Assessing the Effect of Artificial Intelligence Anxiety on Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Quiet Quitting in Turkish Small and Medium Enterprises

The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) refers to technologies that imitate human-like thinking, learning and decision-making abilities. While integrating AI into the workforce offers the potential to increase efficiency in organizational activities, it can lead to negative effects such as anxie...

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Main Authors: Selen Uygungil-Erdogan, Yaşar Şahin, Aşkın İnci Sökmen-Alaca, Onur Oktaysoy, Mustafa Altıntaş, Vurgun Topçuoğlu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-02-01
Series:Behavioral Sciences
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/15/3/249
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author Selen Uygungil-Erdogan
Yaşar Şahin
Aşkın İnci Sökmen-Alaca
Onur Oktaysoy
Mustafa Altıntaş
Vurgun Topçuoğlu
author_facet Selen Uygungil-Erdogan
Yaşar Şahin
Aşkın İnci Sökmen-Alaca
Onur Oktaysoy
Mustafa Altıntaş
Vurgun Topçuoğlu
author_sort Selen Uygungil-Erdogan
collection DOAJ
description The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) refers to technologies that imitate human-like thinking, learning and decision-making abilities. While integrating AI into the workforce offers the potential to increase efficiency in organizational activities, it can lead to negative effects such as anxiety, uncertainty, and distrust among employees which results from not being able to understand these technologies, regarding them as alternatives for themselves, and the possibility of losing their organizational position. These effects can reduce employees’ commitment at work and trigger negative organizational behaviors such as quiet quitting and turnover intention. Starting from this point, the present study aims to investigate the effect of AI anxiety on turnover intention and the mediating role of quiet quitting in this relationship. The study was conducted using a cross-sectional design with 457 people working in SMEs in Kırıkkale province. AI Anxiety, Quiet Quitting, and Turnover Intention Scales were utilized during the data collection process. The obtained data were analyzed through structural equation modeling. In addition to detecting significant relationships between concepts as a result of the analysis, it was realized that AI anxiety did not have a considerable effect directly on turnover intention; however, this effect occurred indirectly through quiet quitting. Accordingly, it is predicted that integrating AI technologies into business processes will increase the concerns about job security in employees, and this anxiety triggers the turnover intention by leading to a tendency toward quiet quitting for reasons such as loss of motivation and low organizational commitment.
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institution Kabale University
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spelling doaj-art-068924c46aef48a4975e70327e7df5922025-08-20T03:43:10ZengMDPI AGBehavioral Sciences2076-328X2025-02-0115324910.3390/bs15030249Assessing the Effect of Artificial Intelligence Anxiety on Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Quiet Quitting in Turkish Small and Medium EnterprisesSelen Uygungil-Erdogan0Yaşar Şahin1Aşkın İnci Sökmen-Alaca2Onur Oktaysoy3Mustafa Altıntaş4Vurgun Topçuoğlu5Kadirli Faculty of Applied Sciences, Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, 80750 Osmaniye, TürkiyeBeşikdüzü Vocational School, Trabzon University, 61800 Trabzon, TürkiyeFaculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Istanbul Arel University, 34537 Istanbul, TürkiyeFaculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Kafkas University, 36000 Kars, TürkiyeÇekerek Fuat Oktay Vocational School of Health Services, Yozgat Bozok University, 66100 Yozgat, TürkiyeFaculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Istanbul Nişantaşı University, 34398 Istanbul, TürkiyeThe concept of artificial intelligence (AI) refers to technologies that imitate human-like thinking, learning and decision-making abilities. While integrating AI into the workforce offers the potential to increase efficiency in organizational activities, it can lead to negative effects such as anxiety, uncertainty, and distrust among employees which results from not being able to understand these technologies, regarding them as alternatives for themselves, and the possibility of losing their organizational position. These effects can reduce employees’ commitment at work and trigger negative organizational behaviors such as quiet quitting and turnover intention. Starting from this point, the present study aims to investigate the effect of AI anxiety on turnover intention and the mediating role of quiet quitting in this relationship. The study was conducted using a cross-sectional design with 457 people working in SMEs in Kırıkkale province. AI Anxiety, Quiet Quitting, and Turnover Intention Scales were utilized during the data collection process. The obtained data were analyzed through structural equation modeling. In addition to detecting significant relationships between concepts as a result of the analysis, it was realized that AI anxiety did not have a considerable effect directly on turnover intention; however, this effect occurred indirectly through quiet quitting. Accordingly, it is predicted that integrating AI technologies into business processes will increase the concerns about job security in employees, and this anxiety triggers the turnover intention by leading to a tendency toward quiet quitting for reasons such as loss of motivation and low organizational commitment.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/15/3/249artificial intelligencequiet quittingturnover intentionmanagement of turnoverSMEs
spellingShingle Selen Uygungil-Erdogan
Yaşar Şahin
Aşkın İnci Sökmen-Alaca
Onur Oktaysoy
Mustafa Altıntaş
Vurgun Topçuoğlu
Assessing the Effect of Artificial Intelligence Anxiety on Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Quiet Quitting in Turkish Small and Medium Enterprises
Behavioral Sciences
artificial intelligence
quiet quitting
turnover intention
management of turnover
SMEs
title Assessing the Effect of Artificial Intelligence Anxiety on Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Quiet Quitting in Turkish Small and Medium Enterprises
title_full Assessing the Effect of Artificial Intelligence Anxiety on Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Quiet Quitting in Turkish Small and Medium Enterprises
title_fullStr Assessing the Effect of Artificial Intelligence Anxiety on Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Quiet Quitting in Turkish Small and Medium Enterprises
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the Effect of Artificial Intelligence Anxiety on Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Quiet Quitting in Turkish Small and Medium Enterprises
title_short Assessing the Effect of Artificial Intelligence Anxiety on Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Quiet Quitting in Turkish Small and Medium Enterprises
title_sort assessing the effect of artificial intelligence anxiety on turnover intention the mediating role of quiet quitting in turkish small and medium enterprises
topic artificial intelligence
quiet quitting
turnover intention
management of turnover
SMEs
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/15/3/249
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