Examining social exchange among Chinese service workers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of perceived external prestige (PEP), perceived organizational support (POS), and organizational inducement (OI) on employee turnover intention (TI) and on the mediation effect of trust in organizations (TOs). Design/methodology/approach – In all, 243 self-administered questionnaires were collected from five service companies in Guangdong, China. The construct validity, the measurement model, and the hypothetical relationship between variables were tested by partial-least-squares structural equation modeling. Findings – The results demonstrate that OI, PEP, and POS tended to increase employees’ trust in their organization and hence to reduce their TI. Practical implications – The findings of this study have implications for managers’ design and implementation of effective human resource management strategies for adults in China. To deal with the serious problem of high employee turnover in China, organizations should implement not only appropriate human resource policy but also practices to improve corporate reputation. Originality/value – This paper extends the research on TI by investigating the impacts of PEP and the mediating effect of TOs in a Chinese context.