An Investigation on Perceived Subordinate Turnover and First Line Supervisors’ Intention to Quit

Extant literature about turnover pays more attention to the turnover of employees than that to supervisors. This research focuses on first-line supervisors’ intention to quit in the context where supervisors often suffer from the turnover of their subordinates. Drawing on the work stress literature, present study argues that supervisors’ perceived subordinates’ turnover is a source of first-line’s supervisors’ work stress, which increases supervisors’ intention to quit through influencing supervisors’ job satisfaction and anxiety. Moreover, first-line supervisors’ emotional stability may buffer the negative effects of work stress on supervisors’ job satisfaction and anxiety. This study collected a total of 210 supervisor surveys from one research site, which was a Taiwanese invested electronic component factory (I refer to “A factory”) in Suzhou, China. The results of this study are summarized as follows: 1. Supervisors’ perceived subordinates’ turnover positively predicted supervisors’ intention to quit. 2. Supervisors’ perceived subordinates’ turnover positively predicted supervisors’ work stress. 3. The negative relationship between supervisors’ perceived subordinates’ turnover and supervisors’ job satisfaction was partially mediated by supervisors’ work stress. 4. The positive relationship between supervisors’ work stress and their intention to quit was partially mediated by supervisors’ job satisfaction. 5. The negative relationship between supervisors’ work stress and supervisors’ job satisfaction was buffered by supervisors’ emotional stability.   Empirically, these results suggest subordinates’ turnover is an important source of supervisors’ work stress, which predicts first-line supervisors’ intention to quit through the partial mediation of supervisors’ job satisfaction. Practically, organizations must pay a particular attention to those supervisors who are low in emotional stability in order to prevent possibility of these supervisors from quitting.