of Job Insecurity, Job Embeddedness and Career Stage on Life Satisfaction in A Digital Era

Along with the severe global employment challenges caused by the rapid rise of digital technologies, the job insecurity (JI)-life satisfaction (LS) association has attracted increasing attention. However, there is still a dearth of studies investigating the crucial boundary conditions of JI-LS relationships in non-Western contexts. To fill this gap, we choose China, the world's largest emerging economy, which is undergoing a radical digital transformation, as our research setting. Building on the conservation of resource (COR) theory, we focus on exploring two critical buffers of the JI-LS mechanism, of which job embeddedness (JE) characterizes a significant psychological resource and career stage embodies the time dynamics of this model. Data were collected from a sample of 317 Chinese media organization employees and were analyzed by the moderated hierarchical multiple regression approach. Our results show that JI is negatively related to LS and this relationship becomes stronger when employees have low JE (vs. high). Further, this two-way interaction is moderated by career stage; the impact of JI on LS is (1) stronger only for mid-late career stage employees who experienced low JE, and (2) weaker also only for mid-late career stage employees who experienced high JE. This study enriches the existing body of knowledge on the JI-LS model by highlighting the three-way interaction effect of JI, a critical psychological resource (i.e., JE), and time effect (i.e., career stage) on LS; it implies that older people with a certain amount of career experience and resource accumulation may perceive the effect of JI on LS differently than younger people.

The role of transformational leadership style, organizational structure and job characteristics in developing psychological empowerment among banking professionals

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the antecedents of psychological empowerment among bank managers in Beijing, China. Specifically, it aims at investigating the impact of transformational leadership, organization structure and job characteristics on psychological empowerment among banking professionals.

Design/methodology/approach

Questionnaires were distributed to bank managers in Beijing which were randomly selected through the cluster sampling technique. PLS-SEM was used for analysis to testify the hypotheses.

Findings

Statistical results showed; transformational leadership, organization structure and job characteristics were directly and positively related to psychological empowerment.

Originality/value

The proposed model is essential in providing guideline for the development of employees. These recommendations can be adopted by the organizational trainers and human resource personnel for the betterment of their organization.