Job stressors and turnover intention of IT executives in Malaysia: The mediating role of employee well-being

BACKGROUND: Fear of losing psychological resources can lead to stress, impacting psychological health and behavioral outcomes like burnout, absenteeism, service sabotage, and turnover.

OBJECTIVE: The study examined the impact of job stressors (time pressure, role ambiguity, role conflict) on employee well-being and turnover intentions. The study also investigated the mediating role of employee well-being between job stressors and turnover intention based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory.

METHODS: Data from 396 IT executives in Malaysian IT firms were analyzed using the Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique.

RESULTS: Results confirmed a significant negative correlation between time pressure (-0.296), role ambiguity (-0.423), role conflict (-0.104), and employee well-being. Similarly, employee well-being showed a significant negative relationship with turnover intentions (-0.410). The mediation analysis revealed that employee well-being mediates the relationship between time pressure (0.121), role ambiguity (0.173), role conflict (0.043), and turnover intentions.

CONCLUSION: This paper aims to manifest the importance of designing employee well-being policies by firms to retain employees. Findings reflect the role of the managerial approach towards ensuring employee well-being for employee retention, thereby reducing recruitment and re-training costs.