The Embedded Paradox of Organizational Turnover and Professional Autonomy

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effects of professional autonomy (PA) and person–environment fit (person–job [PJ] fit and person–organization [PO] fit) on turnover intention (TI). Methods: We take a total of 1,133 professional social workers with formal educational background from the China Social Work Longitudinal Study 2019 as our sample and use structural equation modeling as our analysis method. Results: We find that an increase in person–environment fit is significantly associated with a decrease in Chinese social workers’ organizational TI, and this relationship is mediated by PA. However, PA has greater power to buffer the effects of PJ fit than those of PO fit on TI. Conclusions: This finding improves existing understanding of the paradox of social workers embedded in the community. An occupational environment that promotes PA is urgently needed to address this paradox and to prevent social workers’ TI.