The Reciprocal Effects of Organizational Constraints and Employees’ Strain

Abstract

Employees’ turnover intention and physical health problems can be costly to organizations because they tend to decrease productivity and increase organizational expense in training and healthcare. Research has shown that they are related to organizational constraints, a prevalent type of work stressors that can harm employees’ work attitude and well-being. However, scant attention has been paid to whether organizational constraints and the two strain reactions (i.e., turnover intention and physical symptoms) can reinforce each other overtime, leaving causal inference of such important relationships unclear. Drawing from the conservation of resources theory, this study aimed to narrow this research gap by examining the reciprocal relationships between organizational constraints and the two strains. Organizational constraints were hypothesized to increase employees’ turnover intention and physical symptoms which, in turn, may further elevate their perceived organizational constraints. Moreover, job control was hypothesized to mitigate these reciprocal effects. With a longitudinal data of 702 teachers over five weeks, results of cross-lagged models supported the hypothesized reciprocal relationships and provided partial support for the moderating role of job control. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.