Work Stressors and Intention to Leave the Current Workplace and Profession: The Mediating Role of Negative Affect at Work

The first aim of this study was to determine whether organisational constraints, interpersonal conflicts at work, workload and negative affect at work have a positive relationship with intention to leave a current job or profession. The second aim was to investigate whether negative affect at work mediates the relationship between work stressors and intention to leave a current job or profession. The study was a quantitative cross-sectional design in nature. Data were collected between March and April 2022. The sample consisted of 306 midwives working in the Polish public health service. The theoretical model was tested using structural equation modelling. The results confirmed positive direct relationships between workload and negative affect with intention to leave the current workplace and intention to leave the midwifery profession in general. The relationships between organisational constraints and interpersonal conflicts at work and intention to leave a job or profession were found to be completely mediated by negative affect at work. Our study revealed that workload is the strongest direct predictor of intention to leave the current job or profession. Organisational constraints and interpersonal conflicts at work lead to an intention to leave a job or profession by inducing negative affect at work. Interpersonal conflicts at work are the strongest predictor of negative affect at work.

[Measuring job satisfaction: Further validation of the Job Satisfaction Single Item Scale]

BACKGROUND

In France, there has been a growing interest in examining the determinants of positive occupational health dimensions that contribute to employees' quality of work life. Among those dimensions, job satisfaction has drawn the attention of many scholars. However, only few validated measures are available in French, and among these we identified the Job Satisfaction Single Item (JSSI). The aim of this article is to provide further empirical validation of the Job Satisfaction Single Item.

METHOD

This study examined the sensitivity and criterion validity of the JSSI. More precisely, we examined, on the one hand, the links between scores on JSSIand other job satisfaction scale, and as well as occupational health and motivational measures, such as perceived stress, life satisfaction, happiness, perceived given and received social support, and finally with organizational commitment. We also verified that the JSSI is a time-saving measure, compared measure compared to longer job satisfaction scales.

RESULTS

The JSSI showed appropriate sensitivity and satisfying criterion validity with both positive and negative occupational health measures. Finally, the JSSI took significantly less time to complete than measures including five items and twenty items.

CONCLUSION

This furthered validation reaffirmed the good psychometric qualities of the JSSI. Thus JSSI appears to be an appropriate and a time-saving measure job satisfaction, and particularly when scholars aim to examine intra-individual variability.