How Changes in Work and Family Role Salience Following COVID19 Threat Affect Turnover Intention

Not only are we getting through a pandemic, but more recently, we are suffering from a “Quitting pandemic,” which refers to the rush of resignations spanning across industries and generations. We note that the prevalence of actual and perceived threats of contagion will exert a substantial influence on behaviors in organizations. We further attempt to develop a theoretical model in which the perceived threat of COVID19 is proposed to predict employee turnover intention through its influence on work role and family role salience. Integrating terror management theory with life role salience constructs, we predict that the perceived severity of COVID19 will be negatively related to work role salience while being positively related to family role salience. The changes in each role salience will, in turn, increase turnover intention. In addition, we specify a boundary condition (work demand) that affects the aforementioned relationships. Based on the data collected at three-time points, we employed a structural equation modeling approach to empirically test the hypotheses. The results partially supported the hypothesized model. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.