The relationship between workplace boredom, procrastination, work engagement and turnover intention within the South African context

Abstract

Workplace boredom is an international phenomenon that impacts negatively both on employees and organisations. Workplace boredom is increasingly becoming a common occurrence within organisations, and most employees are susceptible to it. Workplace boredom is a serious concern, as it is costly for the organisations. To date, research in South Africa on workplace boredom remains sparse and this study seeks to add to the literature in this regard since the effects of workplace boredom and associated factors have been shown to impact individual and organisational outcomes. Workplace boredom coupled with procrastination and turnover intention has a negative effect on employee motivation. If this is not addressed, it may hold severe implications for organisations. The general objective is to investigate the direct and indirect relationships between workplace boredom, procrastination, work engagement and turnover intention within the South African context. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was utilised to gather data by means of a non-probability sample of various South African employees in the North-West province of South Africa (n= 328). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted within a structural equation modelling framework for analysing the data. Discriminant validity between workplace boredom and similar theoretical constructs (procrastination, work engagement and turnover intention) was determined by investigating correlation scores; average variance extracted, as well as shared variance between constructs. The results showed that workplace boredom had significant positive paths to procrastination and turnover intention. Procrastination, in turn, was found to be negatively related to work engagement, and work engagement was found to be negatively related to turnover intention. Furthermore, procrastination mediated the workplace boredom-work engagement relationship and work engagement mediated the procrastination-turnover intention relationship. Recommendations were made for use in practice and additionally for future research.