Beyond Job Design: How Leader–Member Exchange Shapes the Relationship Between Job Characteristics and Employee Turnover Intention

Abstract

In an industry highly competitive and in need of skilled workers, with increasing demand for trained personnel in sales, production, and research, employee turnover is one of the most prevalent and expensive issues in the pharmaceutical world of Pakistan. This study investigates the relationship between five core job characteristics (autonomy, feedback, skill variety, task significance, and task identity) and the employees' turnover intention, as well as examining the mediation role of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) in this relationship and draws on the Job Characteristics Model (JCM) of Hackman and Oldham (1976) and the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory of Graen and Uhl-Bien (1995). A cross-sectional survey research design with a survey approach was proposed that will gather data from employees working in sales, marketing, production, and research and development departments of pharmaceutical companies in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad. Structural equation modelling and regression-based mediation analysis (Hayes, 2018) were recommended as the main analysis methods. The results indicate that there are negative relationships between all the five job factors and turnover intention, as reported in recent studies in the pharmaceutical and public sectors in Pakistan (Asif et al., 2023; Sami & Iqbal, 2024), and the quality of leader-member exchange partially mediates these relationships. Employees who feel they have high-quality exchange relationships with their supervisor and who experience enriched job design report significantly lower intent to leave. The study advances a relationship between job characteristics and turnover intentions in the context of a high-context culture, a collectivist workforce, and a medically oriented business and suggests to managers in the pharmaceutical industry specific job redesign and supervisor-subordinate relationships that they can implement to boost retention in their organizations.

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