Exploring the Mechanisms through Which Digital Leadership Reduces Employees’ Turnover Intention: A Sequential Mediation and fsQCA Analysis

The rapid advancement of digital technologies is fundamentally transforming organizational management practices, thereby posing new challenges and demands on leadership and human resource management. However, the core driver of digital innovation lies not in the technology itself, but in the members of the organization. As such, how companies manage employees’ psychological states effectively during the process of digital transformation—thereby enhancing organizational stability and sustainability—emerges as a critical issue with significant research value. This study, grounded in Affective Events Theory, aims to analyze the influence of digital leadership on employees’ turnover intention. Simultaneously, it seeks to explore the mediating roles of subjective well-being and workplace loneliness in this relationship within the context of digitally transforming work environments. To this end, a survey was conducted among 293 employees working in IT companies in China, where digitalization is progressing rapidly, and the collected data were analyzed. The results demonstrate that digital leadership has a negative effect on turnover intention, and that subjective well-being and workplace loneliness serve as partial mediators and sequential double mediators in this relationship. Additionally, a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) identified and analyzed three causal configurations that lead to high turnover intention among employees: the “Systemic Support Deficiency Pattern,” the “Emotional Exhaustion Pattern,” and the “Relational Disconnection Pattern.” Based on these findings, the study offers a meaningful theoretical framework and practical implications for designing and implementing more effective human resource management strategies in digital environments.