Effort-Reward Imbalance and Turnover Intention: The Roles of Organizational Justice Perception and Job Mobility

Stress at work is a common problem in modern workplaces, and companies that want to promote a positive and productive work environment must understand and address the destructive effects of stress on employees' attitudes and behaviors. In work stress literature, effort-reward imbalance (ERI) emerges as an important stressor that affects important employee outcomes at organizations. While previous research has provided abundant evidence regarding the effect of ERI on turnover intention, there is a lack of knowledge about the specific mechanisms and conditions that explain this relationship. Considering this gap in the literature this study attempts to integrate the ERI approach with equity theory to explore how ERI results in increased turnover intention. Specifically, this work proposes that the influence of ERI, which is an important work stressor, on turnover intention is mediated through organizational justice perception, and that the strength of this indirect relationship is moderated by job mobility. The proposed moderated-mediation model was tested on data collected from 147 white-collar workers through online questionnaires. Results of regression analysis demonstrated that ERI is negatively related to organizational justice perception. Moreover, findings indicated that ERI indirectly predicts employees' turnover intention through organizational justice perception. Results also displayed that the indirect effect of ERI on turnover intention through justice perception is stronger when employees perceive higher job mobility. Overall, this research provides evidence that ERI as a work stressor negatively influences employees' attitudes about their jobs and organizations, and that the strength of this negative effect is shaped by employees' perception of job mobility. The current research contributes to the stress literature by presenting an integrative model incorporating the ERI approach and equity theory.