Effects of coworker and terrorist violence, fear and job attitudes on turnover intentions, and the role of perceived organizational support

The main aim of the study is to examine the effects of coworker and terrorist violence on turnover intentions via fear of future violence and job attitudes (including job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment). This cross-sectional study is based on questionnaire data collected under anonymous conditions from 310 uniformed officers in Pakistan’s defense production industry using snowball sampling approach. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is applied to analyze the entire impact path and found substantial support for the study’s hypotheses. The results showed that fear of future violence and overall job attitude sequentially mediate the effects of coworker and terrorist violence on turnover intentions. Specifically, both coworker and terrorist violence positively affect fear of future violence, which affects overall job attitude, which in turn negatively affects turnover intentions. Further, results demonstrated that both coworker and terrorist have a direct negative effect on job attitudes. However, the comparison of effect sizes showed that coworker violence has a stronger negative effect on job attitudes compared to terrorist violence. Moreover, fear of violence positively affects turnover intentions both directly and indirectly via overall job attitude. Lastly, it was found that perceived organizational support positively moderates the negative relationship between fear of future violence and overall job attitude. The contributions of this study are fivefold. First, the study extends research on multifoci aggression by differentiating between coworker- and terrorist-initiated violence. Second, the study found support for a model in which the effects of coworker and terrorist violence on turnover intentions are mediated by two variables acting in turn i.e., fear of violence and overall job attitude. Third, it offers new empirical evidence that fear of future violence positively predicts turnover intentions both directly and indirectly via job attitudes. Fourth, the study utilized a more robust analytical procedure for moderation analysis (i.e., PLS-product indicator approach) and provides new insights on the buffering role of perceived organizational support in the relationship between fear of future violence representing stress and job attitudes reflecting strain. Lastly, from a psychological perspective, Pakistan provided a different context where terrorist attacks constitute a chronic, unpredictable, uncontrollable, and continuous threat to organizations and their personnel.