How Does the Absence of Job Embeddedness Contribute to Nurses’ Turnover Intention? A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Background: Nurse turnover is a significant contributor to the global nursing shortage, and nurses’ turnover intentions are typically caused by a combination of factors. Nurses’ job embeddedness is an important factor influencing nurses’ turnover intentions. However, existing studies have examined only the net effects of the individual constructs on turnover intention, overlooking the combined effects of the job embeddedness dimensions. Aim: To explore how the dimensions of job embeddedness combine to form configurations that lead to nurses’ turnover intention or no turnover intention. Design: A cross-sectional study using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Setting(s): Six medical institutions in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China. Participants: From March to June 2023, a total of 232 employed nurses were included using a convenience sampling method. Methods: The fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis was used to analyze the set relationships between the six dimensions of job embeddedness and turnover intention. Robustness checks and predictive validity analyses, based on set theory methods, were employed to verify the robustness of the condition configurations and their ability to predict the outcome variables. Finally, ordered logit regression was used to examine the associations between the configurations and turnover intention. Results: Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis indicated that multiple job embeddedness–related conditions combine to lead to nurses’ turnover intention. Necessity analysis shows that job embeddedness–related conditions are not necessary conditions for the presence or absence of nurses’ turnover intention. Sufficiency analysis identified five configurations contributing to nurses’ turnover intention (solution coverage = 0.525) and six configurations contributing to no turnover intention (solution coverage = 0.668), and these configurations were categorized into six groups. Significant associations were found between these configurations and turnover intention. Conclusion: The results suggest that the absence of organization fit and organization sacrifice is the core condition that contributes to nurses’ turnover intention. Mutual collaboration and competition between the dimensions of job embeddedness combined to create multiple configurations that prevented nurses’ turnover intention. This study provides new insights and ideas for managers to implement targeted interventions to reduce nurses’ turnover intention in response to these configurations.