When the job has lost its appeal: Intentions to quit among direct care workers

Abstract

Background Previous research indicates that work stress contributes to intentions to quit among direct care workers (DCWs) who provide services to people with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD). Though resources can help DCWs cope and remain in a job, little is known about how various dimensions of work stress and resources (social and personal resources) are associated with intentions to quit. Methods A total of 323 DCWs from 5 community-based IDD organisations completed a self-administered survey. We conducted multiple regression analyses to examine main and interaction effects of work stress and resources (work social support and internal locus of control) on intentions to quit. Results Work overload was a significant stressor, and work social support (i.e., supervisory support) was associated with low intentions to quit. The association between locus of control and intention to quit depended on the levels of a stressor: DCWs’ lack of participation in decision-making. Conclusions Supervisory support and an internal locus of control may assist DCWs in managing their stress.

The Buffering Role of Social Support on the Relationship between Job Stress and Intention to Leave

“…For example, Pomaki et al (2010) reported that social support received from coworkers weakens the inverse effect of workload on intention to leave in a group of apprentice teachers, while Kim and Stoner (2008) found a stronger correlation between role stressors and intention to leave in the condition of work-related low social support. However, Nissly et al (2005) could not demonstrate a buffering effect on the relationship between organizational stress and intention to leave for either work-related or out-of-work social support, although they did observe a direct effect for social support received from work-a similar finding to that announced by Gray and Muramatsu (2013). While both of these studies show that receiving social support directly decreases intention to leave, Beehr, Bowling, and Bennett's (2010) study showed a negative impact of social support on intention to leave when the support is received from coworkers.…”

“…In other words, in line with many other studies in this area (Duraisingam et al, 2009;Gaither, Kahaleh, Doucette, Mott, Pederson, & Schommer, 2008), it was found that those who experience higher stress tend to leave their jobs more. However, it is interesting that role and work overload, which is the most frequently investigated job stressor with respect to its effects on intention to leave (e.g., Gray & Muramatsu, 2013), turned out to have the lowest predictive value in this study. On the other hand, the less highlighted stressor, role insufficiency (e.g., Rahim & Psenicka, 1996), did predict intention to leave more highly than all the other relevant stressors.…”

“…The most striking feature of these studies is that only one has investigated this relationship with respect to various sources of (work and out-of-work) social support (Nissly et al, 2005); others have examined the effects of only work-related social support (supervisor and coworker) (Gray & Muramatsu, 2013;Kim & Stoner, 2008) or only coworker support (Pomaki et al, 2010). Additionally, some have demonstrated a buffering effect (Kim & Stoner, 2008;Pomaki et al, 2010), while others have not (Gray & Muramatsu, 2013;Nissly et al, 2005).…”

“…The most striking feature of these studies is that only one has investigated this relationship with respect to various sources of (work and out-of-work) social support (Nissly et al, 2005); others have examined the effects of only work-related social support (supervisor and coworker) (Gray & Muramatsu, 2013;Kim & Stoner, 2008) or only coworker support (Pomaki et al, 2010). Additionally, some have demonstrated a buffering effect (Kim & Stoner, 2008;Pomaki et al, 2010), while others have not (Gray & Muramatsu, 2013;Nissly et al, 2005). With respect to these results we investigated whether the expectation that the effect of work and role stressors on intention to leave will be buffered by work-related social support (Kim & Stoner, 2008;Pomaki et al, 2010) but not by support received from out of work (Nissly et al, 2005), and whether this is valid for other sources of job stressors as well.…”

“…To summarize, a few studies examining the influence of social support on the relationship between job stress and intention to leave have either focused on work overload (Pomaki et al, 2010) or role stressors (Kim & Stoner, 2008) as specific job stressors; but others have investigated global job stress (Gray & Muramatsu, 2013;Nissly et al, 2005). The most striking feature of these studies is that only one has investigated this relationship with respect to various sources of (work and out-of-work) social support (Nissly et al, 2005); others have examined the effects of only work-related social support (supervisor and coworker) (Gray & Muramatsu, 2013;Kim & Stoner, 2008) or only coworker support (Pomaki et al, 2010).…”