How COVID-19 Perceived Risk Causes Turnover Intention Among Chinese Flight Attendants: A Moderated Mediation Model

PURPOSE: This study examined the influencing mechanism and boundary conditions underlying the relation between COVID-19 perceived risk and flight attendants’ turnover intention by investigating the mediating role of job insecurity and the moderating effect of job crafting. METHODS: A two-wave survey was conducted with 240 Chinese flight attendants. We used structural equation modeling to test the moderated mediation model. RESULTS: The results indicated that perceived risk of COVID-19 positively affected flight attendants’ job insecurity and turnover intention. Moreover, job insecurity plays a fully mediating role in the relationship between perceived risk and turnover intention. Furthermore, the mediating role of job insecurity was moderated by job crafting; for higher levels of job crafting (opposed to low), the effect of job insecurity on turnover intention was significantly weaker. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that dissipating job insecurity and increasing job crafting behavior are critical to employees’ work-related attitudes and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.