Organisational support, quality of family life and pre-retirement anxiety among public service employees: Mediating role of entrepreneurial intention

Background: Scholars have established different factors influencing pre-retirement anxiety among different categories of employees. However, the role of organisational support and quality of family life is given less research attention. Also, the role of entrepreneurial intention in the link especially among public employees is non-existence in the extant literature. Objectives: This study examined the role of quality of family life and perceived organisational support on pre-retirement anxiety and the mediating role of organisational support and quality of family life – pre-retirement anxiety link. Methods: The study adopted a cross-sectional design while multi stage sampling was used to select 413 participants (Mean = 53.55; years: SD = 3.18) who completed the pre-retirement anxiety scale, organisational support scale and quality of family life scale. Results: The result revealed that higher quality of family life tends to lower pre-retirement anxiety (β = -.27). Organisational support did not predict pre-retirement anxiety (β = .06). Entrepreneurial intention directly predicted pre-retirement anxiety (β = .11). Entrepreneurial intention partially mediated the link between quality of family life-pre-retirement anxiety (β = .01). Entrepreneurial intention did not mediate the perceived organisational support-pre-retirement anxiety (β = .01). Implication: The study has implication for industrial and organisational psychologists to tailor interventions such as family-focused wellness programs and entrepreneurship readiness training in a bid to reduce pre-retirement anxiety among public service employees.