Abstract:  Although abundant studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of organizational support in reducing employees’ turnover intention, some research gaps have not been fully addressed. Firstly, most of studies focused on perceived organizational support (POS) and ignored the impact of anticipated organizational support (AOS) on the formation of employees’ turnover intention. Secondly, previous studies mainly explored the mediating effect of work-related variables while little attention has been placed on the non-work aspects. Thirdly, when measuring employees’ turnover intention, very few studies considered the generational difference and focused on new generation employees. To narrow these gaps, this study aimed to examine the impact of the congruence between pre-entry and post-entry organizational support on new generation employees’ turnover intention and the mediating role of employee well-being (EWB) on this relation. Data were obtained in a three-wave questionnaire survey from two kinds of participants, namely fresh graduates and job hunters born in 1980s and 1990s. At Time 1, 408 participants were asked to rate their AOS before they joined in the organizations. After two to six months, at Time 2, 356 participants from Time 1 survey who had become formal staffs of the organizations were invited to rate their POS and EWB. After another two months, at Time 3, 293 participants who attended both Time-1 and Time-2 surveys were required to rate their turnover intention. The final valid sample consisted of 258 participants. Confirmatory factor analysis, polynomial regression with response surface analysis, and bootstrapping technique were conducted to test the research hypotheses. In line with theoretical arguments, empirical results showed that: (1) In the case of the congruence between pre-entry and post-entry organizational support, new generation employees’ turnover intention was lower when both AOS and POS were at low levels than when they were at high levels; (2) for those with pre-entry and post-entry incongruence in organizational support, new generation employees’ turnover intention would be lower when “AOS was lower than POS” than “when AOS was higher than POS”; (3) in general, the higher the congruence between pre-entry and post-entry organizational support was, the lower new generation employees’ turnover intention would be; (4) EWB partially mediated the impact of the congruence between pre-entry and post-entry organizational support on new generation employees’ turnover intention. This study contributes to the literature in three aspects. Firstly, this study focused on the combined impact of AOS and POS on turnover intention, extending the research on the relationship between organizational support and turnover intention. Secondly, this study examined the importance of EWB, highlighting it mediating role between organizational support and turnover intention. Thirdly, this study explored the new generation employees’ turnover intention, helping our better understanding of the real needs of the main force at workplace. Managerial implications, research limitations and suggestions for future studies are also discussed.

Key words: perceived organizational support, anticipated organizational support, new generation employee, turnover intention, employee well-being