Abstract

This study aims to examine the differential effects of challenge versus hindrance job stressors on turnover intentions and to explore the psychological mechanisms underpinning these relationships. Specifically, it proposes that challenge job stressors enhance employees’ perceptions of meaning at work, and that protean career orientation, as an individual characteristic, strengthens this positive effect. To test these propositions, we conducted a two-wave survey over a two-month interval with 275 working adults in Korea. The results demonstrated significant disparate effects of challenge versus hindrance job stressors on meaning at work. Additionally, the mediating role of meaning at work in the relationship between each type of stressor and turnover intention was significant. Moreover, protean career orientation moderated the positive relationship between challenge job stressors and meaning at work, as well as the negative indirect effect of challenge stressors on turnover intention through meaning at work. This study contributes theoretically to the literature on job stress and protean career orientation by elucidating the processes and boundary conditions that explain the influences of job stressors on turnover intention. It also offers important practical implications by highlighting the significance of considering employees’ protean career orientation in stress and turnover management.