Quiet Quitting and Organisational Performance: Implications for Future Research and Practices

Organisational performance has reached its nadir in numerous firms as quiet quitting unrelentingly growing its roots in workplaces across various industries. Quiet quitting is a rising contemporary, new phenomenon which has recently garnered the attention of managers, particularly in the field of human resource management. While quiet quitting has drawn attention of scholars across the globe, its relationship with organisational performance has not been synthesised to draw conclusions. Hence, the paper sought to derive conclusions and identify existing research gaps about the intricate relationship between quiet quitting and key organisational performance metrics by synthesising extant empirical and theoretical literature. This study employs the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) framework to analyse secondary data sources, primarily peer-reviewed scholarly articles from reputable journals. Although the results predominantly indicate that quiet quitting detrimentally affects key non-financial and financial performance indicators, it may serve as an adaptive response to exploitative work cultures, thereby fostering work-life balance and employee well-being. The findings also revealed that lack of management support, poor leadership, poor workplace environment, job insecurity, and inadequate compensation are the main causes of quiet quitting. The current study contributes to practice, theory, and future research directions. The paper underscores the need for organisations to stamp out the challenge of quiet quitting and its deleterious effects by adopting employee-centric policies, inclusive leadership, and proactive engagement strategies. Future research should employ empirical longitudinal studies to unravel nuanced dynamics of quiet quitting in different work settings.