Fear of Covid-19 and Employees’ Turnover Intentions among State-Owned Hospitals in Zamfara State: The Role of Job Estrangement

There has been a call on the federal government of Nigeria to declare a state of emergency on the Nigerian health sector owing to the high rate of employee turnover. The main objective of the study is to explore the mediating role of job estrangement in the relationship between fear of covid-19 and employees’ turnover intentions among the employees of state-owned hospitals in Gusau metropolis Zamfara State, Nigeria. The study employed survey and cross-sectional research designs. The population of the study comprised the entire 1372 employees (medical and non-medical) of the state-owned hospitals in Gusau metropolis Zamfara State, Nigeria. The sample size of 301 was derived using the Dillman sample size formula. To decrease sampling error, the sample size was increased by 30% to 391. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to solicit responses from the respondents using a stratified random sampling technique. Data cleansing and preliminary analysis were undertaken using SPSS 24. Structural Equation Modelling specifically, SmartPLS 3.3 was employed to compute the two main models; structural and measurement models for the test of the hypothesised relationship. The findings showed that fear of Covid-19 and job estrangement have a significant effect on employee turnover intentions. Furthermore, job estrangement significantly partially mediated the relationship between fear of covid-19 and employee turnover intentions. The study recommended governmental interventions in providing necessary mechanisms to alleviate employees fear of covid-19 and job estrangement.