Quiet Quitting: Insights from Generation Z workers in Vietnam
Downloads
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the working behaviours of employees and employers, creating a serious and widely propagated through various platforms counter-productive behaviour: quiet quitting. Notably, Generation Z, the currently main workforce, are most influenced by social media platforms and most likely to engage in this phenomenon. This study applied the Conservation of Resources Theory, Social Exchange Theory, and Theory of Generations to propose a research model and use cross-sectional data from 1,018 participants analysed through SEM to examined factors influencing Vietnamese Generation Z employees’ quiet quitting intention. The findings revealed that work-life balance, affective organizational commitment, and perceived organizational support, through the mediating effect of job burnout, significantly influenced their' intention to quiet quit, while toxic workplace environment only have a direct effect. These results offer valuable insights for both employees and organizations, helping them recognize fundamental causes and how to effectively reduce quiet quitting intentions.
Downloads
1. Alimmah, B. B., Adawiyah, W. R., & Wulandari, S. Z. (2023, October). Quiet Quitting Phenomenon among Gen Z: The Influence of Toxic Workplace Environment on Quiet Quitting Moderated by Organizational Commitment. In Proceeding of International Conference Sustainable Competitive Advantage (Vol. 4, No. 1).
2. Allen NJ, Meyer JP (1996) Affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: An examination of construct validity. J Vocat Behav 49(3):252–276.
3. Amatulli, C., Peluso, A. M., Sestino, A., Guido, G., & Belk, R. (2023). The influence of a lockdown on consumption: An exploratory study on generation Z's consumers. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 73, 103358.
4. An, T.T.N. (2024) Work-life Balance And Quiet Quitting Behavior Of Gen Z Employees After Covid-19 Pandemic In HCMC: The Mediating Role Of Job Satisfaction, Work Motivation And Organizational Commitment.
5. Anand, A., Doll, J. and Ray, P. (2024) Drowning in silence: a scale development and validation of quiet quitting and quiet firing. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 32(4), pp.721-743.
6. Arar, T., Çetiner, N., & Yurdakul, G. (2023). Quiet quitting: Building a comprehensive theoretical framework. Akademik Araştırmalar Ve Çalışmalar Dergisi (AKAD), 15(28), 122-138.
7. Arasanmi, C. N. & Krishna, A. Employer branding: Perceived organisational support and employee retention—The mediating role of organisational commitment. Ind. Commer. Train. 51(3), 174–183.
8. Blau, P. M. (1968). Social exchange. International encyclopedia of the social sciences, 7(4), 452-457.
9. Boy, Y. and Sürmeli, M. (2023) Quiet quitting: A significant risk for global healthcare. Journal of Global Health, 13.
10. Buzza, J. S. (2017). Are you living to work or working to live? What millennials want in the workplace. Journal of Human Resources Management and Labor Studies, 5(2), 15-20.
11. Çalış, M. C. & Kaya, K. (2022). Ücretin çalışanların kurumsal bağlılığına ve iş tatminine etkisi, Turkish Studies - Ecomomics, Finance, Politics, 16 (3), 1151-1169.
12. Christian, A. (2022). Why ‘quiet quitting’ is nothing new., available at https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220825-why-quiet-quitting-is-nothing-new (accessed 5 September 2022).
13. Coombs J.(2013).Generation Z: Why HR Must Be Prepared for Its Arrival Retrieved from http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/staffingmanagement/articles/pages/preparefor generation-z.aspx
14. Crampton, S. M., & Hodge, J. W. (2007). Generations in the workplace: Understanding age diversity. The Business Review, 9(1), 16-22.
15. Dawley, D., Houghton, J. D., & Bucklew, N. S. (2010). Perceived organizational support and turnover intention: The mediating effects of personal sacrifice and job fit. The Journal of social psychology, 150(3), 238-257.
16. Delecta, P. (2011). Work life balance. International journal of current research, 3(4), 186-189.
17. Dimock, M. (2019). Defining generations: Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins. Pew Research Center, 17(1), 1-7.
18. Efendi, M. A. (2023). Pengaruh burnout dan work-life balance terhadap quiet quitting pada pekerja generasi milenial Di Kota Malang (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim).
19. Erdoğan, P. & Ak, M. (2021). Örgütsel stres ve iş tatmini arasında psikolojik dayanıklılığın aracı rolü: akademisyenler üzerine bir araştırma . Anemon Muş Alparslan Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 9 (2), 433-442.
20. Esteveny, L. (2022). Quiet quitting. Cern Bulletin, 35-36.
21. Foot, D. K., & Stoffman, D. (1998). Boom Bust & Echo 2000: Profiting from the Demographic shift in the new millennium. Toronto: MW&R.
22. Formica, S. and Sfodera, F. (2022) The Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting paradigm shifts: An overview of current situation and future research directions. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 31(8), pp.899-907.
23. Francis, T., & Hoefel, F. (2018). True Gen’: Generation Z and its implications for companies. McKinsey & Company, 12(2).
24. Freudenberger HJ (1974) Staff burn‐out. J Soc Issue 30(1):159–165.
25. Gaan, N., & Shin, Y. (2023). Generation Z software employees turnover intention. Current Psychology, 42(31), 27344-27359.
26. Gabrielova, K., & Buchko, A. A. (2021). Here comes Generation Z: Millennials as managers. Business Horizons, 64(4), 489-499.
27. Galanis, P., Katsiroumpa, A., Vraka, I., Siskou, O., Konstantakopoulou, O., Katsoulas, T. and Kaitelidou, D. (2023) The influence of job burnout on quiet quitting among nurses: The mediating effect of job satisfaction.
28. Galanis, P., Katsiroumpa, A., Vraka, I., Siskou, O., Konstantakopoulou, O., Moisoglou, I., ... & Kaitelidou, D. (2023). The quiet quitting scale: Development and initial validation. AIMS Public Health, 10(4), 828.
29. Gallup, Inc. (2023) State of the global workplace: 2023 report. Gallup Workplace Reports. [online] Available at: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx#ite-506924 [Accessed 25 August 2024].
30. Goh, E., & Lee, C. (2018). A workforce to be reckoned with: The emerging pivotal Generation Z hospitality workforce. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 73, 20-28.
31. Hamouche, S., Koritos, C. and Papastathopoulos, A. (2023) Quiet quitting: relationship with other concepts and implications for tourism and hospitality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 35(12), pp.4297-4312.
32. Harter, J. (2022) Employee engagement and disengagement. Gallup Workplace Reports.
33. Harter, J. (2022) Is Quiet Quitting Real? [online] Available at: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/398306/quiet-quitting-real.aspx [Accessed 25 August 2024].
34. Harter, J. (2023) Economic impacts of disengaged employees. Gallup Workplace Reports.
35. Hayman, J. (2005). Psychometric assessment of an instrument designed to measure work life balance. Research and practice in human resource management, 13(1), 85-91.
36. Hetler, A. (2022). Quiet quitting explained: Everything you need to know. https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/Quiet-quitting-explained-Everything-youneed-to-know.
37. Hobfoll, S. E., Tirone, V., Holmgreen, L., & Gerhart, J. (2016). Conservation of resources theory applied to major stress. In Stress: Concepts, cognition, emotion, and behavior (pp. 65-71). Academic Press
38. Holmgreen, L., Tirone, V., Gerhart, J., & Hobfoll, S. E. (2017). Conservation of resources theory. The handbook of stress and health: A guide to research and practice, 2(7), 443- 457.
39. Jackson, S. (2023) Top work trends on TikTok: Quiet quitting, hiring, and "act your wage." Business Insider. [online] Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/top-work-trends-tiktok-quiet-quitting-hiring-act-your-wage-2023-5 [Accessed 25 August 2024].
40. Jaharuddin, N. S., & Zainol, L. N. (2019). The impact of work-life balance on job engagement and turnover intention. The South East Asian Journal of Management, 13(1), 7.
41. Khan, R. N. Relationship between reputation perception and job pursuit intention in private sector. Int. J. Econ. Manag. Sci.
42. Klotz, A.C. and Neubert, M.J. (2022, September 20) When quiet quitting is worse than the real thing. Harvard Business Review. [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2022/09/when-quiet-quitting-is-worse-than-the-real-thing.
43. Koo, B. et al. Relationships among emotional and material rewards, job satisfaction, Burnout, affective commitment, job performance, and turnover intention in the hotel industry. J. Qual. Assur. Hosp. Tour. 21(4), 371–401.
44. Kurtessis, J. N. et al. Perceived organizational support: A meta-analytic evaluation of organizational support theory. J. Manag. 43(6), 1854–1884.
45. Lanier, K. (2017), “5 Things HR professionals need to know about generation Z: thought leaders share their views on the HR profession and its direction for the future”, Strategic HR Review, Vol. 16 No. 6, pp. 288-290.
46. Larasati, D. P., & Hasanati, N. (2019). The effects of work-life balance towards employee engagement in millennial generation. In 4th ASEAN Conference on Psychology, Counselling, and Humanities (ACPCH 2018) (pp. 390-394). Atlantis Press.
47. Lu, M., Al Mamun, A., Chen, X. et al. Quiet quitting during COVID-19: the role of psychological empowerment. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10, 485 (2023).
48. Lu, M., Al Mamun, A., Chen, X., Yang, Q. and Masukujjaman, M. (2023) Quiet quitting during COVID-19: The role of psychological empowerment. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(1).
49. Mahand, T. and Caldwell, C. (2023) Quiet quitting – causes and opportunities. Business and Management Research, 12(1), pp.9-19.
50. Mannheim, K. (1970). The problem of generations. Psychoanalytic review, 57(3), 378-404.
51. Marks, A. (2023) The Great Resignation in the UK – reality, fake news or something in between? Personnel Review, 52(2), pp.408-414.
52. Maslach C, Schaufeli WB, Leiter MP (2001) Job burnout. Ann Rev Psychol 52(1):397–422.
53. McKinsey & Company (2023) To quit or not to quit: The global employee survey. [online] Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/themes/to-quit-or-not-to-quit [Accessed 25 August 2024].
54. Mohammadi, H., Ahmadi, H., & Rajabpour, E. (2024). IMPACT OF TOXIC WORK ENVIRONMENT ON QUIET QUITTING WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL MEDIATION. Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management, 13(1).
55. Morahan, G. (2019), “Gen Z graduates value work-life balance over career progression”, available at: https://extra.ie/2019/11/25/business/irish/gen-z-graduates-work-life-balance (accessed 29 January 2020).
56. O’neill, J. W., & Davis, K. (2011). Work stress and well-being in the hotel industry. International journal of hospitality management, 30(2), 385-390.
57. Ombuds Blog (2022) Quiet quitting. [online] Available at: https://ombuds.web.cern.ch/blog/2022/08/quiet-quitting [Accessed 8 November 2023].
58. Özbilgin, M. F., Küçükaltan, B. & Arzu, A. (2019). Akademik yaşamda liyakatı aşındıran bir unsur olarak yağcılık, Business & Management Studies: An International Journal, 7(5), 2828-2850.
59. Pandey, E. (2022). The staying power of quiet quitting. https://www.axios.com/2022/09/21/quiet-quitting-gen-z-work-jobs-minimum
60. Prentice, C., Dominique-Ferreira, S., Wang, X., Tuominen, J., Duarte, M., & Rocha, H. (2024). Work-life imbalance, burning out, feeling down, I will quit, but quietly–the case of hospitality employees. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 1-22.
61. Priporas, C.-V., Stylos, N. and fotiadis, A.K. (2017), “Generation Z consumers' expectations of interactions in smart retailing: a future agenda”, Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 77, pp. 374-381.
62. Purohit, M., & Patil, D. Y. (2013). A comparative study of work life balance in various industrial sectors in Pune region. International journal of marketing, Financial Services & management research, 2(3), 198-206.
63. Rasool SF, Wang M, Tang M, Saeed A, Iqbal J. How Toxic Workplace Environment Effects the Employee Engagement: The Mediating Role of Organizational Support and Employee Wellbeing. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021; 18(5):2294.
64. Sánchez-Hernández, M. I., González-López, Ó. R., Buenadicha-Mateos, M., & Tato-Jiménez, J. L. (2019). Work-life balance in great companies and pending issues for engaging new generations at work. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(24), 5122.
65. Scheyett, A. (2023) Quiet quitting. Social Work, 68(1), pp.5-7.
66. Scheyett, M. (2023) Quiet quitting and its organizational impact. Journal of Workplace Dynamics.
67. Shain, M. (2009). Psychological safety at work: Emergence of a corporate and social agenda in Canada. International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 11, 42-48.
68. Singh, A. P., & Dangmei, J. (2016). Understanding the generation Z: the future workforce. South-Asian journal of multidisciplinary studies, 3(3), 1-5.
69. Smeltzer, S. C., Cantrell, M. A., Sharts-Hopko, N. C., Heverly, M. A., Jenkinson, A., & Nthenge, S. (2016). Psychometric analysis of the work/life balance self-assessment scale. Journal of nursing Measurement, 24(1), 5-14.
70. Srivastava, S., Saxena, A., Kapoor, V. and Qadir, A. (2024) Sailing through silence: exploring how negative gossip leaves breeding grounds for quiet quitting in the workplace. International Journal of Conflict Management, 35(4), pp.733-755.
71. Strauss, W., & Howe, N. (1991). Generations: The history of American's future, 1584-2069. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.
72. Stuckey, C. (2016). `Preparing Leaders for Gen Z.` (Online) Training Journal, pp. 33-35 Available at https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/opinion/preparing-leaders-gen-z
73. Takeuchi, N., Takeuchi, T. & Jung, Y. Making a successful transition to work: A fresh look at organizational support for young newcomers from an individual-driven career adjustment perspective. J. Vocat. Behav. 128, 103587.
74. Tapper, J. (2022). Quiet quitting: why doing the bare minimum at work has gone global., available at https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/aug/06/quiet-quitting-why-doing-thebare-minimum-at-work-has-gone-global (accessed 1 September 2022).
75. Tarigan, J., Cahya, J., Valentine, A., Hatane, S., & Jie, F. (2022). Total reward system, job satisfaction and employee productivity on company financial performance: evidence from Indonesian Generation Z workers. Journal of Asia Business Studies, 16(6), 1041-1065.
76. Thu Trang, P. and Thi Thu Trang, N. (2024) Job burnout and quiet quitting in Vietnamese banking sector: the moderation effect of optimism. Cogent Business & Management, 11(1), 2371549.
77. Tunsakul, K. (2020). Gen Z consumers’ online shopping motives, attitude, and shopping intention. Hum. Behav. Dev. Soc, 21, 7-16.
78. Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2010). Birth cohort differences in the monitoring the future dataset and elsewhere: Further evidence for Generation Me—Commentary on Trzesniewski & Donnellan (2010). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(1), 81-88.
79. Victoria, A. O., Olive, E. U., Babatunde, A. H., and Nanle, M. (2019). Work-life balance and employee performance: a study of selected peposit money banks in Lagos State, Nigeria. J. Soc. Sci. Res. 5, 1787–1795.
80. VTCTelecom (2024) Vietnam ranks 18th among the top 20 countries with the largest internet users in the world. [online] Available at: https://www.vtctelecom.com.vn/tin-cong-nghe/viet-nam-xep-1820-quoc-gia-co-nguoi-dung-internet-lon-nhat-the-gioi/307/662 [Accessed 25 August 2024].
81. Wang, H. et al. Job satisfaction, burnout, and turnover intention among primary care providers in rural China: Results from structural equation modeling. BMC Fam. Pract. 21(1), 12.
82. Wey Smola, K., & Sutton, C. D. (2002). Generational differences: Revisiting generational work values for the new millennium. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 23(4), 363-382.
83. World Economic Forum (2022) Quiet quitting explained. [online] Available at: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2022/09/quiet-quitting-explained/ [Accessed 25 August 2024].
84. Xueyun, W. et al. (2023) Job satisfaction and its role in mitigating quiet quitting. Journal of Workplace Well-being.
85. Xueyun, Z., Al Mamun, A., Masukujjaman, M., Rahman, M.K., Gao, J. and Yang, Q. (2023) Modelling the significance of organizational conditions on quiet quitting intention among Gen Z workforce in an emerging economy. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 15438.
86. Yang, L. 13 incredible perks of working at Google, according to employees. Insider. https://www.insider.com/coolest-perks-of-working-at-google-in-2017-2017-7 (Accessed 8 November 2022) (2017).
87. Yang, Y., & Islam, D. M. T. (2021). Work-life balance and organizational commitment: a study of field level administration in Bangladesh. International Journal of Public Administration, 44(14), 1286-1296.
88. Youthall (2022). Sessiz İstifa Araştırması. 1-23.
https://www.youthall.com/tr/company/ebooks/sessiz-istifa
89. Zenger, J., & Folkman, J. (2022). Quiet quitting is about bad bosses, not bad employees. https://hbr.org/2022/08/quiet-quitting-is-about-bad-bosses-not-bad-employees.
Copyright (c) 2025 Hien Thi Nguyen, Minh Hong Vu
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
