The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction between Perceived Organizational Politics, Job Stress, Role Conflict, and Turnover Intention: A Covid-19 Perspective

Abstract

The ability of educational institutions to survive is based on the dedication and competence of their academic staff. However, the breakout of COVID-19 has spread the entire world's school system into alarm. particularly in emerging nations such as Pakistan. This pandemic causes nonpayment of salaries, putting teachers through a stressful period that increases the likelihood of turnover. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the mediation role of job satisfaction and the influence of perceived organisational politics, job stress, and role conflict on turnover intention in the context of COVID-19 among university teachers. A cross-sectional survey has been used for data collection from 280 permanent faculty members from universities in Pakistan. The study utilized partial least squares as a tool for hypothesis testing and analysis. The findings of the study revealed that perceived organisational politics, job stress, and the role of conflict have a substantial positive effect on turnover intention. Moreover, perceived organisational politics, job stress, and the role of conflict harm job satisfaction. The results of an indirect effect, however, show that job satisfaction mediates the relationship between the role of conflict and turnover intention, and the results for mediation between perceived organisational politics, job satisfaction, and turnover intention are insignificant. These findings showed that to reduce the turnover intention of faculty members, institutions need to institutionalise policies to reduce the negative perception, stress, and role conflict of teachers and boost the level of their satisfaction.