Religiosity and Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Work Engagement

Abstract

Guided by job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this paper aims to explore the relationship between religiosity and turnover intention through the mediating role of work engagement. Using a survey questionnaire, data were collected from 338 employees working in the telecom sector in Jordan. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. The findings show that religiosity is positively related to work engagement, while work engagement is negatively related to turnover intention. While not specifically hypothesized, we found a negative relationship between religiosity and turnover intention. Furthermore, our findings show that work engagement mediates the relationship between religiosity and turnover intention. This study contributes to JD-R theory and relevant literature by investigating the association between religiosity (an important yet neglected personal resource), work engagement and turnover intentions. This highlights the contextual relevance and extension of JD-R theory by incorporating religiosity of employees in a Middle Eastern context.

Towards sustainable development in the hospitality sector: Does green human resource management stimulate green creativity? A moderated mediation model

“…Broadly speaking, previous studies have confirmed the mediating role of work engagement among several antecedents and outcomes (Abualigah & Koburtay, 2022; Jyoti, 2021; Karatepe & Demir, 2014; Memon et al, 2020; Mostafa, 2019). For example, Memon et al (2020) found that the relationship between HRM practices and turnover intention is mediated by work engagement.…”

Supervisor support, religiosity, work engagement, and affective commitment: evidence from a Middle Eastern emerging market

“…Nevertheless, prior work on the relationship between supervisor support and work engagement has been somewhat difficult to comprehend across different sectors and occupations (Hidayah Ibrahim et al , 2019), and yet, the role of personal resources in enhancing work engagement and job-related outcomes is largely neglected (Abualigah et al , 2021; Agarwal and Gupta, 2018). Furthermore, existing literature has overlooked the potential impact of employee religiosity although the latter is an important personal resource for enhancing work engagement and employee commitment (Abualigah and Koburtay, 2022; Abu Bakar et al , 2018; Baker and Lee, 2020) particularly in unique institutional contexts like the one under investigation in the current study, where religious values and beliefs significantly influence and shape people management practices (Abualigah et al , 2022; Haak-Saheem and Darwish, 2021).…”

“…Despite the importance of personal resources in predicting job-related outcomes, little theorising of the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory has been conducted to explore the interaction effect between job and personal resources in facilitating work engagement (Grover et al , 2018). For example, Abualigah and Koburtay (2022) recently found that work engagement mediated the relationship between religiosity and turnover intention. However, they have called for more research to further investigate the role of religiosity in the workplace.…”

“…The study makes several contributions to existing literature. First, little attention has been directed towards understanding the interaction effect between job and personal resources in facilitating work engagement in the context of JD-R theory (Abualigah and Koburtay, 2022; Grover et al , 2018; Jolly et al , 2021). Therefore, this novel study extends JD-R theory by examining the moderating role of religiosity as a personal resource on the relationship between supervisor support and work engagement.…”

“…Third, to our knowledge, this study is among the first to test a moderated-mediation model by investigating the relationships between supervisor support, religiosity, work engagement and affective commitment. Finally, previous studies that have investigated religiosity have done so typically in the North America and Western Europe and from Christianity lens (Abualigah and Koburtay, 2022; Banihani and Syed, 2020). Hence, we explore the concept of religiosity from an Islamic perspective, thus extending scholarship and practice in this underexplored non-Western context.…”