When Coworkers Care: How Support Reduces Stress and Keeps Employees from Leaving

What is it about?

This study explores how coworker support—help, encouragement, and understanding from colleagues—reduces employees’ intentions to leave their organization, focusing on the role of job stress as a key mechanism. It also examines how this stress-buffering effect varies depending on two factors: employees’ political ineptness, or difficulty navigating workplace influence, and their exposure to despotic leadership, where supervisors are domineering and self-serving. Using time-lagged data from employees in Pakistani organizations, the study finds that supportive coworkers significantly reduce job stress, enabling employees to handle demands more effectively. Lower stress then decreases turnover intentions. The benefits of coworker support are strongest for employees low in political skill, who struggle with workplace dynamics. However, under despotic leadership, this buffering effect weakens, as harsh leaders diminish the relief coworkers can provide. For organizations, these findings highlight that lowering turnover depends on strengthening peer support while improving political awareness and leadership quality. Employees with limited political skills can benefit from training to navigate influence and conflict. At the same time, discouraging despotic leadership is essential to promote trust and collaboration over control. When peer support functions within a fair, respectful climate, it best shields employees from stress and reinforces their commitment to stay.

Featured Image

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study is unique in showing how coworker support influences turnover intentions through the reduction of job stress, while uncovering how this process depends on both individual and leadership traits. By integrating political ineptness and despotic leadership into the analysis, it highlights the nuanced conditions under which interpersonal support most effectively preserves employees’ attachment to their organization. The study is timely as organizations in Pakistan and beyond face increasing employee stress and turnover amid demanding work environments. By clarifying how supportive relationships buffer against stress and intention to quit—even in politically charged or authoritarian contexts—it offers actionable insights for designing healthier, more resilient workplaces where employees feel valued and stay engaged.