Loneliness as Mediator between Job Satisfaction and Intention to Leave: AStudy on Prison Staff in Turkey

Abstract

Job satisfaction has been of great interest in the field of organizational psychology. The primary goal of this study was to investigating the predictive relationship in between employee’s job satisfaction and intention to leave. The mediating role of loneliness between job satisfaction and intention to leave was also investigated among prison staff. A total of 154 participants were employed at two different prisons in the city of Bursa, Turkey. Data were collected using the Intention to leave Scale, UCLA Loneliness Scale and Job Satisfaction Scale. As hypothesized, loneliness was found to significantly mediates the relationship between Job satisfaction and Intention to Leave (p<.005). Moreover, loneliness predicts intention to leave (p<.005). The results manifested that job satisfaction predicts intention to leave and loneliness (p <.000). The path also revealed that loneliness at work fully mediated the relationship between job satisfaction and intent to leave. The i¬nal model also showed a signii¬cant path from intent to leave through to job satisfaction and loneliness. The result of the Sobel test supported the significance of the mediating effect of loneliness (p<.001). The limitations of the study are considered and the implications of the results for increasing an individual’s job satisfaction are discussed.