Career satisfaction, subjective well-being and turnover intention: an attachment style perspective

Purpose On the basis of an attachment style perspective, the authors explored a moderated mediation model in which career satisfaction reduces employees' turnover intention by enhancing subjective well-being; this mediated relationship would be moderated by three dimensions of attachment style as follows: secure, counterdependent and overdependent. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 192 employees in South Korea and hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analysis and the PROCESS macro for SPSS. Findings Subjective well-being mediated the relationship between career satisfaction and turnover intention. The indirect relationship between career satisfaction and turnover intention through subjective well-being was significant only when employees had high-secure attachment and low-counterdependent and -overdependent attachment styles. Practical implications On the basis of the authors' findings that not all employees' subjective well-being translates into a lower level of turnover intention despite being satisfied with their career, the study suggests that organizations should pay more attention to how the subjective well-being of employees can be enhanced in relation to their career by considering their attachment styles. Originality/value The study contributes to deepening the understanding of the mechanism of when and how career satisfaction reduces turnover intention by integrating subjective well-being and attachment styles that have been neglected in prior research.