Trapped Between Abuse and Fear: Navigating Turnover Intentions in the Garment Industry of Pakistan

Abstract

The research focuses on understanding how abusive supervision affects employee turnover intentions in the Pakistani garment industry. It investigates how alternate job search and fear of underemployment act as intermediate factors that affect the relationship between supervisory mistreatment employee retention and workforce stability. The research investigates abusive supervision's effect on turnover intentions using quantitative data from the garment industry. Out of the 320, 267 were considered completed and valid for analysis, which gave 243 as the final sample size. This research reveals that abusive supervision is the essential cause of increasing garment industry personnel's intentions toward job changes. Fear of underemployment and job insecurity influence employees to stay even when they face unfavourable workplace conditions. Research results indicate the essential importance of developing measures to reduce abusive supervision practices in the garment production sector. Implementing work policy and ethical management development courses may result in lower staff departures and stronger employee job contentment. The study expands previous research by evaluating abusive supervision-turnover relationships in the Pakistani garment industry using the interactive effects of alternate job search and fear of underemployment. It delivers practical implications and theoretical foundations that address ethical workplace conduct while promoting industry sustainability.