A path analysis of the effects of nurses' perceived organizational justice, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction on their turnover intention

Staff turnover, particularly nursing staff turnover, is one of the most common reasons behind loss of productivity in health-care organizations. A basic requirement for reducing staff turnover is to determine its causes. This study evaluated the relationships of perceived organizational justice, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction with turnover intention among a group of Iranian hospital nurses. This cross-sectional study was conducted on nursing staff and auxiliary nurses who were working in 15 teaching hospitals affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. A random sample of nurses, who had an associate or higher degrees in nursing and had a work experience of >1 year, was recruited through stratified random sampling. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, the Organizational Justice Questionnaire, the Job Satisfaction Questionnaire, the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, and the Questionnaire of Turnover and were analyzed through the confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis, Pearson's correlation analysis, and squared multiple correlation analysis. Organizational justice had significant direct relationships with job satisfaction (r = 0.73) and organizational commitment (r = 0.61) and inverse relationship with turnover intention (r = −0.41). Path analysis revealed that organizational justice had no direct effects on turnover intention, while it had indirect effects on turnover intention through the paths of organizational commitment and turnover intention. Nurses' turnover intention is directly affected by organizational commitment and job satisfaction and indirectly affected by organizational justice through the paths of organizational commitment and turnover intention.