Workplace incivility and turnover intention among nurses of public healthcare system in Pakistan

Abstract

Though workplace incivility is a negative behavioral phenomenon that has infiltrated almost every sector, yet, less investigated in the healthcare sector. The healthcare sector is the backbone for economic and well-being for any nation and mainly composed of nurses. Turnover among nurses is a serious challenge to public healthcare facilities in terms of management, financing, and service quality. Based on the COR theory, this study capitalizes investigation on the effects of incivility on turnover intention through burnout and occupational stress. Simple random sampling was deployed on a sample of 265 nurses from 24 public hospitals of Sindh in Pakistan. Data analysis through partial least square and results revealed that workplace incivility has insignificant relation with turnover intention. Whereas, incivility has a significant indirect relationship with turnover intention through burnout and occupational stress. This study suggests that emotional and occupational depletion in public healthcare is high due to incivility at the workplace. Thus, HR managers must devise policies to practice civil behavior to curtail turnover intention problem among nurses. Besides practical benefits, some limitations with potential future research directions are discussed in the end.