Proactive personality and turnover intentions of nurses: the roles of professional recognition and their supervisor’s proactive personality

Abstract

PurposeGiven that the relationship between proactive personality and turnover intention is not straightforward in the literature, the authors address two research questions focusing on the nursing profession: does proactive personality negatively influence nurses' turnover intention by alleviating their lack of professional recognition? And does a supervisor’s proactive personality act as a boundary condition for the mediating effects of the lack of professional recognition in the link between proactive personality and turnover intentions?Design/methodology/approachA moderated mediation model linking proactive personality and turnover intentions was developed and tested on a sample of 579 nurses in 88 work units in general hospitals in South Korea.FindingsThe results of multilevel path analysis reveal that proactive personality has a negative indirect relationship with turnover intention via lack of professional recognition. Additionally, the indirect relationship is strengthened when the supervisor’s proactive personality is low.Originality/valueThese findings provide valuable empirical evidence on the inconclusive relationship between proactive personality and turnover intention by highlighting the role of proactive personality in attenuating the influence of negative occupational factors. Moreover, proactive personality as a boundary condition for the aforementioned relationship was empirically examined.