Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
J Occup Health. 2021 Jan;63(1):e12203. doi: 10.1002/1348-9585.12203.
Earlier studies suggest that imbalance between effort and reward at work associates with exhaustion. Others have found that exhaustion increases turnover intentions; an important precursor of actual turnover that also associates with counterproductive work behaviors. Few, however, have studied the associations between effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and employees' intentions to leave their current employment, and whether exhaustion is underpinning that relationship. Here, we investigate the mediating role of exhaustion in the effort-reward imbalance - turnover intentions relationship.
Data from three waves covering a time span of four years from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) were analysed using structural equation modeling. Cross-lagged mediation analyses were conducted to estimate if associations from ERI to subsequent turnover intentions were mediated by exhaustion. Other causal directions (direct and reversed direct effects, reversed mediation) were also examined.
A direct path from ERI T1 to turnover intentions T2 was found, but not from ERI T2 to turnover intentions T3. Additionally, results showed that ERI at time points T1/T2 associated significantly with exhaustion two years later (T2/T3). Also, exhaustion at T1 showed a small but statistically significant direct association with turnover intentions at T2 (no association was found between exhaustion T2 and turnover intentions T3). A small, but statistically significant indirect effect from ERI to turnover intentions was found (estimate 0.005; 95% CI 0.002-0.010).
Providing a good balance between effort and reward for workers is essential to protect employee health and help retain employees in the organization.
早期研究表明，工作中的努力与回报失衡与疲惫有关。其他人发现，疲惫会增加离职意愿；离职意愿是实际离职的一个重要前兆，也与反生产工作行为有关。然而，很少有研究关注工作投入与回报失衡（ERI）与员工离开当前工作的意愿之间的关系，以及疲惫是否是这种关系的基础。在这里，我们研究了疲惫在工作投入与回报失衡与离职意愿关系中的中介作用。
使用来自瑞典职业健康纵向调查（SLOSH）的三个时间点的数据，跨度为四年，采用结构方程模型进行分析。进行交叉滞后中介分析，以评估 ERI 对随后离职意愿的关联是否通过疲惫来介导。还检查了其他因果方向（直接和反向直接效应、反向中介）。
发现 ERI 在 T1 到 T2 的时间点上与离职意愿之间存在直接路径，但在 ERI 在 T2 到 T3 的时间点上没有发现这种路径。此外，结果表明，ERI 在 T1/T2 时与两年后（T2/T3）的疲惫显著相关。此外，疲惫在 T1 时与 T2 时的离职意愿呈微小但具有统计学意义的直接关联（在 T2 时疲惫与离职意愿 T3 之间没有关联）。在 ERI 与离职意愿之间发现了一个微小但具有统计学意义的间接效应（估计值 0.005；95%CI 0.002-0.010）。
为员工提供良好的努力与回报平衡对于保护员工健康和帮助员工留在组织中至关重要。
