Impact role stress on turnover intentions of Pakistan’s healthcare workers: Mediating and moderating role of organizational cynicism and self-efficacy

Nurses make up most of the global healthcare system, thus justifying their significance in the respective industry. The healthcare profession is amongst the very few careers that are attributed to a very high level of stress and imbalanced work-life equilibrium. Over past decades, the said nature of work has been observed to coerce countless nurses to leave their respective organizations. Considering this, the current study primarily evaluates the impact of role stressors on the turnover intentions of nurses employed in the healthcare industry of Pakistan. Secondly, the study examines the mediatory role of organizational cynicism between the role stressors and turnover intentions to explain the escalating trend of nurses intending to leave the industry. Lastly, it assesses the moderating role of self-efficacy between the organizational cynicism and the intended turnover of a nurse, to gauge the amount of variation self-efficacy can cause to mitigate the negative attitudes of employed individuals. The current study was conducted in the twin metropolitans of Pakistan i.e., Rawalpindi and Islamabad. A total of 394 responses were statistically evaluated using SmartPLS 3.0. The results of the current study indicated a significant impact of role stressors on the turnover intentions of nurses. Also, organizational cynicism was observed as a significant mediator between role stressors and turnover intentions. Further, self-efficacy as well was observed as a significant moderator between organizational cynicism and the intent of healthcare workers to leave the organization. The present study addressed the conceptual research gap by exploring the direct cumulative effect of role stress (role ambiguity, role conflict, role stressors, work-family conflict) in developing the intents of professionals to quit their employing organizations, the mediatory role of organizational cynicism, and the moderation effect of self-efficacy between the undertaken variables. While in terms of abridging the contextual research gap, the current study evaluated the proposed research model within the healthcare sector of Pakistan. The findings of the current study commended the management personnel of the healthcare industry to provide the nurses with healthy professional environments to work in, as well as catering to their professional and personal expectations to a better extent. Hence, increasing the ownership of an individual depicted towards his/her employing organization.