Psychological contract fulfilment, engagement and nurse professional turnover intention

Cathy Sheehan, Tse Leng Tham, Peter Holland and Brian Cooper

International Journal of Manpower, 2019, vol. 40, issue 1, 2-16

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of nurses’ experience of the fulfilment of their psychological contract on their intention to leave the nursing profession and to consider employee engagement as a mediator between the fulfilment of the psychological contract of nurses and their intention to leave their profession. Design/methodology/approach - The authors used a quantitative, cross-sectional research design. In total, 1,039 Australian nurses completed an anonymous online survey conducted via the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation website. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses. Findings - The fulfilment of promises related to interesting job content and social atmosphere were negatively associated with intentions to leave the nursing profession, and these relationships were mediated by engagement. The fulfilment of promises related to career development, financial rewards and work–life balance were not associated with intentions to leave the nursing profession. Research limitations/implications - To ensure professional nurse retention, it is necessary to not just promise nurses interesting jobs and a supportive social atmosphere, but to manage nurse perceptions regarding the fulfilment of these promises. Originality/value - Although there has been extensive research on nurse intention to leave their current job, the important area of nurse professional turnover has received less attention. The research highlights the importance of fulfilling expectations and promises related to interesting nurse job content that encourages nurse responsibility and autonomy as well as promises of a social atmosphere that includes co-operative relationships and good communication with colleagues.

Keywords: Engagement; Psychological contracts; Nurses; Professional turnover intention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ijmpps:ijm-08-2017-0211

DOI: 10.1108/IJM-08-2017-0211

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Manpower is currently edited by Professor Adrian Ziderman

More articles in International Journal of Manpower from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().