Role stressors and intent to leave: A study of hotel general managers

An empirical study which investigated the relationship between three role stressors (role conflict, role ambiguity, and work-family conflict) and intent to leave among hotel general managers. Three separate research models were used to determine the mediating effect of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on the relationship of the role stressor and intent to leave. The study was conducted in partnership with a major hotel company in the United States with 799 general managers participating in the study.;The findings indicated role stress does exist in the boundary-spanning roles of hotel general managers. Analysis showed the mean scores of the role stressors (role conflict, role ambiguity, and work-family conflict) were each around the mid-point on a scale of one to five. Results also indicated there were significant positive correlations between role conflict, role ambiguity, work-family conflict, and intent to leave in each of the three models. Using the four-step approach of Baron and Kenny (1986) to test for mediation, each role stressor was shown to have a statistically significant, direct relationship to intent to leave. This indicated that each of the three stressors could be used independently to predict intent to leave among hotel general managers. The findings also indicated that both job satisfaction and organizational commitment were mediators of the effects of role stress on intent to leave. Job satisfaction partially mediated the effects of role stress on intent to leave. Organizational commitment partially mediated the effects of role conflict and role ambiguity. Whereas, organizational commitment was found to fully mediate the effects of work-family conflict on intent to leave. All of the hypothesized relationships were supported.;The conclusion drawn from this study is that job satisfaction and organizational commitment are of utmost importance to shaping the leave intention of hotel general managers. It would be impossible for hotel organizations to completely eliminate role stress from general managers. Instead of spending resources trying to eliminate role stress, it is more effective to develop methods to increase job satisfaction and organizational commitment among hotel general managers and thereby reducing intent to leave.