Social Support and Employee Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Work-Family Conflict.
| Autor | Bajaba, Saleh |
Introduction
Employee turnover has attracted researchers' attention for many decades (Conley & You, 2021; Guzeller Cem & Celiker, 2019). Given its damaging consequences for organizations in terms of lost human and social capital, scholars and practitioners across the globe are still keen to understand employee turnover (Hancock, Allen, Bosco, McDaniel, & Pierce, 2013; Hom, Lee, Shaw, & Hausknecht, 2017; Lee, Hom, Eberly, & Mitchell, 2017). Turnover intention (TI) is a proxy for actual turnover (Lee, 2004). TI usually precedes many detrimental actions such as workplace deviant behavior, job searching, and ultimate exit from the organization (Soltis, Agneessens, Sasovova, & Labianca, 2013). The literature on turnover identified job stressors as the major antecedents of TI (e.g., constraints in achieving task goals, time pressure, role overload, role conflict, and others) (Pindek & Spector, 2016). Another antecedent of turnover is work-family conflict (WFC), which is a form of stressor that is related to role overload and role conflict (Michel, Mitchelson, Pichler, & Cullen, 2010). While empirical evidence consistently supports a positive relationship between the two types of work-family conflict and employee turnover, some disagreements have not been resolved yet.
WFC refers to "a form of inter-role conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect. That is, participation in the work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family (work) role" (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985, p. 77). It may occur in both directions, i.e., work interfering with family (WIF) or family interfering with work (FIW). Both WIF and FIW are found to have an association with many job-related attitudes and behaviors, including turnover intentions (Amstad, Meier, Fasel, Elfering, & Semmer, 2011). Employees facing widespread WFC may leave their job as a means of reducing the conflict (Fong, Chui, Cheong, & Fong, 2018; Frone, 2003). Therefore, withdrawal from a job can be seen as a response to role incompatibility between work and family. By and large, meta-analyses of cross-sectional studies support a positive relationship between both WIF and FIW and TI (Amstad et al., 2011; Rubenstein, Eberly, Lee, & Mitchell, 2018).
Social support from both within and outside the organizational domain is also considered to be a likely antecedent of TI (Asghar, Gull, Bashir, & Akbar, 2018; Lauzier & Mercier, 2018; Lee, 2004). Within the organization, social support mostly comes from supervisors and co-workers, while outside the organization, support emanates from family, friends, and the community. The social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) and the reciprocity norm (Gouldner, 1960) explain the relationship between the support from an organization and employee behavior and attitudes, including TI. Help from family and friends also results in a variety of psychological consequences (Asghar et al., 2018). The study of Azim and Islam (2018) found that support from family and friends is positively and significantly related to the career commitment of Saudi nurses. Thus, a higher level of organizational and family support is expected to reduce the TI of employees. However, the link between TI and social support can be explored in terms of the latter's buffering effect on the stressor-stress outcome relationship. Social support is widely recommended as an effective measure to reduce stress.
The job demand-control-support (JDCS) paradigm proposed by Johnson and Hall (1988) provides theoretical grounds for the buffering effects of social support. It suggests that stress in the workplace stems from high expectations, little control, and poor support. An employee who receives emotional and instrumental support from his/her social network is more likely to cope with role overload or role conflict related to the work-family relationship (Hobfoll, 1989). According to Hobfoll (1989), people suffer from stress when their resources are endangered or lost. Social support, both from the organization and the family, allows people to gain or secure these resources and thus serves as a proximal antecedent of stress that may emerge from work-family conflict. Thus, in the social support-TI relationship, work-family conflict is likely to have a mediating role (Gao & Jin, 2015). That is to say, social support is expected to affect the level of WFC, which in turn affects TI. Given this backdrop, this study attempts to explore the relationships among work social support (WSS), family social support (FSS), WFC (both WIF and FIW), and TI.
This study makes multiple contributions. First, it is designed to study the mediating role of WFC between social support and TI, which already has theoretical foundations, but empirical studies on this particular configuration are rare. In line with the conservation of resources (COR) theory, the research framework of the study is based on the premise that social support in the workplace and family plays a key role in reducing the stress related to inter-domain conflict, which ultimately affects turnover intention. Lack of support from the workplace or family is expected to increase the conflict and vice versa. Second, this research studies the implication of both WSS and FSS on both types of WFC, i.e., WIF and FIW, and their ultimate effect on TI, which is also not very common. Third, the study is based on the context of Saudi Arabia, where the family plays a pivotal role in individual decision-making in both the family and professional domains (Abalkhail, 2017; Allen, French, Dumani, & Shockley, 2015; Karam & Afiouni, 2014). People from different countries experience different levels of social support (French, Dumani, Allen, & Shockley, 2018). Therefore, a study focusing on family social support, WFC, and TI in the Arab context deserves attention. To the best of our knowledge, no such study has been conducted in this context. So, this study can be considered as a pioneering initiative in the context of the Arab region.
Literature Review and Hypothesis Development
1.1 Turnover intention
Turnover intention refers to the deliberate inclination to leave an organization, which has several negative effects on the organization and impacts employee relations (Eliyana, Ma'arif, & Muzakki, 2019; Oliveira & Rocha, 2017; Seema, Choudhary, & Saini, 2021). Cotton and Tuttle (1986) categorized the antecedents of turnover into three categories: personal, work-related, and external. Personal factors, including age, gender, education, job tenure, etc., influence TI (Williams & Hazer, 1986).
Work-related factors such as job satisfaction, workplace incivility, workplace ethical climate, organizational commitment, and perceived organizational support are also found to affect TI (Rubel, Kee, Quah, & Rimi, 2017; Sharma & Singh, 2016; Yao & Wang, 2006). External factors such as family social support, job opportunities, etc., are similarly likely to affect TI (Lauzier & Mercier, 2018; Lee, 2004; Michel, Kotrba, Mitchelson, Clark, & Baltes, 2011).
1.2 Workplace social support
Workplace social support (WSS), also known as organizational social support, is the employees' perception of their organizations' stance regarding the employees' contribution and well-being (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, & Sowa, 1986; Klein & Colauto, 2020; Liu, Cui, Su, & Du, 2019). It represents the overall care-giving by the organization through thick and thin. It includes being aware of the employees' needs, expectations, and difficulties and providing moral as well as material support accordingly (Bohle & Alonso, 2017; Colakoglu, Culha, & Atay, 2010). WSS mainly comes from supervisors or colleagues. It is considered to have a positive effect on health issues for employees (Arnold & Dupre, 2012). Grant-Vallone and Ensher (2001) found that employees who perceived a higher level of WSS reported a lower level of depression, anxiety, and health concerns. It also leads to productive work-related emotions, which results in positive work attitudes, performance, and commitment to the organization. Nohe and Sonntag (2014) observed a buffering effect of WSS on work-family conflict, and it was found to lower the influence of work-family conflict on turnover intention.
1.3 Family social support
Family social support (FSS) implies an individual's cognitive appraisal of emotional concern and instrumental support from family and friends in fulfilling the individual's obligations. The content of the support may come in different forms, such as emotional (e.g., love, trust, empathy, care, etc.), informational (e.g., access to information, suggestions, advice, etc.), and instrumental (e.g., skills acquisition, transportation, sharing of tasks and responsibilities, etc.) (Lopez & Cooper, 2011). Empirical research supports the idea that social support acts as a buffer in protecting the individual from the harmful consequences of traumatic incidents, contributing to a greater perceived sense of well-being (Gjesfjeld, Greeno, Kim, & Anderson, 2010). Zhou, Li, and Gao (2020) found that a higher level of family support reduces individuals' negative experiences at work.
1.4 Work-family conflict
Work-family conflict is conceptualized as a psychological state of an employee that emanates from the inter-role conflict between work and family. It is experienced when an employee finds that work responsibilities make it more difficult to perform family duties and vice versa. Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) anticipated that inter-role conflict between family and work might be related to time involvement, strain, or behavior pertaining to a role. WFC can be bidirectional: (i) work interfering with the family space (WIF) and (ii) family interfering with the work domain (FIW) (O'Driscoll, Brough, & Kalliath, 2004). Empirical research has suggested that WFC is correlated with work- and family-related consequences, including job...
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