The Effects And Mechanisms Of Organizational Gender Inequity On Employee Turnover Intention And Silence

As an inherent problem of sociality,gender inequity is widely existed in diverse fields.There are varying degrees of organizational gender inequity around the world.Both women and men could be the victim of organizational gender inequity.Specifically,women are more likely to be discriminated.For example,women’s capacity is likely to be ignored.Comparing with the men,women receive lower level of pay,even for female managers,as well as the chance of promotion.In the specific industry,such as nursing,housekeeping,and preschool education,men are likely to be ostracized.As such,employees may experience gender discriminations in recruitment,pay,and promotion.In the workplace,gender inequity is chronically and widely existed.Although prior research has fully discussed the current situations and forms of organizational gender inequity,little attention was paid to its negative influences of victims.Organizational gender inequity indicates the infringement of individuals’ fundamental rights and the deprivation of employees’ deserved treatments.Employees who perceive organizational gender inequity tend to feel disappointed and dissatisfied,which negatively influencing their work attitudes and behaviors.Based on social exchange theory and fairness heuristic theory,we aim to explore the effects of organizational gender inequity on employee turnover intention and silence.We also discuss the mediation effects of employee relational psychological contract and transactional psychological contract,as well as the moderation effects of employee justice sensitivity and leader integrity.We conducted three studies,including two scenario experiments and a survey.In the first scenario experiment,we manipulated organizational gender inequity(high vs.low)to test the direct and indirect effects of organizational gender inequity and the moderation effects of employee justice sensivity.In the second scenario experiment,we manipulated organizational gender inequity(high vs.low)and leader integrity(high vs.low)to test the interaction effects of organizational gender inequity and leader integrity.In this study,we retested the direct and indirect effects of organizational gender inequity.The three-wave survey were conducted to test the full model.We used SPSS 25.0 and Mplus 8.4 to test our hypotheses.According to the results of three studies,we drew the following conclusions:1)organizational gender inequity is positively related to employee turnover intention and silence;2)organizational gender inequity is negatively related to employee relational psychological contract and positively related to employee transactional psychological contract;3)employee relational psychological contract and transactional psychological contract mediate the relationships between organizational gender inequity and employee turnover intention and silence;4)employee justice sensitivity moderates the effects of organizational gender inequity on employee relational psychological contract and transactional psychological contract.When employees’ justice sensitivity is high,the effects of organizational gender inequity on employee relational psychological contract and transactional psychological contract will be strengthened;5)leader integrity moderates the effects of organizational gender inequity on employee relational psychological contract and transactional psychological contract.When leader integrity is high,the effects of organizational gender inequity on employee relational psychological contract and transactional psychological contract will be weakened;6)employee justice sensitivity and leader integrity moderate the indirect effects of organizational gender inequity on employee turnover intention and silence.When employees’ justice sensitivity is high,the indirect effects of organizational gender inequity on employee turnover intention and silence through relational psychological contract and transactional psychological contract will be strengthened.When leader integrity is high,the indirect effects of organizational gender inequity on employee turnover intention and silence through relational psychological contract and transactional psychological contract will be weakened;7)comparing with men,women are more likely to experience organizational gender inequity.However,men respond more strongly to organizational gender inequity than women.The novelties of this research were: 1)we expanded the perspective of existing literature on organizational gender inequity.Prior studies mainly focused on the degree of organizational gender inequity by comparing gender differences in pay and promotion.This research focused on the impacts of organizational gender inequity on victims;2)we examined the negative influences of organizational gender inequity on both male and female employees,and discussed the differences between gender groups;3)considering the social exchange and economic exchange between the employee and the organization,we examined the underlying reasons of negative effects of organizational gender inequity and provided comprehensive explanation mechanisms;4)identifying the individual difference and leader factor as moderators in discussing the negative influences of organizational gender inequity,we established a multi-perspective theoretical model.We advanced the understandings of the boundary conditions of organizational gender inequity.Based on the findings,we provided several theoretical implications.We enriched the literature on organizational gender inequity by identifying its negative effects and mechanisms at the individual level.Focusing on the inequity based on gender rather than the general inequity,we extended the literature on organizational justice.By examining the mediation roles of psychological contracts and the moderating roles of justice sensitivity and leader integrity,we found the mediation effects and the boundary conditions of organizational gender inequity.These findings also provided several practical implications.The findings suggested that organizations should pay more attention on the detriments of organizational gender inequity and promote gender equity using organizational policies and norms.Employees of different gender should be treated equally in terms of resource allocation,pay,and promotion.In addition,managers should recognize and respect employees’ value,competences,and potentials without sex prejudice,attracting and retaining human resources.