The Role of Work-Life Balance in Predicting French Volunteer Firefighters’ Intention to Leave Their Job
The present study focuses on the determinants of withdrawal underlying the constant growth of the turnover rate among French volunteer firefighters. Only a few studies have examined work-life balance as a potential reason for withdrawal by volunteer firefighters who are all the more vulnerable to being exposed to an imbalance. The present study examines a model of withdrawal determinants in which work-life imbalance leads to exhaustion and lowers levels of satisfaction regarding firefighting, thus resulting in an increased intention to quit. The data were collected from 183 volunteer firefighters in a French fire department and were further processed via structural equation modelling of the relationship between latent variables. Our findings show that work-life imbalance (both strain- and time-based) predicts the French firefighters’ intention to leave their job, two forms of imbalance being predicted in different ways. The effect of strain-based imbalance on withdrawal intention is doubly mediated, first by exhaustion, and second by decreased satisfaction in the volunteering activity. The effect of time-based imbalance on the intention to quit is direct. The results as well as possible avenues for intervention are discussed. Given a constant growth of turnover rate in volunteer firefighters, current research focuses on withdrawal determinants. A few studies consider work-life balance as a potential reason for withdrawal in spite of the known risk of work-life imbalance in volunteer firefighter. The present study examines a model of withdrawal determinants, where work-life imbalance causes exhaustion and lowers levels of satisfaction in firefighting activity, thus resulting in higher levels of intention to quit. The data were collected from 183 volunteer firefighters of a French fire department and further processed via structural equation modelling in latent variables. Our findings show that work-life imbalance (both, strain and time-based) predict intention to leave in Frenh firefighters although in different ways for two forms of imbalance. The effect of strain-based imbalance onto turnover intention is double mediate, first by exhaustion, second, by satisfaction in volunteering activity. That of time-based imbalance onto turnover intention is direct. The results as well as further perspectives are discussed.