The Relationship between Job Demands and Turnover Intention among Chinese Prison Officers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought enormous challenges to both employees and organizations all over the world. Previous studies have found high turnover rates among prison officers since the outbreak of COVID-19. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the mediating role of job burnout between job demands and turnover intention, as well as the moderating role of the perceived efficacy in overcoming COVID-19 in Chinese prison officers. In total, 1316 prison officers were recruited to complete an online questionnaire between May 2022 and June 2022 (during the COVID-19 pandemic). The bootstrapping approach was used to assess the moderated mediation model in this study. The results showed that prison officers' job demands were positively associated with their turnover intention. Job burnout mediated the relationship between job demands and turnover intention. Perceived efficacy in overcoming COVID-19 moderated the effect of job burnout on turnover intention. Based on these results, suggestions were provided to reduce the high turnover rate of prison officers in public health events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; burnout; job demands; perceived efficacy in overcoming COVID-19 pandemic; prison officer; turnover intention.

Figure 1

The proposed theoretical model.

Figure 2

Moderating effect of perceived efficacy in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic on the correlation between job burnout and turnover intention. Notes: “Low perceived efficacy group” means a low level of perceived efficacy in overcoming COVID-19; “Mean perceived efficacy group” means a mean level of perceived efficacy in overcoming COVID-19; and “high perceived efficacy group” means a high level of perceived efficacy in overcoming COVID-19.