Heliyon (Mar 2023)
How psychological contract violation impacts turnover intentions of knowledge workers? The moderating effect of job embeddedness
Abstract
When knowledge workers encounter psychological contract violations, they usually send out biased signals. Their job satisfaction decreases and their turnover intentions increase. However, in the increasingly competitive talent market, employees may not choose to leave when they encounter psychological contract violation. Based on the theoretical research results of the existing psychological contract violation, job satisfaction, turnover intention and job embeddedness, this paper analyzes the internal connections and deep relationships among the key elements by referring to the possible causes and results of the changes in the key elements. Survey technique was utilized while knowledge workers were selected as targeted respondents from specified provinces of China. A total of 392 valid questionnaires were selected by questionnaire survey. Statistical analysis was carried out by SPSS21 and AMOS23, and regression analysis was used to repeatedly verify the relationship between various elements. The results show that psychological contract violation positively predicts the turnover intention of knowledge workers, job satisfaction mediates the positive effect of psychological contract violation on turnover intention, and job embeddedness negatively regulates the positive effect of psychological contract violation on turnover intention. This study has theoretical and practical significance in enriching the theory and methods of organizational management, inspiring knowledge workers to stimulating their work potential, reducing employees' turnover intention, reducing the impact of resignation on the enterprise, and enhancing the enterprise's human resource management of knowledge workers.
