Quiet-Quitting-Related Withdrawal among Generation Z Employees in Batam: What Really Matters?

Abstract

Quiet quitting has become an emerging workplace concern among Generation Z employees, yet the mechanisms through which job resources and job demands relate to this withdrawal-related tendency remain insufficiently understood. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources model, this study examines the relationships among pay satisfaction, role clarity, workload, emotional engagement, and quiet quitting-related withdrawal tendencies among Generation Z employees in Batam, Indonesia. Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey of 251 employees using purposive sampling and analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Pay satisfaction and role clarity were positively associated with emotional engagement, whereas workload showed no significant relationship with emotional engagement. Emotional engagement was negatively associated with quiet quitting and indirectly mediated the relationships of pay satisfaction and role clarity with quiet quitting. Workload, however, was directly and positively associated with quiet quitting. These results reveal asymmetric motivational and demand-driven pathways in which job resources were associated with lower quiet quitting through emotional engagement, whereas workload operated independently of emotional engagement. The study refines the application of the JD-R model to quiet quitting by showing that resources and demands may shape quiet quitting through distinct psychological mechanisms.