New generation employees have become a major force in the workplace, and their high turnover rate is a major issue in academia and business. Drawing from the psychology of working theory and the job characteristics model, this study aims to explore the influence of decent work on new generation employees’ turnover intention and the roles of job satisfaction and job autonomy in this relationship. After collecting a sample of 391 new generation employees in China through online questionnaires, we utilized SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 to analyze the data. The results show that decent work has a negative impact on turnover intention and job satisfaction plays a mediating role in the relationship between decent work and turnover intention. Moreover, job autonomy is found to positively moderate the relationship between decent work and job satisfaction, and also moderate the indirect effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between decent work and turnover intention. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and limitations and future directions are highlighted.

The school-to-work transition can be extraordinarily challenging in the turbulent labor market, and the uncertainty about employment outlooks can cause intense anxiety for college students. Drawing from psychology of working theory (PWT), the current study examined the predictor section of the PWT model in relation to employment anxiety with a sample of impoverished undergraduates in China ( N = 362). Findings suggest that (1) economic constraints were negatively associated with work volition and future decent work perceptions; (2) work volition mediated the relation between economic constraints and future decent work perceptions; (3) future decent work perceptions were negatively related to employment anxiety; and (4) proactive personality and social support attenuated the adverse influence of economic constraints on work volition. Overall, this study contributes to PWT by adding a new outcome (employment anxiety) and also providing evidence of moderation effects. Implications for universities and career counselors are discussed.

Turnover among millennial employees is frequent and is more common when work is not considered decent. Nevertheless, the potential reasons for why decent work attainment links with millennials’ turnover intentions deserves further exploration. Grounded in the psychology of working theory and social exchange theory, the current research explored the roles of overall well-being and perceived career opportunity in the relation between decent work and turnover intentions. Through an analysis of three-wave data obtained from 327 millennials in China, we found that decent work was indirectly related to turnover intentions via overall well-being, and that perceived career opportunity served as an important moderator in this relation. The results suggest that millennials who perceive their work as indecent may have greater turnover intentions in part because they are less satisfied with their lives. This relation is even stronger when they perceive few career opportunities in their current job.

Drawing from the psychology of working theory, this study aims to understand how decent work is related to employee well-being. Specifically, it explored the role of need satisfaction (i.e., survival, social contribution, and self-determination) in the relationship between decent work and employee well-being, and compared the mediating effects of the three types of need satisfaction. After collecting a sample of 421 millennial employees in China through online questionnaires, the study conducted the analysis of the data and found that decent work positively predicted well-being of millennial employees. While social contribution need satisfaction and self-determination need satisfaction partially mediated the effect of decent work on well-being of millennial employees, the mediating effect of survival need satisfaction was not significant. Compared with social contribution need satisfaction, self-determination need satisfaction had a more significant mediating effect on well-being of millennial employees. The study does extend the literature on the antecedents of employee well-being and the results can offer some implications for managers to enhance well-being of millennial employees.

Rural college youth encounter numerous challenges in securing decent education and work. However, there has been scant research on their career development from a vocational psychology perspective. Drawing from the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT), we examined the contextual and personal factors that shape their work volition and perceptions of future decent work. We conducted semistructural interviews with 12 Chinese rural college students and employed Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) method to analyze the data. Our findings revealed that their vocational barriers included economic constraints, inadequate educational resources, limited access to decent internship opportunities, and lack of study-related electronics. However, their coping stratgies to overcome these constraints included social support, notably from teachers, as well as positive attributes such as critical consciousness and proactive personality. Regarding future employment, participants valued job stability, a balance between work and life, the ability to provide for their families, and displayed prosocial and growth orientations. These findings provided support for the applicability of PWT in understanding the vocational trajectories of rural college students in a non-Western context. The implications of these findings for future research and vocational interventions are discussed.

Women have become an increasingly important force in entrepreneurship, and their relatively low entrepreneurial competence has aroused widespread attention from the academia. Drawing from the resource-based theory and the social support theory, this study aims to explore the impact of Internet use on women’s entrepreneurial competence and the roles of entrepreneurial resource acquisition and family support in this relationship. After collecting a sample of 328 women entrepreneurs in China, this study demonstrates that Internet use is positively related to women’s entrepreneurial competence, and this relation is partially mediated by entrepreneurial resource acquisition. Moreover, family support moderates the relation between Internet use and entrepreneurial resource acquisition as well as the mediating effect of entrepreneurial resource acquisition. The results of the current study contribute to revealing how Internet use affects women’s entrepreneurial competence, including its direct and indirect effects and boundary conditions. Practical implications for policy-makers and female entrepreneurs are also provided.