Organizational ostracism and quiet quitting in healthcare a mediated moderated model of deviance and anxiety

Organizational ostracism experienced by healthcare workers in the workplace can reduce their motivation and productivity, potentially leading to undesirable behaviors such as quiet quitting. In this context, the roles of organizational deviance behaviors and anxiety levels among employees are also of particular interest. This study specifically aims to explore in depth the underlying causes of the increasingly observed phenomenon of quiet quitting among healthcare workers and to examine the contributing factors: organizational deviance, and anxiety—with the goal of expanding the existing literature on quiet quitting. To achieve this aim, data were collected from 459 employees working in a medium-sized public hospital located in the Marmara region of Turkey, using a convenience sampling method. Validated and reliable scales from the literature were employed to measure the study variables. The research was designed as a descriptive, correlational, and cross-sectional study. The findings indicated a significant positive association between organizational ostracism and quiet quitting attitudes among healthcare workers. Organizational deviance behavior partially mediated this association, as the direct path from ostracism to quiet quitting remained significant when the mediator was included. Employee anxiety moderated the association between organizational deviance and quiet quitting, and the index of moderated mediation was significant, indicating that the indirect association was stronger at higher levels of anxiety and was not statistically significant at low levels. Because the design was cross-sectional and all measures were self-reported, these results describe patterns of association rather than causal effects. Within the limits of a single-site, cross-sectional design, the findings offer a preliminary account of how experiences of ostracism may be linked to quiet quitting among healthcare workers and suggest organizational deviance behavior and employee anxiety as constructs worth attention in future work. The practical suggestions derived from these associations should be regarded as tentative and require confirmation in longitudinal and multi-site research before being applied as intervention guidance.