Personal Bullying and Nurses’ Turnover Intentions in Pakistan: A Mixed Methods Study

Abstract

In this study, quantitative and qualitative data are presented to examine the direct and mediated effect of personal bullying on nurses’ turnover intentions via job stress. The study also investigates the moderating role of political skill on the association between personal bullying and job stress. The study employed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design. In the first, quantitative phase of the study, data were collected from a sample of 324 registered nurses working in public sector hospitals of Pakistan using a self-administered questionnaire. Results from variance-based structural equation modeling showed that personal bullying has a direct as well as an indirect effect on nurses’ turnover intentions through job stress. Furthermore, results showed that political skill attenuates the effect of personal bullying on job stress. The second, qualitative phase was conducted as a follow-up to the quantitative results involving individual interviews from 11 nurses. Overall, the qualitative data validated the key quantitative results. The study is among the first to employ a mixed methods design to investigate the direct and mediated effects of personal bullying on nurses’ turnover intentions and the stress-buffering role of political skill.