ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1567583
Turnover Intention and the Moderating Role of Career Shocks an Empirical Study of Medical Staff in Public Hospitals in Guangzhou, China
Provisionally accepted
- 1The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
- 2Department of Human Resources and Organizational Behavior, ISCTE Business School, University Institute of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
- 3Guizhou Cancer Hospital, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China
- 4Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
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Objective: This study aims to explore how Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), Job Embeddedness (JE), Job Satisfaction (JS), and Career shocks (CS) affect hospital staff's turnover intention. By offering theoretical and practical insights, it reassures the reader of the study's value in curbing employee departures and building a more stable workforce.Methods: Using a longitudinal design and self-administered questionnaires, data were collected in two rounds from 500 medical staff in 12 tertiary public hospitals in Guangzhou, China, between May and September 2023. The data were analyzed with SPSS 26 and PROCESS macro for SPSS 4.1, including descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and mediation and moderation analyses.Results: LMX, JE, and JS were significantly negatively correlated with Turnover Intention (TI) (r = -0.365, p < 0.01; r = -0.571, p < 0.01; r = -0.517, p < 0.01). JS fully mediated the link between LMX and TI (ab = -0.384, 95%CI: [-0.497, -0.285]) and partially mediated the link between JE and TI (ab = -0.237, 95%CI: [-0.350, -0.123]). CS significantly moderates these relationships: positive CS enhanced employees' JE and JS, while negative CS weakened organizational commitment and increased turnover likelihood.Discussion: CS can temporarily intensify the relationships between LMX, JE, JS, and TI under certain circumstances, likely due to heightened employee sensitivity to leadership support, work environment, and career development. This moderation effect also highlights that employees' demand for organizational support increases when facing career challenges, and high-quality LMX and JE can provide essential assistance for employees to navigate career shocks. Conclusion: By investigating the impact of LMX, JE, JS, and CS on turnover intention, this study offers a fresh perspective on the occupational behavior of medical staff in public hospitals. The findings not only enrich LMX and career shocks theories but also provide practical guidance for managers. This guidance empowers managers to reduce employee turnover intention, making them feel capable and ready to implement these strategies. As a primary goal, the abstract should render the general significance and conceptual advance of the work clearly accessible to a broad readership. References
Keywords: turnover intention, Career shocks, leader-member exchange, Job embeddedness, Job Satisfaction, Public hospitals, Medical Staff
Received: 17 Feb 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Duarte, Chen and Zu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Fan Yang, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
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