Turnover intention in relation to job demands and burnout; The moderating effect of job embeddedness

This study aims to investigate how the turnover intentions of healthcare professionals are related to certain characteristics of job demands and burnout. It also examines the moderating role of job emmbeddeness as a buffer between the impacts of emotional labor, workload on burnout within the Turkish healthcare environment. The direct and indirect effects of emotional labor, perceived workload, burnout, and job embeddedness on turnover intention are tested via path analysis. The results of this study show that emotional exhaustion dimension of burnout fully mediates the effects of emotional labor and workload on turnover intentions. Workload and surface acting are positively associated with burnout; whereas, deep acting correlates negatively with burnout. Job embeddedness moderates the effects of these job-related demands on turnover intentions. The findings of this research can provide some new insights into how the turnover intentions of healthcare professionals are related to certain aspects of job demands and burnout. Since burnout is becoming more and more prevalent in all industries, particularly the helping professions, there is an urgent need to address this issue in the shortest span of time as to avoid serious consequences related to burnout, turnover intentions and other withdrawal behaviors. Job embeddedness applications can help improve retention of employees by providing them a wide range of resources to utilize when challenged by various job demands. It can be a tool to boost not only the well-being of the healthcare providers and the patient but also the functioning of the organization and the system. Key words: Turnover intention, burnout, emotional labor, workload, job embeddedness, path analysis