Job satisfaction and intention to quit the job

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Workplace Psychology
• Organizational Behavior

Background:

• Negative psychosocial work conditions can significantly influence employee motivation and job adherence.
• Understanding these conditions is crucial for retaining staff in demanding work environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the perception of psychosocial work conditions among Danish hospital employees.
• To differentiate between employees willing to quit if economically feasible and those unwilling.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional questionnaire study involving 1809 hospital employees.
• Assessed psychosocial work environment factors, health status, sick leave, lifestyle, and demographics.
• Utilized logistic regression to identify independent predictors of job quitting intention.

Main Results:

• 26% of participants would quit if economically possible; this increased to 40% for those with poor health.
• Key factors associated with quitting intention included self-assessed health, job meaningfulness, colleague collaboration, age, superior trustworthiness, and bullying exposure.
• Identified distinct employee groups with low (<15%) and high (≥50%) intention to quit.

Conclusions:

• Psychosocial work conditions, especially job meaningfulness, are independently linked to the intention to quit.
• These findings are relevant across various job categories within the hospital setting.
• Improving psychosocial work factors may be crucial for employee retention.