All or Worse Outcomes : Evaluating the Indirect Effects of Meaningful Work and Job Anxiety on Turnover Intentions

Job Anxiety affects employees viscerally when job-related stress exceeds coping resources. Considering these negative perceptions of work elements significantly impact employees' quitting intentions, understanding what can reduce these intentions would be of great benefit to both organizations and employees. Using the literature of meaningful work as a framework, we sampled 219 general workers in the United States to determine whether meaningful work components have the potential to reduce turnover intention. Using structural equation modeling, we assessed how the three components of meaningful work (positive work meaning, meaning-making, and greater good motivations) moderated the relationship between job anxiety and intention to quit among our participants. Positive work meaning moderated the relationship between job anxiety and turnover intentions. However, further analysis revealed job anxiety increases when positive work meaning is low or moderate. Our findings indicate a lack of high positive work meaning exacerbates job anxiety