An empirical study on individual performance and turnover intention among university employees: a multiple mediation model

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the behavior of individual employee's performance concerning their organizational citizenship and turnover intention in the higher education sector. This study attempts to examine the effects of two potential sequential mediators – job satisfaction and employee engagement – on employees' job embeddedness, organizational citizenship behavior, and turnover intention.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on a survey conducted among the employees of major universities in the Republic of Korea. A total of 213 valid responses are used to analyze the hypotheses.FindingsThe results suggest that the relationship between job embeddedness and organizational citizenship behavior is significantly mediated by job satisfaction. However, the mediating role of job satisfaction on the link between job embeddedness and employees' intention to leave is not significant. Relatedly, employee engagement has a significant mediating effect on job embeddedness and organizational citizenship behavior but no demonstrable mediating effect between job embeddedness and employees' turnover intentions.Practical implicationsThe results provide guidance that can assist organizations in increasing their employees' organizational citizenship behavior and lowering their intentions to leave, particularly in the education sector.Originality/valueThis study contributes to existing knowledge regarding the roles that job satisfaction and employee engagement play as two potential sequential mediators in the relation between job embeddedness and organizational citizenship behavior.