BGSU research explores how broken promises could contribute to quiet quitting in the workplace

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – With so-called “quiet quitters” comprising at least 50% of the U.S. workforce in 2023, according to Gallup, quiet quitting – intentionally performing the minimum job requirements – continues to change the work landscape.

New research at Bowling Green State University is exploring how human resources departments can foster employee engagement and mitigate quiet quitting and its associated risks.

Truit Gray, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the BGSU Schmidthorst College of Business, recently conducted studies to clarify what quiet quitting is, what it is not and the causes and outcomes of it. His study was published in Human Resource Management, a Financial Times top 50 journal.

"Quiet quitting is a workplace topic that has received a great deal of attention in practice, but academic work on the topic is still limited," Gray said.

As part of the unique study, Gray found that quiet quitting doesn't necessarily reflect poor performance. Instead, it represents a deliberate choice by an employee to put forth effort that is less than their full potential. The resulting level of performance depends on the employee's perception of what the minimum requirements entail.

After discussing what quiet quitting is and what it is not, Gray and his research team turned to unpacking the causes and outcomes of quiet quitting.

"One of my core research interests is psychological contracts, which consists of what an employee believes their organization has promised them in return for their effort," Gray said. "Specifically, employee psychological contracts may be fulfilled, which is when promises are met, or breached, which is when the organization fails to live up to promises."

Through the lens of psychological contracts, Gray examined the causes and consequences of quiet quitting. His research found that when employees perceive their organization has kept its promises regarding job characteristics (for example, skill variety and autonomy) and the fairness of the workplace, they are less likely to quiet quit. This reduction in quiet quitting due to promise fulfillment also led employees to be more likely to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors (mentoring new hires, taking on additional tasks, etc.) and less likely to engage in counterproductive work behaviors.

Conversely, when organizations fail to meet these promises, employees are more likely to quiet quit and subsequently more likely to exhibit counterproductive work behaviors that are detrimental to the organization while also engaging in fewer helpful organizational citizenship behaviors.

"HR professionals must be aware of both the explicit and implicit promises made to employees – not just during hiring and onboarding, but throughout their entire employment," Gray said. "Overpromising with the goal of hiring and retaining exceptional talent may result in quiet quitting and subsequent detrimental outcomes should those promises not be kept."

As quiet quitting impacts workplaces across industries, Gray argues that the role of human resources is evolving. He believes that HR professionals must continue to move toward assuming a more active and involved role within organizations.

"What people expect from their organization has shifted dramatically in recent years," Gray said. "Trends such as remote/hybrid work, back-to-office mandates, and an increasingly diverse workforce require that HR departments become integral strategic leaders within organizations."

Gray notes that employees have always made mental calculations about their effort based on their perception of fairness. However, the intentionality of this calculation, which defines quiet quitting, has rarely been studied.

"Our initial findings point toward an optimistic outlook that human resource managers may be able to limit the prevalence of quiet quitting and subsequent harmful outcomes by accurately communicating expectations and job characteristics,” Gray said.