Study of Workplace Stressors as Contributing Factors in Shaping Turnover Intentions of Frontline Employees During Times of Uncertainty

Abstract

Purpose: Grounded on the Conservation of Resource Theory (COR), the study explored the indirect effect of customer incivility, abusive supervision, COVID-19, disruption in work-life balance and career growth opportunities on employee turn-over intent through the mediating role of job stress.

Methodology: Target population for this study was the front-line employees working at the major international airports of Pakistan and 258 valid responses were taken for mediation analysis through Partial Least Square (PLS) method. Factor analysis, composite reliability, model fitting summary and discriminant validity was also assessed.

Findings: Results depicted that the worker’s job stress completely mediates between customer incivility and turnover intentions. Same was the case when supervisor incivility, disruption is work-life balance and career growth were taken as independent variables. But, no mediation effect of job stress was found between COVID induced stress and employee turnover intentions.

Practical Implication: Study highlights the contributing factors of employee job stress and implies the necessity of special training programs for employees and supervisors to better manage these stressors.

Originality: The study contributes to the lack of literature on front-line employees working at airports where various factors including pandemic are evaluated in terms of their impact on turnover intentions.