THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECT OF QUIET QUITTING ON ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AND IDENTITY OF THE EMPLOYEES

Abstract

Quiet quitting is a growing challenge posed by employees deliberately limiting their work to the formal job duties, thus posing a major concern on the effectiveness of an organization. The research paper investigated the psychological effect of quiet quitting on employee identity and organizational commitment among 450 workers representing various industries in Pakistan such as the banking industry, education, technology and in the government. The survey design that was used was cross-sectional and the survey involved the individuals who were requested to fill out validated self-report measures of quiet quitting, employee identity, organizational commitment, work engagement, and perceived organizational support. The findings showed that quiet quitting was also a significant predictor of reduced employee identity ( -0.43, t(448) = -9.99, p <.001, R 2 =.19) and reduced organizational commitment ( -0.40, t(448) = -9.05, p <.001, R 2 =.16). The mediation analysis found that employee identity partially mediated the relationship between quiet quitting and organizational commitment (indirect effect = -0.28, 95% CI [-0.37, -0.19]) and moderation analyses showed that work engagement ( 0.16, t(446) = 3.24, p < .01) and perceived organizational support ( 0.14, t(446) = 2.88, p <.01) buffered the negative impact of quiet quitting. The implications of these findings are that role-based identity and favorable organizational conditions play a key role in ensuring employee commitment in cases where disengagement behaviours exist. The research has a practical consequence to managers in Pakistani institutions, which are focusing on the approaches to manage the level of engagement, strengthen the identification of the employees, and supportive work environments.